too a further truth, and a more awful one. They saw that the Lord was
actually and practically King of kings and Lord of lords: that as such He
could come, and did come at times, rewarding the loyal, putting down the
rebellious, and holding high assize from place to place, that He might
execute judgment and justice; beholding all the wrong that was done on
earth, and coming, as it were, out of His place, at each historic crisis,
each revolution in the fortunes of mankind, to make inquisition for
blood, to trample His enemies beneath His feet, and to inaugurate some
progress toward that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness, and righteousness alone. That vision, in whatsoever
metaphors it may be wrapped up, is real and true, and will be so as long
as evil exists within this universe. Were it not true, there would be
something wanting to the perfect justice and the perfect benevolence of
God.

But is this all? If this be all, what have we Christians learnt from the
New Testament which is not already taught us in the Old? Where is that
new, deeper, higher revelation of the goodness of God, which Jesus of
Nazareth preached, and which John and Paul and all the apostles believed
that they had found in Jesus Himself? They believed, and all those who
accepted their gospel believed, that they had found for that word
"grace," a deeper meaning than had ever been revealed to the prophets of
old time; that grace and goodness, if they were perfect, involved self-
sacrifice.

And does not our own highest reason tell us that they were right? Does
not our own highest reason, which is our moral sense, tell us that
perfect goodness requires, not merely that we should pity our
fellow-creatures, not merely that we should help them, not merely that we
should right them magisterially and royally, without danger or injury to