NOT OF THIS WORLD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1896

“NOT OF THIS WORLD.”

Dr. K. KOHLER, a learned Jewish rabbi, in discussing the differences between Christianity and Judaism, in a criticism of the work of Miss Lazarus, says, as quoted by the Literary Digest, in the December Menorah:—

“A human society, nation, or state built upon the sermon on the mount must inevitably collapse. Men with human ambition and passion must be governed by law and justice. Love often thwarts justice. How was it possible for the religion of love to sow so much hatred and discord, to fill the world with so much war and bloodshed, to consign the millions of unbelievers to the lurid fires of the auto da fé on earth, and of hell hereafter, unless there is something radically wrong with that exclusive principle of love? . . . Judaism stands for justice, which is the life of the nations. Christianity stands for love, which is the concern only of individuals.”

But the sermon on the mount was not designed for mere organization, such as everywhere exists in human society. That was not its object, to make bottles, or shells, or skins, the mere outward shape or form; Christianity is a life to fill the forms prepared for it, that are ready to receive it. It possesses justice, but to implant within the soul, and to be exercised by the man who will receive it. It will not—in its very nature it can not—compel law or justice. Jesus truly said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and the learned rabbi bears witness that he spake the truth. Christianity gives promise to all who receive it, not of a mere temporal national life, but of the eternal life and existence of a people whose God is Jehovah our Righteousness, whose reign is spiritual, and whose law is love. This Judaism rejected eighteen centuries ago, and modern Christianity is doing the same thing. The Jews looked for temporal reign and justice through them, and lost and are losing both temporal and eternal. Christianity is asking the spiritual Christ—or, rather, endeavoring to force him—to reign over the present temporal kingdoms of earth, and, as of old, he is departing from them. See John 6: 15. It was not the religion of love that was responsible for the wrongs alleged by Dr. Kohler; it was the hatred of that religion, the same that crucified its Author.