Christ’s Kingdom and National Reform
By Orient
National Reform vs. the Kingdom of Christ. WE notice in the Christian Instructor of September 30 an exposition of the International Sunday-school lesson for October 10, which is at variance with the avowed views of the Instructor on National Reform. The Instructor, we are sorry to say, belongs to the ministerial corps that has in all ages labored for a form of civil government founded on persecuting principles. The exposition to which we refer is on John 18:36: "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world." The expositor remarks, "This is an avowal by Christ that he is a king, but it is an intimation also that he does not claim to be a king in the sense in which the Jews charged him. Yet it is of such a nature that Pilate in his ignorance of spiritual things would not understand what was meant by the statement 'that it was not of this world;' hence he added, 'If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews.'" The expositor remarks, "It is not, like other kingdoms, established and upheld by the power of officers and soldiers. . . . As it is a spiritual kingdom so it is maintained and propagated not by carnal weapons but by spiritual weapons. Its life and strength are in its principles and not in its material force." Very good, and yet the Instructor is laboring to have the Nation to declare in the Constitution that Jesus Christ is mediatorial ruler of the Nation, and to support that rule with the military power of the Government. The Instructor in the exposition referred to, declares that the kingdom of which Christ spoke is not to be enforced by the "power of officers and soldiers," and yet labors for that very purpose. The kingdom that Christ set up he declared was not one for which he would summon his "servants to fight," yet the Instructor and the National Reformers would call to the support of this kingdom all the bayonets of this mighty Nation. When Peter in the madness of his national reform zeal drew his sword in the defense of the kingdom of Christ, this glorious spiritual King commanded Peter to sheathe his sword. He would not permit the shedding of a single drop of blood in the support of his kingdom, and healed by a miracle the wound inflicted by Peter. But the Instructor and the National Reformers generally, propose to establish in this Nation the kingdom of Christ, by the whole mighty power of this Government; and as they themselves avow, at the expense of as much if not more blood, if necessary, than was shed for the destruction of slavery. If the Constitution of the United States is amended as these Covenanters desire, a violation of the proposed amendment would require the summoning of the whole military power of the Government. When the South sought to overthrow the Constitution, two millions of men marched to sustain it. It is this same force the Instructor invokes for the support of a kingdom Christ himself declares is not of this world. Christ forbids his servants to fight for his kingdom, while the Instructor countermands his orders, and if need he would call out the whole military power of a Government of this world to sustain a kingdom which is not of this world. The National Reform movement is but an attempt to revive the principles of the Covenanter Church which have languished for two hundred years, and proposes to engraft these principles upon the Constitution of the United States so that the power of the Government can be used to enforce them. In a word, they desire to see the army of the United States march as did the armies of Scotland and England to the support of "Christ's crown and covenant."—Orient, in American Sentinel.