The blending of the civil and religious.
This subject need not be treated controversially. All are agreed that a vital union of the civil and religious, of Church and State, is desirable, and even necessary. There may be differences of opinion as to the formal ways in which such union may be represented. If we look for its realization in the ancient Jewish nation, we must bear in mind that it was based on the theocratic notion. The unseen Jehovah was as truly the Head of the State as he was Head of the Church. Modern difficulty arises from the apparent necessity for making an ordinary human being at once the head of both State and Church. What was possible when men could look past all delegated authorities to one unseen, spiritual, and supreme Being, in whom absolute authority rested, may not be possible under modern conditions. We must fully recover the theocratic sentiment before we can safely blend the civil and religious. Jerusalem was first the civil metropolis before it became the "city of God." It became the religious capital of the nation because it was already the civil capital (Deuteronomy 17:8, Deuteronomy 17:9). Israel, as the people of the revelation, was at once a civil society and a Church—the two were not then essentially distinct, as has been and is the case in Christendom.
I. THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS ARE THE TWO SIDES OF MAN'S RELATIONS. There is no conceivable antagonism between them ideally, whatever there may be actually. Man is a being who is set in relations with God and with his fellow-man. And one set of relations is as right and as necessary as the other. A man's relations with God are the concern of religion. A man's relations with his fellow-man are the business of civil governments. No man can meet his natural obligations by exaggerating the importance of either one of those relations and neglecting the other. No man can be truly religious and neglect his civil duties. And this the apostles clearly taught the early Christians.
II. THE CIVIL AND THE RELIGIOUS CAN BE HARMONIOUSLY BLENDED. They always have been in the most manly and most Christian man. They have been in the representative nation of Israel. They have been in the healthiest and best periods of modern nations. They can be when the sense of God dominates both.—R.T.
Peace, prosperity, and prayer.
Emphatically a pilgrim-song, and by a poet who usually lived in the country. Describes the pleasure felt at invitation to join a party who were going up to one of the feasts. We have the joy and music of the journey; then the impressions on arrival, the first passionate delight of being in the holy city—a city beautifully built, well compacted, adorned with palaces, and strongly fortified. Observe the intense feeling with which Jerusalem was regarded by Jews. Beautifully situated, it was the center of national and religious interest. Relics of the national feeling remain in the desire of modern Jews to die within its walls, and in the scenes at the "Place of Wailing." Many of us can understand this. We have a Jerusalem round which our thoughts entwine—the church of our fathers and of our childhood. What associations we have with it! Three words are here connected—Peace, prosperity, and prayer.
I. PEACE VERY LARGELY DEPENDS UPON PROSPERITY. "Peace" is a word with an extensive, beautiful, and suggestive connotation. We, perhaps, cannot fully realize it by any aid of memory; we can only enter into it with the help of the familiar engravings of 'War' and 'Peace.' It is not possible to overrate the value of peace for nations, or for Churches, or for families. But it largely depends on prosperity. This may be illustrated by the inward life of the religious man. Devotion and work are allowed to flag, soul-prosperity fails, and at once doubts and fears come to spoil the soul's peace. It may be illustrated in the life of the Church. When work and zeal and spiritual life—the signs of Church prosperity—fail, then differences are sure to come, roots of bitterness spring up.
II. PROSPERITY VERY LARGELY DEPENDS UPON PRAYER, Show the natural influence of prayer. It lifts into strength the better nature. Show the supernatural influence of prayer in bringing to us spiritual power. Plead for renewal of interest in private and individual prayer; and for more frequent and earnest united prayer. Secret forces are the mighty ones. Men take little count of the atmosphere, but it holds up the clouds. Who is it, then, upholds the prosperity of the Churches? Who are the peacemakers and the peace-keepers? Look below the surface, and you will be sure to see the men and women of faith and prayer. They gain for us prosperity, which leads in peace.—R.T.