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THE KING’S BUSINESS
.order. They know that things are far from right and that they ought not to be as they are. They are also in creasingly conscious of the fact that our great social problems are not suc ceeding in bringing in the golden ''age of which men have long dreamed. With all our .social reforms crime is on the increase in the great Christian nations. A Professor of Political Economy in one of our great uni versities said not long since that so far as political economy is concerned our great need is for some great dynamic that can change men and give vision to the sordid and cleanse the unclean. Just so. But, where are we going to look for that trans forming power? The revelation of the King could do it. “We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” That is the hope of the Church and I do not know o f anything in the programs of men that can give a better hope. The Outlook of Philosophy Once more let us glance at the out look of philosophy. One of our greatest living philosophers frankly tells us that the world is on the verge of moral bankruptcy, and that the only hope for it is in a new manifes tation of transcendent life. In other words, he tells us that if we are go ing to be saved from our present helplessness God must interfere and do it. He has hope for the world only in a new manifestation of God. The Theological World Is it not interesting to find that at this very moment when men are cry ing for peace, power and a new mani festation of God, that the theological world should be turning its attention to the second coming of Christ in a new way— in a way it has not been
considered since the days of the apostles. Prof. Macintosh in his new book on “ The Doctrine of the Person of Christ” says, “ This con sciousness of the spirit and this hope of the Parousia form the vital heart of the primitive Christology.” I heard him say in a public lecture to ministers and students that this hope of the Parousia is the very flesh of the New Testament teachings. This represents a restudy of this whole question of the coming of Christ in which some of the foremost students in the world are beginning to realize that Christ and His program for the redemption of the world cannot be understood apart from a careful study o f this subject. Prof. Macintosh is very frank in saying that “ our only hope of complete salvation lies in the new order Christ will yet bring.” “ It is a wonderful prospect—so wonder ful that only faith can mount up to seize and hold it. Only he who finds God in what Christ has already done will dare to believe in that infinite future. In order to have hope in Christ it is first necessary to have faith in Him.” But having faith in Him as the Son of God, we know that He will finish what He has begun, and this is our hope which centers in His coming again. The cry of the statesman for peace, of the political economist for power, of the philosopher for a new infu sion of transcendent life is met by the New Testament revelation of the Parousia which is the hope of the Church. The Attitude of the Church What, then, must be the attitude of the Church while she waits for the return of her Lord? Some think that this doctrine of the coming of Christ paralyzes missionary and phi lanthropic work. This is not true
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