All the signs of our time tell us that the day of earthly kings has
gone by, and the advent to power of the great body of the people, those
who live by manual labor, is at hand. Already a considerable percentage
of them are as intelligent and provident as the classes above them,
and as capable of conducting affairs, and administering large
interests successfully. In England, the co-operative movement and the
organization of the trade societies should be enough to prove this, to
any one who has eyes, and is open to conviction. In another generation
that number will have increased tenfold, and the sovereignty of the
country will virtually pass into their hands. Upon their patriotism
and good sense the fortunes of the kingdom will depend as directly
and absolutely as they have ever depended on the will of earthly king
or statesman. It is vain to blink the fact that democracy is upon us,
that “new order of society which is to be founded by labor for labor,”
and the only thing for wise men to do is to look it in the face, and
see how the short intervening years may be used to the best advantage.
Happily for us, the task has been already begun in earnest. Our
soundest and wisest political thinkers are all engaged upon the great
and inevitable change, whether they dread, or exult in the prospect.
Thus far, too, they all agree that the great danger of the future lies
in that very readiness of the people to act in great masses, and
to get rid of personal and individual responsibility, which is the
characteristic of the organizations by which they have gained, and
secured, their present position. Nor is there any danger as to how this
danger is to be met. Our first aim must be to develop to the utmost the
sense of personal and individual responsibility.
But how is this to be done? To whom are men wielding great powers to be
taught that they are responsible? If they can learn that there is still
a King ruling in England through them, whom if they will fear they need
fear no other power in earth or heaven, whom if they can love and trust
they will want no other guide or helper, all will be well, and we may
look for a reign of justice in England such as she has never seen yet,
whatever form our government may take. But, in any case, those who hold
the old faith will still be sure that the order of God’s kingdom will
not change. If the kings of the earth are passing away, because they
have never acknowledged the order which was established for them, the
conditions on which they were set in high places, those who succeed
them will have to come under the same order, and the same conditions.
When the great body of those who have done the hard work of the world,
and got little enough of its wages hitherto—the real stuff of which
every nation is composed—have entered on their inheritance, they may
sweep away many things, and make short work with thrones and kings.
But there is one throne which they cannot pull down—the throne of
righteousness, which is over all the nations; and one King whose rule
they cannot throw off—the Son of God and Son of Man, who will judge
them as he has judged all kings and all governments before them.