when the kingdom of God cometh, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.”  And when self-complacent religious leaders flattered themselves that, of course, the first places in the kingdom would be theirs, He sternly warned them that they might find themselves altogether shut out while the publicans and harlots whom they despised were admitted.  Through all His teaching Christ laid the emphasis on character.  Pride, and love of power, and sordid ambitions, and all self-seeking—­for these things, and for them that cherished these things, the kingdom had no place.  “Blessed,” Christ said, “are the poor in spirit:  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  “Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”  “Whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be servant of all”—­these are they that are accounted worthy of the kingdom of God.

The earliest account of Christ’s preaching which has already been quoted, gives us the right point of view for the interpretation of Christ’s idea of the kingdom as spiritual:  “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:  Repent ye, and believe in the gospel.”  He had come to establish a kingdom whose dominion should be for ever, against which the gates of hell should not prevail, and the foundation of it He laid in the penitent and obedient hearts of men.  This explains why Christ had so little to do with programmes, and so much to do with men.  If a man’s right to the title of reformer be judged by the magnitude of the revolution which he has effected, it is but bare justice to call Him the greatest reformer who ever lived.  Yet He put out no programme; He made Himself the spokesman of no party, the advocate of no social or political reform.  To the disappointment of His friends, as much as to the confusion of His enemies, He absolutely refused to take sides on the vexed political questions of the hour.  “Unto Caesar,” He said, “render the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”  But on individuals He spent Himself to the uttermost.  “He is not only indifferent to numbers, but often seems disinclined to deal with numbers.  He sends the multitude away; He goes apart into a mountain with His chosen disciples; He withdraws Himself from the throng in Jerusalem to the quiet home in Bethany; He discourses of the profoundest purposes of His mission with the Twelve in an upper room; He opens the treasures of His wisdom before one Pharisee at night, and one unresponsive woman by the well."[31] Always His work is done not by “external organization or mass-movements or force of numbers,” but from within:  “Repent ye and believe in the gospel.”