He does rule.  ‘The kingdom of Christ’ is no unreal fanciful phrase.  Take the lowest ground.  Who is it that, by the words He spoke, by the deeds He did, by the life He lived, has shaped the whole form of moral and religious thought and life in the civilised world?  Is there One among the great of old, the dead yet sceptred sovereigns, who still rule our spirits from their urns, whose living power over thought and heart and deed among the dominant races of the earth is to be compared with His?  And beyond that, we believe that, as the result of His mighty work on earth, the dominion of the whole creation is His, and He is King of kings, and Lord of lords, that His will is sovereign and His voice is absolute law, to which all the powers of nature, all the confusions of earth’s politics, all the unruly wills of men, all the pale kingdoms of the dead, and all the glorious companies of the heavens, do bow in real though it be sometimes unconscious and sometimes reluctant obedience.

The foundation of His rule is His sacrifice; or in other words—­no truer though a little more modern in their sound—­men will do anything for Him who does that for them.  Men will yield their whole souls to the warmth and light that stream from the Cross, as the sunflower turns itself to the sun.  He that can give an anodyne which is not an opiate, to my conscience—­He that can appeal to my heart and will, and say, ’I have given Myself for thee,’ will never speak in vain to those who accept His gift, when He says, ‘Now give thyself to Me.’

Brethren! it is not the thinker who is the true king of men, as we sometimes hear it proudly said.  We need One who will not only show but be the Truth; who will not only point, but open and be, the Way; who will not only communicate thought, but give, because He is, the Life.  Not the rabbi’s pulpit, nor the teacher’s desk, still less the gilded chairs of earthly monarchs, least of all the tents of conquerors, are the throne of the true King.  He rules from the Cross.  The one dominion worth naming, that over men’s inmost spirits, springs from the one sacrifice which alone calms and quickens men’s inmost spirits.  ’Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ,’ for Thou art ’the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’

His rule is wielded In gentleness.  Priestly dominion has ever been fierce, suspicious, tyrannous.  ’His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.’  But the sway of this merciful and faithful High Priest is full of tenderness.  His sceptre is not the warrior’s mace, nor the jewelled rod of gold, but the reed—­emblem of the lowliness of His heart, and of authority guided by love.  And all His rule is for the blessing of His subjects, and the end of it is that they may be made free by obedience, emancipated in and for service, crowned as kings by submission to the King of kings, consecrated as priests by their reliance on the only Priest over the house of God, whose loving will rests not until it has made all His people like Himself.