WHAT are we to say of the means which Jesus proposes to use for the of his vast and unheard-of ends?  
I say broadly, and with certain assurance, Jesus proposes none of the means which men would use; of the sort they have always used. His plans and methods are unlike the plans and methods of men, except as they have learned most imperfectly from him in and earnest efforts to do his will. The methods that mere men trust in—always trust in—he will have none of.
 
Jesus utterly excludes mere force. His symbol is not a sword; it is a cross. He said, “He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.”
 
Some weak thinkers or insincere men have tried to fasten on Christianity the of barbarous cruelties, and many wicked and horrible deeds, perpetrated by ignorant or wicked men in the holy name of Christ. Bad men, in the darkness of ignorance and in the of sin, have used his name to force their brothers to think their thoughts. The rack for Galileo was an evil thought and a wicked method of bad and ignorant men. But Jesus does not tolerate force in carrying on his work, nor of any sort .
 
On one occasion two of his , John and James, were offended because a Samaritan village did not offer hospitality to Jesus and his friends. Then said the brothers, “Lord, thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” They were men, and their method was pure human. What Jesus said to them he says to all: “But he turned and them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
 
To charge upon Christianity the wicked deeds of those who have violated the teachings of its is like charging upon medicine the death of men who, in the name of medicine, have been doctored to their death by impostors.
 
Force could not do any of his work; it was man’s love that he sought; and love cannot be forced by God or man. Love dies under force. The Cæsars use force; it is a man’s way. The God-man uses love.
 
Jesus does not trust in the purchasing power of wealth, or of money, its representative. He hardly of money except to show the danger of it. The love of money he denounced. He taught that greed of money is debasing. Getting to heaven, for a rich man, is like a camel’s passing through the eye of a needle—only “harder.” The only rich man who volunteered turned sorrowfully away when told to sell his estates and give the proceeds to the poor. Jesus warns his disciples with gracious of the and danger of laying up treasure upon earth. Personally he had no concern about wealth, except to warn his disciples of the terrible spiritual dangers that in riches. He provides no treasure for carrying on his work. He taught that the love of money is the source of more moral evils than any other thing in the world.
 
It is a man’s way to and buy favor and success. Satan believes in the power of money absolutely. To Jesus himself the devil offered the of the world if he would only pay him allegiance.
 
Men of our time will not believe what Jesus says upon these subjects, and their prompt of his is evidence enough that in rejecting from his plans the power of money to buy influence he did not plan like a man. For money, as money, Jesus felt only contempt. He taught that wealth held for its own sake, or used only in selfishness, shows its possessor to be a “fool;” that it both degrades and damns. In his view it can in one way only be even honorable to be rich—to use riches unselfishly and usefully. Even then it is dangerous.
 
In his day, as they do now, men of the world his doctrine; “the Pharisees, who were , him.”
 
For the teachings of Jesus concerning money and its right uses few, even of those who claim to be his disciples and friends, have perfect respect. He seems to them to be “visionary” in his views, and his words seem to be “unbusinesslike.” A man says to himself, “Jesus says money is dangerous to my soul; he tells me that I am only a holding money in trust, and that I must give it away to those who need. I cannot carry on business on his plan; I will risk my plan.”
 
Such a man does not believe what Jesus teaches; unless one should so far qualify the statement as to say—unless it be that gold has so blinded his eyes that he does not understand what the plain words of the Master really mean.
 
From his method Jesus excludes , the art of playing one selfishness against another. “Let your communication be, Yea, yea; , nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” His disciples must, indeed, be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves;” but they must live the truth. is to him. The Talleyrands understand and use diplomatic arts. The “Berlin Conference” is a modern instance; it a man’s method. Not necessarily a bad method, but a man’s.
 
Consider a phrase we see every day in the papers, “The balance of power in Europe.” See how the “great powers” and the small ones give themselves to all manner of , using wily state-craft to , deceive, , hold their own, or rob their weaker neighbors, or by combination reduce the stronger ones.
 
Many well-founded complaints have been brought against “priest-craft,” which is state craft in church circles. Its crimes, by the ill-informed and the evil-disposed, have been laid at the door of Christianity. No charge can be more unjust; it is as unjust as to blame Jesus with the treachery of Judas.
 
Priest-craft is an invention of men; it has no more place in the plans of Jesus than state-craft; he considers neither, except as he may overrule them and force them against their nature into his service, so that the cunning as well as the “wrath of man shall praise him.”
 
What is called the “Church” is not synonymous with “kingdom of heaven.” Men of worldly temper may within church circles do their own work; they do not do Christ’s work by diplomatic arts.
 
Jesus not only excludes appeal to all forms of selfishness, he antagonizes them to the death. His first and last word, his , is, “If any man will be my , let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” His first word is a challenge to surrender the stronghold of self-will. Till surrender is complete there can be no peace. A mere man would be counted insane—and justly enough—to talk of advancing any little scheme of improving things about him in any such way—and because it is so utterly unlike a man’s way.
 
Jesus offers no inducement to mere self-interest. He promises absolutely nothing of the things the world is in sore and anxiety to secure. He does not promise pleasure, or honor, or fortune, or power, or health, or long life. He does say God will see to it that true shall have what is good for them. But in many ways he makes plain that “what is good for them” will often include what the world calls evil.
 
Jesus nowhere so much as seems to think of what men o............