The Only Good Government
When Gabriel announced to Mary the
child to be born of her, he said: “He shall be great, and shall be called the
Son of the Highest, and the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his
father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of
his kingdom there shall be no end.” (Luke 1:26-33) When he himself was
among men, because some “thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
appear,” he spake a parable, and said that the matter is as a nobleman going “into
a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return,”
meanwhile entrusting to his servants certain possessions with which to trade
and occupy till he should come. (Luke
19:11-13) And so again he said: “When the Son of Man shall come in his glory,
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit in the throne of his
glory.” (Matt. 25:31) All these and many like passages treat of that very kingdom,
for the coming of which all are commanded to pray. Nor can they be explained according to their
plan and pointed terms without taking in the coming again of Christ to reckon
with his servants, to take the rule out of the hands of those who have usurped
dominion over the earth, to dethrone Satan and all his agents, and to reign
from sea to sea, the only rightful King of the world. And thus, when Great Babylon falls, it will
be God’s kingdom come, as it never yet has come, and the burden of the prayer
of all these weary ages answered.
This assumption of the rule of the
world will likewise bring with it the great desideratum of the race. When Adam was in Eden God was king. In the days of Israel’s greatest triumph it
was the same. And until the original
Theocracy is restored, and the powers of heaven again take the rulership and
control of the nations, there is no peace, no right order for man. There is no earthly blessing like that of
good, wise, and righteous government; but there is no such government outside
of the government of the Father and the Son.
Some are better than others, but none are satisfactory. Men have experimented with power for 6,000
years, and yet there is no department in which there is more disability,
corruption, and unsatisfactoriness than in the administrations of
government. There is nothing of which
all people so much complain, as of the manner in which their political affairs
are managed and administered. Those who
live on government patronage and plunder are enthusiastic enough in behalf of
what they call their country, and consider it piety to eulogize the instrument
which pampers their greed and passions; but the helpless multitude is left to
sigh and cry in vain over the abominations that are done. The best governments man has ever tried have
invariably disappointed their founders, and proven themselves too weak or too
strong, too concentrated or too dissevered, and in one way or another have
turned into instruments of injustice, ambition, selfishness, and
affliction. The demonstration of the
ages is, that “that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is
wanting cannot be numbered.” So true is
this that one has said, with a pathos that shows how deep the conviction was, “I
know no safe depositary of power among mortal men for the purposes of
government. Tyranny and oppression, in
Church and State, under every form of government, —social, civil,
ecclesiastical, monarchical, aristocratical, or democratic,— have, sooner or
later, characterized the governments of the earth, and have done so from the
beginning.” Bad government is doubtless
better than no government. In the nature
of things we must have government of some sort.
Because of the worse ills of anarchy we take the lesser afflictions of
government in such forms as we can get it.
But what right-thinking and right-feeling man is not outraged every day
at the injustice, maladministration, perversion, and abominations that go along
with every government of man? So it ever
has been, and so it ever will be while “man’s day” lasts. “The kingdom is the Lord’s,” and till he
comes and assumes it there will be disappointment, misrule, revolution, and
incurable trouble in all human calculations and affairs. Nothing but the sway and reign of heaven can
redeem this fallen world out of the pestilential morasses of its incompetent
and oppressive governments. But there is
an All-Ruler who will yet assume the kingdom, and give the race the reign of
blessedness. “He shall come down like
rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and
abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,
and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies
shall lick the dust. All kings shall
fall down before him; all nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver the needy when he
crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and
violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. He shall live, and to him shall be given of
the gold of Sheba; prayer also shall be made for him continually, and daily
shall he be praised. His name shall endure
forever, and men shall be blessed in him.
All nations shall call him blessed.”
Thus flowed the glorious numbers
from David’s prophetic harp, telling of the All-Ruler’s assumption of the
kingdom, and exulting in it, until the royal singer’s soul fired up into the
very Alleluia of the text, crying, “Blessed be his glorious name forever!
And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen.” Human utterance could go no higher. The mountain summit of the promised
blessedness was reached. And there the
prayers of David, the son of Jesse, ended.
(Psa. 72)
We thus begin to see something of
the dawn and character of those better times to come when once the mystery of
God is finished. Tyrants, despots, and
faithless and burdensome governments shall then be no more. Like wild beasts, full of savage instinct
for blood and oppression, have the world-powers roamed and ravaged the earth,
treading down the nations, their will the only law, the good and happiness of
men the furthest from their hearts. But
it will be otherwise then. “The Lord
shall be king over all the earth,” and therein is the signal and pledge of the
dominion of right and everlasting peace.
Wars shall be no more. Injustice
and unequal laws shall be done away.
Enemies will be powerless. Men
will then have their standing according to their moral worth. The salvation of God will be nigh to them
that fear him. Truth shall spring out of
the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Therefore the voice of eternal right is, “Praise
our God, all his servants, those that fear him, the small and the great,” and
from all the holy universe comes the song, in volume like the sea, in strength
like the thunder, “ALLELUIA, BECAUSE THE LORD GOD THE ALL-RULER HATH ASSUMED
THE KINGDOM”.
extract from The Apocalypse, by J. A. Seiss, London, Marshal, Morgan & Scott, pp. 422-424