148 THE REV. PROFESSOR H. M. GWATKIN, M.A., ON 
and the city of God. Now the conceptions of society and 
government are undergoing in modern times a subtle and far- 
reaching change, carrying with it an equally subtle and 
far-reaching change in our conceptions of the divine. To 
understand it, we must glance back nearly twenty centuries. 
The Roman Empire furnished nobler ideals than anything 
that had gone before it, and those ideals were long sufficient. 
Indeed, the Empire had a forward look towards better times. 
Rome alone of ancient empires ruled the nations for their own 
good and not for selfish gain. Yet in its essence the govern- 
ment was a weak and selfish despotism, and society a structure 
of selfish class-prides. Like the Empire, but without its nobler 
features, were most of the kingdoms that followed—that for 
instance of Louis XIV. Still there was an advance after the 
Reformation. The philosophic despots reached the stage of 
everything for the people; and everything by the people was 
soon to come. Before long the world was startled first by the 
separation of America, then by the crash of the French Revolu- 
tion. In England the change was made more peacefully, and 
through a transition period ot softened aristocracy. I need not 
trouble you with details: suffice it that the modern state in its 
better forms entirely denies the claim of kings or nobles to 
govern in their own right or for their own purposes, and calls 
for the active and intelligent co-operation of all its subjects for 
the common welfare. Rulers and subjects in their several 
vocations are alike servants of the common good. 
Now this changed conception of society is reflected in a 
changed conception of the divine, for we must needs believe 
that God is everything and more than everything that the best 
of rulers are only endeavouring to be. If such ruler is a guide 
and father of his country, God cannot be less than the guide 
and father of mankind. Tf he chooses his servants for their 
fitness and not by favouritism, God will do so too. If he is 
just and right, we know that God is not just and right in some 
other sense, which in men we should call unjust and unright. 
If the ideal king never wavers in moods and tempers, the 
unwavering sternness of the laws of nature becomes a sign of 
love divine. If the king is merciful, and strives to turn his 
rebels into loyal subjects, we cannot believe that God will some 
day burn His rebels in hell. If the king tries to do so much, 
God will do no less. Above all, if we expect the king to give 
himself heart and soul without reserve to the service of his 
people, it becomes easier to believe the Christian story that 
there is One who gave His life a ransom for us all. Thus the 
