well was Protector of England he always kept a big globe in the council chamber, his idea being that English statesmen ought to keep their eyes not simply on their own little island but on the whole world. And it was because Englishmen, hundreds of years ago, trained themselves to carry the world in their eye, that the sun today never sets on the wonderful British Empire. They say that an English shoemaker by the name of William Carey used to keep hanging on the wall of his shop a map of the world, and that he made a globe out of pieces of leather and always kept this globe on his bench. In this way he carried the world first in his eye, and then on his heart until at last he gave up shoe making and went all the way to India in order to help the people who were living there. Both Cromwell and Carey were soldiers of Jesus, and I like to think of Jesus as the Prince. That was the name given to him by a prophet a long time before he was born, and I cannot think of a better one. He is the Prince of Peace. He always carried the world in his eye and on his heart. He never went out of Palestine, and Palestine, as you know, is a little country no larger than the state of Connecticut, but he was interested in all the nations, and was always dreaming of ways of doing them good. Men in his time were narrow and bigoted. They did not like any nation but their own. They looked down upon foreigners, and never tried to help them. But all this was very distasteful to the broad minded, big hearted Prince, and he used to say to his friends"The field is the world." He was so generous in his thoughts and feelings that most of his countrymen disliked him. They thought he could not love his own country truly if he did not despise all others, and that he was not loyal to his fellow citizens if he was friendly to foreigners. Their dislike of him deepened into hatred, and then hatred led them to think of murdering him. This did not frighten the Prince, for he was not afraid of death, and he knew that if a man has a true idea it will live long after he himself is dead. You can kill the body of a man but you cannot kill his spirit. If his spirit is beautiful and loving like God himself, then his spirit will live on, and he will accomplish more after his death than he did when he was alive. His enemies decided that they would have him crucified, but even this did not daunt him. Crucifixion was the most horrible of all punishments and was reserved for only the vilest and lowest criminals. The name of a man who had been crucified was hateful to everybody, and nobody could speak it without a shudder. But the Prince knew that it would be different with his name. Even though men crucified him he knew that his name would be more glorious after his death than before, and so one day he said: “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." It did not at that time seem possible for him to do a thing so wonderful, and yet today in all parts of the world men and women are singing: 66 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, Surely he is a mighty Prince, and it is worth while to pay attention to everything he said. The last thing he said before he left the world was this: "Go and make disciples of all the nations. Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation." Of course we must obey, and we must begin early to find out just what this command means. It covers all the world. The Prince holds the world in his eye, and he intends that the world shall be in our eye too. He carries the world on his heart, and he rolls the world on to our heart also. We are to carry his ideas to the end of the world. We are to establish his ideals in the hearts of the nations. We are to persuade all human beings no matter who they are or where they live, to think as the Prince thinks, to feel as he feels, and to live the kind of life which he lived in Galilee. Was ever a bigger job than this given to mortals? Think of what it means. This world does not like Jesus. It does not want to, accept his ideas or to feel as he feels. It does not want to obey him. It wants to do as it pleases, and it gets angry whenever it is asked to do what the Prince says. The nations do not want to go to school to him. They think they know better than he what they ought to do. They have their traditions and customs, and it provokes them when anybody suggests that these shall be given up. Some nations are so opposed to the Prince that they have killed men who have attempted to carry out the Prince's orders. Other nations pretend to obey him, but they keep right on trampling upon his wishes. The fact is, the Prince has millions of enemies and they are found in all parts of the world. They have built forts for the defense of their kingdoms. They have dug trenches and it is hard to drive them out. They are determined never to accept the ideas of the Prince, and they propose to resist all of his servants. The Prince wants to set up a kingdom of goodwill, a kingdom in which everybody will love everybody else and try to help everybody as much as possible, but the enemies of the Prince do not believe in goodwill. They like to be suspicious and to hurt and to hate. The empire of hate is very old and very strong, and it will take a mighty effort to pull it down. The Prince has set his heart on a kingdom of justice, a kingdom in which everybody will do what is fair, nobody cheating anybody or doing anybody a wrong, but the foes of the Prince have a different ambition. They want the privilege of lying and stealing and taking advantage of others, and they say all the time: "We will not have the Prince to rule over us!" He wants to establish a kingdom of peace, a kingdom in which there will be no war or getting ready for war. In his kingdom men will no longer fight but work. They will live not to kill but to save. They will find delight in helping human beings instead of hurting them. Everybody will have a heart filled with feelings of goodwill toward all the world, and the will of God will be done upon earth as joyfully as it is done in heaven. But this is a kind of kingdom which many men do not want. They like to fight. They are like wild animals, they love to |