Romans 14:17-18 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.… Why was it called a kingdom at all? Well, since a man's disposition is the fountain from which all his enjoyments that are worth having spring in this world, the condition of the soul becomes a kingdom in the sense that it represents to men the idea of felicity. The old notions were that a king was about the happiest man on earth. Hence the phrase, "Happy as a king." Therefore in the description of the disposition, which is the soul-kingdom, it is called a king's dominion, or a king-dora. But there is a more important reason — namely, that a king in his kingdom dominates, controls, governs. It is the disposition of men, their character, that controls. Their enjoyment, all their life, depends upon what they are in themselves, and inside of themselves. If a man's soul is one that works itself out in righteousness, in peace, in joy in the Holy Ghost, that is the dominating influence which controls the whole life. Now I aver that men are happy in the exact proportion in which their dispositions are qualified to make happiness. The enjoyment of men is in the ratio in which they have a right inward condition. A man who has right feelings and right dispositions, either finds happiness or makes it. It will happen to a man who is all right in himself. He either finds or makes life a blessing. A man who is in good health, who has a right temperament, all of whose dispositions are noble, and who is hopeful, courageous, and cheerful, loving God and loving men, thanks nobody for making him happy; he is happy of himself. The human soul was just as much made to produce happiness as a music-box was made to produce music. If it be in a right and normal condition, harmonised with God, with the spirit-world, for which we are being trained, and with men, then it is happy. The soul must needs produce its own happiness out of the harmony of its own condition; but men do not believe in this. You will find young men saying, "If I were as rich as Vanderbilt, would not I enjoy myself?" Do you enjoy yourself now? "No — oh, no." Then you would not then. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. |
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