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38 nature by the Holy Ghost, but has also achieved a considerable extension of its meaning, or we may rather say, a further insight into the truth which the prophet had received.

Instead of being only the description of a strong and just ruler, an exceptional man, indeed a unique man—the liberating Messiah whom the Jews longed for—the description now becomes that of the ordinary Christian. Every one is expected to show these ruling qualities, just because he is a Christian. Here then is the banner of democracy unfurled, ages before it had come into practical politics! Democracy has as a matter of fact always followed in the wake of Christianity, and has never existed in any but Christian nations. Japan itself, which has borrowed so many material advantages from Western civilization, is not only an autocracy but makes autocracy its religion. And the reason is, not only that Christianity proclaims human brotherhood under an All-Father, not only that it teaches the infinite worth and therefore the equal worth of every human soul in the sight of God; but also because it insists that the Holy Spirit is offered to every little child in order to make him a prince, in wisdom and counsel and might. Gradually the Christian peoples have risen, and are still rising, to the gift, and making its acceptance generally possible; so that to-day we see all the Christian autocracies swept away, except one, the Papacy,