IV

A PLACE IN THE SUN: THE GOD OF HISTORY

TEXT:-"And I saw an angel standing in the sun.”Revelation 19: 17.

THE phrase that has suggested our subject for to-night is one that has been on the lips of the German people for the past ten or fifteen years. We are not quite certain who coined the phrase in the beginning, but it is generally supposed that it sprang out of the fertile brain of the Kaiser himself. Over and over again he has repeated it to his people. Over and over again the world has been told that Germany must have her "place in the sun.' And not only are we uncertain about its exact origin, but we are also uncertain about its exact meaning. It is one of those subtle phrases that expresses the hidden quality of a nation's character and unconsciously uncovers the secret purpose and driving motive that sends

her on her way. There can be little doubt that in its first use it simply signified the desire on the part of Germany to have an equal chance with all the other great nations of the world. She wanted the opportunity to develop her resources, to perfect her institutions, to expand her influence, and to live out the genius of her life. There was a sense (though no one else could be blamed) in which she was handicapped in the opportunity to live. There can be no doubt that in her present form she came into the arena at a very late date, when all the best opportunities were gone and the place of influence held by the older and stronger nations of the world. She came at a time when the national and international institutions were more or less settled and the hard and fast lines of their development were long and deeply laid. She came at a time when nearly all the other great nations had reached maturity or were well upon the way. She came with a strong, young, buoyant life, with a rapidly increasing population at a time when there was no place to put it because all the vacant territory of the world had been pre-empted by other European powers and there was no open door

for the colonial expansion of the German race. In other words, the other members of the European family had basked in the sunshine of a great opportunity. They had had their share; Germany felt that she had been overshadowed-crowded into the twilight: and from this time on she must have an equal chance; she must have "a place in the sun."

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But if that was the original idea of the phrase it soon took on a dark and sinister meaning. Not only did Germany want "a place in the sun," but she wanted the most centraland commanding place of all. She demanded that she should stand in the centre. full meridian glory must fall on her, and her alone. Her shadow would stretch itself across the world. If other nations lived at all, they must live through sufferance. They must pass their days in the shadow of that one great figure that claimed the commanding and conspicuous position in the sunlight of civilization. Indeed, she herself would be the sunlight of the world. And so what was a fair chance passed into an arrogant demand; what was a privilege became a right; what was an equal share became the whole ownership. All

else must stand in the shadow. Her motto became: "Prussia at the head of Germany; Germany at the head of Europe; Europe at the head of the world." To put it briefly, there must be one great controlling element in the life of mankind, and that one element must be the German power. "A place in the sun!"

Well, our text reminds us that nineteen hundred years ago in a very striking and beautiful figure, John the apostle told us about this "place in the sun," and who it was that held it, and how He secured it, and what He achieved through the power that He had gained. "I saw an angel standing in the sun." In these closing chapters of the Revelation there passes before the eyes of John the vision of the new heaven and the new earth. He gets a glimpse of the perfect civilization that is to be. Behind it all and within it and through it and dominating all he discerns a power that holds the central place, a power that is the guiding and moving spirit of history. "An angel standing in the sun!" I do not think we are supposed to take John's words in any literal sense. The "sun" with him, for the most part, is symbolic of the spiritual light and