words primarily in this sense, as indeed in all probability this is not the first meaning which they were intended to bear.

For throughout the gospel, the "Kingdom of God" is not to be understood to mean His final glorious dominion when this period of the world's existence shall have passed away; no, not even though it be constantly spoken of as "the Kingdom of Heaven." The preaching of John the Baptist may shew us this—“ Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."* Since these words were spoken more than eighteen centuries have rolled away, and still the day of the Son of Man's fixed coming is as unknown, with reverence be it spoken, even "to the Angels which are in Heaven," as then it was. The parables of our Lord in which He likens that kingdom to a state of things still imperfect, and admitting the evil within it-a net which gathered fishes of all kinds both bad and good—a field in which tares are sown as well as wheat||—a marriage feast to which a guest had gained admission without a wedding garment;§-all these

* Matt. iii, 2.

Matt. xiii, 47-49.

|| Matt. xiii, 24-30.

Matt. xxiv, 36.

§ Matt. xxii, 2-14.

would shew that the idea of the Kingdom of God which our Lord intended should be most immediately present to the minds of His disciples, was not that in which "all enemies shall have been put under His feet,"* but that which is truly His kingdom in time, even though it contain faithless as well as faithful subjects, the gospel dispensation as it exists now among men, the Church "militant here on earth." It was then for the coming of this His gospel kingdom, that Christ in the first place bid us all to pray. In this sense even then, while He was visibly present with them, He bade His disciples pray. And the expression would have a two-fold force, for them and for ourselves also.

As we have seen, in one sense His Kingdom had already come. The Son, the Saviour, the Prince of Peace, the Royal Seed of David, already was on earth. The dispensation of grace had commenced. "Old things were passing away, and behold all things were becoming new." The fields of the world, in which the tares had been sown which necessitated His coming, and His suffering, though not indeed ready for the final in-gathering, were in + 2 Cor. v, 17.

*) Cor. xv, 25.

His own words "already white unto the harvest.”*

And yet how little did His own chosen twelve know of the nature of His kingdom? I say of His kingdom, for the kingdom of the Lamb is in truth not distinct from, but the same with that of the Father. They could ask, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom unto Israel?" they could dispute which should be the greatest in it; they could request to sit "one on His right hand and another on His left," when He came, as they blindly dreamed, in the splendour of an earthly triumph. It was still needful for them that His kingdom should come upon their hearts, that His doctrine should sink deep into their souls, that the power of sin should be abolished in them, the old man utterly destroyed. And so it is with us also now.

We feel that His law is pure and perfect, and we feel, I trust, that it is engraven on our hearts; and yet we are sensible of a power without as well as a principle of evil within, which will not let us "do the things which we would." We seek to penetrate the depths of His revelation, and the mysteries

of His word, and yet we feel that there is a veil over our eyes; the yearning of our soul for a fuller knowledge of the spiritual, cannot be gratified as yet. Day by day we must read and strive and pray for further light. Day by day we must struggle to be free from "the law which is in our members,"* and the power of Satan. Day by day we must beseech Him with strong crying to bring us nearer to Himself, to send His Holy Spirit into our hearts, and by that Spirit dwell there, making them His kingdom, as He hath a kingdom also in the general Church on earth, and in the glory of His Father. For these indeed are the three kingdoms in which He sits enthroned, the heaven above where from all eternity the ever-blessed Trinity is worshipped with the cry "Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; "† in the universal Church on earth, the "whole body of faithful men throughout the world;" and in the heart of each one, the very least of all His saints.

But perhaps it may be said, in this sense also, His kingdom is already come; the Church of God is already planted on the earth; the spirits of the just are already subject to Him.-We have seen + Rev. xix, 6.

*Rom. vii, 23.

before, and none will be so ready to acknowledge the truth as those who have sought most earnestly "to wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb;* we have seen that there is much within us, which daily requires to be brought into subjection to God's will. The infection of Adam's nature "doth remain, yea in them that are regenerate, whereby the lust of the flesh is not subject to the law of God," and therefore for himself the believer must ever pray, on me THY KINGDOM COME. But beyond this there is another sense in which also the petition not only may, but must be understood. We must use it for others, as well as for ourselves.

Though the kingdom of God be already in the world, it has not yet been made known to all the world, or come with its sanctifying influences upon all the world. It has not even really been brought home to the hearts of all who have heard the blessed truth of its existence. For as the present light is absent to the blind, and to those who shut their eyes against it, so the Kingdom of God though it never departeth from the earth, still is absent from those who know it not. For the latter class, then,