This is what we look for ; this is our watchword and our song even in the day of absence and sorrow; and it is this that makes the expected morning so truly a
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morning of joy. " As for me, I will be- hold thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." (Psa. xvii. 15.)*
* * Hasten, O my Saviour, the time of thy return; send forth thine angels, and let that dreadful, joyful trumpet sound ; delay not, lest the living give up their hopes ; delay not, lest earth should grow like hell, and lest thy church by division be crumbled all to dust ; delay not, lest the grave should boast of victory, and having learned rebellion of its guest, should plead pre- scription, and refuse to deliver thee up thy due. O hasten that great resurrection-day, when thy command shall go forth and none shall disobey ; when the sea and earth shall yield up their hostages, and all that sleep shall awake, and the dead in Christ shall first arise ; when the seed that thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible ; and the graves that re- ceived but rottenness, and retained but dust, shall return thee glorious stars and suns. Return, O Lord, how long ! O let thy kingdom come. Thy desolate bride saith, Come ! Forthy Spirit within her saith, Come ! The whole creation saith, Come, waiting to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Thyself hath said, Surely I come. Amen ; even so, come, Lord Jesus." — Baxter, Works, vol. xxiii. p. 449, 450.
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CHAPTER X.
THE KINGDOM.
That to which the " much tribulation M leads us, is a kingdom. (Acts xiv. 22.) It is to this that it ministers an " abundant entrance," (2 Pet. i. 11,) an entrance in itself not joyous indeed, but grievous, yet in its issues glorious.
Hitherto it has been midnight and the wilderness ; ere long it shall be morning and the kingdom. For it is " in the morning " that the righteous are to " have dominion." (Psa. xlix. 14.) Just as the night has been the time of down -treading, and " wearing out," so the morning is the time of having dominion, the time of * bringing judgment to light." (Zeph. iii.
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5.) When " the Just One shall rule over men/' he shall be " as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds." (2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4.) The time when " the Lord shall help/' is when " the morning appeareth " (Psa. xlvi. 5, margin) ; at evening- tide there is trouble, but " before the morning he is not." (Isa. xvii. 14.) The reign of Antichrist is over, and the reign of Christ begins. The king- dom of the unrighteous is broken to pieces, and the kingdom of the righteous rises in its stead. Lucifer, the mock " light- bringer," the false " son of the morning," vanishes from the heavens, and " the true light," the " bright and morning-star," takes his place in the firmament, unclouded and unsetting in his glory. " The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, is given to the people of the saints of the Most High." (Dan. vii. 27.) The church's weary burden is no longer " How long, O Lord," but " The
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Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice ! " (Psa. xcvii. 1.) Her prayer " thy kingdom come," is exchanged for the thanksgiving of the " great voices in heaven/' " The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; " " We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned ;" " Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." (Rev. xi. 15 ; xix. 6.)
That to which we are hastening on is not merely an inheritance, but a royal inherit- ance,— a kingdom. That for which we suffer is a crown. " If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." As we have been truly fellow-sufferers, we shall be as truly fellow -reigners. The suffering has been real, so shall the reigning be. This is " the reeompence of reward " to which we have respect when we " choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than tc
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enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." (Heb. xi. 25.) This is " the better and the enduring substance/' for which we are willing to " endure the great fight of afflic- tions." (Heb. x. 32, 34.) This is the sum- ming up of earth's toil and grief, — the issue of a life-time's conflict with weariness, and wrong, and sin.