To think of trial as a preparation for the kingdom is much ; but to look at it as an entrance into it is more. At the end of time's dark avenue stands the mansion- house, the palace ! At the edge of our de- sert-track lies the kingdom ! The avenue may be rugged under foot, thorny on every side, and gloomy over head ; the wilder- ness may be "waste and howling;" yet they are passages, — entrances ; they are not interminable, and their end is gladness. They usher us into a state which will, in a moment, efface the bitter past, so that it '* shall not once be remembered nor come into mind." Thus, though in one aspect
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tribulation seems a path or gate-way fenced with the brier, and hard to fight through ; yet in another it is the conqueror's tri- umphal arch under which we pass into the kingdom ; so that while passing through we can sing the song of him who long ago went this way before us : " I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." (Rom. viii. 18.)
The thought of the kingdom cheers us, and the stray gleams of it which faith gives us are like the lattice-lights of a loved dwelling, sparkling through the thicket, to the weary eye of a benighted wanderer. Yes, we are heirs of nothing less than a kingdom, however unlike such we may seem at present, and however ambitious it may be reckoned to claim so much, and to aspire so high. Robes of royalty shall soon cover all our unseemliness; and beneath the glory of a throne we shall bury all oui poverty, and shame, and grief.
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But this is not all. The varied excel- lences of that kingdom, as made known to us by prophets and apostles, are such as specially to meet our case, and con- trast with our present condition. This fitness, — this contrast make the thoughts of the kingdom doubly precious and con- soling.
1. It is the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. vL 9.) Man's kingdoms have passed away, — those kingdoms under which the saints of God have been trodden down. And now all that is man's is gone, and nothing re- mains but what is God's ! The glory of the kingdom is this, that it is altogether God's. It must, then, be perfect and blessed, — » wholly unlike any thing that these eyes of ours have seen. If it were but a reforma- tion of human kingdoms, if it were a mere change of dynasty, the prospect of it would be but doubtful comfort ; but it is an en- tire passing away of the old, and a making all things new. It is the return of God to
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his own world ; — and oh, what will not that return effect for us ! His re-enthronement is what we desire ; for it is this alone that gives us the assurance of perpetuity and stability, against which no enemy shall prevail. It was to that re-enthronement that Jesus looked forward when about to ascend the cross, and of which he spoke twice over at the paschal- table (Luke xxii. 16, 18) ; as if this were " the joy set before him," because of which he " endured the cross, despising the shame." (Heb. xii. 2.) It is that re-enthronement that we also anticipate as the day of our triumph, for then shall we " shine as the sun in the kingdom of our Father." (Matt. xiii. 43.) 2. It is the kingdom of Christ. (Col. i. 13.) This assures that we shall feel at home there. It is no stranger who is to seat us on the throne beside him ; but our nearest of kin, — the Man who died for us. It is the pierced hands that wield the seep* tre. This meets our case. For we are
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strangers here, specially feeling not at home in the courts and palaces of earth. But then it shall be otherwise. Here we are as men standing outside the kingdoms of the world. They belong to the " prince of this world/' but not to Christ, and there- fore not to us. They greet us with no friendly welcome. They have no honours for us. They make us stand without. They are to us what Pilate, and Herod, and An- nas were to Jesus ; they bid us be wrong- ed and smitten, or, at least, look on while we endure " tribulation, distress, persecu- tion, famine, nakedness, peril, sword." Much of the church's tribulation has arisen from the kingdoms of this world not being Christ's. But in the age to come, it is Christ that is to reign, all things being put in subjection to him. He who is to reign knows what it is to be hated by the world, and knows, therefore, how to make up to us, in his kingdom, for all the hatred where- with we have been hated, and for all the
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