i. The Kingdom is come.
1. The Kingdom of God was among them. Yes, it was in Bethany yonder. It was to be found in quiet homes, scattered
^ H.tL. Goudge. ' Matthew Arnold, Last Essays.
ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 349
among Judaean hills, among peasants and fisherfolk, who broke their daily bread as the bread of sacrament. Christ could leave the world in the sure confidence that the light which He had kindled in so many hearts would burn on in the darkness, and that from these other hearts would catch the flame, and so the night would wear away till the great day dawned.
^ There is no day of eternity auguster than that which now is. There is nothing in the way of consequence to be awaited that is not now enacting, no sweetness that may not now be tasted, no bitterness that is not now felt. What comes after will be but the increment of what now is, for even now we are in the eternal world.i
The hours bring nothing in their hands;
A silent suppliant at thy gate, Each one for its brief lifetime stands—
Thou art its master and its fate.
One looketh on the evening skies
And saith, " To-morrow will be fair " ;
Another's westering gaze descries God's angels on the golden stair.
The only heaven thou shalt behold Is builded of thy thoughts and deeds;
Hopes are its pearls and faith its gold, And love is all the light it needs.
That Voice that broke the world's blind dream Of gain the stronger hand may win,
For things that are 'gainst things that seem, Pleaded, The Kingdom is within.
There is no depth, there is no height, But dwells within thy soul, He saith;
And there dwell time and day and night, And life is there, and there is death.^
2. Why do we not see it? True, it does not come with observation, but when it is come it must make itself known. Why do we not realize its presence ? Turn to the second half of His answer — viz., that to the disciples. "The days will come^
* Theodore T. Hunger. 2 p^ q^ Ainswortli, Potims and Sonnets, 58.
350 THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM
when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it." Value what you have already. It is an answer which touches our own hearts very nearly. How often we overlook some present blessedness in gazing far away towards some beatitude which comes not, or is delayed ! So we passed through the heaven which lay about our early years, dreaming of some coming good, conjectured to be fair because it was far off ! With such earnest pains did we
Provoke The years to bring the inevitable yoke.
The young idealize the future, the old idealize the past ; and life is nearly gone before some of us learn to live in the present, and to bow in reverence at the spot whereon we stand because it, too, is holy ground. The days may come in which we may desire to see one of those heavenly days which now come and go almost unrecognized — days of worship and days of service, both in the home and in the Church.
^ Can we doubt that the Kingdom of God is in the midst of us when we think of those noble souls still present with us, and those departed, who have interpreted to us the very charity of God ? Can we doubt it when we read those touching biographies of sainted men and women which have appeared in recent years ? When we read the story of the almost perfect married life of George and Josephine Butler ; when we turn the pages of the inner life of that artist-saint James Smetham ; when we read how the Light dawned upon George Bomanes, dawned, and grew to perfect day ; or when we turn to Dean Church's life, that " con- summate flower of Christian culture " ?
Can we question that the Kingdom of God is in the midst of us when we read of that group of friends gathered in a village chapel, a mile or so from Oxford, to hear Newman's farewell sermon, not knowing that it was to be such? When Newman mounted the pulpit there was a kind of awestruck silence. Everybody knew that something would be said which nobody would forget. And the " Parting of Friends " is perhaps the most pathetic of all the sermons of this great master of religious pathos. It is the last and most heart-broken expression of the intense distress which could not but be felt by a man of extra- ordinary sensitiveness when placed between what he believed to be a new call of duty on one side, and the affection of high-
ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 351
minded and devoted friends on the other. We turn over the printed pages of that sermon, and feel the passion of it throbbing still, as the preacher ends his lyrical cry : " And, 0, my brethren !
0 kind and affectionate hearts ! 0 loving friends ! Should you know any one whose lot it has been, by writing or by word of mouth, in some degree to help you thus to act ; if he has ever told you what you know, has read to you your w^ants and feelings, and comforted you by the very reading, has made you feel that there is a higher life than this daily one, and a brighter world than that you see ; or encouraged you, or sobered you, or opened a way to the inquiring, or soothed the perplexed ; if what he has done has ever made you take an interest in him, and feel well incliued towards him, remember such an one in time to come, though you hear him not, and pray for him, that in all things he may know God's will, and at all times he may be ready to fulfil it." Few who were present could restrain their tears. Pusey, who was the celebrant, was quite unable to control himself. " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am