2. The event concerning which the seventh angel of the Apocalypse "sounded," and which occasioned great voices of jubilation in heaven, is not an event which is happening in the region of heaven ; it is an event which is to happen on this earth. This wonderful transference is to take place in this very world in which we are now living. Nor is the word " world " in either reading that word which, in the original, is sometimes confined to the Koman Empire, or to the habitable world ; it is that world which embraces the whole of this earth, or the whole of the visible cosmos. It is this that is said to pass at this time into a great Theocracy, or, more definitely still, into a Christocracy. That rule under which the world has heretofore been is to pass away and it is to become, what it was not before, the Kingdom of the Christ of God.
* E. F. Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah, 256. REV. — 15
226 THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD
This earth, which was the scene of the usurper's conquest, the scene of the Kedeemer's conflict with him, the scene of the Eedeemer's travail, toil, agony, shame, and death, the scene of all His Church's conflicts and sufferings, is yet to be the theatre of His triumphs. He is not to win in some ghostly region far away, and leave this world to the devil or to ashes. But here, in this tangible world, is He yet to triumph, and over the field of His sufferings is He yet to wield His sceptre. The prayer that has been going up from the Church for two millenniums shall yet receive its glorious answer : " Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Christianity shall not, cannot, be worsted. "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved ; God shall help her, and that right early."
II We pray day by day, " Thy kingdom come." Have we ever stayed to think what will be when God at last grants that prayer ? We often speak of the ways in which we may promote God's Kingdom : by seeking His glory and obeying His will in our daily lives, or by aiding those machineries which are at work in the world for its improvement or evangelization. Have we ever thought what it will be when God's Kingdom is come ? What will be left then of this life, of this world, which is now so much to all of us, which is now all in all to many ? In other words, How much of our present lives is entirely holy and heavenly? how much can survive the wreck of earth, and be transferred into a world in which God is all ? . . . At present we are familiarized by long use with many things which are not according to God's will ; and few men live out their " threescore years and ten " without finding their sensibilities somewhat blunted, and their estimate of the sinfulness of sin robbed of something of its severity. How shall we ever learn to echo that doxology of the elders, " We thank thee, 0 Lord God Almighty, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and because thy kingdom is come " ? What a change, what a wonderful change, is implied in the announce- ment, "Thy kingdom is come"! If we are ever to learn that song, " what manner of persons ought we to be now in all holy conversation and godliness ! " Yes, that is the lesson for us. Let God's Kingdom come to us, to us personally ; let it come now, that kingdom which is " righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost"; that "kingdom of God" which is "within"; in the secret heart that loves God, in the devoted life which does God service ! ^
^ C. J. Vaiighan, Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, 280.
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3. No doubt the battle is not yet over. And we are some- times afraid of the issue. The reason is that our view of the battlefield is too narrow. Even in modern warfare the com- manding brain sits far away from the conflict, surrounded with maps and messengers, to direct and order the shifting changes of conflict, where general victory is consistent with defeat in detail, and the general advance with a partial retirement. The seat of God's government is in heaven. He has no vicar upon earth who can act as a substitute. His reign over all is consistent with partial defeats and partial retirements ; a victory is won here, an apparent defeat is suffered there;
The progress of improvement, intellectual and moral, indi- vidual and national, is like the flowing tide. A wave advances beyond the rest, and it falls back again : you would suppose that the sea was retreating; but the next wave pushes farther still, and still the succeeding one goes beyond that; so that by a gradual, and for some time imperceptible, but sure and irresistible progress, the mighty element bears down every obstruction, and, in due time, occupies its destined station. Even before the inadvertent spectator is aware, the soil and slime, and all un- sightly and rugged objects, disappear, and the whole space is occupied by the beautiful and majestic main. Such, no doubt, will be the uncontrollable progress of amelioration, under the Divine government, till that auspicious era shall arrive which is marked in resplendent characters in the decrees of heaven, and to which the golden index of prophecy continu- ally points, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," and the reign of truth, freedom, virtue, and happiness shall be universal and everlasting