T[ A few months ago the country was held in the icy grip of winter. The reign of frost was supreme ; vegetation, river, lake, and even parts of the sea were slaves of this tyrant. The sun's rays seemed as helpless as a child's breath to soften the tyrant's heart or loosen his hand. A child, had he heard some prophet speak of the summer, the glory of whose reign is just commenc- ing, might have doubted, so strong was the cold and so completely conquered was nature, that the prophet's vision would ever be realized. Leave out experience, and none would have believed. When this text was written, so impossible did the prediction seem, it appeared absurd. The reign of the kingdom of darkness seemed complete. The world was one great catacomb where religion, morality, education, liberty and love lay buried. To say that the kingdoms of evil would change and become the kingdom of Christ was to talk of the impossible. To all human calculation, as well might some dreamy Esquimau prophesy that the helpless sun's rays will at last change the Arctic regions to the warmth and luxury of the Tropics. It was the helpless kingdom of the dying Christ and Paul pitted against earthly kingdoms, whose power and permanence were typified by the " eternal " Koman Empire. But the icy heart of winter has softened, and its hand has loosened, and summer has come with its faithful retinue of warm sun and showers, of bud and blossom and of leaf and bird — a time of life and beauty and song. So has a change come to the world of man. Through all the centuries, Christ has been coming with His retinue of high thoughts, of true emotions, of pure purposes and unselfish deeds, of great trust and imperishable hope, and has laid the foundations of His kingdom of love and righteousness and liberty. The kingdom
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of this world is becoming the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.i
II Every one is familiar with the custom which prevails of the whole audience rising and standing when the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel's " Messiah " is sung. It originated in the spontaneous act of King George 11. under the spell of the music when first he heard it. The king's tribute was no mere compliment to the composer ; it was a solemn acknowledgment of Him of whom it sang. It was the reproduction in another way of what Handel himself felt when he composed its strains. How did he explain the writing of his masterpiece ? "I did think I did see all heaven before me and the great God Himself." That is his own account of it. It was an inspiration. It was the majesty of the theme that evoked the music. It voices the climax of heavenly song, in the Book of the Eevelation, the victory of the Lamb over the last great effort of His foes. When it broke on John's ear, he heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings saying, " Hallelujah ! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." What has called out this shout of triumph ? The powers of evil had joined issue with the forces of God, and Babylon is fallen, and "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." That was John's vision of what was coming. That was what made heaven ring with Hallelujahs. That is the Christian conviction ; that is Faith's Certainty, the Christian's assured hope as to the Future.^
3. Christ is still among us, speaking to those who listen through the manifold discoveries of the age, guiding even our fierce and selfish conflicts so as to minister to His purpose. And we ourselves consciously or unconsciously are serving Him. He uses us if we do not bring ourselves to Him a willing sacrifice. We cannot doubt this ; and we cannot fail to see what a different world it would be, if, still remaining faithful to our personal convictions, abandoning nothing of the truth which has been made known to us, yielding no fragment of the position which has been committed to our keeping, we could all agree in holding as a living fact the reality of Christ's universal Presence ; in looking to Him in the execution of our designs, as using them for some larger end ; in making Him the witness of our actions, as tributary to a counsel beyond our thoughts. Nothing less than this is the
* C. A. Vincent. ^ R. J. Drummond, Faith's Certainties, 401.
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scope of His words : " I am with you all the days, unto the end of the world." I — perfect God and perfect Man, able to help and to sympathize to the uttermost — I am with you. The promise has never been revoked. It has been forgotten; it has been practically denied ; but it stands written still to reveal the heaven which lies about us, the powers which are ready for our hands.
^ We let living facts stiffen into doctrinal abstractions, until Truth itself begins to wear a cold and fictitious aspect ; it is not in fact true for us until we have made it our own through needing it, and loving it. It is not through a merely intellectual recogni- tion that the human spirit can give its Amen to the Yea of God. We see how firm a hold the Church of the Early and Middle Ages kept upon this great truth, the actual presence of Christ with His people ; how this belief revealed and as it were transfigured itself in legends which superstition itself cannot rob of their undying significance. When St. Francis stoops down to kiss the leper's wound, and sees that his place has been taken by the Saviour; when St. Martin hears these words in his vision, " Behold, Martin, who hath clothed me with his cloak," we see that the Church to these men is not the mere tomb of Christ, but His warm and living body sending a pulsation through every member.^