Do you

ble? Let us understand this. mean that it is possible that there may be no "filling of the earth with the knowledge of the Lord"-that there may be no universal kingdom? Is it possible that the church may, after all, be mistaken; and that she may have been under a perpetual illusion concerning all "that the prophets have spoken?" None of us will allow this. Or, perhaps, you mean to take the other ground, and associate the advent with the kingdom. If so, then we are so far agreed. But we earnestly ask, is there any other alternative?

Is it true, however, that the present theory of the coming kingdom is exerting no baneful influence? Let us feel the pulse of the church a little to determine.

Says one, in commenting on the closing words of the Apocalypse; "It ought to be noticed that the prayer, Come, Lord Jesus,' in its full and complete sense, as calling upon the Lord to come in the 'clouds of Heaven,' and wind up sublunary

affairs, and enter on His everlasting kingdom, is not to be offered, until the prophets are fulfilled, the morning of the Resurrection about to dawn, and the Son of man visibly to reappear."* Now, what is this but to state that the church is not now to expect or to long for the coming of her Lord? Brethren! was Peter wrong in urging us to "look for and haste unto the coming of the day of God?" 2 Pet. iii. 12. Was James wrong when he sustains the suffering saints by the assurance, "be patient, brethren, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh ?" James v. 8. Was Paul wrong when he gave vent to the laborious eagerness of the whole suffering church of God? "We groan within ourselves, waiting for"-what? any time of relief on this side of the advent? No-but

* "Macdonald on the Revelation," p. 26. This quotation is made without any intended disrespect to the author. His mind only takes color from and exhibits the prevailing sentiment. We quote the extract merely as one among the many clear indications as to whither the church is tending; and that because, as we conceive, of the received notion respecting the kingdom.

waiting for "the adoption, to wit, the resurrection of the body," Rom. viii. 23. Paul's ardent longing overleaps every intervening event as unworthy of a thought, and hastens with fond hope to the time of the resurrection of the dead.

It is boldly affirmed by some, "This whole vision of the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of Heaven is simply a figure, a type, or a symbol, denoting the conversion of the world." And following this lead, even ministers of the word are found, ready to profess themselves "satisfied that Christ will not appear yet for several thousand years."

But let any man submit the matter to his own test. Let him publicly warn the church to look for Christ's appearance-let him give sanction, as Paul does, to the warnings, the hopes, the duties of the gospel which he utters, by continually urging the people of God to look for the coming of Christ as an event that may arrive at any moment in the present generation, and he will soon discover how far such preaching

is palatable. He will be fortunate, indeed, if he escapes without the imputation of Millerism or madness.

Brethren! surely these things are not trifles. If it be true that the apostles in all their epistles represent this coming of Christ as the only really glorious object between them and the final redemption, surely we ought to stand in the same position. Our views of the millennium ought to clash with no such duty. We pray, "Thy kingdom come." If it be true that the beloved disciple, as he hears that closing sentence, "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be"-drops his glowing pen, and with an ardor of faith and hope that overleaps every intervening obstacle, stretches out his trembling, aged hands, and cries, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," Rev. xxii. 7, 20,-most assuredly, the church dare not, in her prayer, stop short of the same point. She dare not dissociate the advent from the long expected kingdom.

I confess, I see not how any man who

prays and labors for the kingdom of Christ upon earth, can regard this as a frivolous. matter, sustained as it is, not by madmen nor heretics, but by men whose learning and piety and zeal, give them a praise in all the churches; and meeting us, as it does, with an array of scripture that the more and more astonishes if it does not convince.

Beloved brethren! Jesus is at great pains to instruct us unto the kingdom of heaven, in its various aspects. He says it is like "a grain of mustard seed." It is like "leaven"it is like "a net cast into the sea ;" and, lastly, it is like unto wheat gathered out from the tares which grew until the very harvest, "which is at the end of the world, and where the reapers are the angels." Matt. xiii. 1-52. He spent the forty days after his passion in instruction mainly upon this topic. Acts i. 3. Is it then an irrelevant question for him to ask us in this day of conflict and perplexity, "Have ye understood all these things?" (NOTE D.)

III. The third point regards the outward