LECTURE V.

SUMMER NIGH AT HAND.

This winter state of the world will have its spring and its everlasting summer. Its hopes are hidden, not lost.

"Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."-LUKE xxi.

29-31.

THE words spoken by our Lord concerning the fig-tree were spoken in the spring-time, the eve also of that season which saw finished, and accessible to all, the great salvation, in consequence of the sacrifice and death of the Son of God, the lawgiver, in the room of the law-breaker; "He spake to them a parable; Behold the fig-tree and all the trees; when they now shoot forth"—that is, they are now budding at this season, and these buds are the prophets of approaching summer. To these He appeals as phenomena in nature, and consecrates them to be prophets in their measure of that kingdom that is yet to come.

Let us try, in the following explanatory remarks, to answer the question, What is the kingdom here that was not then come, but was yet destined to be set up?

and secondly, What is the meaning of the spring buds of the fig-tree, as either prophecies or prefigurations of the kingdom still to be?

We read constantly throughout the gospels of "the kingdom of Christ," "the kingdom of heaven,” “the kingdom of God." These expressions are used in two distinct though related significations. There is, first, the kingdom which is inner, the kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, or the reign of grace in each individual heart; that reign the creation and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. But there is, secondly, beyond that, a kingdom in some degree independent of it, and to some extent disconnected with it also, for the advent of which we constantly pray, "Thy kingdom come." We do not pray, thy kingdom already come be increased and expanded more and more; but distinctively, "May thy kingdom come, a descent from above perfect and complete." This last kingdom is, doubtless, alluded to here—that future kingdom, with all its unfolded glories, all its magnificent and imperishable characteristics, into which shall be absorbed and glorified the kingdoms of this world, as they become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, when He shall reign for ever and ever. We never shall rightly understand the allusions scattered over the gospels until we associate with them the germs of them, as these bud in the prophecies of ancient days. Those phrases that seem to us strange in the New Testament become plain as we read them, not in the independent light of the age in which we live, but in the reflected light of the Old Testament scriptures. On turning to the prophet Daniel, we shall find a description of four great universal empires or kingdoms that

have existed upon earth-the kingdom of Babylon, the first universal empire; the kingdom of the Medo-Persian; the kingdom of the madman of Macedon, Alexander the Great; and the fourth great empire, more fierce, terrible, powerful, and geographically larger than them all, the Roman empire. These four kingdoms were the only universal empires that ever were erected upon earth, or ever will rise in the future history of the world. Most great conquerors, from Charlemagne down to Napoleon the First, seem always to have had one grand, burning ambition-to erect upon earth a fifth universal empire. Every effort has proved abortive, and every future experiment must be a failure. It is said this ambition burns at this moment in one bosom in Europe. Charlemagne and the great Napoleon failed in far more favourable circumstances. An empire, absorbing all into one great sovereignty, and bowing all under the jurisdiction of one common lord, would be a curse were it a possibility. But whether such design. be entertained or not, you may rest assured there is no success for it. The next great universal kingdom will neither be German, nor French, nor English; it will be that kingdom which is described by Daniel, after he has portrayed the preceding universal kingdoms that have passed away, when he tells us, at the close of the seventh chapter, and after the judgment sits upon the last of the four great kingdoms :-" And the kingdom" -now there is the next kingdom-" and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven"-under heaven, that is, upon earth"shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." This fifth

kingdom, of which Christ is to be the personal kingpersonally revealed when He comes in the clouds, of which the subjects will be redeemed and risen Christians is that kingdom, the presignificant signs of the approach of which are here given. It is after He had told them that Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot, that they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory; that He then proceeds to point out to the church of all ages and of all space, by what signs they should judge of the nearness or the remoteness of its approach, illustrating his meaning by buds of spring, the prophets of the then approaching summer, the dawn of that glorious sunrise in which the kingdom and the dominion under the whole heaven shall be the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

Let us try to ascertain if this distinction between the kingdom of grace that is, and the kingdom of glory that is to be, is really recognized throughout Scripture. "God hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son;" here is the existing kingdom of grace. We do not deny the existence of this, or refuse to accept it as a blessed and precious present personal possession; but we allege that this future kingdom is not simply to contain the hearts of Christians, but their bodies also; that the subjects of this kingdom are the risen bodies as well as the regenerated souls of all believers. It is that kingdom of which Jesus speaks when He says, "The righteous shall shine forth as the brightness of the sun in the kingdom of their Father for ever." The kingdom of grace is already come; the kingdom of glory is yet to come. The first is the sweet spring bud, fragrant, beautiful, suggestive of joy, and hope, and

happy association; the latter is the full, ripe fruit, fragrant and amaranthine. The gospel is not the kingdom; it is "the gospel of the kingdom"-literally, the good news of the kingdom. We are not yet possessors of this kingdom-we are the heirs of it. An heir is not a possessor; and therefore, though not yet the possessors of the kingdom, we are the heirs of it; and therefore the right and the relationship are ours, and in due time the estate and the inheritance will be made over to us. There are two passages that have somewhat perplexed those who have arrived at this conclusion; one is in the 17th of St. Luke, where our Lord says: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The translation given in the text cannot be correct, because the marginal reading, which is in every instance the better rendering, is, "The kingdom of God is among you ;" and, secondly, the kingdom of God could not be within the hearts of those He addressed, for they were Pharisees; and he had called these very Pharisees, "Ye generation of vipers, ye serpents, ye children of the wicked one." How could Hé say to such, "The kingdom of God is in your hearts ?" They were total strangers to it. As these words were addressed to the Pharisees, it is plain that the kingdom of grace was not in their hearts. The meaning must be, "The kingdom of God is among you." In what sense it was among them, whether preached among them, made known among them, is left unstated: all we are sure of is, it was not here stated by our Lord that the kingdom of God was. in the hearts of the men He addressed; and, therefore, to quote this text to prove that the kingdom of grace is within the heart, and to dispose of the conclusion that