n represents what
was actually the fact. There is, however, no reason for believing
anything of the kind. There is no ground for the notion that the
Syriac genealogy was taken from a primitive Jewish register. It is
merely a translation of the Greek, probably from some Western Greek
manuscript which had "Joseph begat Jesus." When the evangelist wrote
the genealogy, he can only have meant that Joseph was by Jewish law
regarded as the father of Jesus; for his whole narrative of our Lord's
infancy assumes that He was born of a virgin mother. The truth that
our Lord was born miraculously is asserted by St. Luke as well as by
St. Matthew. It is assumed by St. Paul, when he argues that the second
Adam was free from the taint of sin which affected the rest of the
first Adam's descendants. It {44} was also cherished from the earliest
times in every part of the Christian world where the teaching of the
apostles was retained, and was only denied by a few heretics who had
openly rejected the teaching of the New Testament on other subjects.

Connected with the representation of Jesus as the Messiah is the record
of His continual teaching about the "kingdom of heaven." The "kingdom
of heaven" or "kingdom of God" signifies the reign and influence of
God. The meaning of it is best expressed by the words in the Lord's
Prayer: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on
earth" (Matt. vi. 10). The second petition explains the first. The
kingdom comes in proportion as the righteous will of our loving Father
is done among men. The kingdom therefore includes the influence of God
in the heart of the believer, or in great movements in the world, or in
the organization and growth of His _Church_ (xvi. 18; xviii. 17). The
kingdom has both a present and a future aspect. In xii. 28 our Lord
says to His hearers that it "is come upon you," and in xxi. 31 He
speaks of people who were entering into it at the time. But the night
before He died He spoke of it as still future (xxvi. 29). It is plain
that He taught that it was already present, though its consummation is
yet to come. The kingdom is spiritual, "not of this world," it is
universal, for though the Jews were "the sons of the kingdom" (viii.
12) by privilege, it is free to others. The worst sinner might come in
(xxi. 31), if he came with repentance, humility, and purity of heart.
The teaching of Christ with regard to the kingdom was based upon an
idea of God's p