. He cannot die any more,
and He cannot live discrowned. Other forms of human association perish,
as new conditions come into play which antiquate them; but the kingdom
of Jesus is as flexible as it is firm, and has power to adapt to itself
all conditions in which men can live. It will outlast earth, it will
fill eternity; for when He 'shall have delivered up the kingdom to His
Father,' the kingdom, which the God of heaven set up, will still
continue.

It 'shall not be left to other people.' By that, seems to be meant that
this kingdom will not be like those of human origin, in which dominion
passes from one race to another, but that Israel shall ever be the happy
subjects and the dominant race. We must interpret the words of the
spiritual Israel, and remember how to be Christ's subject is to belong
to a nation who are kings and priests.

The destructive power is graphically represented. The stone, detached
from the mountain, and apparently self-moved, dashes against the
heterogeneous mass of iron and clay on which the colossus insecurely
stands, and down it comes with a crash, breaking into a thousand
fragments as it falls. 'Like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors'
(Daniel ii. 35) is the debris, which is whirled out of sight by the
wind. Christ and His kingdom have reshaped the world. These ancient,
hideous kingdoms of blood and misery are impossible now. Christ and His
gospel shattered the Roman empire, and cast Europe into another mould.
They have destructive work to do yet, and as surely as the sun rises
daily, will do it. The things that can be shaken will be shaken till
they fall, and human society will never obtain its stable form till it
is moulded throughout after the pattern of the kingdom of Christ.

The vision of our passage has no reference to the quickening power of
the kingdom; but the best way in which it destroys is by transformation.
It slays the old and lower forms of society by substituting the purer
which flow from possession of the one Spirit. That highest glory of the
work of Christ is but partially represented here, but there is a hint in
Daniel ii. 35, which tells that the stone has a strange vitality, and
can grow, and does grow, till it becomes an earth-filling mountain.

That issue is not reached yet; but 'the dream is certain.' The kingdom
is concentrated in its King, and the life of Jesus, diffused through His
servants, works to the increase of the empire, and will not cease till
t