aster said, 'If
I by the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is
come nigh unto you.' It is come, then, in Him. This prayer throws it
forward again into the future, and far down on the stream of prophecy;
we hear borne up to us through the darkness the shouts that shall hail a
future day when here on earth the kingdoms of this world shall become
the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It is a kingdom, then, that
has ever been, and yet has stages of progress, a kingdom that was
established in Jesus; a kingdom that has a past, a present, and a future
on earth. It is after this world that the words are said, 'Come, ye
blessed, enter into the kingdom.' It is a kingdom, then, manifested on
earth, and yet a kingdom into which death, who keeps the keys of all
secrets, admits us.

Once more--the kingdom of God is within you. 'The kingdom of God is
righteousness, and peace, and joy.' But there is beyond earth to be a
manifestation of the kingdom in a more perfect form. It is 'the kingdom
of heaven,' not only because the King is 'Our Father which art in
heaven,' but because we cannot completely come into it, or it into us,
till we pass out of earth by death, and enter through that gate into the
city. He has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.

It is a dominion, then, over heart and soul, having its realm within,
standing not so much in outward institutions as in inner experiences;
and yet a kingdom which, though like leaven hid, shall like leaven be
seen in its effects; though like a seed buried deep, shall like a seed
blossom into a mighty tree; though it cometh not with observation, yet
is like to the lightning that flashes with a kind of omnipresence in its
rapid course from end to end, everywhere at once; which though it be
within, yet clearly is meant to rule over all outward acts, and one day
to have all kings bowing down before it.

These are the varieties with which the one thought of the kingdom of
God, or of heaven, is presented in Scripture. It is eternal yet revealed
in time, ever here but ever coming, ever coming but never come on earth,
but entered when we go yonder, ruling us man by man, inward, spiritual,
unseen, and yet moulding nations and institutions, outward and visible,
compelling sight and filling all the earth.

But these varieties are not contradictions, still less are they the
effects of a vague and imperfect notion which means anything or
everything according to