of the kingdom time.

Then there are certain radical changes in _nature_. Splendid rivers of
waters are to flow through or by Jerusalem, suggesting radical changes
in the formation of the land there. That fortress city, on the hilltop,
Jerusalem, becomes as the world's metropolis, a mighty city, with rivers
floating a world's commerce. The light of sun and moon will be greatly
intensified, so influencing the fertility of the earth. Before their
healing light and heat, in the newly tempered atmosphere, all poisonous
growths, the blight of drought, and suffering of untempered heat, will
disappear.

And with this goes a change in the _animal_ creation. Hate will be gone.
And so beasts that are dreaded because of their ferocity and treachery
and poisonous power will be wholly changed. There will be mutual
cessation of cruelty to animals by man, and of danger to man by animals,
for all hate and violence will be gone.

And some one raises his eyebrows sceptically and says, ironically, "What
fairy tale, what skipper's yarn, is this?" Well, I frankly confess that
I don't know anything about this matter, except what I find in this old
Book of God. But I confess, too, that I try studiously to get a
common-sense, poised, Spirit-enlightened understanding of what this Book
does tell. And then I accept it, and go by it, regardless of
probabilities or improbabilities. It may seem like a fairy tale, yet it
is only the picture of the coming kingdom soberly set forth in these old
pages.

As we turn to the Gospel pages we find the kingdom to be the chief thing
Jesus is talking about. The Gospel days are sample days of the kingdom
in the personal blessings bestowed. Read through these accounts of blind
eyes opened, the lame walking, the maimed made whole, the dumb singing,
the distressed in whatever way relieved, the ignorant instructed, the
sinful wooed, and the bad of heart and life being blessedly changed.

All this is a taste of the kingdom. Jesus was wooing men to accept King
and kingdom. To-day, as in all Church time, bodily healing is a
privilege for those who can take it, and a gift for the rare few who can
be entrusted with it. In these Gospel pages it was freely bestowed on
multitudes, and the gift exercised with power by many. Even so it will
be in the kingdom time.

Most of the parables are found to be connected in their first meaning
with explaining about the kingdom. The kingdom will follow the law of
growth that is c