SERMON XIII.

GOD'S KINGDOM INVISIBLE.

ST. LUKE Xvii. 20, 21.

And when He was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

THE state of the Jews at that time affords to the Church of Christ an awful example of inward blindness in the full light of God's revelation. They were looking out for the coming of Christ's kingdom; but they knew not for what they were watching. God had told them that Messiah should come; but they had formed for themselves a low and earthly idea of His character and His kingdom. They verily thought that He would make His entry among them with the sound of the trumpet and the banners of the tribe of Judah; with the pomp of kingly splendour, and a royal train of chariots and horses, as their kings of old came riding through the gates of Jerusalem." Doubtless they thought that all men would know by the

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They looked out

tokens and the heralds, and by the very majesty of its coming, when the kingdom of God should appear. So they dreamed and wandered in the blindness of their hearts. An obstinate prepossession had filled them with the thoughts and images of earth, and all the prophets of God this film from their inward sight. every way for the signs of His coming; but the signs they looked for came not; or came and spake other things, and mocked their expectation, and darkened their foolish hearts the more, and lulled them into security, at the time when of a truth the kingdom of God was come upon them. Before so much as a stray thought of foreboding arose in their hearts, whilst their eyes were all turned another way, it came upon them like a thief; suddenly and in silence it came, no man seeing it; without visible token; without the warning of a prophet; without the sound of a footfall: it was among them, and they knew it not; it was within them, and they knew not that it was of God. The kingdom came in the coming of the King Himself, as the day comes in the sun's rising. While men slept, Christ was born; a poor child, and unheeded of men, none knew of His coming but His lowly mother and Joseph, and a few shepherds: to the rest He was as any other child; as one of the many who are born in sorrow, and die in silence.

The

ten thousands of Israel, the scribes and the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests, even the very courses that ministered day and night in God's temple, were taken in the snare. God's kingdom was above, and around, and within them; it embraced, and pervaded, and searched them through and through; and they knew it not.

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And as was its coming, so was its course. grew up at Nazareth, a child among children, obedient to His parents: though His mother pondered many things of Him in her heart, other men saw in Him no more than the aspect and the actings of a child. Many an eye beheld Him then which shall behold Him no more. Many gazed on Him, as we gaze on a thoughtful child, and saw no gleams of the mystery which lay hid within. So, too, He began His Father's work, going about on foot, unknown and outcast, with a few who followed Him. He wrought miracles; but the prophets had wrought them too, and yet the kingdom of God came not with them. So He died; not as a king, but as a malefactor; and as a common malefactor-one of the many who, from time to time, were seen hanging on the cross. So He rose again at daybreak, when few were by. By their own falsehood they broke, so far as they were concerned, the force of this mighty sign, saying, "His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while

we slept." He passed, for forty days, to and fro in Jerusalem and in Galilee, on the mountain and by the sea; seen of His own, but not of all the people. And at the last, when He had led them out unto Bethany, away from the haunts of men, "He was taken up from them into heaven, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." Such was the coming of that kingdom, for which not Israel alone was waiting, but the whole creation travailed together with tumultuous groaning; and by this manner of its coming, God put them on their trial, whether they had eyes to see the shadow of His hand, and ears to hear His voice.

In like manner also the kingdom of God came upon the world at large. While all mankind was full of its own gross imaginations, bowing down to the power of evil, and shaping from the creatures of God's hand blind mockeries of Himself; while men sealed their own moral debasement, by making the natures they adored a transcript of their own; there was a preparation going on, there was that unheeded fellowship, in an upper chamber, brooding over great and unimaginable things. They were men of whom the world knew nothing, but they had seen mysteries; they were not read in learned schools, but they had mused on the sea of Galilee; they had seen the feet of God upon its heaving flood, and heard His word rebuke the

rudeness of the storm. To them the unseen world stood out in visible reality; heaven had revealed its wisdom; hell had given up its secret; death had betrayed his own overthrow; and the grave spread open as a homeward path, kindling in the light of life. All this they knew; for they had seen God, and He had shewed them these things. He had filled them with the might of heaven, against which no power of earth could strive. They had in them the omnipotence of truth — of God made flesh, crucified for the life of the world.

And thus they went forth, twelve unnoticeable men; but they had in them a secret which was mighty to move the world. They went, scattered abroad into all lands, two by two, speaking grave words, of things past and things to come, pouring a little water on willing listeners, and giving to them bread and wine with prayer and benediction. Such was God's kingdom. Wheresoever they went, it went likewise—strange and silent. Every where they had the mastery; and yet there was no "cry as of them that strive." Every where they were more than conquerors; yet the kings and kingdoms of the earth did not fall before them. All these stood visibly as before, but the unclean spirit was cast out of them. They were clothed with a mightier dignity, quickened with new life from an unseen spring, and governed by an energy which is