works," but the most effective displays of his regal power were yet to be made; and to that end the living Church had to be dissevered from the dead body of Judaism, which result was accomplished by casting down the old theocracy in an overwhelming catastrophe.

"It happened just as he said it would-in that generation Jerusalem, the city of David, the capital of the Jewish State, with its sacred temple, the shrine and sanctuary of the Jewish Church, was laid low. . . . Then it was that the Christian Church, emerging from the ashes of the old theocracy, and armed both with miraculous power and the faith and zeal of that martyr age, went forth on her appointed mission to subdue the world to her King. Then it was that the kingdom of God came with power, and Christ came in his kingdom."*

The parousia is steadily spoken of in Scripture as inseparable from "the kingdom of God," the latter signifying the whole of the divine method for saving men through Christ during the gospel dispensation, and the former the attendant light and power of Christ's presence with his Church "alway," and "to the end." But the setting up of that kingdom was not completed by a single act-a coup de main-but rather it was a growth and a development through many successive stages. Even its beginning cannot be fixed precisely, and its earlier advancements escaped the notice of the wise men of this world. Evidently, too, the changes through which the old was replaced by the new were not the results of forces not before in existence. The process was not by new creations nor by violent revolutions, but a normal outgrowth, by a natural though not a painless transition from the antecedent theocracy, and, with all its jealousy of its own offspring, the old became also the fostermother of the new. In its widest sense the kingdom of God dates from the Garden of Eden, and the day of the first transgression; then and there the Church was first of all founded with the promise of salvation throngh "the seed of the woman." That promise was in some sense renewed with Noah and Abraham, with Jacob and Moses; it was seen in the sanctuary of Israel, and in the shekinah it became an abiding presence. But

* Parousia (p. 153), by Israel P. Warren, D.D., Portland, Me. We have also utilized that author's criticisms and arguments in other portions of this paper. -D. C.

its fuller and more glorious displays were reserved for our own better dispensation, which is eminently the era of Christ's peculiar manifestation of himself in Zion-the perpetually glorious parousia. And this itself constitutes "the latter-day

glory" of the Church.

The Parousia, then, is upon us. Christ is present in his kingdom among men, and is steadily carrying forward the government he has in hand toward its consummation. This is the work of which the ancient seers spoke with so much rapture when they saw the day of Christ, and were glad. This great conflict is that "travail of his soul" which Christ saw in prophetic prospect, and its final outcome constituted "the joy set before him," in view of which he "endured the cross and despised the shame," and which he himself described in the glowing imagery of prophecy. And although the progress of the Gospel has not been attended with the physical phenomena which those prophecies, literally interpreted, call for, still the essential excellences of the spiritual triumphs of Christianity infinitely transcend all those things. And all this great work is now going forward

among men.

It is now nearly two thousand years since Christ's kingdom was first established, and during all that period the vital forces implanted in it have been working; and it is these, under the fostering care of 'God's providence and Spirit, which have resulted in what we see to-day in the majestic prevalence and power of Christianity. Never has there been any sudden intervention of extraordinary force in its behalf to remove obstacles, to save from disasters, to destroy enemies, or to impart miraculous powers. ... From the scenes of the day of Pentecost, which ushered in the new kingdom, to the Reformation under Luther and Calvin and Knox, and the revivals attending the preaching of Edwards and Whitefield and Wesley, and our pastors and evangelists, the story of salvation has ever been one and the same. Through the foolishness of preaching God has saved them that believe. There has never been any other mode of spiritual conquest for the kingdom of our Lord, and there is no warrant for believing there ever will be.*

The inauguration of the real and perpetual paronsia dates back more than eighteen hundred years, that is, from the day of Pentecost; which, however, was only the sunrising after a protracted dawning, and we know nothing of any other. The scheme of interpretation, which is commonly spoken of as "traditional," has at no time been accepted as an essential part of the catholic faith, though certain elements of a physical

* Parousia, pp. 212, 213.

eschatology found their way as interpolations into the Apostles' Creed as early as the fourth or fifth century. But a more spiritual conception of Christ's kingdom, though not so widely proclaimed, has been substantially accepted for three hundred years past by large portions of Protestant Christendom. That conception is, that immediately upon his ascension and enthronement at the right hand of the Father, Christ entered upon a campaign of conquest in our world with the joint agencies of the revealed word operating through men's understandings and the Holy Spirit acting upon their hearts; and that this work is now in progress, and is destined to go forward, without any essential change of conditions, to the end, that is, the consummation of the gospel dispensation, of which end many think the Scriptures give no certain assurance as to how or when it will come. The joining of the end of the world (the cosmos) with the consummation of the gospel era, has no doubt been favored by the mistranslated clause (Matt. xxviii, 20)—the promise of Christ's presence with his apostles—which, in the Authorized Version, is rendered "even unto the end of the world." The incorrectness of this is partially recognized in the Revised Version, by putting in the margin, as a more literal rendering, the words: "the consummation of the age." The meaning of the Greek word alwv, eon, is not adequately reproduced by either of the words, "world," or "age." The term as there used is definite and specific, indicating a presumably well understood eon-epoch or dispensation-which must at least cover the whole period onward till the end of Christ's mediatorial reign, of which only the faintest intimations are in that place given.

The kingdom of heaven thus inaugurated was destined to grow, like the mustard-plant, and to assimilate its subjects to its own nature, like the leaven in the meal, and to develop itself like the growth of the corn-"first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear." Christianity is pre-eminently a plant of the Lord's own planting. It has become deeply rooted in our world, and its growth to completeness is assured-first of all in the revealed purposes of the Father and the promises of Christ, and next, and to our dim sight more manifestly, in its steady onward course through the ages. Like the century plant, its progress may seem to us to be so slow, and its blos

soming so long delayed, that our impatient unbelief is ever asking: "Where is the promise of his coming?" But God is not in a hurry, and yet his purposes are sure. But we have more than our faith to assure us; the process is plain and open to our observation, and the progress of events points to the coming of the day-perhaps nearer than we have been wont to suppose-when Christianity shall become the one universal religion of mankind. Our Lord's command: "Go, preach my Gospel to every creature," was also a prophecy and a promise. The work then begun was destined to succeed by the agencies then set in motion.

At each succeeding act of the sublime drama the Church has advanced to its great work with augmented powers, and with each new development of its spiritual life it has girded itself anew for its great work, till now it stands forth in divine panoply, prepared to go up and possess the land in the name of the Lord. The material world, also, with the counsels and the powers of kings, is bringing its tribute of effective agencies to forward this work. Learning and culture, the arts and sciences, wealth and social influences, commerce, and even war, are all rendering service to the cause of Christian evangelization. Sometimes this is rendered gladly, but more frequently in obedience to influences by which the wrath of man is constrained to glorify God, and beyond that purpose is limited by unseen obstructions. This is that Gospel of the kingdom-the stone cut out of the mountain without hands-which is to fill the whole. earth; and this in its progress will bring in the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Thus far all is assured; but beyond these transactions divine revelation does not lift the curtain of the future; the Gospel is the final dispensation of revelation. Its outlook has no westward horizon to indicate its sunset; we are told almost nothing by any trustworthy authority about the end of the visible cosmical-earth and heavens; and the references to the indicated end of the gospel eon may be only an outlook upon the vast ocean of that future, of which we know very little, and that little in very remote perspective. But whether on the earth and beneath the starry sky, or in the heaven of heavens, in the house not made with hands, Christ's regal priesthood shall be without end-as the King in Zion, 2-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. III.

and the Priest forever, he will reign and serve in the New

Jerusalem.

This view of the case replaces the traditional Second Advent by the manifestation of Christ in his Church, in providence and in spiritual power-walking among the golden candlesticks and holding the stars in his right hand; and it takes away the materialistic and chronological Millennium, and gives in its place the reign of grace in the spiritual Zion, reaching from the day of Pentecost to the indefinitely remote and dimly apprehended completion of the gospel ageἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.

ART. II.-KEBLE AND “THE CHRISTIAN YEAR." THE classical literature of the Christian Church grows slowly. Much of our religious writing is so affected by the mental tendencies of the age in which it was written, that it seems antiquated and unnatural under changed conditions of thought and feeling. Oftentimes the spirit of controversy so affects an otherwise valuable book, that when the controversy is settled or outgrown the work perishes. On the other hand, when a book speaks to the abiding feelings of the heart-when it meets a real want of the soul, and has, therefore, a real life in it-it becomes a Christian classic. The theological writings of the early Christian Fathers are now and then read by students of Church history or Christian doctrine; but the "Confessions" of Saint Augustine, which are filled with the deepest feelings, aspirations, and questionings of the heart, have passed out of theology into literature. After ages read the book, not because there can be gathered from it some of the remarkable theolog ical opinions of the author, but because it is full of universal Christian experience. The monastic writers of the Middle Ages are forgotten; but the marvelous De Imitatione Christi is dear to Christians of every clime and language. The religious controversies of Milton's time have now little interest for ordinary people; but Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying, Baxter's Saint's Everlasting Rest, and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress are treasures in the library of all reading Christians.

No book of the present century seems more likely to become