METHODIST REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1887.

ART. I.-THE FUTURE OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. Ar one of our Lord's latest interviews with his disciples, after his resurrection and before his ascension, he assured them that he had been endowed with all authority (šovoía, executive authorization)" in heaven and in earth." This gift of power -the Father's commission-related to our Lord's Messianic work, and it was here referred to in respect to the command that immediately followed its declaration. All that had been done was in some sense preparatory to the aggressive movement now to be inaugurated. The extent of the campaign then to be undertaken is indicated by the words "all nations"--the whole human race, and also its continuance-to the completion of the gospel age. And with this order to go forward, came the assurance that the divine Leader would himself accompany the expedition. It was to be a royal procession, going forward with conquering power to recover a revolted and alienated kingdom.

The movement for the reconquest of the world (τñs yñs, the world of mankind) was not then first undertaken; it had been decreed from the beginning, and something of its methods had been intimated as early as the day of the first act of disobedience, and the divine dispensation revealed in the Old Testament was itself a part of the one great work of redemption. But the proclamation of the coming of "the kingdom of heaven," by John the Baptist, and by Christ himself through his disciples, indicated the undertaking of a new and more aggressive manifestation of Christ's work in our world. That ]—FIFTH SERIES, VOL. III.

work, as then announced, comprised especially the fuller revelation of the divine purposes, and the actual setting in order of the agencies for the accomplishment of the work intendedthe marshaling of the invading host (the offering of the required sacrifice having been made), for all which Christ's exaltation at the right hand of the Father was a necessary provision.

When our Lord ascended up on high, he by no means retired from actively participating in the work of conquering the world to himself: rather, like a wise military commander when about to assail the enemy's ramparts, he assumed a position from which he might more effectively direct and sustain his advancing sacramental hosts. He sat down at the Father's right hand, not to rest, but in intensest activity; "from henceforth expecting” τὸ λοιπὸν ἐκδεχόμενος—awaiting the assured sequel, the complete subjection of his enemies. The agencies on the human side by which the work was to be effected were the preaching of the Gospel and the ministrations of Christian discipline; on the divine side, they were God's all-controlling providence and the efficient operations of the Holy Spirit, which were assured to continue always—ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος -to the end of the gospel dispensation.

The stages through which the processes of the Gospel must pass before the consummation of the æon are only very generally indicated in the prophecies of the New Testament. So much as is given has been taken up by those who have shaped the religious thinking of Christendom, and these things, supplemented by rabbinical and pagan fancies, have formed the mythico-Christian conceptions bequeathed to us from the dark ages of the Church. At the earliest times there seems to have prevailed among the disciples a persistent expectation that the ascended Christ would very soon come back again to the earth. in his human body, to abide and to re-establish in perpetuity the throne of David. This was the form taken by the stillsurviving expectation, so often expressed by our Lord's followers during his earthly life-time, that the Messiah would come to Israel to assert and maintain universal and endless dominion. That this was the expectation of the disciples during our Lord's ministry, in common with that of the whole Jewish people respecting the Messiah, is manifest; nor did Christ's death and resurrection and ascension remove that expectation. Just

before he was separated from them and received up into heaven, they-unmindful of his declaration to Pilate, that his kingdom was not of this world—were asking him, "Dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" His answer seems to indicate that he would divert their thoughts from that subject as impertinent and misleading, and direct them to that which lay immediately before them-the coming of the Comforter, and their own work to be accomplished under his inspiration and leadership.

The angelic messengers who stood with the disciples as they gazed upward after their ascended Lord, reassured them that his departure was not to be final, but that he would come to them again. Just how this was understood by those who heard it may not be obvious beyond question; it is, however, quite certain that according to the prevalent merely human conception of the nature of Christ's kingdom, it soon came to be accepted as a promise that the ascended Christ would shortly return again to the earth. From this soon grew up the expectation of the Second Advent—a literal and sensible coming again in his proper bodily person-which it was also believed was likely, and almost sure, to occur within a very brief period. How largely this expectation was entertained by the apostles, is a question that has been variously answered. Judged by their words, it would seem to be clearly manifest that they fully accepted it; but to so suppose would imply their fallibility, though not necessarily in respect to any vital Christian doctrine. It is, however, quite certain that this expectation was rife in the Church at a very early date; and through the succeeding eighteen hundred years to the present time it has continued to prevail; and though perpetual disappointments have been the steady result, yet the fixed hope continues, and each successive generation-nearly every decade, indeed-has had its appointment for the coming day.

With the notion of the Second Advent has been very closely connected, in the popular eschatology, that of the Millennium, the expectation that the restored "Son of Man" will set up his kingdom, a political state, which is to continue a thousand years. The scriptural basis for such an expectation is the narrowest possible, consisting only of a single very brief expression in one of the least understood parts of the Apocalypse, in the inter