and to turn the bayonet into the pruning-hook, to hang the clarion in the hall, and let nations hear the roll of war's conquering drum no more, is not to dismiss the army, but to preach and promote among civilians the knowledge of him who is the Prince of peace, and under whose shadow and sceptre alone there can be permanent and blessed peace. "There is no peace to the wicked:" preach it as you like, individuals and nations must become Christians before they can enjoy or maintain peace. Spread Christianity, and there will be peace; recognise Christ as the true Melchisedek, the King of righteousness, and you will soon have Jesus as the true Melchisalem, the Prince of peace. Bow before the sceptre of Christ the King, and you will soon live under the olive-branch of the Prince of peace. As Christ the King has a kingdom, we may inquire what it is? It is not, as some seem to misapprehend, meat and drink. The apostle says, "The kingdom of God is not meat nor drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is, therefore, neither fasting nor feasting, neither rubric nor rite, nor ceremony; these things may be too few or they may be too many; they may be too severe or they may be too gorgeous; they are but the shells, the husks; they are not the substantial elements of the kingdom of Christ. Nor is that kingdom Episcopacy, nor is it Presbytery, nor is it Congregationalism; nor is it immersion, nor is it sprinkling, nor is it baptism in infancy nor in maturer years: these things may be, or they may not be; they may be good or they may be bad, or they may be indifferent; but they are not the substantial elements of the kingdom of Christ; it flourishes and spreads without them, often in spite of them, for it is something stronger and higher than them all-it is righteousness without us, which is Christ's; righteousness within us, which is the Spirit's; the righteousness which is imputed and perfect, and by which we are justified; the righteousness which is imparted and imperfect, and by which we are sanctified-the one our title, the other our fitness for heaven. And it is "peace;" peace with conscience, peace with our brethren, peace with God and with all the universe besides. And it is "joy." It begins in righteousness, it grows in power, it spreads in peace, it culminates in beauty, in glory, and in joy: it is planted as a seed in the individual heart; it germinates and grows, till upon the mountain-tops it waves with fruit like Lebanon, and the whole earth is covered with the harvest of its glory. The existence of this kingdom upon earth, the elements of which I have tried to define, is evidence of the presence of a divine royalty in the midst of it. It is a kingdom that derives no nutriment from the earth; it is not of the world, though it is in it. Left to itself, Christianity, with all its excellence, would have expired long ago. It is as necessary that the King should be upon his throne in the midst of his church, as it is that the High-Priest should be by his altar in the midst of it; it is as necessary that Christ's sceptre should be over the towers of Zion, as that Christ's cross should be set forth in its creeds, and sermons, and prayers, and services. No professions, no rites, no ceremonies, no polity could save a living church from destruction, if Christ were to cease to be true to that promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." But because the king has been in it, no weapon formed against it has prospered. Heresy has tried to corrupt it; power has sought to extirpate it. Like a tender flower amid the Alpine snows-like a tiny spark amid the billows of the sea-like the ark with Moses in it amid the waters of the Nile, with mighty forces gathered round ready to overwhelm it, has the church of Christ been in the history of the world, and in the experience of mankind. His commission, "Go and preach," was a royal one; his promise, "Lo, I am with you always," is equally a royal one. This kingdom, it is true, is not outward and visible: the soul is the seat of its power; its victories, its glories, its achievements are all there. And, blessed be God, this kingdom, invisible to sight, but real to faith, and hope, and joy, and to every Christian heart, is a broad and comprehensive one; it is not restricted to a sect, but comprehends many of every name; it is not limited to the world, but stretches beyond the stars. Europe is not all Christendom; Europe, Asia, Africa, and America are not the whole of Christendom; Christendom stretches into eternity; we have brethren beside the throne who drink of the stream as it bursts from the fountain, while we drink of the same stream as it flows by the footstool. Christendom comprehends saints in triumph and saints. that are militant-heaven and earth, in short, all God's people. The entrance into this kingdom—what is it? A way so broad that there is no criminal in this audience (if such there be here) that may not enter; and yet a way so holy that he must lay down his criminality the instant that he takes a single step upon it. The way into this kingdom is not by gold, nor frankincense, nor myrrh—these cannot buy it; politicians cannot create it; it is Christ alone its title, regeneration by the Spirit alone the fitness for it. The law of this realm, the true Christendom-what is it? It is not law, it is love; its subjects, we are told, love one another. Jesus governs by love; it is the pavilion of his power, it is the throne of his glory, it is the badge of his subjects, it is the cohesion of his own grand and mighty kingdom. One law governs the clouds in the air, and binds the worlds to the sun: one instinct guides the emigrant birds from home, and back to home again so one passion-love-guides and governs all the subjects of Christ, and his kingdom coheres and moves in harmony, because they have learned to love Christ and to love one another. 1 And this kingdom comes quietly. Jesus, when he walked in Palestine, was surrounded by no pomp or parade; he shot forth no blazing and sensuous splendour on those that were around him; he came as his kingdom comes-like the rain upon the mown grass, as the showers that water the earth. This kingdom, made up of righteousness, joy, and peace, comes like the sweet of spring-gentle, soft, yet persistent. The seed sown in tears, watered with blood, grows up quietly while men sleep, and while men wake. Satan falls from heaven like a flash of lightning, or the thunderbolt; but the Holy Spirit comes from heaven descending like a gentle dove. The kingdom of sin passes away like a fierce whirlwind: the kingdom of Jesus comes softly like the morning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Brethren, are you the subjects of Messiah the Prince? Are you members of this divine kingdom, this holy company, this happy fellowship? All members of all visible churches are not so; all baptized men, however baptized, are not so. There are good fishes and bad in the net; there are tares and wheat in the visible church. Salvation is not union to a church, but union to Christ. To belong to this kingdom is to be renewed in heart, and not merely to be baptized by man. And they who are the subjects of it are those Thessalonians of whom we read that they have "the work of faith, the labour of love, the patience of hope," who are chosen in Christ, who are missionaries to all that are around them, who are patiently waiting for the Son of God from heaven. Are you subjects of this King? Do you love his law? Do you feel in your heart that law which is love? "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ," it matters not whether he be a churchman or a dissenter, "he is none of his." If we love him, and love the brethren as he hath given us commandment, we are his. And what a glorious king! Hannibal conquered, and is gone; his existence is a fact, a dead fact, and no more. Cæsar reigned, and is gone; his reign is a fact, a dead fact, and no more. But Jesus lived, and lives; his reign is a living and ever-governing fact; he reigned, and reigns; fresh and actual is his sceptre to-day as when first he proclaimed his kingdom. His kingdom sinks not into sands of oblivion, it is obstructed by no power, it grows in beauty, it spreads in influence; and very soon we shall behold the King in his beauty, and the land that is afar off; and he shall have dominion from sea to sea, and all shall bless him, and shall be blessed in him; and the prayers of his people, like the prayers of David the son of Jesse, will then be ended. "With anthems of devotion Ships from the isles shall meet, "For he shall have dominion O'er river, sea, and shore; Far as the eagle's pinion Or dove's light wing can soar." 408 LECTURE XXVIII. JERUSALEM AND THE JEWS. "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."-Daniel ix. 26, 27. I HAVE shown by a previous comparison between the characteristics of the work of the Messiah, as predicted in the 24th verse of this chapter, and the actual facts that are recorded of the life of Jesus, that he is the Messiah, and that he alone has finished the transgression, made an end of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity, brought in everlasting righteousness, sealed up the vision and the prophecy, and is anointed now the most Holy. I showed in a previous discourse that not only did a comparison of the moral characteristics, as they are unfolded in the prophecy, and find a counterpart in Jesus, prove him to be the Messiah; but the chronology of the passage no less unequivocally attests it. I showed, that from the time when the command went forth in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, as recorded in the seventh chapter of Ezra, to rebuild Jerusalem, to the manifestation of Jesus Christ at the baptism of John the Baptist, there elapsed exactly seventy prophetic weeks, or seventy times seven, or 490 years-minus the remaining week, (or seven years,) in the midst of which he was to be cut off. I showed that in the midst of the last week here specified the Messiah suffered. I gave you the clear and irresistible evidence of it in the sudden cessation of |