03 - Meditation 3
MEDITATION III.
“THY KINGDOM COME.”
“THY kingdom come!” Have you not often, my brethren, pronounced these words, or heard them pronounced, without their conveying to your minds a distinct idea, or awakening a feeling in your hearts, and consequently, without their being realized as a prayer? The majority of persons see in this expression the kingdom or reign, of God, nothing in common with our present life; and if they attach to it any idea at all, it is entirely comprised in a future existence. In other terms, the kingdom of God, in the view of many persons, is heaven, and most frequently a heaven quite different from that of which the Bible speaks, a heaven created by their own imaginations, a heaven whose joys and glories are of man’s invention, joys and glories in which all, without distinction, whatever may have been the nature of their faith and hopes, whatever their sentiments and their life, will participate after death! Oh! how many immortal souls have been rocked to sleep even to the tomb, in these fatal illusions, which left them devoted to the world, its interests, its joys, and its sins, while, notwithstanding, they cherished the deceitful hope of this false heaven which they had created for themselves! My brethren! the petition which we are about to meditate upon this day, is calculated, when rightly understood, to dispel these dangerous errors, and to substitute the truth in their place. Christ, by directing us to pray for the coming of his kingdom, would teach us that this kingdom has a present existence upon earth before it arrives at its perfection and final triumph in heaven; that consequently, we must make a part of it in this life if we would be members of it in eternity; in a word, that the kingdom of God must be a reality to us, a present reality, and not merely the object of vague and deceitful hopes for the future. To demonstrate to you this truth, we shall call upon you to view the kingdom of God under two aspects; “We shall consider, from the Bible,. Its history, and its nature.
It will then be easy for us to answer the question What is it to pray from the heart, “ Thy kingdom come?” The great reformer of Germany, in the most popular of his works, his catechism, establishes a distinction between the kingdom of God’s power, and the kingdom of his grace. God reigns by his power over all creation. “ The Lord reigneth,” the Bible saith, “ his throne is established of old.” No creature in the wide extent of the universe, can escape from under his dominion.
He feigneth over the worlds which fill immensity, marks out for them their courses, and they obey him; he reigneth over the blade of grass which vegetates in the depths of the valley and maintains its life; he reigneth over the holy intelligences which surround his throne and chant his praise; he reigneth over the devils in the abyss of darkness which subsist only by him. In this sense the kingdom of God is eternal, perfect, and universal; no created being can invade or injure it. It is not, then, with regard to this kingdom that we have to ask of God: “ Thy kingdom come!” But is it so with what Luther calls the kingdom of grace, and what might with equal propriety be designated the kingdom of love ’? Does God, who is love as well as power, reign in this perfection over all beings capable of loving, as he reigns by his absolute power over creation in general? No, my brethren! There is, in the immense empire of the Omnipotent, a province which has lifted up the standard of rebellion against him, and has said, “ We will not have this man to reign over us,” and has surrendered itself to the rule of another sovereign, who labors to foment in it hostility against the government of God. This province is the earth which we inhabit; and the rebels are ourselves! The Bible has recorded the history of this fearful catastrophe, the triumph of evil and of the kingdom of darkness, the tyrannical usurpation of sin which madly braves the power and the laws of the Sovereign of the universe. So firm is the footing which this hostile power has obtained upon earth, that neither the threats nor the judgments of the Most High have been sufficient to bring back under his dominion those who had renounced it. In vain did God, seeing that “ every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually,” say in his wrath, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh;” in vain did he bring upon the whole earth the most frightful destruction. Since the deluge, as well as before it, rebellion, pride, and sin, have filled the heart of man, and seduced him to forgetfulness of God and to a degrading idolatry.
What, then, will the most holy God do? Will he suffer pollution, rebellion, and moral anarchy in his creation? or will he expunge from his creation an impious world? No: God, who is love, who wishes to reign by love and not by terror; God, who seeks to be loved, and says not, like the tyrants of this earth, “I care not whether I be loved, provided I be feared;” God declares that he will come himself to establish in this fallen world his kingdom of grace and of love. With this view he forms a peculiar people, and makes them the depository of this glorious promise; Abraham is their father; he receives from heaven this assurance, “ In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed;” this promise constitutes the life and hope of the chosen people, and exerts an influence over all their destinies; God continually brings them back from all their captivities to the country where it is to be accomplished; he repeats it to them from time to time by his prophets, who predict the future deliverance; he gives them religious institutions, all intended to shadow it forth, and raise their expectations of it; he finds in his own bosom, in his well-beloved Son, the Deliverer, the eternal Sovereign of his new kingdom. “I have set my King,” he says, “ upon my holy hill of Zion. Thou art my Son, this clay have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”
“ But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” At length the times of the kingdom of grace are fulfilled the whole East is in mysterious expectation of a Deliverer; pious men among the people of God are “ waiting for the consolation of Israel;” the precursor of the spiritual King appears in the deserts of Judea; “Repent ye,” he cries, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The King of Glory himself appears preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and saying, “ The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” These are his first words. But how different is this kingdom from what his guilty and rebellious subjects had reason to expect! This King comes not “ to speak to them in his wrath, and to vex them in his sore displeasure; he comes not to bruise them with a rod of iron, and to dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” No; he comes as the Prince of Peace, to establish a kingdom of grace and of love; he comes poor and humble, stripped of all the marks of his infinite greatness: “ he goes about doing good:” “ he bath not where to lay his head;” he teaches the laws of his new kingdom; he instructs, consoles, and heals; he brings to rebels the assurance of pardon; his royal entry into the holy city is thus touchingly described, “ Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”
Further, instead of punishing the guilty with death, as the holy law of God required, he dies for the guilty. Yes, as in order to re-establish his kingdom and open it to us, it was necessary not only to instruct men, but still more, to save them; not only to teach them the will of God, but to reconcile them to God; not only to urge them to renounce their rebellion and their sins, but to redeem them from their sins and. from the just condemnation which they deserved, he dies! The expiatory victim promised in Eden, confirmed to the Patriarchs, prefigured by sacrifices, and foretold by the prophets, he dies! and it is even upon the cross that he founds his kingdom! It is from thence he throws over the abyss which the fall had opened up between us and God a solid bridge of communication! He dies;... but soon, bursting the bonds of death, triumphant over the grave, the devil, and hell, he ascends to the right hand of God his Father! he goes to enjoy the fruit of his work; he goes to prepare, by his power and merciful intercessions, the complete triumph of that kingdom of which he is the supreme head as well as the Saviour. But how is his work carried on upon earth? And what connexion is there between that Being who died an ignominious death upon the cross, and the conversion of the world! My brethren! the whole world shall be compelled to recognize the divine power of this glorious King, by the weakness of the means which he employs. The kings of the earth, to establish their dominion, carry into the heart of the countries which they have vanquished, fire and sword; they ravage their provinces, and establish their authority amid ruins and blood. But our King chooses for his ministers twelve fishermen of Galilee, he confers upon them the spirit of power, and sends them forth to make the conquest of the world. At their voice, the altars of idol gods, worshipped for ages, crumble into dust; their word, their simple word, reduces to ruins the temples of idolatry, roots out of the heart of man the most inveterate prejudices, the dearest errors, and the most powerful passions; the whole civilized world bows its head before a cross, and adores as its Saviour and its King him who died upon it.
Into this kingdom, souls rescued from the bondage of sin. from the tyranny of Satan, and from the fear of death, have come for more than eighteen centuries, to find a refuge, a peace, and a happiness hitherto unknown to the world. It is this kingdom, and the word of this kingdom, that we preach to you; it is this kingdom that is assuming, in the present day, a new ascendancy among the Churches/ of Europe; and it is to proclaim this kingdom, that the Protestant Churches, awaking out of their sleep of death, and not wishing to keep it to themselves, are sending forth their missionaries to the remotest limits of the earth; it is the presence of this kingdom of peace that is now making distant islands, where it has been for the first time announced, rejoice; and it is the word of this kingdom which in our day consoles, instructs, and gladdens the inhabitant of the icy regions of the north and of the burning zones of the south. And if, from these realities of the past and the present, we cast into the future a believing glance at the promises of God, which are also a reality, we shall see this kingdom, after having triumphed over every obstacle, “ filling the earth as the waters cover the sea.” Resting upon this word, which shall not deceive us, any more than it deceived Abraham, the prophets, and the apostles, we believe with the fullest assurance of faith, that “unto Christ every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Then shall the sovereign King come and take unto him the great power of his kingdom, all the members of which shall share in his glory and his triumphs; then “ they shall come from the east and from the west, and from the north arid the south, who shall sit down with him in the kingdom of his Father; then, when all the enemies of Christ have been made his footstool, his redeemed of every nation, tongue, and tribe, delivered from all their tribulations, victorious after their conflicts, surrounding for evermore him who loved them, and redeemed them with his own blood, shall chant an eternal hymn of thanksgiving and praise! Then shall evil in every form be vanquished and destroyed: Satan, with his iron sceptre and his crafty devices; sin, with its deadly venom and its agonizing remorse; hatred, with its secret torments; calumny, with its incendiary torches; enmities, with their troubles; war, with its ravages; the sufferings of the body, of the soul, and of the heart; sickness, agony, death yes, death itself, “ the last enemy, shall be destroyed!” Then shall re-echo through the whole conclave of the heavens that voice which St. John heard with transports of joy in the Island of Patmos: “ Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of the brethren is cast down which accuseth them before our God day and night!” Then shall the kingdom of God and of his Christ have reached its final destiny, and the Church shall no longer, from amid its bondage and its corruptions, cry, “ Thy kingdom come!” but it shall shout with triumph and with love, “ God, God alone all in all!” Such, my brethren, are the principal features in the history of God’s kingdom. But do all men form a part of it? To answer this question we shall consider for a few moments the nature of this kingdom.
If nothing more was here meant than that which we have called the kingdom of God’s power, then, doubtless, all would be included in it, without exception. There is not a man upon the face of the earth, that can withdraw himself from under that dominion, however he may desire it. In this sense, the greatest enemy of Christ and of his kingdom has reason to say to God, as the Psalmist did in another sense, “ Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me!” In this manner God reigns over the wicked; he holds them in by the rein of his sovereign will. And, my brethren, but for this kingdom, but for this dam opposed to the devastating torrent of evil, what would have become of our earth? But is it such an empire over us that the Almighty Creator desires? Is it over a race of slaves that he wishes to reign slaves who bear their chains with reluctance, and only because they are unable to shake them off? No, no, my brethren; God is a Spirit, and it is over spirits, over the will, and not merely over the body and matter, that he wishes to rule; God is love, and it is in the heart that he wishes to have his throne; God is holiness, and it is over the conscience that he wishes to establish his dominion.
Now, I would ask you, does God thus reign over all men? Does he reign over that man who. full of himself, has made self the centre of his existence, and refers everything to it? Does he reign over him who, having deified his own self-interest, has become his own god, the god to which he offers incense which he serves and adores, the god which is the motive of all his actions, and the end of his whole being, the god which excludes from his heart even the very thought of the true God? Does he reign over him who, enslaved to his carnal passions, forces even his mind and his reason to bow the neck to their ignominious yoke? Does God reign over that man who, enslaved to the good things of this earth, employs all his powers and his whole existence to amass a little gold? Does God reign over that man who, a slave to the world’ its fashions, and its joys, passes his whole life in a vortex which scarcety leaves him a moment to think of his soul and of his God? No, certainly not! God reigns neither over the thoughts, nor the heart, nor the affections, nor the will of such men. Though they may have prayed all their life with their lips, “ Thy kingdom come!” that kingdom has never come to them. They have other gods which have dominion over them; they belong to another kingdom the kingdom of darkness and of Satan. These severe expressions are not ours, my brethren; they are St. Paul’s, who characterizes such men in saying that they “ walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience.” What then, what is this prayer addressed to God, in the mouths of such men? “ Thy kingdom come!” What? say to God, “ Thy kingdom come /” when you are determined not to let him reign either over your hearts, or your wills, or your consciences!
“ Thy kingdom come /” and you withdraw yourselves, with all your powers, and by every means, from under his empire, that you may be ruled by other gods! “ Thy kingdom come /” But the king whom you invoke has come, he has come a thousand times to knock at the door of your hearts, to demand admission there, to endeavor to set up there his throne, and you have rejected him. Ah! cease then, until you become sincere, cease to offer to God a prayer which you would tremble to see fulfilled. What, I ask you, would you think of a subject that should express to his prince wishes for the extension of his kingdom, for the glory of his arms, and for the establishment of his throne, and then forthwith should go out and fight as a traitor in the ranks of the enemies of his king? I leave it to yourselves to characterize such conduct. But here, I anticipate an objection which it is necessary to answer before we proceed any further. There are many who, from an erroneous habit of regarding the kingdom of God merely as the state of the soul in heaven, while perhaps they acknowledge that God is far from reigning over them now, do nevertheless hope, I know not on what grounds, to belong to his kingdom after death; I repeat, I know not on what grounds. For what change will take place in them then? Will God change them? Will the nature of his kingdom change them? Will the tastes and inclinations of their hearts be changed a as it were by enchantment?
Supposing, as we have already done, that a principal element of happiness in the kingdom of God in another world shall be the contemplations of those grand and magnificent scenes of which the Bible speaks; the sight of that Jerusalem which is above, shining with magnificence and glory, which St. John describes in the book of Revelations; what would such a heaven be to the unhappy being who was destitute of the organs of sight? Supposing, again, that the essence of this eternal abode shall consist in the rapturous strains of a divine harmony, of which also the Bible speaks; what would these enjoyments be to a being whom a fatal deafness rendered a stranger to all the charms of music?
Then, my brethren, we know that in heaven God will reign by his presence, which is to his children “ the fullness of joy;” by his love, which shall fill their whole hearts with inexpressible delight; he will reign over their will, which shall be blended into an eternal harmony with his will; over their purified consciences, which shall find their happiness in the holiness of God; over their minds, whose supreme felicity it shall be to penetrate deeper into the knowledge of his mercy and of his glorious perfections; in a word, over their whole being, which shall then have found eternal rest in the bosom of God. And this is the kingdom into which you, to whom 1 am now addressing myself, desire to enter? You think you will then be capable of enjoying the presence of that God, the very thought of whom is now a burden to you! his love, against which you have hitherto shut your hearts, that you might love the very opposite of it! You think that God will reign over your will, which is now habitually opposed to him! over your conscience, which the holiness of God now inspires with nothing but terror! over your mind, the faculties of which you have employed in the pursuit of objects in which God had no part! Again, I ask you, by what enchantment do you expect to be thus transformed?
Ah, my brethren! it is in vain to hope it. If you remain as you are, heaven itself would be to you as the magnificent spectacle of the abode of God to the blind man, or all the charms of celestial melody to the deaf. The kingdom of God in heaven is of the same nature as the kingdom of God on earth, save that it is perfect.
If, then, his kingdom come not to you on earth, be sure that it will never come to you in heaven.
If this truth, which ought to appear self-evident to your reason, fix your attention, render, you serious, and force you to think of the salvation of your souls more than you have hitherto done; if it extort from you the cry of Saul of Tarsus, when arrested by a Divine power on his way to Damascus, “ Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” hear the word of the Saviour, of Him who, being the Sovereign of that kingdom, and knowing perfectly its nature, has a right to prescribe its laws; he tells you what is the fundamental law, the charter of that kingdom, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”- And in another place, “ Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And what is this change, and how is it effected? This change is effected, when by the power of Divine grace, we dethrone self, to enthrone God in our hearts; when we renounce our own wisdom, to receive a wisdom from above our own merits, to cling to the merits of Christ our own strength, to live by the strength of his Spirit, yea, our own life, as our Lord teaches us, to receive a new life. This change takes place when the kingdom of God, which “ consists not in word, but in power,” comes into us to dethrone and banish by that power, all the false gods which we had made for ourselves, and which we had served like slaves. This change takes place when our rebellious will bows to the will of God, and obeys it; when our hearts and our affections are influenced and sanctified by the love of God; when our conscience, purged from dead works, seeks in God that “ holiness without which no man shall see the Lord;” when our thoughts and our imagination, delivered from those earthly pursuits and impure images which enslave them, are brought under the sanctifying influence of the omnipresence of God, who filleth all things j when our whole life, receiving a completely new direction, is governed by that great principle which includes our supreme destination, “ Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Then has the kingdom of God come to us; then God has his throne in the centre of our life, and then we are, for time and eternity, in his kingdom. To attain, in our present state, this end of our being, is our duty as well as our happiness.
What can be more happy than the soul which is possessed and constrained by the love of Christ? Who is there more worthy than he to rule over our hearts, those hearts to which he has so many claims? Who is more worthy of our supreme affection? Who has ever loved us as Christ has loved us? His love is life, it is a foretaste of heaven! Yes, even in this world, in our exile, amid our conflicts and our trials, we may experience something of the joys and associations which shall be perfected in heaven; our life, even now, in this present time, has a destination, to which everything around us directs us. However solitary we may be, however forsaken by the world, we have, notwithstanding, a country whose shores already rise up to our view. Hear St. Paul, from the depths of the dungeon: “Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.” And his expectation was not disappointed; he was delivered from his chains, from his persecutions, from his labors, from that “ body of death under which he groaned, to be put in full possession of that heavenly kingdom which he so faithfully preached. Let his hope be our hope, let his Saviour be our Saviour, his life our life; and his deliverance and his joys shall soon be ours also! My brethren, if there be among you those who are serious and sincere, who begin to see with fear and trembling, that hitherto God has not reigned over their hearts; that they have served other gods; that the petition upon which we are meditating has been to them mere words, or an insult to God; if there be among you some in whom God has begun to reign by his grace, but who are terrified at still beholding the many corruptions, sinful inclinations, and evil passions which dispute with the Lord the empire over their lives, we would say to such, “ Fear not; be not dismayed!” Has not Jesus Christ our Saviour, our King, to whom has been given “all power in heaven and earth,” has not He pledged “himself, yea, pledged himself, to vouchsafe to us a complete deliverance, an entire victory over the enemies of our salvation, since he commands us to pray, “ Thy kingdom come /” If he were not willing to establish this kingdom in you by his own power, then would he have deceived you, O ye of little faith! But far from us be this blasphemy! Were you so bowed down under the burden of your infirmities, so oppressed by the feeling of your utter weakness, so galled on every side by the chains which you still drag after you, that you could do no more than send up to him this cry of your soul, ’’ Thy kingdom come I” this cry he would hear and answer, since he himself has put it into your heart and upon your lips. Remember a similar cry, which rose once from the depth of a conscience tormented with remorse, which escaped from a bosom agonizing amid the most excruciating tortures, which rose from a gibbet, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom!” And remember the answer of the Saviour to that dying malefactor, “This day thou shalt be with me in paradise!”
Only let us be sincere in. pronouncing this petition; let us be sincere, and let us not dare to ask God with our lips to come and assume in our hearts the place of idols which we still secretly cherish! Let us fear to say to God, “ Thy kingdom come!” so long as we feel a secret apprehension lest our prayer should be heard so long as we are willing to concede to the world, sin, and our own egotism, the dominion over us.
Let us not seek to combine the service of two masters; it is impossible. God will never consent to share a throne with idols; to pretend to it would be to insult him! It would be to run the risk of raising up insuperable barriers to his work in us! It would be to wish to perpetuate in our souls trouble and anguish; on the one hand, conscience would claim us for the kingdom of God; on the other, the world, through our passions, and the fear of man, would claim us for the bondage of this earth and our life would be but a continual struggle. Let your own experience bear witness to this truth.
O that you might taste the happiness and peace of that soul which has broken all its chains, and to which the grace of God has given strength and courage to devote itself entirely, for ever, and without restriction, to its heavenly Father!
Then, penetrated with love to the Saviour, to his cause, and his glory, we could no longer restrict to ourselves the petition which we are considering, or selfishly enjoy the riches of his kingdom. Oh no! every time we approached the throne of grace to say. “ Thy kingdom come,” we would remember, with profound compassion, the multitudes who reject that kingdom and surrender themselves up to the slavery of the world and sin. Yes, this petition would become in us an aspiration of tender charity, for those among us who are living without God, for the multitudes who are rushing, with a headlong recklessness upon “ the broad road which leadeth to destruction.” Yea, this prayer, breathed forth from a Christian’s heart, includes the whole world in the comprehensive spirit of a charity like that of the Saviour, who died for all, and desires that his kingdom should be preached to all and come to all. Would we be Christians, animated with the spirit of our Master, if we could repeat this petition without experiencing- a feeling of grief and compassion for six hundred millions of heathen for whom Christ died, whom he intended to be partakers of his peace, and of his kingdom as well as ourselves, and who yet remain in ignorance of their high destiny, though to us has been committed the charge of making it known to them? immortal beings who still sit in the darkness of a degrading idolatry; beings who drink in like water the deadly poison of sin, and still groan under the slavery of corruption? Again, I ask, would we be Christians if we had not a thought, a prayer, an aspiration to offer to God for these immortal souls, when we say to him, “ Thy kingdom come?” No, no, my brethren! This would be asking of God that for which we have no desire, that which inspires us with no interest, that for which we are unwilling to make the least sacrifice; it would be an act of solemn mockery!
Here experience speaks louder than the nature of things. It cannot be denied that the commencement of the present century has been marked (thanks be to God) by a powerful religious revival. The Protestant Churches, as we have already said, have, to a considerable extent, awoke out of the sleep of death into which they had sunk under the sceptical influence of the eighteenth century. And what was the first symptom of life which they exhibited? My brethren, these Churches, as soon as they became acquainted once more with the kingdom of the Saviour, as soon as they had learned to pray with faith and with love,; ’ Thy kingdom come,” that they might not, by their conduct, give the lie to their prayers, rose up as one man, in England, in America, in France, in Switzerland, in Holland, and in Germany, to send the Word of eternal life, its consolations, and its blessings, to those who were without them. And such an abundant blessing did God pour out upon these efforts, that never since the time of the apostles has the Gospel had such free course in the world, never has God so visibly answered the cry of his Church, “ Thy kingdom come /” But, my brethren, while this extensive movement, which in so many places has changed the aspect of the world, has been taking place; while the heathen have been outstripping us in the ways of the kingdom of heaven, what part have we taken in this work, as a Church and as individuals? Ah! if we have felt but a cold and passive indifference for such noble labors, such generous sacrifices, and for a cause so holy as that of our blessed Saviour himself; if we have not even condescended to take (hem into consideration,! ask you. in the presence of God, how shall we dare to appear before him, and solemnly to say to him in our public worship, as well as in. the secret of our hearts, “Thy kingdom come!” It is coming, the Lord might answer us.; my kingdom is coming, and ye despise it!
It is coming, it is come, it is around you, it presses you on every side, it is snatching souls from ruin before your very eyes and in the world at large, and yet you do not deign to regard it!
Hypocrites! cease to ask of me with your lips what you desire not in your hearts!
Let us return to ourselves, dear hearers, and let us conclude with a solemn admonition, which we would address affectionately and at the same time with intense anxiety to those among you who may perhaps still be paralyzed by indifference, led captive by sin, and deadened by unbelief. The eternal kingdom of God and of his Christ is coming; it is coming with power! Already the dawn of that day is appearing, when you shall see with your own eyes the accomplish’ ment of that word of the Lord: “God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” You also then shall bow the knee before him; and if it be not with the adoration which his infinite love inspires, alas! it shall be with the terror with which the prospect of eternal judgment shall fill you. Do you know, then, what you are doing when you present yourselves in this house of God with his people, and solemnly say, “ Thy kingdom come /” This petition means, as far as you are concerned (I say it with trembling), hasten the day of eternal justice, the day of my ruin and perdition. Carry away with you this thought, it ought, to be enough to convert and save your souls, it ought (o be sufficiently powerful to teach you, from this day, to pray in the true sense of the words, “ Thy kingdom come!:> Lord! let thy kingdom come to those souls! let it come to us all! Amen.