wars, and revolutions of kingdoms, the penal execution of judgment by him whose "throne is in the heavens and whose kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. ciii, 19). According to Ezek. xxviii, 21-24, Jehovah executes his judgment against Sidon when he sends pestilence and blood in her streets; and he speaks in xiv, 21, of "the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beasts, and the pestilence" as his "four sore judgments upon Jerusalem," that is, his modes of executing judgment. In harmony with these conceptions of divine judgment we observe in other scriptures how the notable punishments of men and cities and peoples are put forward as so many examples of God's judgments in the earth. The deluge was a world-judgment on mankind because of excessive wickedness. Joseph's brethren felt in their trouble and confusion that they suffered a righteous judgment of God (Gen. xlii, 21, 28). The plagues of Egypt were so many judgments of Jehovah upon that idolatrous land and people (Exod. vi, 6; vii, 4; xii, 12; Num. xxxiii, 4). The disruption of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the bitter exile that followed were similar examples of the execution of divine judgment, and the whole series of prophetic oracles against the heathen nations, recorded in Isa.xiii-xxiii; Jer. xlvi-li; Ezek. xxv-xxxii, and Amos i-ii, inculcate the same doctrine that the Most High is both ruler and judge among the nations. (3) Apocalyptic Day of Jehovah. The apocalyptic portions of the Old Testament portray Jehovah as the heavenly King who sits upon his throne of judgment, and assembles nations and kingdoms of men before him that he may execute upon them the decisions of his righteous will. Notable examples in illustration of this may be read in Zeph. iii, 8-20; Joel iii, 11-21; Ezek. xxxviii-xxxix; Isa. xxiv-xxvii, and xxxiv-xxxv. Such visitations of divine judgment are called "the day of Jehovah," "the great and notable day of Jehovah," and "the day of his anger.' They are in each case a day of judgment, and this prophetic origin and usage of that phrase must not be ignored. The poetic form and spirit in which these ideas of the day of judgment are set forth may be seen in the following passages:

Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is near,

And as a destruction from Shadday shall it come. Isa. xiii, 6.

Blow ye a trumpet in Zion,

And sound an alarm in my holy mountain;

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;

For the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is near;

A day of darkness and of gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness. Joel ii, 1, 2.

1 See Isa. ii, 12; xiii, 6, 13; Jer. xlvi, 10; Ezek. xiii, 5; xxx, 3; Joel i, 15; ü, 1; iii, 14; Amos v, 18, 20; Obad. 15; Zeph. i, 7, 18; Zech. xiv, 1; Mal. iv, 1, 5.

The reader should observe that this last-cited passage has reference to a great plague of locusts that had just spread desolation through the land, and the prophet makes use of the impressive imagery to depict the invasion of a still more hostile and destructive army from the north. That desolating invasion is conceived as a great and terrible day of Jehovah. Similar portrayals of the coming and the judgments of Jehovah are written in Isa. xiii, 9-19; xix, 1-4; xxxiv, 1-5; Mic. i, 1-5.' The unmistakable doctrine of all these scriptures is that the eternal God is Ruler and Judge of the world. The overthrow of mighty cities, like Nineveh and Babylon and Tyre, are so many signal examples of his "executing judgment in the earth," and the prophets call such a national catastrophe a "day of Jehovah."

(4) Messianic Prophecies of the Kingdom. The Messianic prophecies which speak of the coming of Christ as a king throw further light on the doctrine of the kingdom of God. One of the ancient promises to Israel was that they should be more than any other people the peculiar treasure of Jehovah, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod. xix, 5, 6). From the time of David onward the highest ideal of the Anointed One of Jehovah was that of a righteous and powerful king in Israel. Nathan gave David the prophetic assurance that his house and throne should be established forever (2 Sam. vii, 12-16), and this word of the prophet was of the nature of an eternal covenant of assured mercies (comp. 2 Sam. xxiii, 5; Isa. lv, 3). This idea finds expression in Psa. lxxxix, 4, 29, 36, 37. The name of David became the synonym of an ideal king and shepherd of the people (Hos. iii, 5; Jer. xxx, 9; Ezek. xxxiv, 23; xxxvii, 24). In Jer. xxiii, 5, 6, we read this specific oracle: "Behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days shall Judah be saved and Israel dwell securely; and this is his name which he shall be called, Jehovah our righteousness" (comp. xxxiii, 15, 16). In Isa. ix, 6, 7, the Child of the wonderful name is to sit "upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it in judgment and in righteousness forever." The same Anointed One is represented in Isa. xi, 1-10, as a shoot out of the stump of Jesse, endued with spiritual gifts, girt about with righteousness, smiting the earth with the rod of his mouth, and filling it full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. Micah also foretells a ruler in Israel who is to come from Bethlehem of

On these and other apocalyptic descriptions of "the day of Jehovah," see also Biblical Apocalyptics, pp. 90-180.

Judah, and be great unto the ends of the earth (v, 2-4). In the second psalm we read a dramatic representation of Jehovah establishing his Son as king upon his holy Mount Zion, and promising him the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. The same Messianic ruler may also be recognized in the righteous king whose glorious reign is celebrated in Psa. lxxii, and whose name and glory are identified with those of Jehovah. The conquering hero of Psa. cx, to whom Jehovah says, "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool," unites in himself the threefold office of king and priest and judge. In Dan. vii, 9-14, the Most High is represented as an ancient judge and ruler, seated upon his glorious throne in the heavens and surrounded with myriads of ministering angels. One like a son of man approaches him and receives at his hand the everlasting dominion of the world, and in verse 27 it is written that "the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." Thus this "Son of man" and the saints of God live and reign together.

(5) The Messiah an Associate with the Most High. In all these and in other Messianic scriptures we observe that the Anointed of Jehovah is in some way an associate of the Most High. He bears the responsibility of executing judgment in the earth. But it is important to note that, in the loftiest elevation and glory of his reign, he possesses no wisdom or power apart from Jehovah. As we proceed, therefore, to a study of the New Testament doctrine of the kingdom of Christ and of God, let us keep in mind the following: (1) No prophecy of the reign of the Messianic King contemplates or suggests an abdication of the God of heaven from his throne or from his government of the world. However great and glorious the kingdom of the Messiah, it will be as true after his coming as before that "the kingdom belongs to Jehovah, and he is Ruler over the nations." (2) The transition from one period and dispensation to another involves no physical changes in the earth or heavens, or in the constitution of man upon the earth. But the advent of the Messiah was conceived as introducing a new era in the history of the people of God, and was destined to introduce new excellencies of religious life and worship. God, the eternal Ruler, however, abides forever the same, immanent in all the movements of the world. (3) The kingdom of the Messiah is not a dominion different from that of Jehovah, but it contemplates the introduction of new agencies and new enlightenment for the higher development of mankind. The outcome of the new dispensation is conceived as the creation of new heavens and a new earth (Isa. li, 16; lxv, 17; lxvi, 22). But Jehovah and his

Anointed will be united together in the dominion and they shall reign upon one throne.

3. Views of the Kingdom Current among the Jews. In passing on to a study of the kingdom of God as it is set forth in the New Testament we inquire, first of all, after the ideas of the Messiah and of his rule that were current among the Jewish people at the time when Jesus was born. We find in our gospels a very frequent use of the phrase kingdom of God, and kingdom of heaven. John the Baptist began his ministry by declaring, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and Jesus himself soon after followed with the same proclamation. No explanation of the phrase is given in connection with the records of its earliest publication by John or by Jesus. We naturally suppose that the words would be popularly understood as an announcement of the reign of the Messiah as foretold by the Hebrew prophets and expected by the Jewish people. But the Messianic ideal was not the same with all the people. Some enthusiasts were looking for a warlike chieftain, endowed with the gift of national leadership and able to throw off the Roman yoke and restore the political power of the Jewish nation to some such splendor as it held in the days of David and Solomon. Others seem to have entertained a more spiritual view, and like Simeon, and Anna, and Zacharias, connected with the hope of the redemption of Jerusalem thoughts of the confirmation of ancient covenants and promises, the remission of sins, unspeakable peace and consolation, and a life of holiness (comp. Luke i, 67-79; ii, 25-38). Between these two extremes there was a more prevalent belief that Israel was the elect people of Jehovah, destined to become a theocratic kingdom and to realize the glorious hopes portrayed in the writings of the prophets. From Matt. xi, 1-10, and its parallel in Luke vii, 19-28, we infer that John the Baptist shared largely in these current expectations of his time, and that he was disappointed in the failure of Jesus to fulfill what he regarded as the Messianic hope of Israel. Nevertheless, the various records of his own preaching accord with a high spiritual conception. He called upon the people to repent, and his baptism is called the "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." He admonished his Jewish countrymen not to imagine that mere descent from Abraham would avail them before God, for every tree, whether sprung from Jewish or heathen soil, which does not bring forth good fruit must be cut down and cast into the fire. He advised the sharing of one's goods with those who are in need, and he spoke against extortion, violence, and insubordination. In all his references to the Messiah who was about to come he made it clear that he himself was only a forerunner, a voice in the wil

derness to prepare his way. The coming One was to baptize with the Holy Spirit, purge the true from the false, gather the wheat into his garner and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire (Mark i, 2-8; Matt. iii, 7-12; Luke iii, 3-17).

4. The Doctrine of Jesus. For a true understanding of the nature of the kingdom of God and of Christ, we may seek our first and fullest information in the teachings of our Lord himself. In teaching the disciples how to pray Jesus gave the following as one of the leading petitions:

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done

As in heaven, so on earth.

The last clause may be understood as qualifying the coming of the kingdom as well as the doing of the will of "our Father in the heavens." It serves also the purpose of defining the preceding clause, and indicates, accordingly, that the coming of the kingdom is to result in the accomplishment of God's will upon earth as it is done in heaven. This doing the will of our heavenly Father must therefore be a fact of fundamental importance in guiding us to the true idea of the kingdom of heaven. It assumes in its very terms a moral and spiritual relationship and suggests the idea of a moral order. As the word kingdom implies an organized community of individuals having a common nature and life, the will of God also implies in those who do it a conformity to God in spiritual nature and action. The performance of all that the will of God requires in moral beings may vary in degrees of observance in heaven and in earth: we naturally predicate of heavenly things a measure of perfection above that of earthly things. But the members of the kingdom of God, whether in heaven or on earth, have this in common, that they all, according to knowledge and ability, do the will of the heavenly Father.

(1) A Kingdom of Heaven. The expression kingdom of heaven (ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, the kingdom of the heavens) is peculiar to the gospel of Matthew, being found elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2 Tim. iv, 18, where the phrase, his heavenly kingdom, is not identical but virtually equivalent. There is no good reason to doubt that our Lord made repeated use of the several expressions kingdom of heaven, heavenly kingdom, and kingdom of God, and we need not seek to find a significance in one of these phrases that is not really in the others. We simply note the fact that the kingdom of the heavens is peculiar to Matthew, the expression occurring therein about thirty times. The words suggest that the kingdom is of heavenly origin and nature. As the Christ