cross, and the all-but-fatal discouragement which, as we know, fell on his own nearest and dearest disciples when he was so taken from them by a calamity which they could neither foresee nor understand. It was, in fact, the forecast of that dark shadow that now suggested this meditative inquiry, spoken, according to the narrative, immediately after the parable of the unjust judge, moved to grant the poor widow's prayer by her very importunity. Would there, indeed, be faith enough in the world to bring about the great results that at other times were so clearly foreseen? faith enough to receive, and rightly to interpret, the lesson of the cross? faith enough to 'cry day and night' unto a long-suffering God, and by the sheer importunity of prayer to bring the reign of justice, and righteousness, and peace out of the confusion of violence, and crime, and wrong-doing which was immediately impending? Such is the human aspect of

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this dark saying. Taken in connection with the parable that precedes it, and with all that our Lord has set forth for our encouragement as citizens of his kingdom, it may suggest to us also - after centuries of Christianity-the need for constant and, as it were, importunate prayer; the very prayer which is embodied in three sublime words by our Lord himself 'Thy kingdom come.' We cannot affordany one of us-to desist from praying for this: for the kingdom of God, though it will surely come, cannot come except by the perpetual asking. We must needs, every one of us, 'cry night and day' unto God; not because he is unwilling to grant our requests, but because, in the very nature of them, they can only be granted through the free action of the human spirit. The kingdom of heaven must come, if it is to come at all, in the hearts of men. 'Thy kingdom come' is only possible, only conceivable, as the result of the next petition 'Thy

will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.'

The immediate object of the present address, however, is not to multiply remarks upon the difficulties and obstacles here anticipated by our Lord to the finding of faith upon the earth; but rather to inquire what is the nature of this great moral and spiritual principle, this immense leverage, as it were, the introduction of which into the world is to bring about, in God's good time, the changes that may be properly described as the coming of the kingdom of heaven. It is clearly to be inferred, from all that is said upon the subject here and elsewhere, that the change is not to be violent or revolutionary. The faith which is to save the world must begin in the heart, and must work from within outwards. Our Lord is no reformer after the more modern fashion, trusting to abrupt alterations in the mechanism and structure of society to bring about the abolition of misery

and sin. Again and again he repudiates such a character, even when his followers wish to force it upon him; he refuses to be a 'judge and a divider' according to the laws of this world. All through the Sermon on the Mount, and elsewhere, he leaves the existing organisation of society severely alone, and reaches back to a principle that underlies, and at the same time anticipates, all the laws and customs with which he has to deal, even the Decalogue itself. 'Ye have heard that it hath been said' (on the one hand), 'but I say unto you' (on the other), marks everywhere in that great sermon the distinction between a law (mostly of prohibition) imposed from without; and a great spiritual influence, or principle, or motive which, if it be taken as a guide in even one solitary heart, will surely bring about the kingdom of heaven there; and by extension to others by the moral contagion, as it were, of spirit acting on spirit, will bring about the kingdom

of heaven on the earth, just as the leaven, hid in three measures of meal, works silently and unseen, until the whole is leavened.

This, then, is our Lord Jesus Christ's way, and his only way, to cure the evils of our mortal state; whether the evils of the individual soul, or of society at large. Can we then rightly apprehend, from this point of view-this particular quality in the teaching of Jesus-what was the nature of the 'Faith' which he requires of each and all of us; the supreme importance and necessity of which he seems in the text to declare; so much so that if the Son of Man should not, at his coming, find this faith in the earth, his mission would be a failure, and even the great sacrifice of the cross would have been made in vain? Surely we may say that the very anxiety and misgiving expressed in the question entitle us to assume that its importance in our Lord's mind was nothing less than this.