(ver. 16). In the later Isaiah (chap. Ix. onwards), and in a very remarkable passage in Jeremiah (xxxi. 31 seq.), there are glimpses of a 'new covenant' founded upon a more universal knowledge of Jehovah; of a wider horizon, moreover, in which all the nations should flow into Zion, bringing the wealth of the whole known

world as a willing tribute.

'The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel' (Isa. lx. 14). And this is to be a peaceful revolution. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, desolation nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise' (ver. 18). 'Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever' (ver. 21). In a still later chapter (lx. 17) there is the glorious vision

of 'new heavens and a new earth'; a new Jerusalem also, created as a rejoicing and her people a joy.' Finally (chap. lxvi. 18 ff.) there is to be the gathering-in of 'all nations and tongues,' even 'to the isles afar off, that have not heard my name, neither seen my glory.' This is the highest point that is reached in the Old Testament as to the spiritual reign of the one God; the very culmination of the Messianic hope.

5. At the opening of the New Testament record, we find John the Baptist proclaiming in the wilderness of Judæa, 'Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matt. iii. 2); a form of words which is exactly followed up by Jesus of Nazareth himself, in the very first stage of his ministry in Galilee: From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matt. iv. 17); or, as we have it in Mark (i. 15), 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;

repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Whatever may have been the precise significance of this expression in the ears of an average Jew of that time, there can be little doubt that it was fraught with a reference to the undying hope of Israel-the speedy accomplishment of that continuous stream of prophecy which, from David on to Malachi, had seemed to beckon onwards towards a final and great deliverance to a Messiah-King who was to make all things new, to redeem the chosen people from their subjection, and to establish, once for all, a visible and universal reign of Jehovah on the earth. But the roll of prophecy had been closed, at this time, for wellnigh four hundred years; and no such Messiah-King had appeared. On the contrary, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and now Roman conquerors had successively held the empire of the world; and the people of God, although since the Babylonian captivity they had never been, as a nation,

in

exiled, had been dwelling in their own land on sufferance, if not in complete subjection to the unhallowed power of kings who not only claimed temporal authority over them, but had even done despite to their most sacred laws, and on more than one occasion had plundered and desecrated the Temple itself. At this time, under the Roman power, they were living, probably, greater peace and security than for many ages before; for it was the policy of the Roman state to protect foreign religions; and the Herodian kings, though not of the lineage of David, and withal as unlike as possible to the ideal Messiah-King, were, up to a certain point, a pledge to the Jewish nation of the intention of Rome to respect her national institutions. But the Roman tax-gatherer, the Roman law, and ultimately the Roman despotism, ruled everywhere; the people submitted grudgingly, and with hatred and contempt in their inmost heart; the Messianic

hope had never died out; on the contrary, all the evidence goes to show that it was never so much alive as now.

Into this state of silent, but probably intense expectancy, came the proclamation of John, that the kingdom of God (or of heaven) was indeed nigh at hand. The impression produced produced must have been profound and widespread; for it is recorded, both by Matthew and Mark, that all Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and all the region about Jordan, went to him for baptism; and it is added in St. Luke's gospel that 'the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not (chap. iii. 15).

6. In the address on 'faith' which preceded this one, it has been already remarked that in taking up the proclamation of the kingdom of heaven by John the Baptist, our Lord gave to the current expression, 'kingdom of God, or kingdom of