278 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



earth falls under the cognisance of the Church only in so 

 far as it is, or is not, outwardly inconsistent with my 

 public profession and participation in the cultus of the 

 Church. But my whole life falls under the Law of God s 

 Kingdom, by which I am bound in every action to aim at 

 the advance of Christ s cause. In the discharge of this 

 calling I am not answerable to man, but directly to the 

 King who, by His providence, has given me a special 

 calling to a post in His Kingdom and a work to do therein. 

 The organisation of God s Kingdom is not then an outward 

 Church organisation, but a hidden organisation of God s 

 providence by which every man s calling in Christ is so 

 ordered that each, while doing his own work for Christ, 

 is doing a harmonious part of the great work that shall 

 yet fill the whole earth. So long as Christ Himself is in 

 heaven, the Kingdom that is leavening the earth is essenti 

 ally invisible save to the eye of faith. True, the outward 

 effects of Christianity are seen, but the system, the 

 harmonious organisation in which some have a higher, 

 some a lower place, is unrevealed till the day when the 

 fire shall try every man s work, and when, all being burnt 

 up that is not of Christ s Kingdom, the city of God shall 

 stand forth in its full proportions. 



And now let us ask how all this applies to the fulfil 

 ment of prophecy. We may, I think, safely maintain 

 three positions. 



(1) There is a continuity between the Old Testament 

 and the New Testament Kingdom of God. The earthly 

 fabric of the Old theocracy did not perish till its spiritual 

 forces had been implanted in the invisible Kingdom of 



Christ. 



(2) Hence, though we cannot say that the theocratic 

 prophecies have found a fulfilment in the Christian Church, 

 they have already found a fulfilment in Christ. 



(3) And yet the full historical fulfilment of the theo 

 cratic prophecies has not yet come. For the New Testa 

 ment no less than the Old looks to a future glory, to a 



