118 BEBTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



been variously explained. By some they are 

 supposed to allude to that period, when the 

 Messiah will again dwell on the earth, and 

 when wickedness and misery shall finally cease. 

 Others apply them to the universal diffusion of 

 the gospel ; when all nations will become the 

 people of Christ 5 and when his kingdom may 

 therefore be truly said to extend over the whole 

 world. 



" But besides these general, and I fear, distant 

 applications of the expression, there is another, 

 and a simpler one, which more immediately di- 

 rects itself to our present feelings and actions : 

 when the influence of Christ has overcome all 

 our sordid and selfish motives ; when his humi- 

 lity is the example we endeavour to follow ; when 

 our passions are controlled by the purity of his 

 precepts ; when our actions are subjected to the 

 dominion of his will ; in short, when our love, 

 gratitude, and obedience to him, form the go- 

 verning principle of our lives : then, indeed, it 

 may be literally said, that his reign has been es- 

 tablished in our hearts, and that his kingdom has 

 come. 



" We may certainly interpret these words as 

 relating either to the future kingdom of the 

 Messiah on earth, or to the progress of Chris- 

 tian knowledge in humanising the savage and 

 enlightening the heathen ; but we are scarcely 

 authorised to suppose that our prayers can be of 



