172 
of God exists wherever we find men (from Abel downwards) 
disposed to walk in his ways ; but the existence of such a 
kingdom cannot possibly be placed further back than the fall 
of man, and the first promise of a Kedeemer ; nor can this 
era be looked upon as much more ancient than that ascribed 
to these events in our Bibles. 
Philosophy asks us to look back over a dreary waste of 
man J s existence for hundreds of thousands of years, during 
which (if a created being) he must have been responsible to 
his Creator, and condemned for his misdeeds without hope or 
possibility of pardon or recovery. Who can believe that an 
Almighty Being could suffer such a portent to exist ? If not 
Almighty, but limited by laws which he cannot break, then 
we fall back into the conception of a mere thundering 
Jupiter; full of bombast, but in the end subject himself to 
Pate ! Is this better than Atheism ? It is impossible to 
frame any accordance between those who have banished an 
Almighty God from their thoughts and their councils, and 
those on the other hand who look upon all things as minister- 
ing to his glory. 
All such believers have in every age confided in a living 
Godj “ The alone Powerful One ” (6 ycucapioQ Kcii fiovog Svvdarrjc) 
who is not dependent for happiness on any source ex- 
ternal to himself — who is, in fact, blessedness itself ( avro - 
fiaK.api6-r\Q, Chrysostom), independent of all laws (else 
not Almighty), capable of being moved to love or hate by 
human actions, and answering prayer by altering in their 
favour the ordinary course of events, or even the hearts and 
dispositions of men. Such an One has been the object of 
trust from the beginning. I regard the philosophers who 
would construct for us a universe without God, and an 
immeasurable past of man 5 s history without law, or faith, 
or hope, as simply the advance guard of the army of 
Nihilists , and as bent on destroying everything which makes 
life valuable ; in fact, as enemies of the whole human race. 
Take away the kingdom of heaven from amongst men, — 
abolish all notion of “ the Church 33 as that which responds to 
God's revelation of himself, — you take away all the colouring, 
all the beauty, all the poetry out of this visible scene. You 
leave nothing but a ghastly skeleton ; in the language of the 
alchemists, the Sjgiritus has vanished the Phlegma alone 
remains. 
I maintain that the world cannot be in any measure under- 
stood either in its past or present condition, if we exclude the 
spiritual, the religious aspect. I cannot surrender my 
convictions to those who think otherwise. If we have to do 
