The kingdom must be found within you, and begin there. This was just the truth they needed to hear. But, as His subsequent remarks clearly show, it was only a very partial answer to their inquiry, and did not really meet the point. It was wisely adapted to these Pharisees-as much as they could digest-more, in fact, than they could receive. And to show that He had not exhausted the subject, He turned immediately, "and said unto the disciples [who were in a different state of mind, and to whom other instruction was adapted for their encouragement], The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man [that is, of His kingdom and glory; for they were now beholding the days of His humiliation and sorrow], and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here! or, See there! go not after them, nor follow them. For, as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation." Did Jesus, then, tell the Pharisees that the kingdom of heaven would not come to them by observation; but would be found, if found at all, within them? So likewise did He as emphatically tell the disciples, for their comfort and instruction, under their sore disappointment in not witnessing the promised day of hope and desire, that the kingdom would come with observation, so that they need not run hither and thither to look for it, for it would be as apparent as the flash of lightning illumining the whole heavens-that, because of trial and sore persecution, they would long for the blessed day of Christ, but would be disappointed for a season. Nevertheless, it should come. "But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation." Yes, first, before the kingdom shall come. Christ is still suffering many things, and rejected

of that generation. The people of God are still longing to see one of the days of the Son of man, and have not seen it. Their hearts have almost fainted at the long delay, while the proud and scornful foe insultingly asks, "Where is the promise of his coming?" Thus does Christ, in answering the question put by the Pharisees, clearly unfold both aspects of the subject, telling the unbelieving class where alone they must look for and find the kingdom-that is, within them-while He comforts the disciples by the assurance that, though disappointed for a season, their grandest hopes should all be realized, and they shall behold the day, and that with observation.

In the following emphatic declarations, Christ carefully distinguishes between His different missions, and marks the character of each: Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me in the REGENERATION, when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; Matt. xxix. 28. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; Luke xxii. 28. Here Christ speaks of His first mission as the time of His "temptations," and refers to a future period as the "regeneration," the time of restitution of all things, when the Son of man should sit upon the throne of His glory, and His disciples should have their reward, sitting down with Him "in his kingdom."

"Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain." It lies buried through the snows of winter. Yet still his faith

and hope fail not. "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh;" James v. 7, 8.

Before closing this discussion, it may be necessary to notice one passage which seems to conflict with the view here taken, and which may require explanation. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom; Matt. xvi. 28. If the ordinary view of this subject is correct, which makes the kingdom of Christ to commence with His first advent, then it were not necessary to assert that there were "some standing there which should not taste of death" until they witnessed the same, because all were witnesses to the fact at that moment. It was then already revealed to the nation. Their eyes had looked upon the king-the Lord of hosts. They had heard His words of salvation, and seen His mighty deeds. The fact, too, should so have been stated, and would have been if the view commonly entertained of this matter had been in the mind of Jesus. He could not have avoided it.

What Christ had reference to in the above statement, was the revelation of His glory in the transfiguration scene, which followed so soon after-which the three evangelists are careful to narrate in the immediate connection-and which was given for the purpose of strengthening the faith of the disciples under the overwhelming facts which Jesus had just communicated to them, respecting His death and rejection by His nation. They were in danger of being overborne by the strange and, for the present, incomprehensible facts of such deep humiliation and apparent failure. To encourage, therefore, their desponding hearts (for this was the first time that He had broached the subject of His sufferings), Jesus took three of them up into the mount and unveiled to

them His glory, thus proving to them, notwithstanding His present humiliation and approaching death, that they should, at the appointed hour, behold Him revealed in His kingdom, beyond all their expectations. Nor was there an event in the history of Jesus better calculated to demonstrate to the minds of the perplexed disciples, that their Master was now in a state of strange humiliation, contradictory to all His character, and from which they should by-and-by see the veil lifted. The Apostle Peter, in referring to this very scene, thus speaks concerning it: For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount; 2 Peter i. 16. Peter then declares that he had already been an eye-witness of the majesty and power with which Christ would appear, when He should come the second time in His kingdom, for of this He was speaking; and that they had followed no cunningly devised fables in preaching this doctrine concerning Jesusthat He was to rule the world in righteousness. Christ, then, had no reference to the existing gospel dispensation, when He spake of some who should not taste of death until they saw the Son of man coming in His kingdom.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

HARMONY OF THE MOSAIC AND CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS.

We have now reached a point in the history of redemption where we may pause to consider the harmony of the system, and the relations of the Mcsaic and the Christian economies. Those relations, to the minds of many, are not clearly defined; neither do they understand where the line is to be drawn between the temporary and the permanent in that former dispensation. Some would sweep it all away, asserting that it has been entirely abolished, and that the Christian is a new system, embodying new laws and principles. Others, again, find it difficult to draw the line between that which is abolished and that which still remains. Can the principle which settles this be well and clearly defined?

Consider, then, first the essential unity of the Mosaic and Christian systems.

There is a Judaism which is in antagonism to the Gospel, and which made deadly war upon it, as there is a Christianity, so-called, which denies every doctrine of the New Testament, and rejects its whole salvation. The very Jewish rulers were the men who crucified the Lord of life. But they did not represent nor understand their own system. They were not the true descendants of the great founders of the nation, Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets; but apostates from the faith, holding on to the names of the men and the systems whose principles they rejected, as apostates always do. The Pharisees claimed to be the children of Abraham, and to sit on Moses' seat, although they had become the children of the devil. While, therefore, there is a false Judaism