worth of the
present life, and teaches that the world's goods are not in themselves
bad. He came as a living man into a dead world, and by inculcating a
living idea of God and proclaiming the divine Fatherhood gave a new
direction and inner elevation to the expectations of His age, showing the
true design of God's revelation and the real meaning of the prophetic
utterances of the past. To interpret the kingdom wholly from an
eschatological point of view would involve a failure to apprehend the
spiritual greatness of the personality with which we are dealing.[26]
(2) This view virtually makes Christ a false prophet. For, as a matter
of fact, the sudden and catastrophic coming of the kingdom as predicted
by the Hebrew apocalyptics did not take place. On the contrary the
kingdom of God came not as the Jews expected in a sudden descent from the
clouds, but in the slow and progressive domination of God over the souls
and social relationships of mankind. In view of the whole spirit of
Jesus, His conception of God, and His relation to human life, as well as
the attitude of St. Paul to the Parousia, it is critically unsound to
deny that Jesus believed in the presence of the kingdom in a real sense
during His lifetime.[27]

2. If this conception of the kingdom of God be correct we may now
proceed to regard it under three aspects, Present, Progressive, and
Future--as a _Gift_ immediately bestowed by Jesus, as a _Task_ to be
worked out by man in the history of the world, and as a _Hope_ to be
consummated by God in the future.

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(1) _The Kingdom as a Present Reality_.--After what has been already said
it will not be necessary to dwell upon this aspect. It might be
supported by direct sayings of our Lord.[28] But the whole tenor and
atmosphere of the Gospels, the uniqueness of Christ's personality, His
claim to heal disease and forgive sin, as well as the conditions of
entrance, imply clearly that in Jesus' own view the kingdom was an actual
fact inaugurated by Him and obtaining its meaning and power from His own
person and influence. Obviously He regarded Himself as the bearer of a
new message of life, and the originator of a new reign of righteousness
and love which was to have immediate application. Christ came to make
God real to men upon the earth, and to win their allegiance to Him at
once. No one can fail to recognise the lofty idealism of the Son of Man.
He carries with Him everywhere a vision of the per