It is a refuge from such
possible horrors, not an aggravation of them, which this prayer teaches
us when it teaches us to pray for a kingdom yet to come, from which men
have departed, and in departing have worked for themselves all this woe
and ruin.

II. The kingdom for the coming of which we pray is established already.

Christ has established it. His name is King of kings and Lord of lords.
He is Prince of all the kings of the earth. He is crowned with glory and
honour. By Him, that is to say, it becomes possible for men to serve God
with the energies of their will, and by Him it becomes possible for men
to take the pardon which God gives in Him. He founds the kingdom, and He
exercises the dominion. On an eternal relation and on an historical fact
that dominion of His is grounded,--on an eternal relation inasmuch as
He, the everlasting Word of God, has from the beginning been the Lord
and King of the world; on an historical fact inasmuch as that eternal
Word has been manifested on earth, and tasted death for every man.
Christ founds the kingdom, for He by His Incarnation and Sacrifice sets
forth the weightiest motives for service; He opens the path to return;
He brings God's forgiveness to men, and so shall rule over them for
ever--a King and Priest upon His throne: the Prince of all the kings of
the earth, both because He has from everlasting been the anointed King,
and because in time He has been, and will for ever be, the faithful and
true witness, and the first begotten from the dead. The foundation is
thus laid, the dominion established, the kingdom is come; but we are to
pray for its perfecting as the one hope of the world.

Then let us remember that we are thus guarded from the error that is
always rife, of looking for some new thing as the one deliverance for
earth. It is sad to mark how undying that tendency is. Age after age,
men have had the heartache of seeing hopes blasted, and fair schemes for
the regeneration of the world knocked to pieces about the ears of their
projectors, and yet they hope on. Every period, as every man, has its
times of credulity, its firm conviction that it has found the one thing
needful, and the shout of Eureka goes ever up. Alas, alas! time after
time the old experience is repeated, and the gratulations die down into
gloomy silence. Yet men hope on. What a strange testimony at once of the
futility of all the past attempts, and of the indestructible conviction
that men have o