There is now no necessity to dwell upon the duty of obedience to the secular authority of our earthly Sovereign: for all acknowledge that.

Let me only ask you, brethren, to consider now the duty of obedience to that Spiritual Authority which CHRIST has given to the Rulers of His Kingdom. For this is a duty which is not acknowledged by many in our day.

Could our LORD have set up a Kingdom in the world, without appointing certain rulers of it and giving to them certain spiritual powers? Has He not expressly appointed this Kingdom to His Apostles and their successors, always, even to the end of the world? And has not our LORD spoken, in the most strong way possible, of our duty to obey the authority of His Church, saying; "If any man hear not the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen." (S. Matth. xviii. 17.)

Very great and important therefore must be the duty of obedience to the spiritual authority of the rulers of the Church. For our LORD cannot forget His own institutions. He cannot act contrary to His own promises. He has solemnly said that what the rulers of the Church do for Him upon earth, according to His will, He Himself will confirm in Heaven above.

This then of necessity forms one part of the present trying of our faith: namely, whether

we will believe in the presence of this Kingdom of Heaven amongst us, and obey its spiritual authority.

When CHRIST Himself was visibly present amongst those people in Judæa, it was a trying of them, whether they would believe in Him, or not. So the presence of His Kingdom amongst us now forms a part of our trial.

Many amongst us never discern this presence of the Kingdom of Heaven. They think only of the kingdom of England.

They believe in CHRIST: but they have no intelligent faith in the Kingdom of CHRIST. They think of Him, as of a King without a Kingdom! They think they have no other authority to obey than the secular authority of the temporal governor. They acknowledge no other king but Cæsar.

But consider, brethren, I beseech you, that "there is another King, one JESUS;" and that His Kingdom is amongst us; and that our obedience is due to the Spiritual Rulers of this Kingdom, by the express command of the King Himself; and that if there is any collision at any time between the rulers of this world and the rulers of the Kingdom of our LORD, we must obey the authority of His Kingdom rather than that of the other.

The Advent of the Son of GOD in the flesh

and the setting up of His New Kingdom amongst us creates for us of necessity a new sphere of responsibility.

It becomes one essential part of the trying of our faith, to acknowledge and to obey the authority of the Kingdom of CHRIST upon earth.

For the Church of CHRIST is a Divinely organised society, having in her the Power of Heaven; from which if any one be rightfully cut off, he has no hope of salvation, until he repents and is restored. The Church of CHRIST is Divinely organised, independently of the will of any earthly nation or kingdom, deriving her spiritual power from her Divine Head, not through any prince or government of this world, but through Peter the fisherman of Galilee.

In our own country, brethren, we have too long overlooked this vital truth. The State has almost absorbed the Church. The civil sword has too long hidden the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. The earthly glory of the Crown has too long eclipsed the heavenly glory of the Mitre. Even some of our Spiritual Rulers themselves have seemed content to rule by means of the secular power given them by Parliament, rather than by their own inherent spiritual authority. Our Church Synods have been silenced and chained by the secular go

vernment.

Now that our secular government is no longer of necessity even Christian, no faithful member of the Church can be ever satisfied with this state of things. For to yield the spiritual keys into the hands of the secular power, to let the princes of this world rule in the Kingdom of Heaven, this, surely, is to be unfaithful to Him Who is the King of the Kingdom; this, surely, is that horrible sin of spiritual harlotry which is so dreadfully condemned in the Word of Divine Revelation.

Awake then, brethren, I beseech you; awake to the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven. Act by faith in the Kingdom of the LORD JESUS, now existing amongst us. Obey its rulers, not because they happen to be members of Parliament, but because they have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; for the King of the Kingdom cannot make void His own ordinances. He cannot act contrary to His own promises.

It is as dangerous to us in our day to live in unbelief, as to the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven amongst us, as it was dangerous to the people of Judæa, in that day to live in unbelief, as to the presence of the King Himself.

The Advent of GOD in the flesh and the presence of His new Kingdom amongst us places us in a new sphere of being and of consequent responsibility.

SERMON VI.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

Second Sunday in Advent.

S. MATTH. XI. 11.

"VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, AMONG THEM THAT ARE BORN

OF WOMEN, THERE HATH NOT RISEN A GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST; NOTWITHSTANDING, HE THAT IS LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS GREATER THAN

HE."

THIS is one of those sayings of the Son of GOD which contain in them very startling revelations of Divine truth. It is a saying of Divine truth in which we are all individually concerned. It reaches to the very least of us. In it we may all learn to see our superior blessing, and at the same time our greater responsibility.

For if you rightly understand it, brethren, the LORD JESUS here tells you, even the least