December 2

"Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world."—John 18:36.

OTHER skies bend over it. Other lights gleam about its gates and streets. Other laws govern it. Other potencies secure its prosperity and befriend its citizens.

Its Author is God. No human strength founded it, and none maintains it. No human hostility can overthrow it. The powers that fight for its welfare are unseen, divine, almighty. It cometh from afar. The virtue and the wisdom and the purity of God are in it.

Its Nature is spiritual. Its home and seat are in the soul. It rules conscience, mind, heart, will. Not outward but inward this kingdom is. The wealth and victory of the world are of no account to it. But me, my life, myself: these are the treasures for which it yearns—these the trophies which it covets.

Its Weapon is love. It cannot be propagated by war. It does not rely on the influence of the intellect, on the rhythm of poetry, on the magic and glamour of eloquence. It gains its end by the love of Christ, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. It overcomes me by its gentleness. It breaks and melts and enthrals me by its exceeding grace.

And its Scope is universal and everlasting. There are no geographical limits which shut it in; it embraces all kindreds. There are no time barriers which stay its progress; it promises me and everyone who enters it an eternity of growth, of holiness, of joy.

There is no kingdom to equal this. Wherefore, as the boy martyr cried, "Welcome God and Father! Welcome sweet Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant! Welcome blessed Spirit of grace! Welcome glory! Welcome eternal life!"