p. 738 | Thy Kingdom Come by Rev. Jesse S. Gilbert, A. M.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 47.

"Thy Kingdom Come."

By Rev. Jesse S. Gilbert, A. M.

So did our Lord teach his disciples to pray. This prayer implies that Christ has a kingdom. This kingdom is not a ghostly, shadowy, an indefinable something, but a real kingdom. It is not "of this world," that is (as the original signifies), it does not proceed from this world, has not its origin here, derives not its laws and authority from this world. But it will be upon this world. Otherwise how would the promise ever be fulfilled that "the meek shall inherit the earth"? If it is not to be established here, why pray for it to "come"? We might be taken up into it, but it would not in any sense "come" to us.

It is implied in this prayer that the kingdom has not yet come. If it has already come, why pray for its advent? If, as Paul tells us, a man does not hope for what he already has (Rom. 8: 24) he certainly does not pray for it. Mark the precise language employed: it is not, "thy kingdom come fully"—though this is the sense in which many say it—but it is, "thy kingdom come." Evidently it is not yet set up.

This prayer implies most emphatically that Christ's kingdom will come. We are not pouring forth idle petitions—beating the air with empty words. God's word is crowded with promises of the coming kingdom. In holy vision the prophets of the old dispensation saw it come. John, on the isle of Patmos, beheld its glories. It is more certain than the rising of to-morrow's sun.

"Thy kingdom come." This prayer has been lifted by the innocent tongue of childhood, and uttered in tremulous tones by the withered lips of age. It has been pronounced at the marriage altar, and beside the open grave. It has been chanted in sublime liturgies beneath the vaulted roofs of cathedrals "old in story," and has gone up to Heaven mingled with the ecstatic shouts of simple-hearted worshipers in the tented grove. It has sounded out in holy defiance from the summits of lofty hills, and has been breathed in holy whispers in the dens and caves of the earth. The church has been praying this petition for over eighteen centuries. God will answer it. Only the coldest skepticism can doubt this. Let us "keep on praying." The kingdom will come, and the King will come. There can be no kingdom without a king. The King came once, but in such lowly form that only a few recognized him. He went away to a "far country;" but before he went away, he said to his chosen ones, "I will come again."—Rev. Jesse S. Gilbert, A. M.