Future of Christ’s Kingdom. 
 
 REV. JOHN HALL, D.D. 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHRIST’S KINGDOM. 
 
 EP v MON 
 
 PREACHED FOR 
 
 The Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 OF THt 
 
 IJrfsbgtemn djntrdj, 
 
 MAY 3 d, 1868. 
 
 IN THE 
 
 5TH Avenue & 19TH Street Presbyterian Church 
 
 j^EW yo^K. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOHN HALL, D. D., 
 
 MINISTER OF SAID CHURCH. 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE BEQUEST OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 MISSION HOUSE, 23 CENTRE STREET. 
 
 1 868 . 
 
E. O. Jlnkins, Printer and Stereottter, 
 20 North William Street, N. T. < 
 
Cju Jfulurc of Christ’s Jlinghom. 
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 Isaiah, ii. 1, 5 . 
 
 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it 
 shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be es- 
 tablished in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all na- 
 tions shall flow unto it : And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up 
 to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us 
 of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and 
 the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall 
 rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears 
 into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more. 0 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 
 
 To the botanist even a hedge-row is full of interest. To a 
 geologist a barren crag is eloquent. To a zoologist any, even 
 the lowliest, forms of life are suggestive. And to a Bible-lov- 
 ing man all nature is full of sacred associations. The sun 
 above him may recall the “sun of righteousness the trees, 
 the saints of God, “ trees of righteousness, the planting of the 
 Lord ; ” the stars suggest the future of diligent Christian labor- 
 ers who shall shine for ever ; and the hills “ rock-ribbed and 
 ancient as the sun” may well remind him of the kingdom of 
 his Master “ the mountain of the Lord’s house,” to which is pro- 
 mised establishment “ upon the top of the mountains.” 
 
 From its vast size and solid character a mountain may well 
 stand for any great institution. It represents what is enduring, 
 lofty, and fixed. Such a representation is warranted by the 
 nature of things. “ David perceived ” says the sacred writer, 
 “ that the Lord had exalted his kingdom.” He might therefore 
 properly enough say, “ Thou didst make my mountain to stand 
 strong.” (Psalms xxx. 7.) The u mountains shaking with the 
 
4 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 swelling of the sea ” of Psalm xlvi. 3 are explained in verse 6, 
 after the fashion of Hebrew poetry, to be “kingdoms moved.” 
 Hence Babylon becomes in Jeremiah li. 25: “a destroying 
 mountain.” These Old Testament writers find the symbols of 
 which the New Testament writers make use ; and hence the fre- 
 quent use of mountains in this sense in the book of Revelation. 
 There are many such “mountains” in the world — old in- 
 stitutions, kingdoms, churches, idolatries, that have grown 
 with time and apparently acquired permanent stability. 
 TherMs one that boasts a divine origin — for the Church is not 
 a mere voluntary society — and with which the Lord’s honor is 
 especially connected. Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream a lit- 
 tle stone, cut out without hands, gradually expand into a great 
 mountain and fill the whole earth. (Dan. ii. 45.) That moun- 
 tain is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, set up on the broken 
 fragments of the four great empires and established in the time 
 of the last of them. The Lord’s temple was built upon Mount 
 Zion — which came to be called “ the holy mountain.” It 
 stands therefore with great propriety for Christ's kingdom, and 
 to represent the elevation of Christ’s kingdom above all human 
 institutions no language could be more apt or expressive than 
 this, “The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established 
 in the top of the mountains.” 
 
 A mountain is in itself an outstanding and prominent object 
 — a landmark in the world which easily arrests the eye and at- 
 tracts attention ; and by far the most prominent institution in 
 the world is Christ’s kingdom. It has done more to attract 
 notice, give character to men, and make history, than any 
 other agency in the world. 
 
 A mountain catches the clouds, arrests the vapors, and draws 
 them down in rain upon the earth. They fall and form the 
 springs in the hillsides — where great rivers take their rise and 
 whence they set out in their beneficent race ; and so the Church 
 of God attracts to itself divine influences which flow forth from 
 it and bless the nations. Enlightenment, liberty, civilization, 
 arc among the indirect blessings the world enjoys through the 
 kingdom of Christ. 
 
The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 Mountains resting on the earth, and piercing the sky with 
 their peaks, whose heads are lost amid the clouds, seem to 
 bind heaven and earth together ; and so the Church of God is 
 the link of connection between the earth and heaven. God 
 keeps up the world because his Church is in it. His people on 
 earth by their praises, prayers, and services bind the earth to 
 heaven. Mountains greatly affect the climate of any country, 
 sheltering, or chilling, as the case may be ; and the moral at- 
 mosphere of any land may be determined from the extent to 
 which the Church of Christ is in it. 
 
 Now it is said that this institution, described as a mountain, 
 shall not merely rise, but rise on the top of all other moun- 
 tains, that is, rival mountains — towering over them all — higher 
 than the highest of them. The nations shall be like broad 
 streams of flowing water making their way thereto — “all nations 
 shall flow unto it.” The flgure is mixed and bold, but suggestive. 
 Rivers, according to nature’s course, flow down from the hills. 
 But this process is something above and beyond nature. This 
 is by Divine and sovereign grace. No kingdom on natural and 
 common principles ever was founded as Christ’s was — in the 
 crucilixion of its sovereign. The whole history of its progress 
 is one of superiority to natural and common laws. That Gali- 
 lean fishermen should move the world, and that their cause 
 should triumph over Grecian philosophy and religion, and over 
 Roman arms, is not a thing that could have been foreseen or 
 predicted. As unlikely as that rivers should flow to the tops of 
 the hills, so unlikely was it that they should ever have gained 
 a place of commanding influence. 
 
 And the same thing is true of the turning of the soul to the 
 Lord. “ The carnal mind is enmity against God.” As likely as 
 the voluntary ascending of a stone, or the climbing of a hill by 
 a river, is the turning of the heart to the Lord by any act of 
 its own. “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not 
 of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” 
 
 And so when we are calculating how long it will require (at 
 the present rate of progress) for the world to be evangelized, 
 we are losing our time. We have no data on which to proceed. 
 
6 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 The thing shall be done, for the Lord has said it, and in such 
 ways as human foresight could never have anticipated or pro- 
 vided. How long it will require for the French to complete 
 their Suez Canal is a fair subject for calculation. The time may 
 be indicated with probable accuracy when at a given rate of 
 progress Mount Cenis will be tunneled through. These works 
 are being done by human forces, the power of which we can 
 fairly estimate. How long it will require for a man to dig 
 down and carry away a given hill may be easily calculated. 
 How long it requires an earthquake to do it is not for human 
 calculation. How long it will take to do any work of mere 
 human effort is easily reckoned, but with God what seems the 
 work of a thousand years can be compressed into a day, and 
 what is possible in a day can be spread over a thousand years. 
 
 I would fain have you clear and satisfied in your judgment as 
 to the correctness of the interpretation now given. There are but 
 two ways in which the words can be understood, namely, literal 
 or symbolical. Suppose we take them literally. Then the 
 prophet assures us that the inconsiderable eminence crowned by 
 the temple is to shoot up and over-top Alps and Himalayas ! and 
 this new and astounding freak of physical geography will touch 
 the consciences of men and attract them to the place for worship ! 
 This literal interpretation Edward Irving was “ far from slight- 
 ing,” for most respectable persons held it, but he did not 
 venture so far, rather thinking with the best Jewish Rabbis 
 that the elevation is moral, and refers to the honor and high 
 esteem in which men will hold the divine service. There is 
 no escape from the anomalies and incongruities in which such 
 a literalism would land us, but in the interpretation that 
 makes this and all such delineations symbolical. And so 
 we can see with what propriety the prophet Ezekiel (xvii. 
 22, 23,) represents the lowly Jesus as “a tender twig” (“the 
 rod of the stem of Jesse,” of Isaiah xi. 1.) planted “upon an 
 high mountain and eminent on the mountain of the height of 
 Israel,” and becoming a goodly cedar under which shall dwell 
 “ all fowl of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof 
 shall they dwell.” For if any rule of prophetic interpretation 
 
7 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 is well established and sure, it is, that predictions delivered in 
 one dispensation, and falling to be fulfilled in another, are to be 
 interpreted according to the genius and distinctive character of 
 the dispensation within which their fulfilment comes. The “ in- 
 cense and pure offering” of Malachi (i. 7.) to be rendered to 
 the Lord by the Gentiles from east to west, are not surely the 
 rites in which Ritualism copies Rome, but the sacrifices of 
 praise and service of the New Testament Church (Heb. xiii. 
 15, 16.) ‘‘with which God is well pleased.” 
 
 (2.) When shall this establishment take place ? At the time 
 when Isaiah issued this prediction the kingdom was limited to 
 the Holy Land. The future history of the Church was divided 
 by the Jewish prophets into two periods, one before the Mes- 
 siah’s coming, and one after. They never anticipated any ex- 
 tension of the Church beyond the boundaries of Judea until the 
 Messiah’s coming. But all the period after that they call “ the 
 last days.” They do not use this phrase in a particular but in 
 a general sense. The}' do not mean by it the closing years of 
 the world’s history — the last century or the last few centuries. 
 All the time subsequent to Christ’s coming is “ the last days.” 
 (Heb. i. 2.) Eighteen centuries of the last days have run their 
 round. We have seen the patriarchal dispensation, then the 
 Jewish, then the Christian, and if there be any other, prophecy 
 is silent on the point. “ Little children,” said John, (1 John 
 ii. 18.) “it is the last time,” 1800 years ago. There shall 
 never be another form' of God’s rule than that now introduced. 
 The little stone does not become silver or gold, or undergo any 
 change of texture or substance ; growth in size is the only al- 
 teration of which it is the subject. Our lot is in the last days. 
 How far they may run it is impossible for us to say. “The 
 times and the seasons God hath reserved in his own power 
 but sometime during this closing dispensation the kingdom of 
 the Saviour shall have prominence and pow'er above all the 
 kingdoms and institutions of earth, in fact u the kingdoms of this 
 world sh^Jl become the kingdoms of our Lord.” And, if men 
 would but consider, is there not something very awakening in 
 this view of things ? “ It is the last time.” Sinners out of 
 
8 
 
 Ihe Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 Christ ! there can be no greater facilities than we have now 
 for being saved. No better opportunities are to come. No 
 more light is to be furnished. No easier terms are to be pro- 
 pounded to you. God the Father dealt with our race in the day 
 when He created us. But men sinned. God the Son came in 
 fulfilment of gracious promise. “The world knew him not.” 
 He was crucified and slain. He ascended to his Father and 
 sent down the Holy Spirit. He now pleads with men, bears 
 witness to Christ, and deals with us for the carrying out of the 
 provisions of the covenant. This is the last form of Divine ap- 
 proach. There is no fourth person of the Godhead to deal 
 with our race. If we blaspheme and reject this Divine Spirit 
 who bears witness to Christ, the one only High Priest, “ there 
 remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,” and there awaits men no 
 new form of offered deliverance. 
 
 (3.) And what is the mode of enlargement ? It never occurred 
 to the Jews of our Lord’s time, that a church could grow up 
 independent of and outside Palestine and their own tribes. 
 “ Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach 
 the Gentiles ?” said they, half in wonder, half in scorn, (John vii. 
 35), when He told them that they should seek him and not 
 find Him. But He did intimate in many ways his kindly in- 
 tentions towards the Gentiles. The Roman Centurion's faith 
 he appreciated and commended. So did he with the Svrophoe- 
 nician woman. The Jews believed the Gentile nations to be 
 seventy in number, from finding seventy heads of families and 
 founders of nations mentioned in Gen. x. In relation appar- 
 ently to this supposed number of Gentile nations, Christ took 
 seventy of his disciples and sent them out to preach ; as He 
 had twelve chosen in relation to the tribes of Israel. If ever 
 the thought entered a Jewish mind regarding the spread of 
 Christ’s kingdom he looked for accessions to the Jewish nation. 
 But the Lord, while giving the Jews the first offer, was far 
 from restricting the Gospel to them. “ Go ye into all the 
 world;” Out of Zion went the law. “ Beginning at Jerusalem,” 
 was the order : “ to the end of the earth ” was the limit. Where 
 Christ suffered death — where his name was cast out as evil — 
 
9 
 
 77(5 Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 where his enemies if they could prove anything against Ilim 
 might best do it, there, in the honored metropolis of Judea and 
 Judaism is the Christian Church first set up, and the mother 
 church of the nations planted. Such honor did God put on 
 Jerusalem. “ Out of it went the law, and from it the word of 
 the Lord.” Hence the apostle Paul speaks of the Church (Eph. 
 i. 20,) as being built on the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ being the Chief Corner Stone ; and in the 
 delineation of the new Jerusalem in Rev. xxi., the names of 
 the twelve apostles are inscribed on the foundations of the city. 
 
 The apostles had no successors. They died one by one, but not 
 until they had communicated the divine fire to whole commu- 
 nities. Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Rome, — all have 
 heard the Gospel. In all it has found believers. And now 
 the nations evangelize one another. It is not merely Jews 
 bringing Gentiles into the Church. What Jerusalem and Zion 
 were to the Hebrew, his Church has now become to the 
 Christian. He calls it his Zion ; we do so still. Go to Eng- 
 land and Wales, and you shall see “Zions,” and “ Bethels,” 
 and “ Bethesdas,” and “Jerusalems,” written over the doors of 
 Christian churches where is offered worship as truly of the 
 New Testament type as anywhere on the face of the earth. 
 The nations shall say, “ Come ye and let us go up to the 
 mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and 
 he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : 
 for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the 
 Lord from Jerusalem.” They teach one another. The blessed 
 impulse communicates itself, and nations that used to challenge 
 each other to bloodshed, or to stimulate each other to crime, 
 now call to each other, by men, by books, to come and worship 
 the Lord. And see how true and scriptural is the message they 
 bear to each other ! “ Come .... he will teach us of his 
 ways.” They are wise enough to expect just the teaching He 
 undertakes to give — not philosophy or historj", or political 
 economy, not science of any kind, but “of his ways” — of 
 truth, love, righteousness, of peace, of purity, of holiness. This 
 the Lord teaches, and they learn for a practical purpose, 
 
10 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 “ and we will walk in bis paths.” This purpose gives interest 
 to all bearing. If you met Dr. Livingstone and beard him de- 
 scribe the route through the portion of Africa he has traversed 
 it would deepen your interest greatly if you were at once to 
 set out to traverse it yourself. You would say, “I have to 
 take this route myself ; let me know it thoroughly.” You 
 profess to value practical preaching. You do not probably 
 always know what it is ; but here I commend to your imitation 
 this practical plan, “ He will teach and we will walk.” 
 
 Large portions of the race over whom Christ judges — whom 
 He controls — whose opinions He forms, whose conduct He 
 shapes, have been wonderfully preserved. How different it is 
 where Christ judges not! The Indian lays him down to sleep 
 with his spear, like Saul’s in the camp, stuck beside his head — 
 ready to his hand if a foe should attack him in his sleep. In 
 many Eastern lands an armed man accompanies the farmer 
 as he sows his seed, to prevent its being violently taken away ; 
 and not only does mutual strife prevail, it is strife of the 
 most atrocious and remorseless kind. Who forgets, that has 
 read them, the spirited words of old Lord Chatham, when 
 denouncing the proposed employment of the Indians in the 
 British service in this land, when he described “ the mas- 
 sacres of the Indian scalping knife — and the cannibal savage 
 torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his 
 mangled victim ?” Where Christianity has gone it has dried 
 up the stream of human gore, in many instances preserving 
 tribes from sheer extermination. 
 
 I am aware you may point to singular and apparently decis- 
 ive examples against this. You may bid me look to the recent 
 bloodshed in this land. You may point me to the Thirty Years’ 
 War of the Continent and other struggles between profess- 
 edly Christian nations. You may point me to atrocious outrages 
 such as French arms seem to have perpetrated on the poor de- 
 fenceless Potynesians ; but it is not Christianity, but the want 
 of it, that docs this. It has been said, indeed, that the bloodiest 
 wars have been religious wars ; but who w r ould allege that 
 Christ’s kingdom caused them? Violent resistance to it has 
 
11 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 sometimes produced them, and in this sense Christ came to 
 send a sword on the earth. But in so far as his rule is 
 owned and his scepter obeyed, peace prevails, as beautifully 
 described by the words “ they shall beat their swords into plow- 
 shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks and this rule will 
 yet become universal, and a parliament of nations will adjust dif- 
 ferences as truly and justly as law-courts now settle our minor 
 internal disputes. We do not dream of this, or hope for it, 
 but believe in it, and expect it. It is as certain as the resur- 
 rection from the dead, as certain as the general judgment. There 
 is no evidence for one that does not hold good for the other, and 
 the belief of this is to influence us now. The prophet in view 
 of all this cannot but call to Israel and Judah “ come ye in 
 and let us walk in the light of the Lord,” (v. 5.) Since he 
 will do this, since his sway will be so general, and so gracious, 
 since even Gentiles shall come to value and love it, do ye, 0 
 House of Jacob, come and walk in the light of the Lord ; let 
 us be devout, pure, close-walking, and holy. Precisely so 
 ought the view of the future to influence us, to stimulate us to 
 personal holiness and to Christian activity. 
 
 This event is certain. It is no great matter practically to 
 me whether it be ten years, or a hundred, or ten thousand 
 hence. The result is certain, and I should like to have some 
 share in bringing it about. When Englishmen first set foot on 
 India, who could have predicted that in a century from the 
 battle of Plassy, the peninsula should be theirs ? Small suc- 
 cessive bands of men fought, and ruled, and administered, 
 and died, but the subjugating process went forward ; so bands 
 of Christian laborers toil and die, but the results accumulate 
 towards the great consummation. 
 
 Then O sinner, what stand do you mean to take towards the 
 Head of this kingdom? Do you mean to resist Him? Oh! 
 why should you when He comes to you as Prince of peace and 
 invites you to peace ? Yield yourself up to God through Christ. 
 His love to you is attested by his cross. It saves you ; not 
 your feeble, imperfect love to Him. Oh, come and believe Him, 
 and the salvation of his people shall be yours. Earthly 
 
12 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 powers have often tried to bring men under control with vio- 
 lence and blood ; Christ wishes you to be His, and it is by blood 
 also ; but 0 sinner ! it is by His own — the blood of the 
 Captain of your salvation, shed for your ransom and deliver- 
 ance ! 
 
 And you who have received Him and come into his king- 
 dom, seek to walk in the spirit of it. Be loving, gentle, chari- 
 table and peaceful. I know how many strifes, divisions, and 
 heartburnings can be pointed to, all under color of religion ; 
 but you know it is not religion but the want of it that produces 
 these ; or when motives are sincere and character pure, the 
 want of that “ sound mind ” which the spirit of God is able 
 and willing to give. Oh! try to “walk in the light of the 
 Lord ” so that in your measure and place you may promote the 
 interests of that kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Let me in urging this general obligation, say something 
 of your privilege in connection with the Board of Foreign 
 Missious of our church. I have had opportunity through 
 the kindness of the Secretary to look at the proof-sheets 
 of the forthcoming Report, and I notice with much grati- 
 tude to God, that while all the ground occupied any- 
 where is held, in some quarters new stations have been 
 opened, not so much from new facilities at home,, as from the 
 natural growth of the work under the Divine blessing ; and 
 now a difficulty has to be faced by the Board. The children 
 of the church raised a considerable sum, and carried the 
 Board over the immediate obligations of the year, but the 
 high rate of exchange continues, and there is a necessary and 
 inevitable debt which will make it necessary to contract 
 operations abroad if there be not some enlargement of gifts 
 at home. There will be lacking, say thirty thousand dollars — 
 the cost of a house here — and for the lack of that the Presby- 
 terian Church will have to direct the Board to recall some 
 missionaries, close up some schools, and explain to the people 
 that the Christians of the United States can buy and pay for 
 enormous territories for themselves, but cannot afford to give 
 
The Future of Christ's Kingdom. JS 
 
 them any more Gospel teaching, and win wider territories for 
 Christ! Is this to he done? Who would like to make this 
 explanation ? Where will the Board begin this work of dis- 
 graceful retrenchment ? With the missions to the Indians in 
 the Omaha region ? Why, all the world has joined in lauding 
 the enterprise that has sent the locomotive to break the silence 
 of these far-off plains. Shall we have to complain that the Rail- 
 way Companies can get funds enough for their undertaking, but 
 that Christians are doubtful if money is well invested in 
 christianizing Indians ? 
 
 No, we must go elsewhere ; shall it be to India then? But 
 there never was so favorable a condition of affairs in India as 
 there is now. The mutiny of ten years ago which, at first 
 it was thought, would put an end to all missionary work there, 
 has given it a new impulse. If it stopped conversions abroad, 
 for the minds of men were naturally excited, it effected many 
 a happy change at home. Rhapsodical sceptics had talked of 
 the mild and gentle Hindoo, and discouraged evangelistic 
 efforts. They changed their minds as they read the real 
 character of Hindooism in the slaughter of sons, brothers, 
 and sisters at Cawnpore and Delhi. 
 
 Then shall we contract operations in China, that dead sea of 
 human souls, at which we used to look in hopeless despair, won- 
 dering who was to send the Gospel ship through the sluggish 
 waters? But God interposed rebellion, and internal strife 
 broke up the masses, destroyed monopolies of power, called 
 attention to the foreigners and their ways, and now when 
 China aud Japan are, in open defiance of all their time-honored 
 traditions, holding out their hands to Christendom, is Christen- 
 dom to be indifferent ? These children of the older semi-civi- 
 lizations ask us — whom the Gospel has made strong and power- 
 ful — for bread ; shall we give them a stone ? They make 
 treaties with us now. Shall we tell them nothing of the 
 covenant of grace ? God has been giving to English and 
 American missionaries more real success there than in almost 
 any other field. Shall we hold back? No: let us pray and 
 believe — and let us move in the direction of our prayers- that 
 
14 
 
 The Future of Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 the silver and the gold shall be given for the maintainance 
 of these noblest enterprises to which we can put our hands. 
 Christians ! let us remember that Christ still sits over 
 against the treasury ; and let us remember that our perish- 
 able money put into his hand in the right spirit, becomes 
 transmuted into treasure in heaven and fashioned into incor- 
 ruptible crowns.