The Kingdom of God

How the Kingdom of God cometh.

(The Gospel History, Section 115)

And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God Cometh, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! Or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.

The Kingdom of God

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VII Book I Poem X)

“The kingdom, ah, the kingdom!

When God shall reign supreme;

Then flocks and herds shall multiply,

Our enemies before us fly,

And no man for mistress shall cry,—

Lo, Israel’s golden dream!

Yet thou proclaim’st the Kingdom

As it were close at hand!

What sign beholdest Thou afar

In morning cloud or evening star

Confounding those vexed things that are

In our unhappy land?”

“In vain ye search the firmament

The far horizon scan.

Stars in their courses shall not fight

Nor glittering helmets catch the light

For Israel’s sons who seek delight

In ways ye fondly plan.

And yet the kingdom cometh!

As children lean an ear

To hear in secret grow the grass

So hidden things should come to pass—

Discerned by movement not by mass—

Ere the kingdom shall appear.

“‘By what sign shall we know it?’

Ye, slow of heart, demand;

No sign in heaven or earth perceive

Dull souls, unable to conceive,

Proud souls, unwilling to believe

That the kingdom is at hand!

It cometh where it listeth

The kingdom of the Lord:

Look in, my friend, perchance ’tis there

In heart that knows nor hate nor care,

But raiseth day and night the prayer,

‘Make haste and reign, Oh Lord!’ ”

St. Luke xvii. 20-21