idolatry was resumed, and Elijah fled in despair to Horeb. Luther did not bring fire from heaven; but the Protestant Reformation as really demonstrated the divine presence, and its influence has continued to this day. Moses opened the Red Sea to the Israelites. No miracle-working rod was stretched over the ocean when the Pilgrims came to Plymouth; but the presence of God with them working in the interest of his kingdom is scarcely less evident than at the Red Sea.

Equally significant God's providence in removing seemingly immovable obstacles. American slavery vanished like a cloud in the presence of the very generation who were declaring its removal impracticable. The temporal power of the Pope scarcely arrested attention when it passed away. The great men of the world do still, as a prophet declared of an Assyrian king, accomplish God's plans, though they intend it not: "He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few"; but he is "the rod of mine anger and the staff in the hand of my indignation."

God's hand is revealed not merely in great epochs, but also in the quiet advancement of his kingdom. This is exemplified in the growth of what is called the spirit of the age; so that the leaders in any great historical movement seem not so much the authors of the movement, as the mouth-piece to utter the common thought, and the hand to execute the common purpose of the age. All history shows that the great epochs of history are not instantaneous in their origin. Though their coming is sudden and startling, yet it is the result of growth- the opening of a flower which for a century has been maturing the bursting from its chrysalis of the winged Psyche which in all its transformations has been silently preparing its birth of beauty. Every great change attempted for which God's providence has not wrought a preparation will be but a new patch on an old garment. The silent preparation for the great epochs which burst on the astonished world is as decisive a proof of God's presence in history as the epoch itself; as the

growth of the bud reveals God's power not less than its opening into blossom.

Another example is the growth of interests, customs, and institutions incidentally favorable to the growth of the kingdom. When the first American missionaries went to India, the British power seemed the greatest obstacle. But it has exerted influences essential to the missionary work which it was entirely impossible for the missionaries to exert. It is said that Constantine embraced Christianity for reasons of state polity; but how had it come to pass that it was politic for him so to do? It is said that Luther could not have succeeded without the aid of the German princes; but how came it to pass that the German princes found it expedient to aid him? As the lictors with axes and staves went before the Roman consul to open a way for him, and to enforce his commands, God in his providence compels princes and all secular agencies to open the way for Christian truth. It has been said that the Puritans came to New England not for religious interests, but to engage in fisheries. Suppose the allegation to be true, what then? Then God in his providence disclosed valuable fisheries in the interest of his kingdom to bring to New England a Christian, Protestant, and republican civilization; "the earth helped the woman"; providence worked with redemption. Then these Puritans, while intent in all simplicity on getting an honest livelihood by fishing, were so full of Christian truth and life as to send out incidentally, as sparks fly from hot iron simply because it is hot, the education, political liberty, and religion of New England. It would enhance our estimate of their piety and intelligence, if they were so full of spiritual light and life that these were but the unpremeditated and spontaneous results of their living and working for secular ends, and so the salvation of the world was a second time connected with fishing; just as it would enhance our estimate of the fulness of miraculous power in Peter to know that his shadow would heal the sick on whom it fell, when he without thought of exerting that power was going to the baker's to buy his

daily bread, as really as when he purposely determined to work a miracle.

It has been said that modern progress is due to the fact that science, since Bacon, has been directed to practical ends, and thus has multiplied inventions; that the sentiment of brotherhood and opposition to war is due to commerce, steamships, and telegraphs; that the opposition to slavery and the honor given to labor are due to the industrial movement which is so remarkable a characteristic of modern civilization. But the question recurs: How has it come to pass that Christian civilization has produced a Bacon, stimulated invention, created an industrial movement, and in every line of action concentrated thought on human welfare; while heathen civilization has never produced such results, or shown any tendency to produce them? Was it not the fresh figs which commerce brought from Carthage which fired the Romans to destroy that city? Why does commerce in Christian civilization create the sentiment of brotherhood, and discourage war, when it had no such influence, and even a contrary influence, in ancient times? The answer must acknowledge Christianity as the cause, and not the effect. These facts disclose God's providence working with redemption, and bringing secular interests, customs, institutions, and agencies to aid in the advancement of his kingdom.

The fact of God's providential action in subserviency to redemption teaches two practical lessons. One is that when God's Spirit rouses a people to any Christian work, it is a reasonable presumption that in his providence he will open the way for them to do it. When his Spirit say: "Go forwards," his providence will divide the sea. The history of any signal enterprise of the church is found to be full of signal interpositions of providence. The history of missions, of God's church in America, of Christianity everywhere, is a continued verification of God's providential action in the interest of his kingdom. The same is remarkable in the lives of individuals eminent in piety. The attempt has been made to explain the frequency of provi

dential interpositions in the lives of such men by saying that they who look for providences will not fail to find them. A sufficient explanation is found in the harmony between God's Spirit and his providence. When God by his Spirit rouses a man to work, by his providence he opens the way for him. He that will work for God will be permitted to work with God. The other practical lesson is, to concentrate missionary labor on fields where God is providentially preparing the way for it. We must not waste our energies toiling all the night and taking nothing, but must let down the net on the right side of the ship. He that believeth will not make haste to outrun the providence of God, nor will he dare to lag behind it.

VI. The progress of Christ's Kingdom is by epochs.

There is a certain rhythmical movement attendant on the exertion of physical force. When force is at its greatest tension, the quivering or vibration is apparent to the sense. Something analogous appears in the exertion of spiritual power, pulsating in waves through the life of humanity. Even revelation has its epochs. There are epochs of miracles

one more, at least, yet to appear in connection with the second coming of the Lord. There are epochs of prophetic inspiration. The same is true of all spiritual life. The Christian reverts to memorable epochs in his own experience

conversion; subsequent to conversion, epochs when he has risen to higher planes of thought and action. A church grows by revivals. The advance of Christ's kingdom in the world and the progress of Christian civilization is by epochs memorable in history.

This accords with the Saviour's analogy-first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. The growth of grain is continuous; but it is also by epochs - the blade, the ear, the full corn. In maize, for example, is first the blade, then the stalk marked by its successive joints, the tasselling and silking, the setting of the corn, its ripening, and the opening of the husk from the full ear.

1. The epochs are not themselves the growth of the kingdom, but are the results of the growth by which it is signalized. The grain grows continuously. The successive epochs of the blade, the ear, the full corn, are not the growth, but the result and manifestation of growth. They are the new forms in which the advancing life must manifest itself. They are the crises which mark the growth. So the continuous vital growth of a Christian or a church will manifest itself in new and higher forms of Christian life, and thus will create epochs. Epochs, therefore, are crises incidental to growth; but they are not the growth, nor is the growth confined to them.

2. An epoch is not necessarily by violence. When an apple-tree bursts into blossom, and covers itself with sweetness and beauty, that is an epoch in its growth. When this beauty passes away, and the fruit sets, that is an epoch; in this case attended with the falling of the blossom, cast off because its work is done. But these epochs are peaceful, because all the organic forces in the tree are subject to its life and in harmony with each other, and the crises of its growth come peacefully, as the natural expression of the life. So in the kingdom of God, if the spiritual life is full and unobstructed, its epochs come quietly, as the blooming and fruiting of a tree. The old falls away because its work is done, and peacefully gives place to the new. The change is not less, the epoch not less glorious, because it is peaceful. Revolutions and convulsions are not essential, nor desirable, in the great epochs of human progress. And in the individual, the spiritual life may blossom into the glory of a higher Christian experience, or, dropping the blossom, may concentrate itself on perfecting the fruit, without an attendant spiritual convulsion driving to the verge of despair. In general, the more completely the spiritual life possesses the soul, the more peaceful will be its successive epochs of. growth; and the more completely Christian ideas rule society, the more peaceful will be the successive epochs of advancing Christian civilization.