We may now briefly sum up the results of the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In ascending into heaven He was fulfilling the prophecy, to which special prominence had been given in His discourses with His opponents, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Ps. cx. 1). He was thus ascending the Throne of the Mediatorial Kingdom of Messiah—“The Kingdom of Heaven”—and having ascended in triumph, “He gave gifts unto men.” And upon receiving the great gift which He had promised—even the Holy Ghost—the Apostles became endued with the power, by which alone “The Kingdom of Heaven” could be founded upon earth, and be extended amongst men. And, from that day forward, “The Kingdom of Heaven” may be said to have been established. And as the Apostles went forth preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God, and believers were multiplied, we find that, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the word “Church” was used to express this body of the faithful. And the name thus used in those early days of “The Kingdom of Heaven,” has been generally applied to it ever since.

Thus we are brought face to face with the practical importance of the teaching of our Blessed Lord about “The Kingdom of Heaven.” “The Kingdom of Heaven” is “The Church of Christ.” The subjects are ourselves.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] See Pearson on the Creed, pp. 283, 285.

[17] It is sometimes said that the Kingdom was founded by our Lord in the call of His Apostles. But inasmuch as He spoke of it as being still in the future, when He said to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build My Church” (S. Matt. xvi. 18), and expressly declared that the Baptism of the Spirit was the appointed means of entering into it (S. John iii. 5), it seems more accurate to say that our Lord founded His Kingdom on this day, through the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles. For thus His words which specially applied to their own cases were fulfilled, “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost” (Acts i. 5; S. Matt. iii. 11); and the gift was then handed on to others in the appointed way, by which they also might be brought into the one Body (1 Cor. xii. 13).

CHAPTER VII.

THE PARABLES EXEMPLIFIED IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

“To Him shall prayer unceasing
And daily vows ascend;
His Kingdom still increasing,
A Kingdom without end.”