the fulness of Him that filleth all in all1. And, further on in the Epistle 2, this process is traced out as one by which all spiritual forces and combinations, all powers and principalities, all organizations of spiritual beings, are to be influenced. That to the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.' And, still more, the purpose of God is absolutely universal: ‘That in the dispensation of the fulness of time, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth.' Whether, then, we use the old language of theology, and say that these are inspired words which reveal God's purpose, or whether we take them as the impression made on one of deep spiritual insight by the moral grandeur of the life of Christ, and by the recognition of its redemptive power and its necessary effect upon mankind, in either case they disclose, as the purpose of God and the task of the Church, a spiritual unity which is absolutely universal, in which all men everywhere, and all the creation of which man is the centre, are destined to be partakers.

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These do not stand alone. We might support them by citing the views expressed in St. Paul's speech at Athens, or the claim of universal dominion. ascribed to our Lord in the close of St. Matthew's gospel, or the assertion of that claim by the Apostles in such passages as the second chapter of St. Paul to the Philippians; or, again, the hope expressed in St. Peter's epistle of a new world in which dwelleth righteousness;

or, lastly, the vision of the Apocalypse already touched upon. They are all an expansion of the assurance expressed in the words-The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.'

It may be right here to observe that such passages as these bring into prominence a view of the Divine nature which is specially important in the present daythat of the immanence of God in nature and in man. God may be conceived of as transcendental, that is, as transcending all the visible and cognizable universe, as existing apart from it, and working upon it from without; or as immanent, dwelling within it as its moral and spiritual centre, its guiding force. The two ideas are by no means incompatible, they are both of them expressed in Scripture; and it would probably be a great spiritual loss so to dwell upon one of them as to exclude the other. But it is certain that the thought of a transcendental God dealing with the world ab extra has been dwelt upon in the past in such a way as to exclude the thought of an immanent God working upon the world from within. It is certain also that this idea of a transcendental God is one which, by seeming to imply continual interference with the regular course of the world, is peculiarly difficult to grasp in a scientific age. And equally is it certain that the idea of God as the Word and the Spirit is that to which both Scripture and experience point as specially suitable to our age. The theologian, however little he follows out his thought, owns this, when he says that this is the dispensation of the Spirit. And it is evident that what we have to

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do, as believers in God, is not to speculate upon His abstract nature, or to think of realms altogether beyond the range of human experience, but to trace the course of nature and history as moving under the divine impulse; to make ourselves conscious of the constraining moral force of the life of Christ, which, as the crown of the development, fully represents the divine power within, and of the Spirit which has flowed from this life throughout the Christian ages; to estimate and to associate ourselves with the intention which may be traced in the development of the world; and to follow it out with all our energy to its furthest results, as organs of the Divine Spirit, and as fellow-workers with God.

(2) Does then the course of human history support the view which has been taken? Does it point to a moral and spiritual order destined to reign throughout the universe? It may be confidently said that this is the result to which all the enlarged study of history points. No one is now content to study one corner of the field of history by itself after the manner of a mere chronicle. The student of history conceives of mankind necessarily as a whole, or, at least, as tending to unity; and of history as an orderly progress of which the moral and spiritual training of mankind is the connecting thread. The physical conditions of life, though they may check, yet ensure the progress towards unity. Contiguity of dwelling, the expansion of population, the growing needs which can only be supplied by commercial intercourse, constrain men in the same direction. Religion, in its larger sense, the recog

nition of God and of the moral order, necessarily tends to universality, whether in the East or the West, within or without the sphere of the Hebraic and Christian revelation. The political development may also be traced out as a progress towards unity and the organization of moral relations. And all these elements, material, religious, political, combine in the comprehensive unity of Christendom. The human race is being drawn powerfully together; ideas circulate with constantly increasing rapidity; and the sense of fellowship which is thus engendered, and a certain body of common moral sentiments, are, we may believe, preparing the advent of a fuller unity and more brotherly relations throughout the world.

It may be remarked that the philosophy of history is a study of recent growth. The facts were there, but they were not presented in a harmonious and articulated form. Yet human history is evidently not without a purpose. That which strikes us again and again is that individuals and nations have pressed on towards a predestined goal, often in complete unconsciousness of what they were doing1. And this fact we denote by speaking of the purpose of God and the universal destination of the Church. We have to trace the intimations of history and the half-conscious prophecies of which it is full, so as to clear the path of future progress.

Those who have written on the Philosophy of History 2

1 See Guizot's Eur. Civ., Lect. xi. p. 5.

2 I take the account of these writers from Flint's Philosophy of History in France and Germany.

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have usually been content to note the stream of tendency, but have shrunk from a definition of its goal such as would have presented a clear aim for human endeavour. The general hope of the prevalence of Christianity, or of a sound political constitution, and of the reign of peace, as drawn out by Kant or Jouffroy; the mental liberty and full development of the individual, as presented by Herder; the complete sociality and civilization described by Guizot, are all of them somewhat vague. Those who have been more precise, like Comte', have usually suggested an Utopia. We may believe that in speaking of the establishment and maintenance of true relations throughout the whole body of a united and organized humanity, under the influence of the Christian spirit of righteousness and love, we are placing before ourselves, with as much precision as is possible, the destination of human society; and that in developing this ideal we shall evoke the energy and enthusiasm of mankind. History combines with Scripture in pointing to this destination.

(3) It may be affirmed that the modern doctrine of evolution points also in the same direction.

The thoughts of men in our day are unavoidably coloured by this doctrine, which, if it is not proved in the whole range which some of its advocates claim, and if it is subject to possible modifications, yet commends itself so largely to inquirers in all departments, that Christians naturally ask how, if its widest assertions

1 See Note VI. A short account of M. Comte's anticipations as to the future of Political Society in Europe.

2 I may refer the reader to the systematic working out of these ideas in the Lectures VII and VIII.