"I know not," answered Ammonius, "but I feel certain that it was purposely left as a thing to be held by faith, and not in knowledge. Either it may have been because it hath not yet entered into the heart of man to conceive what that life may be, so that human speech could not convey any adequate knowledge thereof; or, if it were possible to do so, the overpowering glory and splendor thereof, if definitely grasped and understood, and already realized, might render us impatient of this mundane existence, and too indifferent to all the duties and obligations thereof. I think, indeed, that those very Therapeutæ, of whom Philo speaketh, were to be censured for an unwarranted attempt to realize, in this present world, a spiritual life which our Lord expressly reserved for the future; an effort, indeed, necessarily impossible to succeed, and perhaps injurious both to these anchorites and to other men also. For the purpose of the gospel is not only to justify and save all who believe and obey it, but the declared purpose of our Lord is to regenerate mankind by the agency of his own kingdom; and surely it tendeth not to the accomplishment of this purpose to have Christians withdraw themselves permanently beyond the reach of common life and experience; so that it is manifestly an error to suppose that, because they have the assurance of a superlatively better life beyond, Christians should for that reason despise the life that now is. And, in accordance with this view, thou wilt find that the Church forbiddeth any man to go out of the world (by suicide) as the heathen commonly do; forbiddeth any man to seek for martyrdom, as many had done; and forbiddeth any man to flee from that place in which he was converted into the mountains and the deserts: because the kingdom of our Lord must exist in the world--not out of it--for the regeneration thereof." "But he saith himself," suggested Am-nem-hat, "’My kingdom is not of this world.’" "Verily," replied Ammonius. "And his kingdom is not ’of’ the world, but is ’in’ the world. Not surely a kingdom founded upon the social, religious, and political laws and customs of the world, like other kingdoms; but, not the less, a kingdom for men living in the world, and founded on its own social, religious, and political economies. And this temporal, earthly kingdom, established by our Lord in the world, is the very essence of the gospel, the most important part of the truth which he revealed to men." "That is new to me," answered Am-nem-hat, "for I had supposed that the religious idea chiefly handleth the affairs of man with reference to the future life, and that his temporal condition is the affair of government, unto which he is kept in subjection by the sense of duty and obligation which religion supplieth." "And thou art manifestly in the right as to all governments that exist or ever have existed among men, except only the kingdom of heaven. How many governments have existed in Egypt?"