Thus the King took up and continued the message of His Herald, only adding to John the Baptist's preaching of repentance the call to believe the Gospel--to have faith in the good tidings which He came to tell of the Kingdom of Heaven and of God. And from this time to the end of His ministry we find that the Gospel of the Kingdom was the continual subject of His teaching. Thus S. Luke records that He declared once to a multitude which would detain Him, "I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent" (S. Luke iv. 43). And, a few chapters after, we read, "It came to pass afterward that He went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God" (S. Luke viii. 1). And then, after a while, "He called His twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God" (S. Luke ix. 1, 2). And having thus spent the years of His public ministry in publishing the good news of the Kingdom, He declared towards the end of it, as He was foretelling to His disciples the signs of His future coming to judgment, "And this Gospel[3] of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (S. Matt. xxiv. 14). And what is the Gospel of the Kingdom? To form the answer we must look to the general teaching which runs through the Bible. As soon as Adam fell from his high estate as God's child, the Deliverer was promised, "who should bruise the serpent's head" (Gen. iii. 15). Ages passed with only a dim hope of a coming Saviour; until at length God gave to Abraham the distinct promise that the Deliverer should arise from his posterity; saying, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 18). Again ages passed; and David was raised up from amongst the descendants of Abraham, and of the predicted tribe of Judah, and to him the promise was made, "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. vii. 16). We know that princes of the family of David succeeded one another on the throne for 450 years, until the Jews were carried into captivity; but we learn from the Psalms that it had been revealed to David himself that this promise was not to be fulfilled in any such earthly and temporal manner. And his faith and hopes are expressed continually in glowing words, describing a Kingdom of Messiah, which should be universal and without end, a Kingdom of righteousness and peace.