A third mark of the kingdom is that it has to do primarily with the religious faculties. As the distinction between nature and the supernatural is permanent and ineffaceable, so the Church and the world can never be made to coincide, however widely the Church may be extended or however thoroughly the world may be permeated by the spirit of the Church. “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light” of the new Jerusalem, “the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it;” but the distinction between it and them exists and abides. It will be as true in the last days as when our Lord first spoke the words, “My kingdom is not of this world.” However omnipotent and omnipresent God may be in nature and the universe, he can never be made identical with them; and, however thoroughly they may be penetrated by his Spirit and come to perfect accord with him, they can never be so lifted up as to rival or supersede his supremacy. And, although common life and work may be sanctified by being done in the spirit of Christ, and religious life may flow out from the central source through all the ordinary and natural channels of our being, the religious and the secular can never be made one. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;” but the discharge of earthly duties and the reformation of earthly conditions can never exhaust the obligations of man. There will still remain those relations to the supernatural of whose existence and sovereignty it is the preëminent mission of the Church to testify. The kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” 2. _The Central Principle of the Kingdom._――The central figure in this kingdom is Christ crucified. It is the Lamb around whom all the imagery of the apostle’s description gathers. The light――luminary, rather――of the kingdom was “like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” That this refers to Christ seems probable from Revelation iv, 3, where it is said that he that sat upon the throne “was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone,” and is further confirmed by Revelation xxi, 23, where the Lamb is said to be “the light” of the city. Moreover, it is said, “The first foundation was jasper,” which is but confirmatory of what Peter had said in the presence of John to the “rulers, and elders, and scribes:” “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other.” (Acts iv, 11, 12.)