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I. The religion of Christ is a REIGN. It is not a creed, or a sentiment, or a ritualism, but a regal force, a power that holds sway over intellect, heart, and will. As a reign it is —

1. Spiritual. Its throne is within.

2. Free.

3. Constant.

II. It is a DIVINE reign. This is proved by —

1. Its congruity with human nature. It accords with reason, conscience, and the profoundest cravings of the soul.

2. Its influence on human life. It makes men righteous, loving, peaceful, godlike.

III. It is a GROWING reign. It grows in the individual soul, and in the increase of its subjects.

1. This growth is silent. It does not advance as the reign of human monarchs, by noise and bluster, by social convulsion and bloody wars. It works in the mind and spreads through society, silent as the distilling dew or the morning beam.

2. Gradual.

3. Secret.

IV. Christ's religion may be PROMOTED BY HUMAN AGENCY. Whilst man cannot in nature create the crop, no crop would come without his agency; so Christ has left the extension of His religion to depend in some measure on man.

V. Human effort is founded on CONFIDENCE IN DIVINE LAWS.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

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KJV: And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

WEB: He said, "The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,