Fourth Sunday after Whitsun

Da nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine: ut et mundi cursus pacífice nobis tuo órdine dirigátur; et Ecclésia tua tranquílla devotióne lætétur. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
℟. Amen.

Grant, O Lord, we beſeech thee, that the courſe of this world may be ſo peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully ſerve thee in all godly quietneſs, through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: "Thy Kingdom Come"

The true lover of God desires to see the coming of the kingdom on earth among men. The prayer, "Thy kingdom come" is not an idle form of words for him. Do all of us, who repeat these words mechanically as part of the Lord's Prayer, realise their significance in relation to the world's affairs? The next words of the prayer give us the clue - "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

God's will is the cosmic law, and the cosmic law is not an arbitrary enactment, but the expression of God's nature. That nature was shown forth to us in the life of Christ Jesus. There, then, we have our model. God's will is done when we live Christ-like lives. If everybody did this, His kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not a place, or yet a form of government, but the state of consciousness which has become habituated to the Christ-ideal and dwells constantly in it. [Generally speaking, the Kingdom of Heaven is understood as the spiritual potestas of the Church, as opposed to the mere human authority of kings, princes, politicians, etc. - Ed]

The kingdom comes first in our own hearts; and in so far as we realize its nature we can bring it into being in the world of men, in spite of all difficulty and opposition, by consistently and determinedly bringing each one our actions into line with that ideal.

It is only through a change of individual  consciousness that the kingdom of heaven will come on earth. No form of government can bring it, because it is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. It proceeds spontaneously from an attitude of mind and state of feeling; it cannot be enforced from without by laws and magistrates. Outward force may produce civil order, but it can never produce "peace and joy and godly quietness," and these are the signs by which we know that "the Lord keeps the city".