When we pray, "Thy Kingdom come," we ask Almighty God that the number of His elect may soon be complete, and that Our Lord may soon come again to take to Himself His great power, and reign. That second coming of Christ has been watched for by His saints for nineteen hundred years. "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," says St. John (Apoc. xxii. 20). "We look for the new heavens and the new earth, in which dwelleth justice," says St. Peter (2 St. Peter iii. 13). "The Lord is night at hand," writes St. Paul to the Philippians. Do I look forward with joy and confidence to the day of the Lord's return?

If we are to desire from the heart the coming of Jesus, to reign on earth, we must prepare for His coming by making Him Lord and King of our hearts, nay, of our whole nature, of everything we are, and everything we possess. Above all, our natural self-will and self-love must pay humble homage to Him, and must cease altogether from disputing His sway. Too often they have had the mastery rather than He, and as long as they reign, He will not come to dwell with us, and to prepare us for His future coming in glory.

If Christ is to reign in our hearts. His dominion there must be universal and constant. Our senses must be subject to Him, so that we do not indulge them except in obedience to His will. Our imagination must not wander here and there as it chooses, but must be under His control. No day-dreaming, no vain and idle following of every thought to which we are inclined, no admittance of what we know is dangerous, if Christ is to be truly our King.