not speak of it as situated anywhere in particular, or say that it could be attained quickly. For instance, in Luke 13: "Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I liken it? It is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his own garden; and it grew, and became a tree; and the birds of the heaven lodged in the branches thereof." And again: "It is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened."

14. It is a great mystery how these comparisons of heaven ever came to be construed to refer in any way to a locality in the skies. What relation to a city with streets of gold has a mustard seed planted in the earth and springing forth into a tree? or a little cake of yeast fermenting a baking of bread? A remarkably strange lot of comparisons this wise one used, if He had in mind a place where the good were to go after death!

15. But He never pretended to represent any such thing. His command to His disciples fully carries out His idea of the kingdom of heaven. It was a condition to be brought about in the affairs of men. It was to grow from small beginnings, like the mustard seed or the yeast cake. His disciples were sent forth to sow this seed in a definite way, by carrying into the midst of men the signs that evidence the power of Spirit through which the kingdom of heaven is to be established right here on this planet. There is no basis for any other view. All the visionary theories about a place called heaven are founded on John's symbolical description of the New Jerusalem,