earth as it is in heaven" was not a petition for the impossible,
but a fore-shadowing of what shall eventually be. We believe
that the day shall yet come when the Kingdom of God on earth
shall be one with the Kingdom in heaven; and one King shall rule
in both. The Church is regarded as the beginning of this Kingdom
on earth; though until the coming of the King, there is no
authority in the Church exercising or claiming temporal rule or
dominion among the governments of earth. Yet the Church is none
the less the beginning of the Kingdom, the germ from which the
Kingdom shall develop.

And the Church must be in direct communication with the heavenly
Kingdom of which the earthly Kingdom when established shall be a
part. Of such a nature was the Church in so far as it existed
before the time of Christ's earthly ministry; for the biblical
record is replete with instances of direct communication between
the prophets and their God. The scriptures are silent as to a
single dispensation in which the spiritual leaders of the people
depended upon the records of earlier times and by-gone ages for
their guidance; but on the contrary, the evidence is complete
that in every stage of the Church's history the God of heaven
communicated his mind and will unto his earthly representatives.
Israel of old were led and governed in all matters spiritual and
to a great extent in their temporal affairs by the direct word of
revelation. Noah did not depend upon the record of God's
dealings with Adam or Enoch, but was directed by the very word
and voice of the God whom he represented. Moses was no mere
theologian trained for his authority or acts on what God had said
to Abraham, to Isaac, or to Jacob; he acted in accordance with
instructions given unto him from time to time, as the