dead and buried and the mourners go about the streets. Two of His disciples on the way to Emmaus are moaning because they "trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" (Luke 24:21).

But lo! He has risen from the dead and has appeared to His disciples, going in and out among them for forty days. It must be His purpose, now, to take to Himself the reins of government and set up the promised kingdom. One day they put the question to Him, saying, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6).

But once more there is disappointment and waiting. "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

"And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:7-11).

IV

Were the disciples mystified? If so, the mystery was deepened afterwards. At first, they went about their business of witnessing, when the Holy Ghost had come upon them, confining their witness to the Jews only. It was to them-the descendants of Abraham-that the kingdom had been promised, and to none other was the Gospel preached.

But a great persecution arose, driving them out of Jerusalem, and they went everywhere preaching the Word (Acts 8:1-4). The Gentiles began to hear it, and with the same results as in the case of the Jews at Pentecost (Acts 11:15).

What could this mean? Was the privilege of the kingdom for them, as well as for the Jews? A council of the church must be called to consider it (Acts 15). Peter at this council relates his experience in the household of Cornelius, the centurion, and Paul and Barnabas also declare "what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them." When lo! the Holy Spirit comes upon James, the presiding officer, and reveals in outline the whole plan of God in the premises for this age and that which is to come. The mystery at length is solved.

"Men and brethren, hearken unto me," said James. "Simeon (i. e., Peter) hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written: After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down; and I will build again the

ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, said the Lord who doeth all these things" (Acts 15:13-17).

Study this programme, and see that God is not now, and in this age, setting up the kingdom promised to David, but doing something else. What He is really doing is taking out from among the Gentiles "a people for his name. Or, as collateral Scriptures explain, He is building up His Church which is called the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22, 23). The time will come, and may be very near, when this Body will be complete, and the Church will be taken out of the earth, caught up "to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:16-18). "And to this agree the words of the prophets," as James says; namely, that "after this," or in other words, after the Church has been translated, Christ will return to the earth, and in Him God will set up the kingdom of David which is fallen down. That is to say, God's covenant with David standeth true, as recorded in 2 Samuel 7, but the time is not yet. The Church must be translated first, and Christ must come again.

The next chapter will make this clearer to us, bringing before us as it will the converging line of Gentile history.

QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON

1. About how much time elapsed between the great event of Genesis 3:15 and that of 12:15?

2. Give the history of the chosen people between the death of Abraham and the Kingship of David.

3. What

Scripture

contains God's covenant with

David?

4. Name the promises in this covenant.

5. Prove that Jesus Christ rather than Solomon is in mind here.

6. Read carefully the first chapter of Hebrews.

7. Trace the history of Israel from Solomon to the Babylonian captivity.

8. Trace the history of Judah from the return to the birth of Jesus.

9. What hindered the fulfillment of Luke 1:33 at that time?

10. Can you recite the parable of the nobleman?

11. What is the promise of Acts 1:11?

12. Give the history of the Church from the ascension of Christ to the first council at Jerusalem.

13. Analyze the divine program as revealed to James.

IV

THE "TIMES OF THE GENTILES" AND THE IMPENDING JUDGMENTS

Ο

I

UR fourth study leads us away temporarily from the history of the Jew to that of the Gentile.

The word "Gentile" is commonly used in the Bible as synonymous with the word "nations." It distinguishes all the other nations of the world from the one nation of Israel, which God had chosen for a particular purpose in connection with the redemption of the human race. What this purpose was and is, we defined in the second chapter, entitled "God's Covenant with Abraham.

It ought to be said here that now, and hereafter, we use the name "Israel" interchangeably with "Judah," as indicating the descendants of Abraham after the flesh. The division of the original kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms, mentioned in our last chapter, is no longer necessary to be kept in view, because in the restoration the two are again to be brought together in one (Isa. 11: 12, 13; Hos. 1:11); and even now they are so blended as to be indistinguishable to the human eye.