Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, yet we are asked to believe that Christ is reigning now in his Kingdom, and that is all we need expect. Any earthly ruler, who has no more of a kingdom than that, would not be counted a king at all. He would be counted a mere pretender-a paranoiac.

It is a fact that in many, many instances, we have to make words in the Bible mean something wholly different from what they mean in all other books and papers, if we accept the concepts of our would-be teachers. They tell us that to die means to live, and that perish means to exist, and that the second death means living forever.

We have come to the Bible with our minds all warped and beclouded, by looking through the glasses of those who have taught us, so that we have been unable to grasp the plainest statements therein. We put into it what we expect to read out of it. Take as an illustration of this Matt. 2:6, "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel.” Here it is plainly stated that Christ shall rule, or reign over Israel; and yet, how many Bible readers have read it that way? They have spiritualized Israel to mean the Church, notwithstanding the fact that the Bible never uses Israel in that sense. In the Bible Israel means Israel, the blood descendants of Jacob.

In the New Testament the word Israel is used 78 times, and not once is it used synonymous with Christian. But on the contrary it always means the Shemites, the sons of Abraham. To use it in any other sense is to be unscriptural and to obscure the truth of every passage con

taining the word. We must learn that words have a specific meaning in the Bible as well as elsewhere, and that to use them loosely is to lead ourselves and others astray. Nowhere else are words used so loosely. Jew in the Bible means the descendants of Judah and Benjamin, and does not include the other ten tribes, yet our religious teachers violate this meaning almost continuously. Zion means Jerusalem, yet they use it for Church, and for Kingdom of God, and other fancied meanings to suit the idea of the spiritualizer. House of Israel is used to distinguish the ten tribes of Israel from the House of Judah, the Jews, and yet our teachers habitually use them synonymously. It is most misleading. Church and Kingdom mean two separate and distinct things, yet we constantly are taught that the church is the Kingdom of God. Not so.

Much has been said and taught about the spiritual Kingdom of Christ, yet the Bible has nothing to say of such a kingdom. It has much to say of His earthly Kingdom when he shall reign gloriously in Jerusalem. Words in the Scriptures must mean just the same as they mean in other literature, or else we must have a separate dictionary of words for the Bible alone.

We have now traced the covenants which contain God's promises and plans for the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ of the nation which he said he would raise up.

From these covenants it must be plain to every reader that Israel is the people and nation which God has chosen for himself, and over whom Christ his Son will reign. And this is not the Church.

DEDUCTIONS.

(1) God called Abraham to make a nation for himself. (2) That nation must be above any other nation on the face of the earth.

(3) His covenants were made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and David.

(4) These covenants did not inhere in Ishmael and Esau, nor in any other people than Israel.

(5) To ignore Israel in the flesh is to miss the whole Divine conception of the Kingdom of Christ.

CHAPTER III.

SPECIAL IMPORTANCE OF THE TEN TRIBES.

Were it possible for us to know as little of the Jews as the average Christian knows of the other ten tribes of Israel, the Bible would be almost a meaningless book. We could as well say we will exalt the cross without any knowledge of the Christ. As much or more of unfulfilled prophecy relates to the ten tribes, or to the House of Israel, as to the Jews, and yet, possibly, nine-tenths of christendom are indifferent to the fate of the House of Israel, or to their present or future inheritance. They treat the subject as a trifle; and it is a trifle only to triflers. The reunion of the House of Israel and the House of Judah is many, many times promised in the prophecies. It is only to state an axiom to say, If they are to be reunited with the House of Judah, they are still in existence. That is to say they still exist as a nation as pure in their lineage, and blood integrity as the Jews.

The House of Israel must be recognized if we are to understand the Book. These ten tribes were carried away captive from Samaria by Sargon, about 721 B. C. and deposited in Halah, Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. These constituted what the Scriptures call the "House of Israel" in distinction from the "House of Judah."

The House of Judah consisted of only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. They are the Jews.

The House of Israel consisted of the other ten tribes, viz., 1 Ephraim, 2 Manasseh, 3 Dan, 4 Asher, 5 Naphtali, 6 Reuben, 7 Simeon, 8 Zebulun, 9 Issachar and 10 Gad. The Levites were scattered among both houses or kingdoms. These ten tribes were just as much Israelites as the others, but they were not Jews, and never will be.

The whole twelve tribes were Israelites, but only two tribes were Jews, hence

All Jews are Israelites, but

All Israelites are not Jews.

Under David and Solomon all the twelve tribes were united in one kingdom, and were known as the Hebrew, or Israelitish nation. But when Solomon died, and his son Rehoboam came to the throne, the people asked him to reduce the taxes, which had been levied on them by Solomon for his expensive reign, and they would serve him. He took counsel at first with the old men, and they said it was a reasonable request, and advised him to do so. He then took counsel of the young men, who advised him to answer the people haughtily, and to say that his little finger should be greater than his father's loins, and that whereas his father had whipped them with cords, he would whip them with scorpions. This advice of the young men he accepted and followed. So the ten tribes revolted and set up a new kingdom, and called Jeroboam to be their king.

This ten tribed kingdom was known as "The House of Israel," "The Kingdom of Israel," "The Northern Kingdom" and "Ephraim." They built the city of Samaria, which became the capital of this kingdom.

The two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, remained true to David, and accepted Rehoboam as their king. They