he commanded the apostles to go out and preach a different gospel from that which he had preached. He had preached the gospel of the Kingdom to Israel, but, now they were to go out into all the world and preach the gospel of a personal salvation to every creature, assuring them that whosoever believed it, and was baptized, should be saved.

Perhaps we can emphasize this thought, and make it perfectly plain by placing the two commands to the apostles in juxtaposition: thus, I. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel."

II. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."

This was the beginning of the gospel of the Church, which means the gospel of a personal salvation to every creature. It was not limited to a nation, but it was to be preached to all nations in order to select out individuals from every nation to be the rulers and courtiers in the Kingdom when Christ returns. This is the ecclesia, the called out ones. The Church now becomes prominent in the Acts and the Epistles and in the Revelation. The word is used in its singular and plural forms 115 times; whereas the word Kingdom is used only 17 times.

It was not so necessary to preach the gospel of the Kingdom during the long interval while the King was gone into a far country to receive his Kingdom, but he said unto them, "Just before the end, or in other words, just before I come again, this gospel of the Kingdom, which I have preached, must be preached again in all the world for a witness to all the nations; and verily I say unto you, Ye

shall not have gone over all the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come."

From this it is plain that the gospel of the Kingdom, which is yet to be preached before the coming of our Lord, is to be preached to the House of Israel, especially, for the Jews have no cities of their own, and the gospel of the Kingdom is for Israel and not for the Gentiles.

We believe that the time is at hand for this kind of preaching again. Spontaneously the Kingdom idea is being impressed on the minds of the most thoughtful Christians everywhere. We believe the time of the Gentiles is nearly full, for the following reasons, namely:

I. Jerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That day has passed; for Jerusalem is now being trodden again by Jewish feet.

II. The blindness that happened to a part of Israel was to continue "Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." That blindness is departing; for we are beginning to recognize Israel again, and the importance of the Kingdom.

III. The blindness mentioned in Isa. 6 was to continue until the desolation of Palestine was fully accomplished. That day has passed, and Palestine is filling up again. We believe the time of the Gentiles means their opportunity to receive the gospel of an individual salvation, which has been preached to them so faithfully through the church, especially during the last century.

Permit us here to pay a tribute of praise and honor to the faithful churches, and to a great army of noble men. and women who have borne this message to the nations in obedience to our Lord's command. They have not stopped

because of dangers, nor been deterred by labors nor expense, but many of them have laid down their lives for Jesus and the gospel, and have thus won the martyr's crown. Let no one say there has not been a faithful ministry. God has witnessed for them with signs following. Many of the pioneer ministers in this country were uneducated men, but they were men of power, and God sealed their message on the hearts of our fathers and mothers, and made them God-loving and God-fearing men and women. Honor to their names, and peace to their ashes.

DEDUCTIONS.

(1) The ten tribes are still preserved as pure in their blood lineage as the Jews.

(2) Jesus was sent to them alone.

(3) To ignore them is to obscure revelation.

CHAPTER IV.

GOD'S UNCONDITIONAL COVENANT TO DAVID, AND THE ESTABLISHMEnt of the Kingdom of CHRIST.

God called Abram out of Ur for the express purpose of making a nation for himself. He assured him that in Isaac should his seed be called. Isaac, by his blessing, settled it on Jacob; and God changed Jacob's name to Israel. Then we are told in Deut. 32:8, 9 (Leeser), "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of man; he set the bounds of the tribes according to the number of the sons of Israel; For the portion of the Lord is his people: and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." Psa. 135:4 "For Jacob hath the Lord chosen unto himself, Israel, as his peculiar treasure." Deut. 7:6 "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth." David was God's choice to be king over this people. Through the prophet Nathan he made an unconditional covenant that he would establish David's kingdom and throne forever. II Samuel 7:16, "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever."

Psa. 89:3, 4, 28, 29, 34-37, "I have made a covenant with my chosen, (Israel). I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations. My mercy will I keep

for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.' There can be no stronger statement made in the Bible than the one here made that David's throne is to endure forever. When God ratified a covenant by an oath it was absolutely unchangeable. No condition arising thereafter could annul it or make it void. Here is a covenant, a sworn covenant, without a condition, that David's throne is to endure as long as the sun and moon perform their wonted revolutions. It is seven times declared by God and by Gabriel that Jesus Christ is to receive David's throne and sit upon it, and reign over the house of Jacob forever.

Then how can any one who accepts the infallibility of the Scriptures for one moment admit that David's throne has ever ceased? It cannot be. Its perpetuity must be not only admitted, but shown. This is taking God at his word. There is no other way open. II Chr. 13:5, "Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?"

Jer. 31:35-37, "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar: the Lord of Hosts is his If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being

name.