cerning the church, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not read anything whatever about the believing Jew, who, as it is being claimed, "should not sever his connection with the nation," and who should still continue in keeping Jewish laws and feast days. All national distinctions cease in that body, and to preach that the believing Jew should continue to keep the seventh day, practice circumcision, keep the Passover and other feast days, is not alone nowhere taught in the Epistles, but such teaching is unscriptural and brings in a sad and confusing mixture which destroys the simplicity of the Gospel.

Now in the beginning of this present age there certainly was such a Jewish-Christian remnant in existence. To this the words of the apostle refer us. "Thus, then, in the present time there has been a remnant according to the election of Grace." That remnant of Jewish believers is seen in the opening chapters of the Book of Acts. The three thousand saved on the day of Pentecost were all Jews. Soon there was a very strong assembly composed of Jewish believers in Jerusalem, who were faithful witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ and who bore a faithful testimony in Jerusalem, which was fast ripening for the great judgment. Not alone

in Jerusalem, but also in other parts of the land, Jews became believers and formed Jewish-Christian synagogues. When Paul went to Jerusalem the elders of the JewishChristian assembly said to him: "Thou seest, brother, how many myriads there are of the Jews who have believed, and are all zealous for the law. And they have been informed concerning thee that thou teachest all the Jews among the nations apostasy from Moses, saying that they should not circumcise their children, nor walk in the customs" (Acts xxi:21). Paul's Gospel certainly teaches this, and it was the hour of his failure when he went back to the ceremonial law. But the passage tells us that there were myriads of believers, all Jews who continued in the observance of the law. They went to the temple to pray, kept the different feastsin one word, they continued in all the Jewish customs. God's mercy was still lingering over Jerusalem. These Hebrew-Christian believers had hopes that the nation would yet receive their testimony and accept Him whom they had rejected. They were persecuted, beaten, some killed, their goods spoiled, cast out of the synagogue and the temple, and still they continued in their faithful testimony. It was a transition period, passing out of the

old into the new. For a time such an attitude of Jewish believers was undoubtedly justified. But then the Holy Spirit addressed an Epistle to these Hebrews, and that Epistle gives us not only a true insight into their condition and danger, their steadfastness and faithfulness, but it also reveals how the Holy Spirit shows them the better things of the new covenant. No one can read the Epistle to the Hebrews without being convinced that in this wonderful commentary to the levitical institutions, showing the fulfillment in Him who is a better priest, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Spirit of God aims at this very fact, that all ceremonies, all levitical observances, are to be discontinued. They were all the shadows of better things. In the end of the Epistle He speaks that Word which showed these Hebrew believers their true position, "Let us go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebr. xiii:13). At last Jerusalem fell. The temple was destroyed. The people were scattered. It was therefore made impossible for Jewish believers to continue in the position which they held for years. Jewish-Christian assemblies in their peculiar national character ceased in their existence. While in the beginning of this dispensation it was "to the

Jew first," that order was stopped with the full rejection of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews.

However, the existence of a remnant of believers among the nation, the myriads who had accepted the Lord as their Saviour and the Hope of Israel, was a definite proof that God had not completely cast away His people. It was proof that He was ready to deal with them according to His infinite mercy.

A Jewish remnant in the sense of the apostolic days is no longer possible. To teach that such a remnant is to be gathered now and to attempt the formation of Jewish national assemblies of believing Hebrews, who continue as Jews though trusting in Christ, practicing circumcision, fasts and other Jewish customs, is confusing and mars completely the doctrines of Grace and that revelation of all revelations, the church, which is His Body. We repeat it once more, the believing Jew at this time is not "gentilized," as has been pressed so much from certain sides, but he becomes a member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and has with every other believer a heavenly hope, a heavenly destiny. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take His own unto Himself, every believ

ing Jew, saved by Grace, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

A fact in this connection must not be overlooked. The Lord has put His hand throughout this Christian dispensation, in every century, upon hundreds and thousands of Jews, and through His Grace they have been saved, not a few of them in a most remarkable way. The past century, the nineteenth, has had more witnesses in this respect than any other. Some of the best teachers, expositors of the Scriptures, were converted Hebrews. We mention Adolf Saphir, Dr. Edersheim, Neander, Cassel, Gottheil and Rabinowitz. Some of them were led out of the deepest darkness with thousands of others whose names are not so universally known. This, too, is an evidence that blindness has happened only in part to Israel.

But there is yet to be a Jewish remnant, a strong and mighty witness that God hath not cast away His people. This future remnant of believing Hebrews will be called as soon as the church is complete and removed from the earth.* This remnant to be called

*If it were true and scriptural that the Church is to pass through the great tribulation, it would also be perfectly in order to have a Jewish national assembly of Hebrew believers now. Indeed the estab