Luke xxiv. that He expressly pointed His disciples to the heathen world as well as to Israel, as the sphere of their mission. His own words in sending out the Twelve in the middle of His ministry, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, nor into any city of the Samaritans," ought not to have been adduced against this. The time for a mission to the Gentiles had not then arrived, the disciples would not have been in any way competent to undertake it, and the attempt to do so would only have hindered their access to their own people. Moreover, the words would have been quite superfluous, if Jesus had not been training His disciples in large-hearted dispositions towards those who were not Jews. But the time came when it was said, "Go into all the world and teach all nations, preach the gospel to every creature" (Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15). We must not infer from the inaccurate and condensed report of these last sayings that Jesus expressly charged the eleven apostles to go to the heathen world; that is indeed inconceivable in view of the conduct of the first apostles, which, as we know on perfectly good authority, was entirely different. But He did commit to His Church a world-wide mission for the conversion of all nations without marking out how the commission should be discharged, so that the Church could only express His final will, as is done in Matt. xxviii. 18. And there is further testimony than these closing words: there are such sayings as," the field is the world" (Matt. xiii. 18); "ye are the light of the world" (Matt. v. 14); "wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world (Matt. xxvi. 13); “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations " (Matt. xxiv. 14). And besides such individual sayings, it is attested by the whole of Jesus' view of His office of judging the world, which we have soon to discuss.

§ 4. PROPHETIC OUTLOOK

On the other hand, in order to prepare it for its task, Jesus gives the Church of His disciples a view of the experiences awaiting it in the world, which forms the transition to His prophetic declarations in the narrower sense of the word. There are dark and painful experiences before them, for which

He prepares them, in order that they may not be perplexed or led astray by them: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves" (Matt. x. 16; Luke x. 3). Harmless and defenceless, they go forth into a hostile and persecuting world, which will requite with evil their peaceable work of salvation. Especially did He prepare His disciples for the conflicts and rage which His name will kindle in the world: "Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth: I am not come to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. x. 34; Luke xii. 51). Religious dissensions, the violent contrast of the old and the new faith, will sever even the closest natural bonds, the bond between brother and brother, between children and parents. Such experiences will call for courage as well as prudence and calmness. He that hath a purse, let him take it; and he that hath none, let him sell his garment and buy a sword," cries Jesus to His disciples in an obscure metaphor on the evening of parting; and thus He contrasts the career of conflict which is about to begin for them with the life they had lived under His protection, without trouble and without care; henceforth, He says, they must care for themselves, and bravely make their own way (Luke xxii. 35-37). But they are not to provoke the hostility and persecution of the world: "Give not that which is holy to the dogs; and cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Matt. vii. 6). In the world there is a roughness and commonness, there is something of the beast, which the unwise obtrusion of holy things only provokes to mockery and even to violence. Not for such men are the pearls of truth which the disciples bore. Jesus therefore counsels further: "When they persecute you in one city, flee to another." They are not to seek martyrdom, as fanatic Christians in the second century did. And again: "Be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves"; that is, learn to wind your way through the evil world, but see that your wisdom does not injure your simplicity and integrity (Matt. x. 16-23). Strong words of encouragement are attached to these dark predictions: "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake. But take no thought how or what ye shall answer: for it is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you" (Matt. x. 18-20). “Ye

shall be hated of all men for My name's sake; but fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." "Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered "; that is, not a hair can be injured without the will of God, who at all times has a Father's heart towards you. But the Lord predicted more terrible dangers for His children than outer persecutions. Seduction will vie with persecution, inner enemies will endanger the Church in that which is more essential than the life of the body. False prophets will enter in, like wolves in sheep's clothing, corrupt men in the garments of innocence and piety; and it will be all the harder for the Church to discern their true character, since it is the prophet's business to bring new knowledge, and prophecy, by which new knowledge is ever being drawn from the divine source of truth, the inexhaustible gospel, is a necessity of the Church's life. Jesus in such circumstances gives His disciples a simple test for the hardest cases: "By their fruits ye shall know them. Can men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?" (Matt. vii. 15-20). That is to say, new knowledge and modes of teaching are worthy of confidence when they are able to bring forth the fruits of a Christian life, and when those who teach them are themselves examples of conduct. When that is not so, the Church must distrust them. But even the disciples might be led away by a faith and an enthusiasm which had no moral fruits, and therefore the Parable of the Tree which must be known by its fruits holds good even for themselves. With warning emphasis, Jesus admits no value before God, and no saving power to a faith, however orthodox or even enthusiastic and energetic it may be, if it does not furnish the proof of its genuineness in a simple fulfilling of the divine commandments. "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21; cf. 24-27). "Many will say to Me on that day, Have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess to them, I never knew you (never had anything in common with you): depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. vii. 22,

23). If even those are rejected who, in genuine religious enthusiasm, make a mighty impression on the world, if they do not apply the gospel to their own life, how much more are those to be rejected who have nothing more to boast of than mere outer impressions of Him: "We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets (Luke xiii. 26, 27). Still more rigorously than in these warnings does Jesus mark the distinction between the genuine and the spurious members of His future Church in the Parable of the Tares among the Wheat (Matt. xiii. 24-30, 36-43), in which He uttered a great lesson for His Church. The Son of Man sows good seed in His field; wherever His wheat comes up, there grow children of the kingdom of heaven. But the old enemy, the spirit of selfishness and deceit, knows also how to scatter his poison in this new divine creation. He sows secretly tares and cockleweed among the wheat. These are the children of the evil one, that is, not merely nominal Christians, but hypocrites and wicked men, who under the guise of godliness do the work of Satan, deceit and hatred. We have at once something like an explanation of the presence of Judas among the disciples, a sort of prophetic protest against certain fearful and antichristian phenomena in Church history, when the parable asks: "Hast thou not sown good seed in thy field? whence then hath it tares?" and answers by the words: "An enemy hath done it." But it would be a fatal error for the disciples of Jesus to yield to the natural temptation, and seek to put outward and arbitrary restraints upon this process, or attempt to expose and separate from each other the children of God and the children of the devil. They cannot succeed in that. The law of the present history of good and evil in the world brings into inseparable relations those born of God and those against God; even the history of the kingdom of God, the development of the Church of Christ, cannot escape this law. The day of separation comes only at the end of this world, and it will be accomplished by higher powers than the weak and fallible hands of men. To this great day, the συντέλεια aivos, Jesus finally points His disciples, even for their own sakes, as the great motive for preserving their fidelity; and in this duty of faithfulness is summed up their whole task in

the world, their work both without and within themselves. In the picture, varying often in its details, of the servants waiting for their absent lord, and tested by his absence (Luke xii. 35 f., xix. 11 f.; Matt. xxv. 14 f.), Jesus never wearies of urging upon them this one duty, which includes all others. The exhortation becomes an encouragement when the reward of the faithful is described-the harder his life on earth, the higher his place in heaven (Matt. v. 11, 12); and even the very smallest kindness shown to him on earth, even the cup of water given him because he is a disciple of Christ, shall not go unrewarded (Matt. x. 40-42). Here already on earth, in the midst of all persecution, the brotherly communion of love will compensate a hundred fold for all that is given up for Christ's sake (Matt. x. 28-30). On the other hand, it should be difficult to struggle and suffer for a cause whose victory is certain, which shall crown all who fight to the end. Not only will the gates of Hades not prevail against the Church of Jesus, but the Church, however small and feeble it is at present, will go on from victory to victory. As the mustard seed, which is the least of all seeds, grows like a tree, and stands higher than all the herbs of the garden; as the little leaven leavens the great mass of meal, and turns it to something higher, to precious bread: so the kingdom of God, even in the shape of the Church, will rise above all kingdoms of the world, and it will work in the hearts of men, and lift them to a new and higher level of existence. And as surely as seedtime is followed by harvest, so the day will come, the day of judgment, when the Church will put off all weakness and defects, and be changed into the perfect kingdom of God.

CHAPTER VIII

THE JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD

The declarations of Jesus about His dying and rising again, and still more, those about His Church and its future, are already of the nature of prophecy; but the doctrine which completes His teaching, His predictions of the perfected