days as a corporeal personality doubtless arose from the passage in Acts which reads, "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." And in what manner did they see him go? Not as one who had taught them to revere the material concept of man, the man of dust, but as one who was laying it down, not only for himself but for their sakes and for the world. He was leaving them as the conqueror over death, the corruption of the grave, and over the sense of matter itself. He had been working up to this accomplishment from the beginning of his career. He had been bringing matter into subjection, changing water into wine, walking on the waves, raising the dead, passing through closed doors, making the diseased whole, etc., and now his pure spiritual consciousness was rising above the material sense altogether, so that he became invisible to the physical sense of his disciples. In the fulness of time, when the human understanding should have become prepared for it, he would be seen to return in the same manner, that is as having risen above all materiality, not as being still in possession of the flesh.

Jesus never taught that the Christ, the truth about God, would leave the world in the spiritual or real sense; it was only the human material concept of the Messiah that it was "expedient" should be taken away, in order that the Comforter, the spiritual sense of the Christ, might become known. Jesus recognized the tendency, even in his own day, to exalt his human personality, and the danger attaching to such a course. We read that after feeding the five thousand with the five loaves, he went away alone lest the people should forcibly "make him a king." He taught very plainly that he had not come to be worshipped, but to serve and to save. If it was not right for the Jews to worship his personality in that day, it must be equally wrong for Christians to do this today.

Jesus' statement that "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation," or to the outward appearance, but

is "within you," within a man's cognizance of divine things, should indicate that when the Christ comes again, it will be to the individual spiritual consciousness, and not as a material form. The prediction that "every eye shall see him" would be impossible of fulfilment, with the present limitation of human sight, for a personal descent could be visible to only a portion of the earth's inhabitants. Deity, being omnipresent, could not be more present than He now is, except that the materiality of human consciousness hides this divinity from view, so that what is plainly needed is not more material but more spiritual vision. Even were Jesus to appear again in a physical form, it would not lessen one iota of the demand for human regeneration, for an individual is made better only as he forsakes evil and obeys the law of good. It is perfectly certain that unless the kingdom of God is welcomed into the hearts of men, no personal appearing can establish it upon the earth.

Paul apparently recognized this when he said, "Although we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." The apostle understood God to be Spirit, but popular belief would reverse his statement to the Athenians, and say, "In matter we live and move and have our being.' To conceive of God, or of God's idea, as inhabiting flesh and blood, is to contradict the Scriptural statement, that the flesh and Spirit are contrary the one to the other, and similar passages. If it be true that man lives in God, man must live in Spirit and spiritually, not materially; and Christ, his Saviour from the flesh, would necessarily appear to his understanding in the spiritual sense, since “spiritual things," we are taught, are "spiritually discerned." It is for this spiritual appearing, this transforming perception of divinity, that we should not only be waiting and watching for, but preparing.

But what has all this to do with Israel? Everything; for all that pertains to the true idea of Israel is bound up with the truth which declares God, and is therefore inseparable from the Christ, whether in the first century

of the twentieth It has been plainly seen that Israel must realize her restoratit trong an understanding of the Scriptores, that is through a koraledge of the Christ, or divine Truth to when the Scriptures point and which they reveal in Jeness to Reveliora. In other words, Israel must return inn ber exle through the practice of Christianity, because there is no other possible way.

Israelite and Christian are terms which differ in degree but nue in qualy or character, an in their true essence are identical esas sato Nathaniel Behold an Israelite indeed "; and this Ismelite sur in less the "Son of God" and the "King of Isr The Messiah said of the great Hebrew patriarch Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad" by which he evidently meant that what Abraham had glimpsed of the truth about God was, in its degree, the same that Jesus presented Abraham sow the day of Christianity as the goal towards which his seed were to journey. It was Jacob's perception of the same truth which was given the designation of Israel, a name which was to mark his descendants, in something more than racial difference, from the other peoples of the earth. The seed of Jacob were called the children of Israel, or the Israelites, whether they were individually true to the ideal of Israel or not: in the same way that members of the AngloSaxon race are known as Christians, whether or not they individually conform to the teachings of Christ.

The consummation of the journey of Israel during six thousand years will not be the occurrence of a day or of a year, but of a period. This prophetical fulfilment is undoubtedly taking place, but of the time of its completion "knoweth no man." That the Christ, in a higher meaning than ever before, is knocking at the door of human consciousness cannot be questioned, but how great or how prolonged may be the ordeal required in finally establishing God's rule among men, the Scriptures do not reveal.

CHAPTER XXVI

ANGLO-ISRAEL: THE SECOND WITNESS

I will ordain a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more. - I CHRON. 17: 9.

He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

T

And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. ISA. 27:6; 54:3; 61:9; 62: 2.

HE Scriptures are so definite and outspoken on the subject of Israel's restoration as a nation, that there

is no ground for the claim that that restoration will be fulfilled in its spiritual meaning only. In the prophecies the spiritual and national phases of Israel's return are parallel, and it is not implied that either of these will supplant the other or render its existence and functions unnecessary. The importance of spiritual Israel cannot be overestimated; but literal Israel, the Israel that the eyes can look upon, must also have its place "while the earth remaineth." If, then, we are to accept the statements of Holy Writ, we must be ready to acknowledge that the house of Joseph, the representative tribe of Israel, has not been literally obliterated any more than has the house of Judah, and must be as capable of being disclosed to the world, and will be so disclosed when the time comes for the veil to be drawn aside.

The Mosaic law required a second witness for the substantiation of evidence, and it is this second or con

or the twentieth. It has been plainly seen that Israel must realize her restoration through an understanding of the Scriptures, that is through a knowledge of the Christ, or divine Truth, to which the Scriptures point and which they reveal from Genesis to Revelation. In other words, Israel must return from her exile through the practice of Christianity, because there is no other possible way.

Israelite and Christian are terms which differ in degree but not in quality or character, and in their true essence are identical. Jesus said to Nathaniel," Behold an Israelite indeed"; and this Israelite saw in Jesus the “Son of God" and the "King of Israel." The Messiah said of the great Hebrew patriarch, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad," by which he evidently meant that what Abraham had glimpsed of the truth about God was, in its degree, the same that Jesus presented. Abraham saw the day of Christianity as the goal towards which his seed were to journey. It was Jacob's perception of the same truth which was given the designation of Israel, a name which was to mark his descendants, in something more than racial difference, from the other peoples of the earth. The seed of Jacob were called the children of Israel, or the Israelites, whether they were individually true to the ideal of Israel or not; in the same way that members of the AngloSaxon race are known as Christians, whether or not they individually conform to the teachings of Christ.

The consummation of the journey of Israel during six thousand years will not be the occurrence of a day or of a year, but of a period. This prophetical fulfilment is undoubtedly taking place, but of the time of its completion "knoweth no man." That the Christ, in a higher meaning than ever before, is knocking at the door of human consciousness cannot be questioned, but how great or how prolonged may be the ordeal required in finally establishing God's rule among men, the Scriptures do not reveal.