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THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS means! But at the same time, let us remind his readers that his assertion is false to this great New Testament truth. Christ took pains to correct those uninspired disciples who thought "that the kingdom should IMMEDI ATELY appear” by speaking the parable of “ a certain nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return.” Far countries are not shortly reached, and the return is not speedy. When a man admits concerning the hope of the premillennialist, “ This hope is upon almost every page of the New Testament,” and then deliberately at tempts to destroy that hope, he is, by the strictest logic, making an attempt upon the New Testament itself. “ When the foundations are removed, what shall the righteous do?” No less destructive is the Professor’s attempt to distinguish between what the Bible teaches and what its writers actually meant; and by his contention that “ in order to get at the conceptions of these ancient men of God they have to be translated into English,” he practically puts the Bible out of existence for the great body of the people. Not one man in a thousand can translate the Hebrew or Greek lan guage into English; we doubt if the Professor himself can do it; and if no more can translate the conceptions of New Testament teachers into modern thought, then our REVELATION is an ENIGMA and our GOSPEL is Greek in deed. Again, the same Lord uttered the parable of the vineyard let to husband men while He went into a far country “ for a long time”— Luke 20:9. When, in Matthew 24, they asked Jesus about the destruction of Jerusalem, His sec ond appearance, and the end of the age, He prophesied history that has covered two thousand years for its fulT filment; and “ the end is not yet!” He concluded that prophecy by reminding
them, “ This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a wit ness, unto all nations, before the end come.” In John’s Gospel we find that when there got abroad a saying among the brethren that John should not die until Jesus came, it was corrected, and the declaration is plainly written down that “ Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die;” but, “ If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Fol low thou me!” Paul,.a voluminous writer upon the second coming, always speaks of it as in “ the latter times” and refers to it as in “ the last days.” Writing to the Hebrew Christians on this subject, he says, “ for ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” (10:36.) James enjoins upon the brethren of his day “ patience until the coming of the Lord.” Peter seems to have known that time would last until this seminary pro fessor had risen as one of the men of whom he wrote: “ There shall come in the last days scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things con tinue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:3-4). Christ again, in another parable, declared that the delay would be so great that men would lose all hope of His coming, and resting future history upon the basis of past conduct, announce His delay, and, expecting to escape all accounting, exer cise cruelty toward their fellows, to be themselves overtaken in turn by His sudden appearance and certain judg ment. a » § » BEST ‘'Good, better, best. Never let it rest Till your good is better And your better best.”— Sel.
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