CHAPTER III.

THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION.

The Fate of the Holy City That Had Become

Unholy.

Alas! The Holy City whose very stones were dear to those that loved her, was holy no longer. The Son of Man had foretold this, the greatest of all tribulations. "For when He drew nigh, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children with thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.'" (Luke 19:41-44.)

While on His last weary journey, Jesus turned unto the weeping women who were following Him and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your

children. For behold the days are coming, in which they shall say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.'" (Luke 23: 28-30.)

Jesus had already declared that "except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." (Matt. 4:22.)

Paul, having this great tribulation in mind, advised a temporary suspension of marriage and that those that had wives be as though they had none. (I Cor. 7.)

"Behold," says he, "the goodness and severity of God; toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off, and they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in." (Rom. 11:22-23.)

And so God has revealed not only His great love for men, but also His great wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness." (Rom. 1-18.) It is as Browning has said:

"I spake as I saw,

All's love, yet all's law."

Confirming the Word by Signs.

There was an overlapping of the covenants from the Day of Pentecost when God began to write His law's upon the hearts of His people, until the fall of Judaism and the destruction of antichrists about thirty-seven years later. During this period of transition the preaching of the disciples was accompanied by signs. Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always, (all the days, marg.) even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28-20.)

Again He said: "These signs shall accompany them that believe: In my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover, and they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." Mark 16: 17, 18, also Matt. 10:8.) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

That the Lord would be with them to the end of the world, confirming the word by these miraculous manifestations of His power, is clear, To me, it is also clear that some of the disciples who heard Jesus speak these parting words, lived to

see the end of the world. "But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." (Heb. 9: 26, A. V.)

"Verily I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." (Matt. 10:23.)

The Gospel Preached to the Whole World.

"This gospel of the kingdom," said Jesus, "shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14.)

That the gospel was preached in all the known world, and that it was accomplished in the generation then living, the following Scriptures clearly show. Just before He was received up into heaven, Jesus said unto the little company of believers that were gathered around Him, "Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 18.) "And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." (Mark 16: 20.)

And after a few years, Paul, who "labored more abundantly than they all," was enabled to say, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." (Rom. 1:8.)

"But I say, did they not hear? Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." (Rom. 10:18.)

"According to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations." (Rom. 16:26.)

"Which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing." (Col. 1:6.)

"If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I, Paul, was made a minister." (Col. I: 23.)

For the rapidity with which Christianity spread over the world until the latter part of the first century, we have not only the words of Holy Writ, but also the words of Gibbon the Historian.

There is therefore abundant evidence that the