preach, is incalculable. Not a little of the teach- ing of Jesus which we have in the Gospels may have taken its present shape from tiie frequent repetition of their message.
i. The limits within which the personal work of Jesus ivas confined ivere declared hy Himself: 'I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel ' (Mt 15-^). During the time of His personal ministry the work of the disciples was similarly limited. In sending them forth, He .said, ' Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not : but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ' (Mt lO^- «). This restriction, given at such a time, is of great im- portance, for it is an indication that the idea of a mission outside the bounds of the Jewish peojile was in the minds of the disciples when they were sent out on their first missionary journey. The restriction Avould have been needless if the dis- ciples had not thought of such a mission as a possibility. It is an entire misreading of the Gospel history to imagine that the glorious concep- tion of a world-wide mission was an afterthought, which only occurred to the disciples, or was sug- gested to tiiem, after the resurrection of our Lord. The limitations which were so carefully laid down were temporarj-, and Avere eWdently regarded as temporary. Even in declaring that He was sent but to the lo.st sheep of the house of Israel, He had also said, ' Let the children first be filled' (Mk 7^). The reasons for the limitation were adequate. The disciples had to be fully trained ; the Kingdom of God had to be iireached to the people who had been disciplined by the providence of God to receive it ; the gospel had to be completed by the full dis- closure of the redemption of grace, in the death and resurrection of the Saviour.
5. Indications of a world mission in the teaching of Jesus. — Apart from the essentially universal character of the gospel, which ine^dtably involved a univer.sal mission, there are indications that the world-wide view was brought before the minds of the disciples prior to the time when the great com- mission was given. The disciples were to be ' the salt of the earth ' and ' the light of the world ' (Mt 513. i4j When Jesus jjraised the faith of the cen- turion of Capernaum, He said, ' Many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God' (Mt 8^'; cf. also the same passage in Lk. in another connexion, where He adds, as if in refer- ence to the preference which the Jews had received, ' Behold there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last,' Lk IS^^- ^^). So also, when defending the woman who had anointed Him with the box of ointment. He said, ' Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, this . . . shall be told for a memorial of her' (Mt 261^). Then He warned the disciples, saying, ' Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testi- mony against them and the Gentiles' (Mt 10^^). Many of the parables have references to or sugges- tions of a future extension of work among the Gentiles. In the interpretation of the parable of the Tares (one of the earlier parables) it is said that ' the field is the world ' (Mt 13*«). In the later series of parables, as in that of the Vinej^ard and the Husbandmen, it is said, ' The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof ' (Mt 21^) ; in the Marriage Feast the direction is found, ' Go ye . . . into the highways, and as many as j'e shall find, bid to the marriage ' (Mt 22», Lk 14^3) ; in the Sheep and the Goats there is a picture of the judgment of 'all nations' (Mt 25^^). Direct in timations of a world mission are not awanting, as in the apocalyptic discourses in the Synoptics,
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