(3) To His limiting the mission of the Twelve to Galilee and Judpea on His first sending them forth (Mt 10^- ^), we may apply the words of Is 28'® : ' He that believeth shall not make haste.' It was con- sistent with the highest wisdom not to propel them into a wider field than the one in which, with the training they had hitherto received, they could labour with profit. His words, ' Go not into any way of the Gentiles,' reveal His wisdom in anotiier way. By giving His disciples this charge. He abstained from needlessly offending His fellow- countrymen, to whom it was His first object to commend the gospel. His heart's desire for them was that they might be saved ; He called the season of His earthly activity among them ' the acceptable year of the Lord ' (Lk 4'^), and, after His departure to heaven, extended their opportunity of ' knowing the things which belonged unto their peace ' (cf. Lk 19^^) foj. fo^ty years (cf. He 3^- "). In the story of the Syrophcenician, Ave hear Jesus first telling His disciples that He limited His own mission of healing, as He had previously limited theirs, to the afHicted in Israel ; but in another moment we see Him recognizing in the illustrious faith with which a poor Gentile woman met His refusal of her petition the indication of His Father's will that those limits should be transcended, and that His saving mercy should go forth to all, with- out distinction of race, who had faith like hers to receive it. The words reported by St. Mark (T^), ' Let the children Jirst be filled,' also suggest that Jesus had in view, when He spoke them, the Gentiles, who should not have long to wait before they too could come to His full table.
(4) If the Gospel of Mark was written 'at the latest in the sixtii decade of the first century ' (Harnack, Date of the Acts, p. 126), and 'was known
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to both the other Synoptists in the same form and with the same contents as v,e have it now' (Well- hausen, Einleitttng, p. 57, quoted in Burkitt, Gospel Hist, and its Transmission, p. 6-4), it follows that the sayinjjs, ' The gospel must hrst be preached unto all tile nations ' and ' Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world ' (13'" 14^), were put on record in little more than twenty years after they were spoken. 'The Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,' is, as Burkitt says {op. cit., p. 188), the motto, the special doctrine, of St. Matthew's Gospel. This sentence occurs in one of the last parables of judgment (21''^), but other sayings re- ported before lead up to it, as : ' ]\Iany shall come from the east and west ' ; ' The field is the world ' ; 'The last shall be first, and the first last' (8" IS^s 20^®). From St. Luke's account of our Lord's dis- course at Nazareth it is clear that His hearers understood the references to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha as pointing to the admission of Gentiles into the Kingdom (4^). In Luke, too, Samaritans are exhibited as excelling Jews in compassionate and grateful love (10^ 17'^). The value of his report of the commission given by our Lord to His disciples in the upper room (24'*''"'*'*), and rejieated at the Ascension (Ac P), is height- ened by the fact that ' it seems now to be estab- lished beyond question that botli books of this [Luke's] great historical work were written while St. Paul was still alive' (Harnack, Date of the Acts, p. 124).
(5) Finally, as a historical account of certain incidents and crises in the life of Christ which showed Him to he the Son of God (Jn 20'''), the F"ourth Gospel claims to have the authority of an eye-witness behind it. The truth of this claim has never been disproved. This Gospel is the crowning proof that there Nvas present to the mind of our Lortl from the beginning a purpose of salva- tion which comprehended the Gentile world. It clinches the argument, it is the keystone of the arch. For here Jesus calls Himself ' the light of the world,' speaks of 'giving his flesh for the life of the world,' and of ' sending his disciples into the world in like manner as the Father sent liim into the world ' ; to the woman at the well He speaks of the hour when, not the coming to God at tlieancientsanctuaries, butthecomingtothe Father 'in spirit and truth,' will be the mark of the sin- cere worshipper ; He resides two days with the Samaritans ; He proclaims to the leaders of the Jewish Church that He has 'other sheep, not of this fold,' whom He must bring, and who will re- cognize in His voice that of their Shepherd ; above all, on the eve of those sutt'erings whereby He was to enter into His glory, He beliolds in certain Greeks desiring to see Him a prospect so satisfying to His heart that, in the exultation of His saving love. He cries : ' And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' The preserva- tion of such sayings as tiiese made the work of this Evangelist a gospel of consolation to the Gen- tile churches of Asia Minor at the close of the 1st cent. ; and the assurance of the members of St. John's immediate circle is now ours : ' We know that his witness is true' (21--').