the redemption of Christ. He teaches that the middle wall of partition between the two had been broken down, and that the Gentiles were no more "strangers and foreigners, but fellow- citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." (Eph. ii. 19.) The great object of the Epistle to the Hebrews is to show that the Gospel is the substance of which the old dispensation was the shadow ; that nothing more glorious, real, and effectual was to be, or could be, so far as the salvation of sinners is con- cerned. The- eternal Son of God, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, had assumed our na- ture to become the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. There was no hope for those who neglected the great salvation which he announced, and no more sacrifice for sin remained for those who refused to be cleansed by his most precious blood. The final revelation of God's truth, the offering of the infinitely meritorious sacrifice for sin, and the cooperation of the everywhere present and almighty Spirit of God are all made known in the Gospel ; and the Bible knows nothing of any other arrangements for the salvation of men. It is evident that the Apostles consid- ered the dispensation of the Spirit under which we are now liv- ing, as the only one which was to intervene between the first ad- vent of Christ and the end of the world.
6. In 2 Corinthians iii. the Apostle contrasts the new and old dispensations, showing that the former excels the latter, (1.) Be- cause the one used the ministration of the letter, the other uses that of the spirit. (2.) Because the one was the ministration of death and of condemnation, the other is the ministration of the Spirit and of righteousness ; and (3.) Because the one was transient and the other is permanent. "If that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." (verse 11.)
7. In Romans xi. 25, Paul teaches that the national conver- sion of the Jews is not to take place " until the fulness of the Gen- tiles be come in." The irX-qpoifxa tw idvS>v, is that which makes the number of the Gentiles full; the full complement which the Gentiles are to render to make the number of the elect complete.
This ingathering of the heathen is the special work of the Church. It is a missionary work. It was so understood by the Apostles. Their two great duties were the propagation and de- fence of the truth. To these they devoted themselves. While they laboured night and day, and travelled hither and thither through all parts of the Roman world, preaching the Gospel ;
804 PART IV. Ch. III. — THE SECOND ADVENT.
they laboured no less assiduously in its defence. All the epistles of the New Testament, those of Paul, Peter, John, and James, are directed towards the correction of false doctrine. These two duties of propagating and of defending the truth, the Apostles devolved on their successors. During the apostolic age and for some time after it, the former had the ascendancy ; to preach the Gospel to all nations, to bring all men to the knowledge of the truth, was felt to be the special vocation of the Church. Gradu- ally, and especially after the conversion of Constantine and the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Roman em- pire, the mind of the Church was directed principally to securing what had been attained ; in perfecting its organization and in stating its creed and defending it against the numerous forms of error by which it was assailed.
From this time for long centuries the Church found its hands filled with its internal affairs. Its energies were expended mainly in three directions, in building up a hierarchy with a supreme pontiff, surrounded by ecclesiastical princes, which sought to con- centrate in itself all power over the bodies and souls of men ; in founding numerous orders of monks; and in the subtleties of metaphysical discussions. The work of missions during this period was almost entirely neglected.
When the Reformation came, the Protestants had as much as they could do to live. They had arrayed against them every- where the tremendous power of the Romish Church, and in most cases all the power of the State. They had to defend their doc- trines against the prejudices and learning of the age ; to organize their Churches, and alas ! they were distracted among themselves. Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," was almost forgotten. It is only within the last fifty years that the Church has been brought to feel that its great duty is the conversion of the nations. More, probably, has been done in this direction during the last half century than during the preceding five hundred years. It is to be hoped that a new effu- sion of the Spirit like that of the day of Pentecost may be granted to the Church whose fruits shall as far exceed those of the first effusion as the millions of Christians now alive exceed in number the one hundred and twenty souls then gathered in Jerusalem.
That the conversion of the Gentile world is the work assigned the Church under the present dispensation, and that it is not to fold its hands and await the second coming of Christ to accom-