Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/86

 c 'fhe Ptan of the Ages,

been he which should have redeemed Israel * ' (Luke 24^21.) Apparently, their confidence in him had been misplaced. They felled to see that the death of their leader was a ratification of the New Covenant under which the blessings were to come, a partial fulfilment of the covenant of promise. However, when they found that he had risen from the tomb, their withered hopes again began to revive (i Peter t : 3), and when he was about to leave them, they asked concerning their long-cherished and oft-deferred hope, saying, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" That their hopes were in the main correct, though they might not know the time when they would be fulfilled, is evident from oar Lord's reply: "it is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Ads i : 6, 7.

What turn has God's plan now taken? must have been the query of his disciples when Jesus had ascends 1 ; for we must remember that our Lord's teachings concerning the Kingdom were principally in parables and dark sayings. He had said to them, "I have yet | many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now; hovvbcit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will tfiiicle you into all truth/' "He shall teach you all things, ami brhi ail things to your remembrance, whatsoever 1 have Siiul unto you. 1 ' (John 16: 12, 135 14: 26.) So they could not un- derstand before the Pentecostal blessing came.

Even then, it was some time before they got a dear, full understanding of the work being dune, and its relation to the original covenant (Acls n : 9 ; (lul. 2 ; 2, xa, 14.) However, it would scorn that even Ixsfore they fully and clearly understood, they were used as the mouthpieces of God, and their inspired words were probably clearer and deejKjr expressions of truth than they themselves fully comprehended. For instance, read Jam** 1 diicgurse ift

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