THE EEADERS FOR WHOM MATTHEW WROTE HIS GOSPEL. 197 



church." *' Grace and truth " came by Jesus Christ, but that is not 

 Christianity, but the principles on which the Kingdom was to be 

 set up. It is important to remember that during our Lord's mission, 

 Israel had not been set aside nationally, the true branches had not 

 been severed from the olive tree (see Rom. xi.). They were still 

 in the place of national privilege. Christianity, which recognizes 

 no national preference, is incompatible with the Jewish position of 

 most favoured nation. The two cannot co-exist. Christianity 

 depends on the ascended Christ and a completed Pentecost. Every 

 intelligent Jew of our Lord's time would be familiar with the 

 prophet Daniel. They had no " higher critics " among them to 

 explain that Daniel was a forgery ! They knew that of Daniel's 

 four world-empires, three had fallen, that they were under the 

 fourth, and that what would follow would be the Kingdom which 

 the God of Heaven would set up, which would break in pieces and 

 consume all the other kingdoms. What else could the " Kingdom 

 of the Heavens " announced by the Baptist, by Christ and His 

 Apostles, be than that fifth Kingdom. 



It was only when they rejected the Kingdom on the King's terms 

 that the testimony was modified, and works of power — the miracu- 

 lous signs of the Kingdom — were largely replaced by words of 

 power — prophetic parables expounding the mysteries of the 

 Kingdom. What are these mysteries ? That a Kingdom should be 

 set up in the hearts of the disciples in the absence of the rejected 

 King. This is the present aspect of the Kingdom, " not meat and 

 drink," that is, consisting of outward rules and rites; but righteous- 

 ness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, an attitude of heart to 

 the absent Lord. 



Mr. AvAEY H. FoBBES expressed a doubt as to the ignorance 

 of Greek east of the Euphrates, which the lecturer assumed. After 

 the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, the latter mixed largely 

 in Persian affairs, as enemies, allies or partisans. Many of these 

 Greeks remained in Persia. Alexander's invasion, later on, was 

 not that of a vulgar conqueror. He sought to spread Hellenic 

 culture in Asia, and amalgamate the East and the West. He 

 founded towns along his route, he encouraged his soldiers to marry 

 Asiatic wives, and set the example himself ; and he induced many 

 Asiatics to enlist under his banner. At Persepolis, he found many 

 hundreds of Greeks, who, for some offence, had lost an eye, a hand, 

 a foot or an ear — according to the cruel Persian laws. These he 

 offered to send back to Greece, and support them himself. But, 

 ashamed of their mutilated condition, they preferred to remain m 

 Persia. In the Persian armies which Alexander encountered, more- 

 over, there was often a phalanx of Greek mercenaries. These facts 

 suggest that Greek was more widely understood east of the Euphrates 

 than assumed in the paper. 



The Author's reply: — I would begin by thanking the Institute 



