THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 



107 



preparing whom for their olfice he had spent three years. And 

 He intimates that this commission should be carried on to the 

 end of the age. Does not this point unmistakably to Purpose, 

 Plan, Preparation ? Can we fail to perceive that for the various 

 events connected with this great Redemption, the hours are 

 fixed ? At Cana He had said, "Mine hour is not yet come." 

 Now He lifts His eyes unto heaven and says, "Father, the 

 hour is come." The hour, the very hour fixed in the Eternal 

 Council for the accomplishment of " the eternal purpose which 

 God purposed from eternity." And so when in the course of 

 human history " the fulness of time was come," " God sent 

 forth His Son*" (Gal. iv, 4). 



The events of the Old Testament all point to pre-arrange- 

 ment of " times and seasons," i.e., periods of prolonged action, 

 and dates of particular events : the call of Abraham, the " 420 

 years," reaching to " the self-same day," when Israel departed 

 out of Egypt, the birth of Moses, the lineage and training and 

 summons of David, the captivity in Babylon for a fixed 

 " seventy years," the rise of the Greek Kingdoms, the founding 

 of the Roman Empire, " at the time appointed " (Dan. xi, 29). 

 " Know therefore and understand, from the going forth of the 

 command to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the 

 Prince shall be three-score and two weeks" (Dan. ix, 25, 26). 

 See also the fixed numbers in the " Book of the Revelation." 



As we turn to the records in the Bible we note many 

 decisive events and epochs, involving an immense number of 

 details, such for instance as, at the timing of the decree of 

 Ciesar Augustus so as to secure that the Holy Nativity should 

 take place, not in Nazareth, but in Bethlehem ; and the birth 

 of Said of Tarsus, " the chosen vessel," in the very decade of 

 our Lord's Incarnation, with the rights of a Roman citizen and 

 a deep interest in Asia Minor. 



Or look back to Moses, mark how God secured that he 

 should become learned in all the learning of the Egyptians, 

 and to be trained to be a leader and commander of the people. 

 While yet in the vigour of early life he has to fly from Egypt. 

 He finds refuge in the tents of Jethro. Now Jethro was a 

 Hittite, a member of that nation who were learned men of 

 that age. It is said that there was a college of Hittite scribes 

 in the heart of Egypt. With Jethro Moses was content to 

 spend forty years. Here the learned Hebrew was surrounded 

 by inscriptions engraved on tiles, temples, statues, and rocks, 

 such as have recently been so largely found again and 

 deciphered. Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 



