saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Rom. xi. 1–5).

"Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God" (Hosea i. 10).

"How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes, which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted" (Num. xxiv. 5-7).

CHAPTER V.

FOR THE WORLD.

THOUGH many of the promises to the sinner individually belong to the world at large, and many of the promises to the world apply to the sinner personally, yet it is of some importance to gather together the words of grace in which God has spoken to "the world," to "all nations," to the "Gentiles" who are "afar off," as well as to the Jews who are "nigh."

When meeting some Bedawi of the Arabian desert, or some fellah of Syria, or some unwashed, tattered drunkard of our great cities, we are apt to look on them as hopeless fragments of humanity, too far gone in ignorance or sin even for pity,—

"Waifs in the universe, the last

Lorn links of kindred chains for ever sundered,"

we seem almost persuaded that these outcasts are as much overlooked by God as by

man.

"They as some atom seem, which God
Had made superfluously and needed not
To build creation with; but back again
To nothing threw, and left it in the void,
With everlasting sense that once it was.”

But the large and wide words of Scripture take up all these wanderers; so that one in reading them feels that there is no outcast here too far gone astray to be brought back, or too deeply sunk in crime to be drawn out, or too thoroughly lost in the multitude to be singled out by the eye or yearned over by the heart of God. He who makes his sun to rise and his rain to fall on such, has not forgotten them, though his manner of dealing with them may seem a mystery to us.

We take this expression, "the world,” as referring to the race of men and to the earth which was made for them at first, and of which they were commanded to have dominion. To the far-off Gentile, to the very "ends of the earth," the gospel goes forth in its free gladness; and that word "whosoever" is an expression of the widest compass. "Whosoever will"

says the message.

The world's future will show how widely the glad tidings were meant to go. "Preach the gospel to every creature" is our commission now; and though we wonder and mourn at

the reception it meets with, and say, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" yet there is hope, and God's word of promise points us to a future as bright as the past has been dark both for creation and its inhabitants. Into the

details of that future we do not enter. Let our readers betake themselves to the word itself. We give but a slender selection of promises on this head. A larger one would be out of place here, and a complete one would require a volume.

The kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he who is, even now, "the Prince of the kings of the earth," shall take to himself his great power and reign. Then it shall no more be said, "the whole world lieth in wickedness." Satan shall no longer be the "god of this world," the "prince of this world," nor shall his " principalities and powers" be "the rulers of the darkness of this world." "This present evil world" shall then be forgotten in the holiness of that which is to come. To this period many a promise points, and as our security we have the Father's purpose, in the development of which the whole world is interested. Into the nature of that purpose, or the details of that development, we do not

S

enter, further than by collecting and classifying the promises of Scripture concerning the world's future.

I. GOOD NEWS FOR THE World.

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke ii. 13, 14).

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark xvi. 15).

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. xxiv. 14).

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even