Quotations are made in answer to this question from two teachers among

the early Brethren, namely C. H. Macintosh, and Richard Holden.

`The thought of a church composed of Jew and Gentile "seated together

in the heavenlies" lay far beyond (our emphasis) the range of prophetic

testimony ....  We may range through the inspired pages of the law and

the prophets, from one end to the other and find no solution of "the

great Mystery" of the Church ... .  Peter received the keys of the

kingdom, and he used these keys, first to open the kingdom to the Jew,

and then to the Gentile.  But Peter never received a commission to

unfold the mystery of the church' (Life and Times of Elijah the

How strange to find C. H. M. and C. H. W. saying the same things, yet

how strange to note the way in which `The Brethren' have honoured the one,

and repudiated the other!

In 1870 Richard Holden wrote a work entitled:

`The  Mystery,  the  Special  Mission  of  the

the  Key  to  the  Present  Dispensation'.

Here is a brief quotation from this very precious testimony.

`To make all see what is the dispensation, or in other words, to be the

divinely -appointed instructor in the character and order of the

present time, as Moses was in the dispensation of "law", is that

special feature in the commission of Paul in which it was distinct from

that of the other apostles ....  If then it shall appear, that, far

from seeing "what is the dispensation of the Mystery" the mass of

Christians have entirely missed it, and, as the natural consequence

have almost completely misunderstood Christianity, importing into it

the things proper to another dispensation, and so confounding Judaism

and Christianity in an inexpressible jumble, surely it is a matter for

deep humiliation before God, and for earnest, prayerful effort to

retrieve with God's help, this important and neglected teaching'.

It seems almost unbelievable that a movement that could produce such a

testimony, could nevertheless perpetuate that `inexpressible jumble' namely

of confusing the new covenant or testament, made only `with the house of

Israel and with the house of Judah' (Jer. 31:31), and make it the very centre

of that worship and assembly, thereby `confounding Judaism' with the truth of

the Church of the Mystery, the present dispensation and calling, in which no

covenant new or old finds a place, but a choice and a promise made `before

the foundation of the world'.

The prophet Hosea makes it abundantly clear that:

(1).  A time would come when Israel would temporarily cease to be God's

people, and when the Lord would cease to be their God (Hos. 1:9).

(2).  This condition is likened to the segregation of a woman who had

been unfaithful, the woman abiding many days belonging to no other man,

the Lord saying `so will I also be for thee' (Hos. 3:3).

(3).  This is interpreted of Israel's condition from the time this

rejection is entered until the Second Coming of the Lord.

`For the children of Israel shall abide many days

Without a king, and without a prince, and