Recently some notes written in a good spirit have been passed on to us,

and as some readers may be desirous of having the points raised dealt with,

we will endeavour to do so here, praying that the cause of truth will be

furthered thereby.  We will refer to the writer who has criticized our

position as `B'.  He writes:

`The chief point of difference with Mr. Welch seems to be in his

discovery that in Acts 28 we have the founding of a new "dispensation",

though the word is not used there, nor is there, to my mind, any clear

indication of this most important fact'.

It is often said that Luther discovered the great doctrine of

justification by faith, but what is nearer the truth is what Luther brought

forward gave that doctrine prominence.  The need of the time called forth,

under God, the man, and the Reformation followed.

We have certainly made Acts 28 the keynote of our ministry, seeing in

it a dispensational boundary that influences the whole course of the

outworking of the revealed purpose of the ages, and bringing into the light

that position which had hitherto been hid in God.

While others have seen that Acts 28 is a dispensational frontier none

seem to have had the grace to cross that frontier and see what good land

might be found beyond.  When our eyes were opened to its significance our

response was `Let us cross over and see what the Lord has prepared for those

who trust Him' and when we returned with our bunch of `The Grapes of Eshcol'

our treatment was in much the same spirit as the treatment of Caleb and

Joshua was at the hands of Israel.

The following extracts from the writings of B. W. Newton and others

are commended to the conscience of the reader.

B. W. Newton gives a clear and uncompromising testimony to the failure

of the Preterite system of Prophecy, in which so much that is really future

is interpreted of the past, and with this, we are in complete agreement, but

his conviction now to be cited, that there is a threefold division of time in

Israel's history, pointed so clearly to the present dispensation of the

Mystery, that one is still left amazed and distressed that eyes so touched by

the spirit of grace should not have seen the open door, and have entered into

all the blessings that are revealed in the great Epistle of the Mystery,

Ephesians.  We quote from his writings:

I observed also, that the history of Israel during the time of their

punishment and subjection to the Gentiles is distributed into three

distinct divisions: the first extending from Nebuchadnezzar to their

dispersion by Romans, the second being the present Period of their

dispersion, the third, the yet future period of their national re -

establishment in unbelief; so, the prophetic visions of Daniel are to

be divided into three parts, corresponding to these three periods.  But

I observed this likewise, that when the first of these periods

terminated, historic detail terminated.  As soon as the dispersion of

Israel was effected, and they ceased to have a recognized national

existence in their land, there is a pause in the historic detail of

Daniel -- no person, no place, no date is mentioned during the present

period of dispersion.  But when the third period of their unbelieving