30
There can be no doubt after considering the testimony of these
Scriptures that the gifts enjoyed by the early Church were well
within the sphere of those things `which the prophets and Moses
did say should come'.
No. 6
The heavenly country and calling.
When the apostle uttered the words which form the title of this
booklet, it would of course have been possible for an extreme
literalist to have attempted to show that, unless the apostle had
confined himself entirely to a literal quotation of the actual
words of Moses and the prophets without adding any words of
his own, his statement was not true. We can hardly believe,
however, that anyone would, in fact, have adopted such an
extreme attitude. If such a view were legitimate, Paul's `one
word' of Acts 28:25 would be open to criticism, for the
quotation which constitutes this `one word' is made up of 55
`words' in the Greek, and 70 `words' in the English. Many more
such examples could be given, but we fear that the average
reader would grow impatient, and feel that we were wasting
time. We have an object, however, in view, and that is to show
that, even though Paul's utterances were not simply quotations,
and even though some of his teaching does not appear upon the
surface of the Old Testament Scriptures, the language of the
Prayer Book is applicable here, when it speaks of the doctrine of
Holy Scripture `and whatsoever may be proved thereby'.
In the New Testament we learn that Abraham not only
received the land of Canaan as an inheritance, but that he also
looked for a `better country, that is, an heavenly'. Although the