Division.

To the making known of the unique calling of this `Second Division' wherein Israel is `dispersed' the writer of

this present leaflet has devoted the bulk of his life and energies, yet those who advocate the teaching of B. W.

Newton as set out in the above quotation, can, at the self same time see nothing incongruous in seeing in Matthew

24 with its incisive reference to Daniel 9, characteristics of the hope of the church to-day. Is it too much to believe

that a few, after pondering these things may be led, Berean like, to `search and see'?

The May issue for 1952, `Questions and Answers', edited by Dr. Harold P. Morgan, Riverton, New Jersey,

U.S.A. opens with the following headline:

`WHAT WERE THE TEACHINGS OF EARLY PLYMOUTH BRETHREN REGARDING THE CHURCH, THE BODY OF CHRIST?'

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 those 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

Tishbite).

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:

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'.

We send forth this leaflet with the prayer that the Lord may direct its distribution, so that some, at present

distracted by the `inexpressible jumble' entertained by the successors of such writers as C. H. Macintosh and

Richard Holden, may have their eyes opened to see `what is the hope of His calling'.

A reference to the closing words of J.N.D. in his `Synopsis' on Acts 28, will show that he too believed at the

setting aside of the Jew, believers enter into `another sphere on other grounds', yet his followers definitely turn

back from this Kadesh-Barnea, and build upon the epistle to the Corinthians for their assembly and its communion,

and say hard things, as did Israel, of those who have accepted this position and who have followed out its logical