hope of this church in glory, and then the Body will be joined to its Head, the Lord Jesus, for which both He and

each member of this company await.

Some of the early Brethren clearly saw this heavenly calling and its hope. We quote from C.H. Mackintosh:

`Every system of doctrine or discipline which would connect the church with the world, either in her present

condition or her future prospects, must be wrong ...

... up to his (Paul's time) and even during the early stages of his ministry, the divine purpose was to deal with

Israel ... the thought of Jew and Gentile, "seated together in the heavenlies" lay far beyond the range of prophetic

testimony ... have we anything of the church in all this? Not a syllable. The kingdom was still the very highest

thought'.

Coming to the ministry of Peter to Israel in Acts 3 he writes:

`... it was still the kingdom and not the great mystery of the church. Those who think the opening chapters of the

Acts present the church in its essential aspect, have by no means reached the divine thought on the subject'.

Regarding Peter's vision recorded in Acts 10 he continues:

`... Peter never received a commission to unfold the mystery of the church. Even in his epistles we find nothing

of it ... it was reserved for the great Apostle of the Gentiles to bring out in the energy and power of the Holy

Ghost, the mystery of which we speak'.

Later on he states:

`Paul's gospel went far beyond them all (i.e. the other servants of God). It was not the kingdom offered to Israel

on the ground of repentance, as by John the Baptist and our Lord; nor was it the kingdom opened to Jew and

Gentile by Peter in Acts three and ten; but it was the heavenly calling of the church of God composed of Jew and

Gentile, in one Body, united to a glorified Christ by the presence of the Holy Ghost. The epistle to the Ephesians

fully develops the mystery of the will of God concerning this ... "He hath raised us up together and made us sit

together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus". It is not He will do this, but "He hath" done it'.

He goes on to say:

`(The mystery) ... was not unfolded by the ministry of the Twelve, as seen in the Acts of the Apostles, because

the testimony to Israel was still going on, and so long as earth was the manifested scene of divine operation, and

so long as there was any ground of hope in connection with Israel, the heavenly mystery was held back, but when

earth had been abandoned and Israel set aside, the Apostle of the Gentiles from his prison at Rome, writes to the

church and opens out all the glorious privileges connected with its place in the heavens with Christ'.

C.H. Mackintosh continues to comment on the fact that so few believers have `eyes to see' and the spiritual ability to

grasp such exalted and wonderful teaching. The blinding power of tradition and the pull earthwards of the senses all

combine to prevent this:

`We have seen how long it was ere man could take hold of it ... and we have only to glance at the history of the

church for the last eighteen centuries to see how feebly it was held and how speedily it was let go. The heart

naturally clings to the earth and the thoughts of an earthly corporation are attractive to it. Hence we may expect

that the truth of the church's heavenly character will only be apprehended and carried out by a very small and

feeble minority ... to understand all this requires a larger measure of spirituality than is to be found with many

... Those who will maintain Paul's gospel find themselves, like him, deserted and despised amid the pomp and

glitter of the world. The clashing of ecclesiastical systems, the jarring of sects, and the din of religious

controversy will surely drown the feeble voice of those who would speak of the heavenly calling and rapture of

the church ... I am deeply conscious of how feebly and incoherently I have developed what I have in mind

concerning the doctrine of the church, but I have no doubt of its real importance and feel assured that as the time

draws near, much light will be communicated to believers about it. At present it is to be feared, few really enter

into it' (concluding chapter in Elijah the Tishbite published by Loiseaux Bros. of New York. Italics ours).