house of Paul the prisoner. When the elders of Israel rejected the testimony of the

Apostle and were dismissed with the quotation of Isa. 6: 9, 10, heaven itself might well

have paused to ask, What can be done? Satan had brought about a deadlock. He knew

that Israel were the destined channel of blessing for this earth. He knew that before they

could be blessings to others they must first of all, repent and be blessed themselves.

Israel did not repent, and it seemed as though Satan had thrust a spoke into God's wheel.

Then came the revelation of the Mystery, never before made known, not even in the Old

Testament Scriptures, revealing a purpose settled and completed "Before the overthrow

of the world". How the heavenly host must have praised the only WISE God as this final

demonstration of His manifold wisdom nullified the machinations of the evil one.

God's purpose still goes on, even though Israel are scattered and blind, even though

the promise to Abraham for all nations yet awaits fulfillment. The superheavenlies are to

be peopled with saved ones from among the Gentiles, and, when this company is

complete, the Lord will set into motion the purposes of His grace to Gentiles and Jew

once again. At the end of his survey in Rom. 9:-11: the Apostle surveys the depths

The breadth and length and depth and height of the revelation given in Eph. 3:

seems to baffle knowledge and be beyond words. Let us recognize our calling. Let us

ever remember our unseen congregation, as God, through us, makes known His manifold

The authorized version of Eph. 3: 11 is so very grand that truth alone can justify a

departure from it. "According to the eternal purpose." The R.V. retains the A.V.

reading, but puts in the margin Gr. Purpose of the ages. The Greek is the Word of God,

let us be clear on that. Incomparable as the A.V. may be as a work in the English

language, and still holding its place in spite of the Revision of recent years, it is not

inspired, but is the work of men who to the best of their ability translated the Scriptures.

Then again it must remembered that words change in meaning and value. Most Bible

helps give a list of obsolete words, words whose meaning has changed since the A.V. was

written. The language was in a state of flux when the A.V. was written, and it was once

correct to translate aionios by the word eternal, for that word originally meant age-long.

It comes from the Latin aeternus, which is a shorter form of the older word aeviternus,

which coming from aevum turns out to be nothing more nor less than the Latin form of

the Greek word aion, of which the English equivalent is aeon. It is, however, not

possible to use the word eternal to-day without its modern meaning of everlastingness,