earth, could not be called upon to put into practice the injunctions of Eph. 4:-6: In like

manner, the Church of the One Body has no guarantee that obedience to the special truth

attaching to that calling will result in blessing in "basket and in store". Those who are

under the law must have a very different form of practice from those who are under

Only by loyally preaching and teaching the truth of God as related to these three

aspects can we hope to become workmen who need not to be ashamed, for only by so

doing shall we "rightly divide" the Word of truth. We believe this threefold division will

command the assent of all who honour the Scriptures as the revelation of the mind and

will of God.

In the endeavour to discern the changing dispensations, we may collect together

"things that differ", we may observe that one calling is associated with the period "before

the foundation of the world", and another with a period "from (or since) the foundation of

the world". We may observe that in one calling Christ is "King"; in another He is

represented as "Priest after the order of Melchisedec", in another He is denominated

"Head over all things to the church which is His body". We observe that some are "to

inherit the earth", but that others find their place in the "New Jerusalem", and yet others

are blessed with all spiritual blessings "in heavenly places"; and that this sphere of

blessing is "where Christ sits at the right hand of God". We might moreover bring

forward the prevalence of miraculous gifts and the persistence of the hope of Israel, right

through the Acts of the Apostles to the last chapter, and compare and contrast this state of

affairs with the teaching of the "Prison Epistles". These, and many other studies are a

legitimate approach to the Scriptures, and fulfil the injunction "comparing spiritual things

with spiritual". In this present study the key word is the word "Witness", and our

contention is that every dispensational change is accompanied by an accredited witness.

We are not left to our own searchings or deductions, we find witnesses at intervals along

the way, who declare in the name of Him that sent them that this or that change has taken

place. If this be so, then we should spare no pains to become acquainted with so

important a feature in the unfolding of the divine purpose. We have called this address

"Attested Truth", for dispensational truth is inseparable from "witnesses" specially raised

up at the crises of spiritual history.

The word "witness" (Anglo-Saxon) and the words "testimony" "testify" (Latin)

together with "record" and "report" (Latin) and the English word "martyr" which is from

the Greek, are employed in the New Testament to translate the various verbal forms of

the word martus, and together present a fairly comprehensive idea of the meaning of the

Testimony or witness is that which is affirmed as something seen, heard or

experienced, or that has been made known by divine revelation, and for which the

testifier would be prepared, if need be, to confirm by a martyr's death. The words, ho

martus ho pistos are translated "faithful witness" in Rev. 1: 5, and "faithful martyr" in

Rev. 2: 13.