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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 Matt. 24: with its
incisive reference to Dan. 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 100: 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:
THE MYSTERY, THE SPECIAL MISSION OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
THE KEY TO THE PRESENT DISPENSATION.
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