We have ascertained what the purpose of God towards our world is for 1,000 years to come. We find both the prophets and apostles testifying the same thing. Let us, then, discourse in brief about this glorious Kingdom.

First, then, a kingdom whose offices are never vacated requires the administration of immortals. Hence, the King must be immortal. Now, as he is to be a Son of Man, from whom is he to descend? Hear the scripture: "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob; and thy tabernacles, O Israel! Their king shall be higher than Agag; and his kingdom shall be exalted: I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite through the princes of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion" (Num. 24:5-7,17,19). This King, then, is to arise out of the Jewish nation but whose Son is he?

"When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, O David, I will set up thy seed after thee, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a temple for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father and he shall be my Son" (2 Sam. 7:12-14). Thus speaks Jehovah [Yahweh] to the second King of Israel. We learn from this that the throne of the Kingdom of Israel is an everlasting throne; that the King destined to fill it must be both Son of David and Son of God.

Behold, then, the Covenants of the Promise made to Abraham and to David. They belong to Israel and to the adopted citizens of their State. "To Israel pertain the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises" (Rom. 9:4). Great and glorious is the destiny of Israel; but infinitely more so thatof those who shall inherit the Kingdom and Empire of Israel's King.

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The hope of this Kingdom in all its relations was the hope of Israel. In one of the national songs they say, "The Lord Most High is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet" (Psa. 47:2,3). They refer also to the same thing in another, saying, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's; and he the governor among the nations" (Psa. 22:27,28). "In his" days shall the righteous flourish, and there shall be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from the sea and from the River (Euphrates) to the end of the Land. They that dwell in the wilderness (the Arabians) shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish (the present rulers of the Anglo-Indian Empire) and the kings of the Isles (of all Gentile, countries) shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him" (Psa. 72: 7- 11). Shall serve him; David's Son and Israel's King. This, we repeat, was, and still is, the Hope of Israel; and the revelations of God concerning it are the "good tidings of great joy", or gospel, "which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10).

But who, among all the tribes and armies of Jacob, is the son of David, Son of God, and King of Israel? We answer upon the testimony of the apostles that Jesus of Nazareth is he. Hence, then, the Glad Tidings of the glorious Kingdom must be preached in his name, for he is the hereditary and rightful sovereign thereof.

The hope of Israel, then, is. the hope of the Gospel which was preached by the apostles in the Word of the Truth. In this, this Kingdom of God is announced; a Kingdom to be established in the Holy Land under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, when the times appointed for the continuance of existing human governments shall have run-out. This Kingdom, as we have seen, is to absorb all other dominions; and to exist as a New Dispensation for a thousand years.

But an empire of this magnitude will require officers to administer its affairs; one King, however powerful and absolute, could not in the nature of things, judge, or rule, the world of nations alone. What was necessary to be done in this emergency? Send a proclamation among the Jews and Gentiles, and invite them without respect of persons to accept as office, in the new government. This is precisely what God did by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. Jesus says, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the cities, for therefore am I sent" (Luke 4:43). "And it came to pass that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God" (Luke 8:1). And he sent his twelve disciples to preach the Kingdom of God, and they went through the towns preaching the Gospel (Luke 9:1,2,6). Hence, to preach the Gospel is to preach the good concerning the Kingdom of God. When Jesus, therefore, said to his apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15) it was equivalent to saying, "Go, and preach the Good concerning the Kingdom which the God of Heaven intends to set up among the nations, as saith the prophet Daniel; he that believes what you preach and is baptized shall be saved"; that is, he shall inherit the kingdom, if he be not moved away from the hope of it. They obeyed the mandate. It was preached on the Day of Pentecost; also in the Temple Porch; and Philip preached it in Samaria; for, "when the Samaritans believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of the Lord Jesus, they were baptized, men and women" (Acts 8:12). Paul preached it in Thessalonica, in Athens, in Ephesus, in Rome, and everywhere he went; in private houses, in jails, in market places, in fora, in palaces, and wherever else the people would listen to him. "I know", says he, to the Ephesian Christians, "that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more" (Acts 20:25); while there, "He went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts 19:8 and 28:31).

Thus we have condensed from the Word of Truth an answer to the question, "What is the hope of the Gospel by which we are saved, if we believe it?" This subject is now fairly broached, but infinitely far from being exhausted. We have placed before the reader the Two Hopes: the Hope of the World lying under the Wicked One, and the Hope of Israel, irradiated by the light of the glorious gospel of the Blessed One. This is that to which Paul refers, saying, "I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob): unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God night and day, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:6-8). "For the hope of Israel am I bound with this chain" (Acts 28:20). Was Paul judged and chained for the hope of his soul's soaring, at the instant of death, through the skies on an angel's wing to the right hand of the Majesty in the Heavens? If so, when and where did God promise this to the Fathers? He never promised any such thing; and let him who affirms the contrary prove it.

In conclusion we have shown,

1. -- That there is but "One true Hope which is a seventh item of the unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God" and that as the Spirit revealed them, they constitute "the unity of the Spirit";

2. -- That this one Hope is styled "the hope of the calling", (Eph. 1:15; 4:4) "the vocation", (Eph. 4:1) and "the heavenly calling", (Heb. 3:1) because the Apostolic proclamation was authorized by heaven and calls to a future Kingdom which the God of heaven will set up;

3. -- That it is this Hope which made the apostles' preaching glad tidings of great joy to all people;

4 -- That the pious and ungodly of these times are equally in the dark respecting it;

5. -- That the hope of Christendom is powerless for the regeneration of the world;

6. -- That the ancient Gospel cannot be preached without the proclamation of the, Blessed Hope;

7. -- We affirm that the man who does not believe in the literal advent of Jesus in power and great glory to set up the kingdom cannot preach the ancient Gospel that Paul announced;

8. -- That the nations of the Roman civilization understood this Hope, but did not nationally accept the call; that they entirely lost the knowledge of it through the apostasy of the Church, and the overshadowing of the Dark Ages;

9. -- That the indestructible kingdom is the basis of the one Hope, the attributes of which constitute the "recompense of the reward"; (Heb. 2:2)

10. -- That all existing empires, kingdoms and republics in their political and ecclesiastical arrangements will be soon abolished, their rulers ejected from place and power, and the government of the world transferred to Messiah and his associates;

11. -- That to obtain office in the new imperial kingdom men must believe the glad tidings concerning it; believe the things relating to Jesus Christ; and thus believing, become the subjects of repentance and remission of sins in his name, by being immersed into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; thenceforth, he must walk worthy of his high destiny in the light of Holy Writ;

12. -- That for such persons to obtain possession of the kingdom, if dead, they must rise from the dead; and if living they must be changed into immortal men, by the power of God;

13. -- That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that there is_ remission of sins in his name by immersion to him who believes this truth, is not the ancient Gospel; it is not Paul's gospel; a man may believe these things, but fail of remission, because his faith includes not the Blessed Hope;

14. -- We should continually pray, "Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven", until this prayer be accomplished. (Matt. 6:10 compare Luke 11:2)

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