Facts Worthy of Consideration.
By Editor
THE editor of the Bible Banner speaks as follows of a lecture to which he listened, in New Bedford, Mass. All who are tinctured with "Age-to-Come" views, and who think the Jews must be restored to their national pre-eminence to have an equal chance in the gospel, are invited to consider this statement. The "logic of facts" is inexorable. God does not withhold from the Jews any right or privilege which belongs to them. Their privileges under the old covenant they forfeited; therefore that covenant was abolished, never to be restored. And under the new covenant there are no national distinctions recognized—no special favors given. See Eph. 2:11-19; 3:4-6; Gal. 3:7, 28, 29. "According to our lecturer's figures—and he assured us that he had taken much pains to have them correct—there are now in the world about 10,000,000 Jews. Of these, 243,000 are worshipers of Christ, and 395 are ministers of the gospel. In other words, in proportion to the whole number of Jews and Gentiles, there are to-day more Christian Jews than Christian Gentiles. What is the significance and moral force of this fact? Does it not prove that the gospel is not an exclusive system, offering its benefactions to the Gentiles but refusing them to the Jews? Does it not show that the Jews can be saved, and are saved, during the present dispensation, upon the same conditions as the Gentiles? And if this be so, is it necessary that the Jews should have another age of mercy in order to put them in a salvable state, and place them upon a par with the Gentiles? These queries are not made in the spirit of dogmatism, or with any desire to oppose God's redemptive scheme. But the facts are very suggestive, whatever may be the philosophy to which they lead."