Under this heading – in "Watchword and Truth" (Nov., 1904) the Editor contends that " it was not revealed to Paul that a new Body was formed, but that Gentiles were now admitted on equal footing with Jews into the Body that already existed " (in Old Testament times). But we learn from i Cor. 12:13, that "by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles." Therefore the Jew, as well as the Gentile, is introduced into the Body by the baptism of the Spirit. By the baptism of the Spirit the Body was formed; and this baptism of the Spirit took place at Pentecost, as we learn by comparing Acts 1:5 with Acts 2:1-4. In the former passage we read, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." This was at the end of the "forty days;" and at the fiftieth day (Pentecost) the Holy Spirit came from heaven as recorded in Acts 2:1-4; and thus the Church was formed, by the baptism of the Spirit, as announced by the Lord in chap. 1:Eph. 1:tells us that God "set Christ at His own right hand" and "gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body."

Do not these scriptures declare that the "Body" did not exist until Christ was exalted, and the Holy Spirit had descended to form that Body? The revelation of the "mystery" is not that the Gentiles were now to have a place in the Body, but that God was making a new thing, into which both Jews and Gentiles are baptized by the Spirit, forming thus the Body, and united to Christ, the Head of it. No such Body had existed before, either of Jew or Gentile. Both are introduced into it by the Spirit, who could not come until Jesus was glorified:"for the Holy Spirit was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified " (John 7:39) as we have seen by the passages in Acts.

Therefore, not only do the scriptures already considered (Acts 1:and 2:with i Cor. 12:13) refute (1) the Editor's teaching, but Eph. 3:clearly excludes his assertions as to that passage. The passage excludes the thought that the Gentile belonged to " the Body" of old; how could "the Body" have existed with the Gentile on a different level from the Jew ? The nature and unity of the Church, the Body of Christ, excludes such a thought:it is a dislocation and confusion of the truth.

(2) As to the teaching of the eleventh chapter of Romans, that the Gentiles as a "wild olive-tree" were grafted in among the Jewish branches and became partakers with them "of the root and fatness of the olive-tree," that is a matter of life and salvation-not of "the Body of Christ." Old Testament believers were born of God, and New Testament believers are born of God.-all have life in Christ. But New Testament believers have something additional. Besides having life in Christ, they are joined to Him as the Head of the Body by the indwelling Holy Spirit, as we have already seen, and thus become members of His Body, the Church. We are in Christ by life-He is in us, and we in Him:but by the Spirit we are joined to Him and to one another as members of "the Body," and thus form the Church.

(3) What is said by the Editor under this number, is answered by what we have just presented under
No. 2. "It is not a new family that is formed (in Christianity) but the same family brought into the standing of full grown sons, and having an experience by the Holy Spirit that corresponds to that standing," says the Editor in reasoning from Gal. 4:Here again (in Gal. 4:) Church truth is not referred to, any more than in the eleventh chapter of Romans. Jewish believers of the Old Testament times were God's children as surely as we are. It has no reference to the subject before us. The Editor again fails to distinguish between life in Christ, and being "baptized into the one Body" "by the one Spirit."

(4) Under this number we have the following statement, " If those believers before the day of Pentecost, and also those after the Advent and resurrection, do not have Christ as their Head, then they are without a Head, without salvation, without God, and without hope." But Christ is "the Head of every man," saved or unsaved (i Cor. 11:3) and He is the Head of all who are saved, no doubt, as their Lord and Saviour; but He may be their Head in that sense, without their being of His Body, the Church. He is " Head over all things to the Church which is His Body" (Eph. 1:22). As we have seen this is true only of those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that is true only of believers of the present dispensation. King Edward of England is head of his kingdom, but he is head of his wife also, for "the head of the woman is the man" (i Cor. 11:3).

No. 5. has been already answered, " How can they have the same divine life from the same glorious Head, and yet not be members of the same Body, according to the Scripture? " As already set forth, partaking in life with Christ is a different thing from being joined* to Him by the indwelling Spirit so as to be a member of His Body. *"He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17).* Were not Old Testament saints possessors of life in Him? But the Holy Spirit had not then come to dwell in the bodies of believers, which was essential to the formation of the Church according to i Cor. 12:13.

(6) As to i Cor. 15:49, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly," this is true for the Old Testament saints as well as for us. It is speaking of resurrection, but in no way denies the distinctive relationship of the members of the Body, which, as we are elsewhere told is peculiar to the present time.

The writer speaks here of the "saved Jew on earth, and the saved Church reigning in glory over the earth" in a future time. Israel's blessing no doubt is referred to; but will not saved Israelites who are on the earth in that day have life in Christ? -and yet the writer speaks of those in heaven only as the Church. What is the explanation of this? And speaking of the Church in heaven in that time, he says "that Body will be the Church of the firstborn ones-all who have fallen asleep in Jesus, from Abel to Advent." But if this be true who are " the spirits of just men made perfect" spoken of in the same verse? If they are Old Testament saints in distinction from "the Church of the first-born ones" all is plain:but if "the Church of the first-born ones includes all from Abel to Advent," who are these others that are mentioned in this heavenly array? E. S. Lyman

(To be concluded in our next issue.")