A whiff of keen, sharp air seems needed to clear the fog and bring out the old outlines—­a whiff?—­a gale!  Yet it must needs blow, like God’s wind of grace always blows, as a soft gentle breeze.  The common law among folk in all other matters for understanding any book or document is that some one rule of interpretation be applied consistently to all its parts.  If we attempt to apply here the rule of first-flush, common sense meaning, as would be done to a house lease or an insurance policy, it brings out this surprising thing.  The church is distinct from the kingdom.  It came through the kingdom failing to come.  It fits into a gap in the kingdom plan.  It has a mission quite distinct from that of the kingdom.

The church is to complete its mission and go.  The kingdom, in the plain meaning of the word kingdom, is to come, and be the dominant thing before the eyes of all men.  The church goes up and out.  The kingdom comes in and down.  Later the church is to be a part of the executive of the kingdom.  This seems to be the simple standpoint of the Book.

The tragic break does not hinder the working of the plan.  It simply retards it awhile.  A long while?  Yes—­to man, who counts time by the bulky measurement of years, and can’t seem to shake off the time idea; who gets absorbed in moments and hours and loses the broad swing of things.  To God?—­No.  He lives in eternities, and reckons things by events.  His eye never loses the whole, nor a single detail of the whole.

But yet more.  That break leads to an enriching of the plan.  Out of hate God reveals love.  Not a greater love, but a greater opportunity for greatly revealing love.  Man’s unwillingness and opposition may delay God’s plan, but cannot hinder it.  A man can hinder it for his own self if he so insist.  But for others he can only delay, not hinder.  Though God may patiently yield His own plan, for a time, to something else, through which meanwhile His main purpose is being served, yet He never loses sight of His own plan—­the highest expression of His love.  And when He does so yield, it is that through the interruption He may in the long run work out the higher and the highest.

And so in the fulfilment of God’s plan as given by His Hebrew spokesmen, there is a sort of sliding scale.  A partial fulfilment takes place, leaving the full fulfilment for the full working out of the plan.  The fulfilment takes place in two stages, the first being only less full than the final.  Thus Elijah is to come.  But first comes John, a man with most striking resemblance to Elijah.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit prophesied in Joel is to be upon all flesh.  But before that takes place, comes the Pentecost outpouring, filling out the Joel prophecy in spirit, but not in the full measure.

As a matter of good faith the King must come back and carry out the kingdom plan in full.  And judging simply by the character of God and of Jesus, I haven’t a bit of doubt that He will do it.  No amount of disturbance ever alters the love of God, nor His love-plan in the long run, however patiently He may bear with breaks.