THE CHRISTIAN HOPE
Very properly, we have in the past contrasted the clear teaching of the Scripture about the reward on earth of the faithful, with the twin falsehoods of Christendom, that the church will establish the Kingdom, while the dead faithful will go to heaven. The co-ordination of the Old Testament promises of the Seed and the Land with the purpose of the Second Coming of Jesus to fulfil them, is one of the most precious of the heritages we owe to those who have rescued it from prevailing neglect. Rightly, we follow Jesus and his apostles in pointing to the time of the Return for the realization of our hopes.

But we need to remember that godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come; 48 that there is no man that hath forsaken all that he hath for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel that shall not receive an hundredfold now in this time, and in the age to come life everlasting.49 The preparation for acceptance for that life is an acceptable living of this.

Our preaching should make this plain. When all the facts are proved and all the " doctrines " established, we have left our task incomplete if the stranger cannot now see to what he is called. He is called to obedience and baptism, certainly, and we can receive him on no lesser terms, but he is surely called to more than this. The very call to repent demands, not only that he shall turn from something, but that he shall turn to something else. He must turn from idols to serve the living and the true God, 50 and he must know the meaning of this service. It is altogether a wrong idea that proving facts is our business towards the stranger, and exhortation to our brethren and sisters, and it is altogether right that we should " testify and exhort, saying, ' Save yourselves from this untoward generation'."'51

To show the stranger, then, what will be required of him when he takes on the name of Christ, we should readily display before him the examples of faith, without which it is impossible to please God, and with which we must diligently seek him.52 And we should be quite clear that, while it is true that " faith " involves understanding the truth, understanding alone is by no means enough. Faith means going out into the darkness, trusting in God, as Abraham did when he went out not knowing whither he went, and Noah when he built his ark in preparation for a Flood of which there was no sign. It means putting no trust in treasures which are on earth.53 All this, at least in general terms, the would-be Christian should be made to know from our lips; he should be made to see it from the sublime example of Jesus himself; he should be brought to look upon living examples of it in the preachers who minister to him. And this is our hardest task of all.