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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
When sending out his disciples to preach the gospel to the 'lost sheep,' Jesus prophesied : “Verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (Matthew, X. 23). Now, this prophecy is just as important as the one which is under consideration. The question is, has it been fulfilled ? That it did not refer to Jesus does not admit of doubt, for Jesus was already there with them, and had not to come from anywhere. Therefore, if we are to interpret the expression, the Son of man, as referring to Jesus, this prophecy did not and could not come off ; in other words, it was a piece of information of a past event gratuitously furnished in the future tense. But if we read the expression in the sense of the quickening of the germ of Godhood within men, its sense not only becomes clear but most appropriate also. As St. Paul says, as many as are led by the spirit of God, are the sons of God (Romans, VIII. 14). What more appropriate for the Master when sending out his disciples to preach the gospel to the people than to encourage and inspire them with the hope that they would see the signs of the unfoldment of the germ of Divinity among men, before they got half through their work ?
In determining the nature of the prophecy about the coming Messiah, the first question which naturally arises relates to its authenticity, since impartial Biblical scholars are agreed upon its being a subsequent interpolation. Perhaps the endeavour to make the statement as much repugnant to history as possible by the introduction of the symbolism of the holy city in the midst of the original observations, on the subject, is, more
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