tolic commission. There are some facts that present themselves to us very clearly in regard to these gospels. The general impression of the church has always been, that Matthew wrote for the Hebrews, Mark, for the Latins, and Luke, for the Greeks, whilst John wrote with a wider immediate scope, and at a later date, and hence presented the final facts that were needed to supplement the rest. There seems to be no good reason for setting aside these opinions. The Hebrews, Romans, and Greeks, were the three great representative nations of that day, and embodied the ideas of theology, law, and literature, in which they were then severally pre-eminent, each in its peculiar department. Through the Hebrew people, we have received all that is most valuable to us in religious truth; through the Romans, all that is most permanent in political organization and legal forms; and through the Greeks, all that is consummate in literature, philosophy, and art. It was but a shadowing forth of these facts that was presented in the inscription on the cross, that was written in the Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, the languages of these representative peoples. But there was a fourth kingdom then set up, the kingdom of the Incarnate Word, and the dispensation of the Holy Ghost; and the great peculiarities of this kingdom are presented in their deepest forms in the fourth gospel by John, whilst the paramount agency of

the Spirit is acknowledged in the fourth form of the commission as it is recorded in Acts of the Apostles, a book that has sometimes been called the gospel of the Holy Ghost.

We find in each of the four records the precise peculiarities that mark the gospel in which it is found. The commission in Matthew presents the mediatorial dominion of Christ, the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, the organic unity and functions of the church, and the doctrine of baptism; all which great religious ideas were needful to be presented to the Hebrew mind, as we learn from their elaborate presentation in the epistle to the Hebrews. The commission in Mark is brief, terse, and sententious, like a decree of the Roman Senate, and uses the word gospel, and presents the great doctrine of justification by faith, which we find so fully set forth in the epistle to the Romans. The forms in Luke and the Acts, in like manner, as will be more fully shown hereafter, present precisely the doctrines and facts that we would infer from the apparent design of each book. Hence to fuse these different promulgations of the commission into a single continuous statement is to lose their peculiar significance, and defeat the purpose of the record.

Another preliminary question demands our consideration. What was the precise purpose of the apostolic commission? The opinion that is very prevalently held, is, that it conveyed the ori

ginal authority of the apostles to preach and baptize, and hence contains the full and authoritative statement of the subjects and limitations of both these duties of their office. But a little reflection will show the error of this view. The ordination and consequent authority to preach and baptize had been given long before, but restricted to the Jews, and restricted as to the fulness of the truth presented. The record of this transaction will be found in the three evangelists, Matthew x. 1-23; Mark iii. 13-19; and Luke vi. 13-16. In these passages it is stated that he "ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach," (Mark iii. 14,) and that he forbade them to preach to the Gentiles and Samaritans, requiring them to go only "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," (Matt. x. 5, 6.) That they also baptized is evident from John iii. 22-26; and iv. 1, 2, where it is expressly stated, in reference to a very early period of our Lord's ministry, that his disciples baptized. Hence the authority to baptize must have been conferred with the authority to preach, and have had the same restrictions to the house of Israel. Both the preaching and baptism had reference to the new form of dispensation that was to be given to the church, and both were restricted to the Jews until that dispensation was fully ushered in. Here was the original ordination of the apostles, and their commission to

preach and baptize, and their authority dates from this point, and not from this last interview of our Lord.

What then was the purport of this apostolic commission, so called, that was given at this final interview? It was simply the authority to do that to all nations, which they had hitherto been directed to confine to the Jews, and the announcement of the final and perfect form of the kingdom of heaven, as a way of salvation for sinners. They had preached to and baptized only the Jews hitherto, now they were to preach to and baptize all nations.

This will be unanswerably evident from a simple comparison of the four forms of the commission. Had they been the original authority to preach and baptize, we would find this included in each form of the commission; but the facts are that two of them omit all reference to baptism at all, and the only point in which they all agree is the one mentioned, that this commission previously given was now extended from one nation to all nations. To exhibit this we present the four forms together for comparison, italicising the only thing common to all.

Matthew xxviii. 18-20.-" All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;

teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. Amen."

Mark xvi. 15-18.-" And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

Luke xxiv. 44-49.-" And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, .beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."