e preached
according to the word of our Lord beginning in Jerusalem, in Judea, and
Samaria, and to the uttermost ends of the earth. This Divine program
given by our Lord has been carried out; the preaching began in
Jerusalem, that is where the Gospel stream started; from there it
flowed into Judea and Samaria, and then Gentiles heard the Gospel and
were saved. Our Lord indicated this world-wide sowing during this age
in the first parable of Matthew xiii, when He spoke of the sower going
out into the field, telling us that the field is the world. Israel in
the preceding age was spoken of as a vineyard with a fence about, but
in this age there is no more vineyard, no more special place where
labor is to be done; but as John Wesley used to say, "The world is my
parish."

+Fourth+, let us also notice that with the beginning of the age there
is made known the full Truth of God by revelation. It is the faith
which is once and for all delivered unto the saints. When our Lord was
on earth He spoke repeatedly to His disciples that He had many things
to say unto them, which they could not grasp, but that they should know
them afterward. The "afterward" does not mean heaven, but it means the
afterward of the Holy Spirit. He told them that when the Spirit came
He would take of these things of Christ and show them unto them; and so
when He came He brought with Him the fullest revelation concerning
Christ Himself, the believer's position in Him and all the gracious
truths connected with it. In this sense, the Word of God was completed
in the beginning of this age. Nothing can be added to it, nor must
anything be taken away from it. There is no such thing as progress in
the Truth of God, that man by research can discover something for
himself, as he attempts to do in the different sciences. The Truth and
doctrine made known in the beginning of this age is a fixed Truth, it
is eternal Truth, it is unchangeable Truth, and as such the only light
which man has during this age.

+Fifth+, as to the moral characteristics of this age. The Apostle John
tells us that the world lieth in the wicked one, and that the character
of the world is antagonistic to the Word of God. The age therefore is
branded in every portion of the New Testament as an evil age. Certain
exhortations to believers make this clear. All exhortations in the New
Testament to Christians are exhortations to separate from this age. In
the beginning of Galatians