Jesus wants a heart allegiance, and only that. The great thing is that
every man shall freely choose as he really prefers. This it is that both
makes and reveals character. And so there will be a final crisis. All who
at heart prefer to do so may swing away from Jesus.

That crisis ends with the final and overwhelming defeat of Satan and all
the forces of evil. He goes to his own place, the place he has chosen and
made for himself; and all who prefer to leave God out will go by the moral
gravitation of their own choice to that place with him.

Then follows the full vision of a won world, which John pictures in such
glowing colors in these last two chapters of Revelation, as a city come
down from God out of heaven.



Early Moorings.


There are two leading passages that speak of this programme. You remember
that during the last week of His life Jesus told His disciples of the fall
of Jerusalem. They came earnestly asking for fuller information regarding
the future events. They asked when the present period of time would come
to an end. And in answering He said--and the answer became a pivotal
passage around which much else swings--that the Gospel of the Kingdom
would be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony unto all
nations. And then the end of the present age or period of time would
come[7].

The first council of the Christian Church was held as a result of the