`Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be

a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest ... My

people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings,

and in quiet resting places' (Isa. 32:15-18).

A number of like passages would occur to any well-taught reader of the

Old Testament, such as the apostles were, and until the reader is in

possession of at least some of these passages, he cannot be competent to

judge the matter of the rightness of the question in Acts 1:6.  Coupled with

this, let us remember that He Who opened up the Scriptures during those forty

days, at the same time `opened their understanding'.  In the face of such a

comprehensive statement, is it possible to maintain that prejudice and

ignorance prompted the question of Acts 1:6? Further light upon the hope of

this Acts period is found in the verses that follow Acts 1:6, and to the

consideration of this testimony we now address ourselves:

`And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the

seasons, which the Father appointed by His own power (authority)' (Acts

One of the most natural things to do, whenever the Second Coming of

Christ is before the mind, is to conjecture whether it is possible to

forecast the date of His advent.  While this may be natural, it is

unscriptural, and consequently wrong.  The servant who concluded that the

Lord's coming was delayed, began to smite his fellowservants and to drink

with the drunken.  The salutary attitude in view of the Lord's return is,

surely, to carry out His injunction and `occupy' till He comes, remembering

that `Blessed is that servant, whom His Lord when He cometh shall find so

doing' (Matt. 24:46).

Every now and again some one will arise who forecasts the date of the

Lord's return, and some will always be found who will, as a consequence,

dispose of their business, and wait the expected day.  It strikes the outside

observer as strange that in such circumstances a business should be sold: why

should it not be given away?  Of what use would the proceeds be in that day?

Again, if the nature of one's business should be such that, being assured of

the nearness of the Lord's return, one would leave it, surely that is

sufficient reason for leaving it now, irrespective of `times and seasons'.

The Lord's own instruction to His servant in view of His coming is not `Give

up your work' but `Carry on', `Occupy'.

There are a number of passages that warn the believer against

attempting the computation of the date of the Second Coming:

`But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven,

but My Father only' (Matt. 24:36).

`Ye know not what hour your Lord doth come' (Matt. 24:42).

`In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh' (Matt. 24:44).

`Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour

wherein the Son of man cometh' (Matt. 25:13).

`But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I

write unto you.  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord

so cometh as a thief in the night' (1 Thess. 5:1,2).

The fact is, that since the setting aside of Israel in Acts 28,

prophetic times are in abeyance, and we are living in a parenthetical period

during which the prophetic clock has been stopped.  The last recorded