`He that cometh to God must believe that He is' (Heb. 11:6).

Guided by the writings of the apostle Paul, we are concerned not with the essential Being of God, but with God

Manifest, and above all with God manifest in the flesh. The reader is urged to ponder very prayerfully the

implications of the title `Lord' as given to the Saviour, a `form of sound words' here being of more value than a

theological library.

We believe that all who rejoice in the gospel of the grace of God, will find an echo in their hearts in chapter 6

which deals with `Sin, and the Sacrifice for Sin'. Here we are at the very heart of God's purposes of grace, and any

failure to grasp the awfulness of sin, or the sufficiency of the Sacrifice for Sin, must lead to spiritual disaster and

poverty of testimony. The subject of the Cross of Christ, while it does not occupy much of the space devoted to

the great sacrifice for sin at our disposal, is one that has attracted - and ever will attract - the deepest consideration of

heart and mind. The implications of what the Cross actually stands for in the mind of God that are suggested with so

much brevity on pages 64-66, will, if pondered in the light of Scripture, be productive, we believe, of much blessing.

It is a theme that has suffered at the hands of a zeal that is not according to knowledge, and its bearing upon the

believer has been lost sight of in the preaching of the Cross as a purely gospel message. We earnestly commend the

four-fold sequence of the saving work of Christ, set out on page 64, to the reader.

Dispensational truth, which is dealt with in pages 67-114, leads to that most critical of chapters - Acts 28. If the

implications of that chapter are fairly faced by the unprejudiced reader, implications that involve the setting aside of

Israel and Israel's hope, the cessation of supernatural gifts, the crisis that is associated with the quotation of Isaiah

6:9,10, and what is involved in the statement that `The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles', the peculiar

nature of the present dispensation will be realized, and the need of Paul's special prison ministry felt.

Under the heading `Three Spheres of Blessing' the whole revelation of Scripture is distributed according to the

aspect of the redemptive purpose that is in view. These aspects or `spheres' reach from the earth up to the very right

hand of God, and reveal not only different spheres of blessing so far as locality is concerned, but different

constitutions, viz., A KINGDOM; A BRIDE; A BODY. It is only too easy to confound or confuse these matters, to

sweep all distinctions aside; but to do so is neither honouring to the Word, nor manifesting a sober mind.

The believer is urged by the Scriptures to `try the things that differ'; to `approve the things that are more

excellent'; to `prove all things'; and `hold fast that which is good'; to emulate the Bereans, of whom it is written:

`These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they:

(1) Received the word with all readiness of mind, and

(2) Searched the Scriptures daily; (to see)

(3) Whether those (these) things were so' (Acts 17:11).

If we can be assured that what has been written in the following pages will receive such `noble' treatment, we

can confidently leave the issues with the God of all grace.