When the seventh angel sounds, the mystery of God will be finished. Had there been no sin, no death, no failure,

no serpent, Satan or Devil there would have been no need for mystery or secret. Israel's failure at the proclamation

of the Gospel of the Kingdom is met by the introduction of the `mysteries of the kingdom of heaven' in which the

long deferred end is related to the words of the second parable `an enemy hath done this'. The mystery of the gospel

as spoken of in Romans 16:25, something that had been `hushed' since the world began, looks to Romans 16:20

where Genesis 3:15 is brought into light, and the enmity between the two seeds is seen to be the background. As we

go through the several mysteries of the New Testament that impinge upon our calling, we shall find that this feature

is constant. The Mystery is the answer of the Wise God to the machinations of His wily foe. He reveals His will, but

does not always make known what might be the `mystery' of His will (Eph. 1:4,5,9). It was the revealed `will' of

God that if Adam disobeyed the Lord's command, `in the day ... ` he would surely die. It was the mystery of His

will, and all unknown to Adam, to provide a Redeemer `before the foundation of the world' (1 Pet. 1:19,20) and so

take the wise in his own craftiness and outwit the Devil in all his ways.

(The baptism from which water was excluded)

We who publish this booklet have been, by that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, into a land of

promise, a land not bounded by earthly frontiers, not flowing with milk and honey, not the seat of an earthly

Jerusalem, containing no `Dead Sea', but of which the earthly land of promise can be used as a type. We have been

redeemed by the precious blood even as Israel were by the Passover (Eph. 1:7), and have had our Red Sea

experience at least in one vital sense. Israel, on leaving Egypt were `baptized INTO Moses' (1 Cor. 10:1,2) we have

been baptized INTO Christ. This is the first of all baptisms and the most neglected. Christian societies have

concentrated so much attention on the baptisms that were introduced into the tabernacle worship, which the epistle

to the Hebrews speaks of as `divers baptisms and carnal ordinances imposed on them' (Heb. 9:10), that the one

essential baptism has been overlooked and neglected.

In most places where the Red Sea crossing is mentioned in the Scriptures, our attention is drawn to the singular

fact that Israel went `on dry land in the midst of the sea'.

`The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the DRY GROUND ... the children of Israel walked upon

DRY LAND'.

`The children of Israel went on DRY LAND in the midst of the sea'. `The Lord DRIED UP the water of the Red Sea'.

`The Lord your God DRIED UP the waters of the Jordan from before you ... as ... the Red Sea'.

`He turned the sea into DRY LAND: they went through the flood on foot'.

`He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was DRIED UP: so He led them through the depths, as through the

`That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness'.

`By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by DRY LAND'.

Exod. 14:22,29; 15:19; Josh. 2:10; 4:23; Psa. 66:6; 106:9; Isa. 63:12,13; Heb. 11:29.

If we believe that `all Scripture is given by inspiration of God' then this repeated insistence upon `dry land' is

essential truth. If we believe that the Old Testament types foreshadowed New Testament realities, we cannot, we

dare not use water baptism to fulfil the type of the baptism of Israel into Moses. The church of the Mystery is

baptized into Christ, and there is the same insistence upon the absence of water. In the unity of the spirit (Eph.

4:3-5) there is but `one' baptism, whereas during the Acts there was baptism in both water and spirit (Acts 10:47).

This unity will not tolerate two baptisms, any more than it will tolerate two Bodies, two faiths or two Lords. Before

there can be any participation in the high glories of the Ephesian teaching, this one baptism, typified by the baptism

of all Israel `into Moses' without a spot of water in the process, must become a fact.

`Buried with Him in baptism' (Col. 2:12) follows `In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made

without hands ... by the circumcision of Christ',