press the gospel of the new covenant especially upon the Jewish
people--"to the Jew first," and "beginning at Jerusalem."

[Illustration: PETER PREACHING IN THE HOUSE OF CORNELIUS

"They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word."
Acts 8:4.]

This last seven-year period, beginning in A.D. 27, ended in
A.D. 34. By that time the opposition of the Jews was becoming
exceedingly bitter. As a people they were rejecting again the divine
invitation extended by the risen Christ through His witnesses. About
A.D. 34 Stephen was martyred. The same council that, against
all evidence, had rejected the Messiah, again rejected the appeal of the
Holy Ghost shining visibly on Stephen's countenance.

The believers in Jerusalem were driven out by persecution; and "they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." Acts
8:4. The Gentiles gave heed in Samaria, and the Ethiopian received the
gospel on the road to Gaza. The gospel message had fairly passed the
boundaries of Jerusalem and was on its way to the "uttermost parts of
the earth."

Though the seventy weeks cut off upon the Jewish people and upon the
holy city had ended, to the world's end the gospel of Christ's salvation
is for that people as well as for all other nations.

The Ending of the 2300 Years

It must not be forgotten that the angel was explaining to Daniel the
vision and prophecy of the long prophetic period that was to reach to
the cleansing of the sanctuary at the time of the end.

These events of the first seventy weeks of that period were "to seal up
the vision and prophecy." Dan. 9:24. The shedding of the blood of the
divine Sacrifice "to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness," set Heaven's seal to the vision. As surely
as the great Offering had been made, so surely the cleansing of the
sanctuary would be accomplished by the ministry of our High Priest in
heaven.

And the exact fulfilment of the time schedule for this first portion of
the prophetic period, set seal to the declaration that when the full
2300 years should run out, the closing ministry of Christ would surely
begin in the heavenly sanctuary.

From 457 B.C., when the commandment of Artaxerxes to restore
Jerusalem went forth, the measuring line of the 2300 years reaches to
the year A.D. 1844. In that year the time of the prophecy came.
Then the cleansing of the sanctuary was to begin.

The prophet John, in the Rev