hen evil seems triumphant and
overbearing. It will make our prayer more intelligent and confident.

There are certain things we all know. As we read back into these pages
we know that the break-up of the Jewish nation, which began with the
Babylonian Captivity, came to a terrible climax in a complete break-up
after the rejection of Christ. We know that the other nations commonly
called Gentiles (_i.e._, the nations) have had supremacy in the earth.
Israel was at one time acknowledged as the great world power, with many
subject nations, in Solomon's time.

But Gentile supremacy begins back in the time of these Old Testament
pages. There is to-day practically no belief that this will ever be
changed, except perhaps by a stray Jew here and there, who still holds
to his old Bible, and except by those Christians who discern God's plan,
and believe both in Him and in it.

In the absence of an understanding of that plan of God, it has been
common to apply all the glowing prophetic Hebrew promises to the Church.
The result has been that Israel and the Kingdom have been confused in
our minds with the Church. And this has become the commonplace in the
common Church consciousness.

It is quite possible for the person of average good sense to get
something of a simple, broad grasp of the prophetic books. It involves
reading _repeatedly_ so as to get familiar with the contents, and
_rapidly_ so as not to get too much absorbed in details.

It is needful to use a common-sense interpretation in getting at the
meaning. It is a simple law that one principle of interpretation should
be applied uniformly and consistently to all parts of any one document.
If I say arbitrarily, "this part is rhetorical; it doesn't mean just
what it says, but something else; and this _other_ part means just what
it says," clearly I am reading my own ideas and prejudices into the
book.

It is much slower, and takes more pains and patience, to keep at it
until all parts gradually clear up to us, first this bit, then that,
until part fits part, and all hang together. But there is great
fascination in it, and one's reverence for this revelation of God's Word
grows deeper.

Of course there is rhetorical language here as everywhere. "The Lord is
my shepherd" is clearly rhetorical. For God is not a shepherd, and I am
not a sheep, but a man. But under this simple, clearly rhetorical
language the tender, personal relationship God bears to me is
beautifully ex