p. iii“Ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God.” So said the Lord Jesus Christ to many who rejected him, and who should in that day be “thrust out” of the Kingdom. But of others he at the same time said, “They shall come from the East and from the West, and from the North and from the South, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God.” The prophets will then resume their “ministry” upon earth, but on a higher plane, and in the divine nature. To the apostle John, who was also a prophet, the angel said, “Thou must prophesy again, before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,” a thing that remains to be done The object of this book is to state, illustrate and prove the true nature of the “ministry” past and future; and to help and encourage some of the “many” whom the Lord says shall presently be exalted to a place in the Kingdom of God.
This book is really supplementary to one dealing with the ministry of the greatest of the prophets save the Lord Jesus Christ, that is Moses. “The Law of Moses” is the title of the last work of Robert Roberts. It deals with the Law as “a rule of National and Individual life, and as the enigmatical enunciation of divine principles and purposes.” p. iv Moses’ work was the building of the house of God in Israel, as it were by a faithful servant. The work of the later prophets was the carrying on of the affairs of the household. “The Law and the Prophets” is a natural sequence, and on the completion of the aforesaid book the present was suggested to the author (then in Australia) by his fellow-labourer in England. The reply was the first chapter in print, the idea having naturally occurred, and having borne fruit.
The first portion of this book was thus written by Robert Roberts in the course of journeyings in the Australian Colonies, New Zealand, and at sea on the Pacific Ocean. He laid down his pen at the end of Isaiah, Chapter V., to resume his “ministry” no more till the time comes to “prophesy again,” when we trust he will be honoured with that divine commission. He died suddenly in the United States in 1898; and the rest of the book—Isaiah VI. and onwards—has been written by its other joint-author,
C. C. Walker.
Birmingham, September 27th, 1907.