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CHAPTER
III. Objection based on S. Matthew's words that the Gospel should be
preached in all the world (Matt. xxiv. I4).248
We must mention also that
saying which Matthew gave us, in the spirit of a slave who is made to bend
himself in a mill-house, when he said, "And the gospel of the kingdom shall
be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come."249 For lo, every quarter of the
inhabited world has experience of the Gospel, and all the bounds and ends of
the earth possess it complete,250 and nowhere is there an end, nor will
it ever come. So let this saying only be spoken in a corner!
248. 1 The abbreviated form of the
quotation is tacitly accepted by Macarius in his answer.
249. 2 It is very remarkable that,
wherever it is possible, the attack is made on Christ's followers, and not on Himself.
Here it is only the Evangelist who is blamed for words which are attributed to
Christ. See Introd., p. xv.
250. 3 The previous objection has stated
that only 300 years have passed, so that this cannot have been written later
than the early part of the fourth century. To speak thus is therefore an
exaggeration, as Macarius shows in his answer. But it is very significant that
a heathen should regard Christianity as universally spread, even before it
became a lawful religion.
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