How many neglected texts, texts hid away in corners, so to speak, half-sentences, may I say, parts of verses, obscure pieces or fragments of the word, were realized in the days of the New Testament. Generations had scarcely heeded them, but they were in the oracles of God, and God would treat them as real, however man might neglect them. " For what if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the word of God of none effect: God forbid."
" Out of Egypt have I called my Son;" " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;" " A bone of Him shall not be broken;" " Behold I and the children whom God hath given me;" " With men of other tongues will I speak," etc.; " He that gathered little had no lack;" " Rejoice, ye gentiles, with his people."
I only put down what just occurs to me at the moment; but they serve to illustrate what we are saying, How the Spirit of God, thus, in a distant age, made scripture to come forth from its hiding or secret place in the book, and from under the practical ignorance and neglect of man, and show itself as a great reality. Thousands of years had made no alteration, had had no effect upon them: they were as real before God as when His Spirit breathed them, and He would make them good, nor let a jot or a tittle fail.
So with us. What the ministry of the Lord and of the Spirit in the Apostles did, in those days, after this manner, for many and many a neglected scripture, the coming day of power and of glory and of Christ, will do for many a neglected scripture still. All shall be realized, and word after word shall come forth, whether of promise or of judgment; and God shall be found true, the' every man a liar.
The price of the measure of fine meal, and the treading down of the unbelieving lord, in the day of the famine of Samaria, tell us these things in a solemn and yet interesting Scripture (2 Kings 7).