written, that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead the third day.'"(3) {120} The crucifixion and death of Jesus introduced the first elements of rupture with Judaism, to which they formed the great stumbling-block.(1) The conception of a suffering and despised Messiah could naturally never have occurred to a Jewish mind.(2) The first effort of Christianity, therefore, was to repair the apparent breach by proving that the suffering Messiah had actually been foretold by the prophets; and to re-establish the Messianic character of Jesus, by the evidence of his resurrection.(3) But, above all, the momentary deviation from orthodox Jewish ideas regarding the Messiah was retraced by the representation of a speedy second advent, in glory, of the once rejected Messiah to restore the kingdom of Israel, by which the ancient hopes of the people became reconciled with the new expectation of Christians. Even before the Ascension, the disciples are represented in the Acts as asking the risen Jesus:--"Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"(4) There can be no doubt of the reality and {121} universality of the belief, in the Apostolic Church, in the immediate return of the glorified Messiah and speedy "end of all things."(1) The substance of the preaching of the Apostles in Acts, simply is that Jesus is the Christ,(2) the expected Messiah.(3) Their chief aim is to prove that his sufferings and death had been foretold by the prophets,(4) and that his resurrection establishes his claim to the title.(5) The simplicity of the creed is illustrated by the rapidity with which converts are made. After a few words, on one occasion, three thousand(6) and, on another, five thousand(7) are at once converted. No lengthened instruction or preparation was requisite for admission into the Church.(8) As soon as a Jew acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah he thereby became a Christian.(9) As soon as the {122}