From Acts xiii. onward we find Paul among the "Jews" in the Dispersion; and how does he address them? By the same name as Peter addressed their brethren in Palestine: "_Men of Israel, ... the God of this people Israel_ chose our fathers, and exhorted the people when they sojourned in the land of Egypt" (Acts xiii. 16, 17); and when he was at last brought to Rome "and gathered the chief of the Jews" in that city to him, he assured them that he had neither done anything "against the people, or the customs of our fathers," nor did he come to Rome "to accuse my nation," but "because of the _hope of Israel_ am I bound by this chain"--namely, "the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; as he had previously explained before Festus and Agrippa--unto which _our Twelve Tribes_, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain" (Acts xxviii. 17-20; xxvi. 6, 7). Paul knew of no "lost Ten Tribes," but on his testimony the "Jews" in Palestine and in the Dispersion were the "Israel" of _all the Twelve Tribes_, to whom the "hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers" belonged. (c) And, as it is in the Gospels, and in the Acts of the Apostles, so also in the Epistles. It would be easy to multiply passages, but one more must suffice. The ix., x., and xi. of Romans form the prophetic, or "dispensational," section of that great epistle, and was written for the special instruction of Gentile believers in the "mystery" of God with Israel. Now I cannot, of course, stop here to give an analysis of that wonderful and comprehensive scripture, which is also a vindication of God's ways with man; _but there is not a hint or suggestion in it of a "lost Israel," apart from the one nation whose whole history he summarises from the beginning to the end_, and which is now, alas! divided into the small minority--the "remnant according to the election of grace," who believe, and the majority who believe not, until the day of grace for the whole nation shall come, and "so _all_ Israel shall be saved, even as it is written, 'There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.'" But in the touching introduction to this section (Rom. ix. 1-6), in which the apostle gives utterance to his "great sorrow and unceasing pain of heart" because of the unbelief of his own nation, "his brethren and his kinsmen according to the flesh," for whose sake he had been wishing, if it were possible, even to be himself "anathema from Christ"--how does he call these unbelieving "Jews" who had rejected their Messiah, and were blindly persecuting His servants? Here are His words: "_Who are Israelites_; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, _and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen._"