Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1894
The "Independent" and the Pope.
By Editor
The Independent of July 19 has an article on "The Pope's Appeal for Church Union." It contains many excellent things, and we would that Protestants would heed the practical suggestions therein set forth, and that the Independent itself would do likewise. The editor says: "But we tell him [the pope] that with a great price we have obtained our freedom, and we propose to stand fast to it; and that we believe that the future of the world and its present influence and power, under the guidance of the Divine Spirit, are with Protestantism rather than with Catholicism." All this in a sense is true; but Protestantism is Protestantism only so long as it stands fast to and walks in the principles laid down by the Protestants of the Reformation. We are not only to stand fast in the liberty, but we are to stand fast by walking in the liberty. The basic principles of Protestantism are God's word and God's word alone, and the absolute non-interference of the civil magistrate with things ecclesiastical. From these fundamental principles the Protestant church has wofully departed, has stepped over the line, in the words of another, which divides Protestantism from popery, and can give no valid reason why she should not accept all the papal dogmas. Herein is the weakness of so-called Protestantism at the present time. Its numerous creeds on some very vital points are diverse from the word of God. It has, in nearly all cases, when the two have come in conflict, rejected the word and held to the creed. It will do this again, and in the conflict between Roman Catholicism and the great so-called Protestant churches, he who reads the signs of the times aright, not from personal bias, but in the light of the sure word of prophecy, can see but the triumph of Rome. And yet God's true Protestants will hold to his word in spite of all the persecutions and trials of earth,—will consider a "Thus saith the Lord" more than all the customs and traditions of the fathers of the church. The acceptance or rejection of the message which they are bearing to the world,—the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,—will prove the salvation or destruction of the generations of men now on the earth. Would that, while Protestants are boasting of their Protestantism, they would return to first principles, and be Protestants, or Christians, in deed and in truth.
THE INCONSISTENCY OF APOSTASY.
By Editor
An illustration of the inconsistency always found connected with those churches which have apostatized from the word of God is presented in a late ruling of the Roman Catholic Bishop Watterson, of Columbus, O., and the sustaining of this decision by the papal delegate Satolli. Bishop Watterson during the last lecture season decided, as reported in the public press:—
I hereby withdraw my approbation from any and every Catholic society in this diocese that has a liquor dealer or saloon keeper at its head or anywhere among its officers, and I suspend every such society itself from its rank and privileges as a Catholic society until it ceases to be so officered. No one who is engaged either as principal or agent in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors should be admitted to membership.
Concerning this Satolli says:—
The liquor traffic, and especially as conducted here in the United States, is the source of much evil, hence the bishop was acting within his rights in seeking to restrict it. Therefore the delegate apostolic sustains Bishop Watterson's action, and approves of his circular and regulation concerning saloons, and the expulsion of saloon keepers from membership in Catholic societies.
We do not believe that liquor dealers have any place in religious societies; but the point we wish to make is this: If these men are qualified for church membership, are they not-qualified morally (for this is the point in question) for membership in any other religious society? If they are not worthy to belong to a church society, are they worthy to belong to the church itself? Now according to the Scriptures the church is the "spouse of Christ," "the body of Christ," his representative on the earth. This is, we believe, just what the Roman Catholic Church claims of herself. Yet she places above the church the various societies connected with the church.
Some or all of Rome's societies have more or less secrecy connected with them. Are the drinkers excluded because they are liable to become too voluble and talkative?
In the Bible we find but one society through whom the Lord works in the world, in which he dwells, which he calls his body. It is "the church of the living God." Upon the church of God has Christ bestowed every spiritual gift, every talent necessary for effectual service, every weapon needed for triumphant warfare, every office needed for wise direction, all power necessary for the work assigned her. All these are given to her, and all that extra or intra church organizations can obtain must be drawn from the church. Officers, organizations, and machinery of men are multiplied, the church of Christ is weakened, and man obtains the glory. In fact, every addition of extra church societies or organizations means glory and honor to man, instead of God. It simply shows that Christ's professed followers are afraid to trust his humble ways, his almighty power, his simple though infinitely wise direction. "We" must do something; "we" must build; "we" must manage," is the carnal cry; and sadly history records, "we" fail. It is well written that the world by wisdom knows not God; nevertheless, "the foolishness of God is wiser than men."
In Love with Themselves
By Editor
In Love with Themselves.—A writer in the New York Voice reports a leader of a love feast among the colored people in the South as saying, "All in love with God, their fellow-men, and themselves, will come forward and partake." As being expressive of the colored man's religion, we have nothing to say, for he may not have meant what he said; but the expression "in love with . . . themselves" aptly expresses much of present-day religion. But Christ was not in love with himself, for he "pleased not himself," and commanded every disciple to "deny himself." It is only by being emptied of self that we may become like Christ; but he who is in love with himself will have no room for Christ. Every false religion in the world is based upon a love of self. Though men have called it love of God, it is but the worship of the god self.
Understanding the Scriptures
"THERE are in the Scriptures some things which are hard to be understood, and which, according to the language of Peter, the unlearned and unstable wrest unto their own destruction. We may not in this life be able to explain the meaning of every passage of Scripture; but there are no vital points of practical truth that will be clouded in mystery. When the time shall come, in the providence of God, for the world to be tested upon the truth for that time, minds will be exercised by his Spirit to search the Scriptures, even with fasting and with prayer, until link after link is searched out and united in a perfect chain. Every fact which immediately concerns the salvation of souls will be made so clear that none need err or walk in darkness."
THE TEN VIRGINS.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
SEATED upon the Mount of Olives, which was over against the temple, with his disciples around him, Jesus seeks to make clear in a prophetic discourse the deeper mysteries of the kingdom of God. Through his favorite medium, by parables, he endeavors to imprint upon their minds the special truths connected with his second coming to our world. The sun has set behind the mountains, and the heavens are curtained with the shades of evening. A dwelling house is lighted up brilliantly, as though for some festive scene. The lights shine from the open spaces, and an expectant company wait around, indicating that a marriage procession is soon to appear. In many parts of the East wedding festivities are held in the evening. The bridegroom goes forth to meet his bride, and bring her to his home. By torchlight he will bring her along the streets from her father's house to his own, where a supper is prepared for the guests invited to the wedding.
Lingering near the bride's house are ten young women, in attire suitable for the occasion. Ten was the usual number who were chosen as bridesmaids. Each of the bridal attendants has a lamp and a small vessel for oil. Their lamps are lighted, and as hour after hour of waiting goes by, they grow weary of watching, and, one after another, they fall asleep. About midnight the sleepers are awakened with the cry, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh." They exchange their slumbers for life and activity. They spring to their feet. The wedding procession is in sight, with the brilliant torches shining, and they can hear the joyous music as they approach. The ten virgins seize their lamps, and begin to trim them to go forth; but five of the watchers have been wise and five foolish. Five have neglected to fill their vessels with oil. They have not expected the bridegroom to tarry so long, and have not prepared for the emergency. They are in distress, not because they see that their lamps are going out, but because they know that there is nothing in their vessels by which to replenish them. They address a piteous appeal to those who have provided themselves with oil; but they are denied, for the wise virgins have only enough to fill their own lamps, and they are bidden to hasten away and buy oil from the dealer. And while they are away on this errand, the bridegroom comes. The wise virgins, with lamps trimmed and burning, join the procession, and go in to the wedding, and the door is shut.
Soon after the door is shut, the foolish virgins come, knocking for admittance to the banquet hall, but they meet with an unexpected answer to their call. The Master of the feast says, "I know you not." There is no evidence given that the foolish virgins did obtain oil, but there is abundant evidence that they did not enter into the marriage feast, but were left standing outside in the empty streets in the blackness of the night.
Jesus used the parable of the ten virgins to represent the condition of the church before his coming, and the question that concerns each one of us is, Are we among the five wise or the five foolish virgins? Without going into the details of the parable, we may ask ourselves, What is our condition before God? Those that were wise went in to the wedding. We shall make it manifest what is our true condition by our conduct and conversation. Jesus has warned us as to what should be our position at this time. He says, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."
He who relaxes his vigilance because he knows not the day nor the hour when his Lord shall come, who becomes careless, and neglects to have his vessel filled with oil (the grace of Christ), will be found unprepared, and will not go in to the wedding. How solemn is the oft-repeated warning that our Lord has given to watch! He says, "Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." If a much-loved friend in the last hours of his association with us should give us counsel, warning, or instruction, how carefully would we treasure his words, how faithfully would we follow his instruction, and give attention to his cautions! Christ is our best Friend, for he has purchased us at infinite cost, and has made us his sons and daughters, and these soul-stirring words have been uttered by him for our benefit. Shall we not regard his claim upon us, and give him our service and our sympathy? If we do this, we shall not be neglectful of his warning, "Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you [my disciples] I say unto all, Watch." "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately."
Now is the time to look to it that we have on hand an abundant supply of the oil of the grace of Christ. It was the wisdom of the wise virgins in supplying themselves with oil that made the difference between their fate and that of the foolish virgins, who had neglected to keep oil in their vessels with their lamps. In the Scripture, oil is used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The wise virgins are those who have faith and love and patience, whose experience day by day is nourished by the Holy Spirit. They do not conform to the world in careless inattention. They do not put off their daily preparation, but follow Jesus wherever he leads the way. God is not pleased with a flickering faith. It is compared to a lamp that is going out. He is pleased with those whose experience is like that of a lamp that is burning brightly. His followers are to shine as lights in the world. Christ's servants are to keep their lamps trimmed and burning, that they may add their light to the light of others who are following Christ. Those who are not daily desirous of gaining a living, daily experience in the things of God, will not meet his approval, but will be found with those whose lamps are going out, and will not be prepared to go in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. We cannot be ready to meet the Lord by waking up at the last minute, when the cry is heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," gathering up our lamps, from which the oil has burned away, and thinking then to have them replenished. Our only hope is daily to love God, to love the truth, not for the sake of its clear arguments, but for truth's sake alone. We must bring the truth into our hearts and minds, and every day be living, shining lights, learning daily more and more of Jesus. Our conversation must be in heaven, from whence we look for our Lord Jesus Christ. We should talk much of his coming; then we shall be constantly receiving the grace which cometh from above, from the Source of all spiritual power.
The time is far spent. It is too late now to sleep the careless sleep of indifference. It is time now to rejoice greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice. It is time to sing of the marriage supper of the Lamb. The question for us to settle is, Which class shall we be among, the wise or the foolish? God help us to be among the wise. "Blessed are they that are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."
"The watchmen on the mountains
Proclaim the Bridegroom near;
Go meet him as he cometh
With hallelujahs clear.
"The marriage feast is waiting;
The gates wide open stand;
Up, up, ye heirs of glory;
The Bridegroom is at hand."
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT.
"Love" is the perennial spring of spiritual life; "joy," the up-gushing of its waters; "peace," the restfulness of a holy mind, and the placidity of God's presence that spreads over it; "long-suffering," the enduring quality of a sanctified and merciful heart; "gentleness," the amiability of external conduct and softness of manner, the politeness of Christian courtesy; "goodness," the brand, the label, that tells the quality of the whole make-up of the man; "faith," the atmosphere that surrounds the Christian, and works611like heart beats within him, keeping every attribute of soul and body alive, and every organ in motion; "meekness," the regulator of temper, the veto of anger, the antidote to fits of madness, the cure of a quarrelsome disposition, the power that draws the sting out of external provocations; "temperance," the scales that weigh all our tempers, words, actions, and pursuits, and keep the Christian in a perfect balance.—Selected.
MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE.
By George Thomas Dowling
BY GEORGE THOMAS DOWLING, D. D.
THE minister's wife had just finished her chores,
By calling on all the church people,
And some she'd found open as both the church doors,
And some she'd found as stiff as the steeple,
For, while all the deacons had slept on the wall,
A committee had come like a lion,
And, by giving her husband a generous call,
Had shaken the bulwarks of Zion.
For years they had paid him who taught them the word,
About six hundred dollars, or seven,
For they felt that a preacher should "trust in the Lord,"
And grow fat on the "manna from heaven."
And so the cash question had come to annoy,
Which with so many ministers rankles,
For the Lord had sent children,—three girls and a boy,—
And the boy—hollow down to his ankles.
Sister Blodgett, the wife of "a pillar," had cried
(They supported a carriage and horses),
"Beware, lest you sin against God;" she had sighed,
"A rolling stone gathers no mosses."
The preacher looked up from the book which he read,
And his merry eyes twinkled with laughter;
"Why didn't you tell Sister Blodgett," he said,
"That moss isn't what we are after?"
—New York Independent.
“INTOLERANT OF EVIL.”
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
BY ELDER E. J. WAGGONER.
At the fiftieth annual meeting of the London Y. M. C. A. one of the speakers, the head master of Harrow, said in the course of his address:—
If a Christian would be like Christ, he must be strong and even fierce in character. He must be intolerant of the things that are wrong; he must not suffer them, must not endure them for an instant.
Just think what influence might be exercised by this great meeting if we were all resolved that in public and in private life we will be intolerant, as intolerant as Christ was, of things that are evil, and base, and vile. Talk about public men and public opinion! we are public opinion. It is in our power to say, as Christian men and women, what we deem to be right; and, depend upon it, if we stick to that which we deem to be right in Christ’s name, there is no power on earth that can stand against us.
Unfortunately, that idea is very common. This very statement was highly eulogized by a daily paper that is prominent in the ranks of reform, and most people would read it without thinking of its real tendency, which is the worst sort of persecution. It means that every professed Christian is to make his ideas of right and wrong the standard of everybody else, and then to do the best he can to force others to come to that standard. Of course people working singly in such a way would accomplish nothing, and would be regarded as nuisances; and so they must unite and agree on certain points, and then by their combined power and influence compel other people to come to the same standard. There is in human nature enough tendency in that direction, without clergymen teaching it as a Christian duty.
The only way in which a man can rightly be intolerant of evil is to be intolerant of it in himself. The Christian is represented as a soldier, and the Christian’s life is a warfare, but not against men:—
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10: 3–5.
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. He resisted even unto blood, striving against sin; but by no means could he be called intolerant. Fierceness is not a characteristic of a lamb. He was the light of the world, which means that he enlightened the world in respect to righteousness. He “condemned sin in the flesh,” both by his life and his words; yet he did not presume to condemn men. He said, “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12: 47.
And so he instructed his disciples. “Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.” Luke 10: 3. It is the wolves and not the lambs that are intolerant. Christ’s followers are simply to bear a plain testimony, leaving the Holy Spirit to impress it upon the people, and the Lord himself to deal with those who will not accept it.
This was made very clear by the parable of the wheat and the tares. When the servants of the husbandman told him that tares had appeared in the wheat, and asked if they should root them out, he replied: “Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt. 13: 29, 30. In the same chapter the Saviour explained that “the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” The end of the world and the coming of the Lord is the time when evil is to be rooted out by force. And it is to be done only by the Lord and his angels.
The spirit of intolerance is the spirit of the Papacy. It is a most insidious evil. The intolerant one persuades himself that he is actuated solely by righteous zeal for the Lord, when he is in reality moved only by zeal for his own opinions. He opposes an evil, not so much because it is evil, but because it seems to defy him, or, in other words, “it outrages public sentiment.” And he seeks to enforce something that he judges to be right, simply because he judges it to be right, and not because the word of the Lord commands it. If he knew the commandment of the Lord, he would know that it is love, and that force and intolerance are a violation of it, because “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” 2 Tim. 2: 24, 25.
THE FALL AND REDEMPTION.
By Elder R. C. Porter
WHEN the work of creation is completed, and Christ is seated with his Father upon the throne of the universe, he enjoys with the Father the unsurpassed glory of the voluntary love and worship of his creatures in every world throughout the universe, and from the Father and the Son flow continuously every possible blessing to make life and home a paradise.
Christ, as the Good Shepherd, leads the sheep by the still waters and into green pastures. But soon, alas, one sheep has strayed from the fold! Sin has entered our world, and it is lost. The enemy who caused the sheep to stray is that exalted angel, next to Christ, who failed to remember the very thing for which the Sabbath was given to man, namely, to commemorate his Creator as a God of love, who with almighty power was seeking only his greatest good. The creature thus in madness arose and declared before his Creator and the universe of the created that God was unjust and unloving, that his laws were arbitrary and oppressive, and that he, Lucifer, was justly kept down by his unkind Creator. With self-assertive rebellion he defiantly declared, “I will exalt myself above the stars of God; . . . I will be like the Most High.” Isa. 14:12–14; Eze. 28:12–27.
The fall of Lucifer was the result of not remembering God as the “I Am that I Am,” that is, as the kind of God that he is, as declared in the true purpose of the Sabbath. Here was introduced that mystery of iniquity, mystery of self-exaltation, which has brought sorrow, wretchedness, misery, ruin, and death into the universe of God.
The plan of attack in the overthrow of man was against true Sabbath keeping. Satan attributed to God a character of jealous hate in withholding from man an experience in the knowledge of things that would so elevate him as to make him like God. Gen. 3:1–5.
This was just the opposite of the character the Sabbath was designed to perpetuate in their minds, as the character of their Creator. The devil well knew that the Sabbath rightly observed would always perpetuate in the minds of its observers the true character of God, and thus forever thwart his own plans to overthrow God’s government. To defeat this object of the Sabbath, he must turn its observers away from its true purpose. How artfully does he set about this work. “Yea, hath God said” (Gen. 3:1), is designed to insinuate doubt. He would say that God does know different. He does not mean what he said. This gives the key which unlocks the mysterious workings of that iniquitous one in the warfare against God all through the course of time. In the light of these facts, we can see why the Sabbath has ever been the center of attack. God and Christ are in the Sabbath, and to rightly keep it is to rest in God through Christ and to fully believe every word of God, and believe it as he has said it.
In the very same manner that Adam and Eve were led astray in the garden, Satan has sought to lead the human family into forbidden paths ever since. “Yea, hath God said,” “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” and “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” for its Author is your Creator of love. “But he does not mean what he says,” has been, and is, but the old story of Eden over again, only expressed in other words. Over this plea the wily tempter has succeeded in getting the pagans to forget the true God, and to take Sunday as the day for the worship of their inanimate gods. Roman Catholics and professed Protestants, following in the wake of paganism, with the same plea started in Eden by the evil one, continue to cry, “Yea, hath God said, the seventh day is the Sabbath, but it makes no difference about which day; the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, changed the day; in fine, God does not mean exactly what he said.”
The Jews and some seventh-day observers who profess to be Christians, blinded by the artful tempter, see in the Sabbath only physical rest, and while they in outward form observe the correct day as the Sabbath, they keep it in a wrong way, and so miss the wonderful blessing of true Sabbath keeping. Between these two thieves, a false day for the Sabbath, and keeping the true Sabbath in a wrong way, both born of one common parent, “God does not mean what he says,” Satan seeks to crucify God and Christ in the Sabbath, and crucify the Sabbath with them, as he crucified Christ between two thieves upon Calvary.
But “thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” and “always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” Jesus triumphed in crucifixion, and he lives and reigns on high. So likewise the Sabbath, though for a time trodden beneath unhallowed feet, its true meaning set aside, and its true purpose forgotten, still lives and will eternally live, and accomplish its sacred mission, for4Christ says, “My word . . . shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isa. 55:11.
“Truth crushed to earth will rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers;
But error wounded writhes in pain,
And dies among her worshipers.”
One sheep has strayed from the fold and is lost. What does the Shepherd now do?—He does the only thing that a good shepherd can do, he leaves the ninety and nine, and goes in search of the lost sheep until he finds it, and when he finds it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and beareth it home, and then calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.” Luke 15:4–6. The entire universe of worlds is the flock before whom the Good Shepherd went in creation, and over whom he presided after creation. Jer. 17:12. It is commonly spoken of as one family, with God as the Father and Christ as the elder brother. Eph. 3:14, 15. When our world was lost in sin, Christ left the unfallen worlds and came to reclaim the one that was lost. When he came to this earth on his mission of love, he declared, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10. “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matt. 15:24. “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Matt. 20:28. “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” John 10:11. It is here directly stated that he came in search of the lost sheep.
WHEN DID HE GIVE HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP?
There can be no question but that he did so give his life on earth, from infancy until its close on Calvary’s cross, yet it is equally clear that this is not the time that he first offered to die for the lost. It is said that he was a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8. In the counsels of eternity, before man was created, the plan of redemption was laid for the lost. This must needs be, or else God was overtaken by an unlooked-for emergency when man sinned. We cannot conceive of such a thing as this, for God is not as man to be thus mocked by his plans. One thing is certain, that the plan of redemption was laid before man was created, for it is plainly stated that Christ was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When, then, must the plan have been provided? and why was it so laid? Evidently the plan of redemption was laid far back in eternity, when it was decided to people the universe with intelligent beings, all of whom should be permitted to exercise the right of choice between right and wrong doing. By investing man with the right of choice, God must take the risk of sin entering the universe. This does not make God in any way responsible for sin, but it does become necessary for a provision to be made to meet the possibility of sin entering. This he does by offering his Son to die on the sinner’s behalf, and this Christ does by offering himself to die for sinners, a voluntary substitute for the sinner, that the sinner through him might be reclaimed.
That this plan was devised in the counsels of eternity, and revealed only when it became necessary, is plain from the following scriptures:—
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest.” 2 Tim. 1:9, 10.
“Now to him that is able to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith.” Rom. 16:25, 26, Revised Version.
“That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eph. 3:8–11.
Here we have the whole matter very plainly and simply stated. He hath saved us and called us according to his own purpose, which he purposed in Christ before the world began. This purpose was an eternal purpose. It was kept in silence through times eternal. During this time in which it was kept in silence it was hid in God. The thing that was hid and kept in silence from eternity was the plan of saving sinners through Christ. Since this thing was hid and kept in silence through times eternal, it was known and understood unto those by whom it was hid and kept in silence, that is, to God and to Christ. To all others it was hid and kept in silence; therefore, none who chose to sin knew of any possibility of return from sin.
Since this plan was devised in the counsels of eternity, when the plan of creating and peopling a universe was laid, it is clear that, as the creation was with reference to the universe, so the plan of redemption was not for one world only, but for any world in the universe that should fall under sin; and any individual in any world who should thus fall, would be offered pardon through Christ. Hence, doubtless, the fallen angels were offered pardon until they passed the boundaries beyond which there is no desire to return, as when men in this world commit the sin against the Holy Ghost, and the sad words are forced from Christ, “Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.” To this world by the scriptures of the prophets it is not made known unto the nations for the obedience of faith. When was it made known according to the scriptures of the prophets? According to the prophet Moses, of whom it was said that Christ when he came would be a prophet like unto him (Deut. 18:18), it was first made known to Adam and Eve during the first conversation of Christ with them after they had sinned (Gen. 3:1–15). These are the wonderful words through which the first news of the possibility of returning to the fold was broken by the pitying Shepherd, as he approached the straying sheep, torn, bruised, sad, and despairing: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
What unspeakable joy filled the hearts of these poor, despairing souls when to them it was revealed that, through the manifold wisdom and boundless love of God, and the everlasting love of the “Seed of woman,” it was their privilege still to choose the right and have the life of bliss from which they had so recently been separated, and to escape the eternal death, to which they were otherwise doomed! Oh, the joy to see earth a paradise once more—Satan, and sin, and unrepentant sinners nowhere to be found in the universe of God, the original purpose of God in the creating and peopling of the universe with only those who chose the right, to yet be carried out without the loss of even one world! “O God, how unsearchable are thy judgments, and thy ways past finding out!” Truly in this great plan of peopling the universe with only those who voluntarily choose the right, which was begun in the creation and as now revealed will be completed through the plan of redemption, is made known the manifold wisdom of God.
The law whose transgression brought sin, and sorrow, and death into this world, was God’s law of love, which governs his universe. The redemption offered is not for the purpose of removing this law of love, the transgression of which can only bring unhappiness and death to the transgressor, but to atone for the sins of the penitent and bring them back into their former relation to God, subject to his law, and in harmony with his government. “For this was manifested the Son of God, that he might undo the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8 (Englishman’s Greek New Testament). God through Christ created, and through Christ he now redeems. “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5:18, 19.