The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1878-01-02

Heb. /: z, calls Christ the heir OF all the
good things of God; for the adoption which
We obtain through His favor restores to us
the possession of the inheritance which we
lost in Adam; and as under the type of the
land of Canaan, not only the hope of heav-
emily life was exhibited to Abraham, but also
the full and complete blessing of God, the
Apostle rightly teaches US that the dominion
of the world was promised to him. Some
taste of this the godly have in the present
life. 1t is indeed great COM
fort to the godly in their poverty, that though
they fare slenderly, they yet steal nothing
of what belongs to another, but receive their
lawful allowance from the hand of their ce-
lestisl Father until they enter on the full
possession of their inheritance, when all
creatures shall be made subserVient to their
glory; for both heaven and earth shall be
renewed for this end-that according to their
measure they may contribute to render glori-
Ous the kingdom of God"
1t is declared in Acts vii 5, that God did
not give Abraham an inheritance in Canaan,
although He had promised it to him as weu
as to his seed. And we are also told in Heb.
xi, that Abraham, with other worthless there
mentioned, did not receive the promise be-
fore they died, and WiH not receive 1t until
all the redeemed are made partakers Of 1t to-
gether. When the time arrives, for which
the whole creation is grOaning, to wit, the
time of the redemption of the bOdy-the re
sarrsctiOn.-(Ro viii 1928 Abraham
will receive the promised "country" and
"city." 1t should be remembered that after
Johns vision of the new heavens and the new
earth" follows description of the city of
the New Jerusalem, and the river tree of life
"a description of what is generally called
heaven. but which is evidently description
of "the new heavens and the new earth.
This world continued but very short time
as God made it. Satan did not defeat the
plan of God, when he crept into Eden and
made the world like his own internal abode.
All his works will be destroyed. The saints
will reign on an earth as pure as when it
sprang fresh from the creative hand. The
meek shall inherit the land and dwell therein
forever Gods will will "be done in earth
as 1t is in Heaven" When sinless man lived
on sinless earth, he had intimate inter-
course with his Maker. So will it be again.
DR.. Chalmers s"yS, "The common imsgi-
nation that We have of Paradise on the other
side of death is, that Of lofty aerial region,
where the inmates float in ether, or are mys-
teriOusly suspended upon nothing; where all
the warm and sensible accompaniments which
give life and colOring to our present hsbita-
ton are sttenusted into q sort of spiritual
element that is meagre and imperceptible and
utterly uninViting to the eye of mOrtals here
below; where every vestige of materisliSm
is done away, and nothing left but certain
unearthly extssies with which it is felt i'm
possible to sympathize. 1t is not the entire
substitution of spirit for matter that will dis
tinguish the future economy from the pre-
sent. 1t is this which signalizes the Chris.
tian from the MOhammedan Paradise, not
that sense, and substance, and splendid i'm
sgery, and the glorieS of visible creation
are excluded from it, but that all that is vile
in principle, or voluptuOuS in impurity are
excluded from it.
That the phrase, the whole creation" in
Rom. viii 1923, means the irrational cre
alton, is held by ChrysOstom, TheOdonet,
TheOphylact, Jerome, Ambrose, Luther, Cal
vim, Koppe, Hsldane, Chalmers, Tholuck,
Scott, Henry, Hodge and others.
P. T. P.