The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-09-21
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pear to reason upon every other sub
ject except religion. Approach a man
upon any matter of industry or social
progress or political economy or finance
and we find him reasonably alert to
the general law of Cause and Effect,
but when it comes to religion the same
man refuses to recognize or follow
such laws To illustrate: If a thou
sand religious men and women were
asked to give some general outline OF
the Divine Plan under which humanity
is being dealt with by the Almighty,
Nine Hundred and NinetyNine Of
them would look at you in blank as
constituent as though it were absurd
to suppose that God would conduct his
affairs along the lines of order, reason
| and common sense-Cause and Effect
| On the contrary the Scriptures every
where hold that our Creator is system
atically ordering the affairs of earth
and working all things according to
the counsel Of his own will" (Ephe-
slams /, ~.
st. Peter divides the worlds history
into three great epochs, which our
common version Bible designates as
"soorlds." The first of these, he says,
lasted from the creation of our first
parents to the food. The flood was
the harvest time, the reaping time, Of
that epoch 1t was the conclusion to
| the course of sin which, he tells us.
| A,1lx afrwhf
sons, Noah and his family, were car
ried over as a nucleus for another great
epoch or world" which st. Peter
calls. 1.-THE world that now is" and
which st. Paul calls, This present
evil world or epoch. and Of which
Jesus states, MY kingdom is not OF
this world (epoch)," while again he in
forms us that Satan is 'the Prince OF
this world"
Certain things have been in prog
ress-certain great instructions and
blessings from the Almighty during
this long period Of over Forty-three
| Hundred years. "This present evil
world" or epoch is to have a harvest
| time and its affairs are to be as thor
| oughly wound up. completed, as were
the affairs of 'the world before the
food" Then a new epoch or world
to come" will dawn, the character Of
which is clearly delineated in the
| Scriptures as being very contrary ev-
eryway to that of ''this present evil
world" 1t will be 1.-THE world to
come, whereof we speak" the new
epoch, figuratively said to have "a new
heavens and a new EARTH" in which
the Lord will dominate human affairs.
His elect Church of the present time
associated with him as his Bride, will
constitute the new heavens" or new
spiritual domination under which hu-
man regeneration will bring the new
earth" Under that new dispensat1on
everything will be In accord with the
character of its King, the Prince Of
Light and Righteousness, just as the
conditions of ''the present evil world"
are in harmony with the characters
tics of the prince of this world. who
now worketh In the hearts of the chill
dren of disobedience"-"the Prince of
Darkness"
HThe World That Was"
The "world" or epoch which ended
at the flood accomplished great work.
It was during that period of Sixteen
Hundred and Fifty-six years that God
first tested Satan by permitting him to
have an opportunity to show the trail
torous attitude of his heart In connec-
ton with our first parents. Desiring
to establish himself as an Emperor over
earth, separate and distinct from the
Empire of Jehovah. Luctfer became
Satan. Gods Adversary, and has since
continued in his opposition to the Di-
vine will. Our first parents, through
Satan's lie, were led into disobedience
to God, which resulted in the death
sentence on Adam and his race. Sub
seuuently for centuries the holy angels
we're allowed to have intercourse with
fallen men, with a view to helping
them back into harmony with God,
not that God expected any such re-
suits, for he already foreknew that
there could be no recovery Of human
ity, except through the merit of the
Redeemer, whose sacrifice would pur-
chase the world and whose reign as
the King Of kings and Lord of lords
would ultimately restore the willing
and obedient of the race. But the an
gels to all eternity might have sup
posed that an easier way of saving
men was possible; that If permitted
they could educate, assist and uplift
mankind out of sin and death condi-
lions back to harmony with God. God
not only desired to show that all such
results were impossible, but also he
desired to use the opportunity to test,
to prove, the loyalty, the faithfulness
of the angelic hosts.
Amongst the liberties granted to all
the angels at that time was the pow
er to materialize-to assume human
forms. We need not stop to discuss
the possibility of this, for we are ad-
dressing those who believe the Scrip
tural record. and to such it will be
quite sufficient for us to cite one OF the
many Scriptural instances: the case
of the three men who appeared to
Abraha and were subsequently found
to be angels-spirit beings. They
looked, talked. ate and were clothed
like men. Abraham knew not whom
they were until subsequently they re-
vealed their identity, as we read in the
account Of Genesis xviii The Apostle
Paul adds his testimony to this Incl
dent, saying to the Church, BE not
forgetful to entertain strangers; for
thereby some have entertained angels
unawares" Hebrews xiii, p.
For long centuries this relationship
between the angels and mankind con-
tinued. We have no record of any
human being receiving an uplift from
their illustrations. On the contrary,
as God had foreseen, the influence Of
sin was contagious and ere long some
of the angelic hosts became so enam-
ored of the daughters Of men that
"they took to themselves wives Of
such as they chose" and preferred to
leave their own habitation or spirit
condition and to remain In a material
lied form and to raise earthly families,
although their course was contrary to
the Divine arrangement and must have
been so understood by them. Divine
power was not interposed to hinder
them. The error of this sedition, the
leaving of their own habitation or
plane of spirit being, from small be-
ginning. spread, and Gods non-inter-
ference justified the supposition that
he was either not able to cope with
the situation, or unable to enforce his
own Law Thus centuries rolled by
while the earthly children Of those
angels which kept not their first es-
tate became giants and men Of re-
nown" at a time when maturity was
| -ooobo<5 ,,a&sI looat n-o IT,,r