Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-12-26

will was perfectly done. Amongst
men there had been for forty CEN
turtles a reign of sin and death Satan
exercised usurped influence over man
kind. preying upon human weakness,
ignorance and superstition. AS the
Apostle declares. he had become the
god of this world" who now worketh
in the children of disobedience'' QI
Cor. ". A: Eph. Ii. y. In the language
of Jesus he was the Prince. or ruler, of
this world. in that the great mass of
mankind. some willingly. more igno-
rantly, were his servants.
We can only imagine how matters
must have appeared to the holy an
gels. who for long centuries previously
had witnessed no disloyalty to God
and no unhappiness amongst His crea-
lures on any plane Of being; for them
now to see Satan in rebellion and 9TH
er angels following his course and be-
coming demons. and to see man. made
in Gods image. denounced and his
heart of tenderness turned to a heart
of stone and selfishness. so that
Mans inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn
All this must have been bewildering
to the loyal angels. who doubtless won
dered whether or not the Universe
could thus pass from the control of the
Almighty Creator. Undoubtedly they
were aware of the Divine intimation
81 In in no
promise that the Seed of the woman
should ultimately bruise the Serpents
head; but ah. things had gone from bad
to worse since that glorious promise
was made. and Divine Power seemed
less able than ever to graphs with the
powers Of darkness. How they must
have wondered at this.
Gods Oath bound Promise.
Undoubtedly the angels had heard of
the Divine promise made to Abraham,
and buttressed with the Divine oath.
that by these two immutable assur-
ances-God's Word and His oath-the
blessings promised might be confident
ly expected And that promise was
tWSiOiO. NAb ldI ali LuS ldl1lllCS VI INC
earth should eventually be blessed. and
ca that this blessing should come to
them through Abraham's posterity or
seed. We can we'll imagine how this
Joyful news sTould spread amongst the
heavenly hosts: "A better Gay is COM
ing: the reign of sin and death in the
world is to be stopped. The blessing
of the Lord is to reach the fallen race
and put an end to ignorance. supersti-
ton, blindness, sin, dying, crying and
PAIN All they must have said, Fl
nally God is about to take action and
to demonstrate His great Power We
felt sure ali along that He possessed
this Power: and yet 1t seems strange
to us that He did not exercise it sooner
But these rejoicing angels must have
wearied as they perceived the appar-
ent failure of their expectations. Aft
er long years of waiting. lshmael was
born. but seemed very unsuitable
heir-scarcely a fulfilment of the prom
ise Long years later came Isaac,
whose supernatural birth seemed to
point to the fulfilment of the promise.
But he accomplished nothing wonder
full and died, transmitting the glorious
promise and hope to Jacob More long
years passed and Jacob diu not fulfil
the promise, but left 1t to his family
as whole-a rather unpromising fam
lily as respected the blessing of man
kind Then the nation of Israel. so
far from blessing other nations, went
into bondage TO the Egyptians; and all
of Gods promises seemed to have fail
ed.
The Testing of the Angels Continued.
All. what testing he gave the
loyal angels. How their faith in. Wis
dom and Power Divine must have
been tried! Finally, under Moses. the
Divinely APPOINTED leader. the nation
of Israel suddenly emerged from slav-
cry and under Divine favor, reached
Mt. Sinai and there entered into Cove
nant-relationship with God, as the seed
of Abraham, heirs of the original
promise of blessing the world. Now
matters began to look toward a full
filment of the gracious promise that
in Abraham and his seed all the families
OF the earth would be blessed-not-
withstanding the fact that a brGhdm t0ds
dead.
The trying experiences of the wilder
ness must have been disappointing.
not only to the Israelites. but also to
the interested angels beyond the veil,
who. st. Peter tells us. earnestly de-
sired to look into these things and
sought for the fulfilment of the prom
Use. Il Peter i. 10. H. Finally Ca
naan, the land of promise. was reach
ed. but the progress Of Israel toward
wOrld-domination and blessing was
slow One after another of their enc
mics brought them under tribute.
Then came their prosperity for time
under King David. who set up the
throne Of the kingdom of the Lord, and
then under King Solomon. the glories
of whose kingdom typifed that Of the
coming Messiah. of which they knew
nothing. Then came further failures,
Babylonian captivities-all wasting dis
couragements.
Meantime the discouraged Israelites
found that they themselves were not
receiving the blessing that they had
hoped for under the Law Covenant
everlasting life. The Law had said
that whoever would act in harmony
with its commands would have life;
but they were all dying. The lesson
to them was their own weakness. their
inability to keep the Law-the glorious
Law of God. which is the measure of
perfect mans ability-"Thou shalt love
the Lord thy Cod with all thy heart.
mind. soul and strength. and thy neigh.
Dor as myself" As st Paul declares.
they could keep this Law only with
their minds-they could riH TO keep il.
but 10 perform all their good win in
this respect was impossible. because Of