The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-01-10


the completion of Jeliovnh's great pur
poses and dealings with man and in
respect to him, will stand revealed the
forelSnowlcdge and Wisdom of God
who knew the end from the beginning
and who foresaw how even the permits
sion of reign of sin and death could
be made eventually to work out to his
own glory and to the blessing and In.
structlon OF his creatures on both the
human and the angelic planes. Then
Will be revealed to all the glorious
character OF their Creator, and the ne
cessity for his requirement of absolute
righteousness and perfection.
Surely. the result eventually viii be,
as the Scriptures declare, that all shall
learn righteousness, and hate inlquity,
and that every creature In heaven and
in earth and under the earth shall ac-
claim both Jehovah, who stitch upon
the Throne Of the Universe, and the
Lamb, the Redeemer, forever.
Were we to allow ourselves to spec
ulate respecting the future-respecting
millions of worlds around us, our spec
ulations would run thus: Those in
structed and used OF Jehovah In con-
junction with the initial development
of the Divine Plan in the earth will
thereby be fitted and prepared to be
the Divine Agents to other worlds.
The Great Redeemer and his "elect"
associates, after dealing with human
ity for their uplift out of sin and death
conditions, will surely be qualified for
further service in other worlds: to
"show forth the praises Of him who
called them out of darkness into his
marvellous light"
And what shall we say of humanity
when perfected at the end of Messiah's
glorious reign? Will not all be well
prepared, not only to approve right
eousness in themselves, but to tell in
other worlds, to other races. the story
of the fall and of the reign of Sin and
Death resulting: and Of the redemption
accomplished by Gods love: and of
the great restitution; and of the les
sons thus learned?
The Interchangeable One.
The qualities of the Divine character
which we have just considered Wis
dom, Justice, Love and Power-be-
longed to our Creator In the great eter
nifty preceding creation. But there
was no one at that time to appreciate
God-it requires full view Of the
perfected Plan of the Ages to make
known to any and to all the glory of
the Lord. AS we have just seen, thus
far the secret of the Lord and the
glories of his character are known
only to his "sons," begotten of his
holy Spirit. But the time nears when
''the whole earth shall be full OF the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the great deep"
He and his glorious government will
then be "the desire of all nations:"
''The glory of the Lord shall be reveal
ed and all flesh shall see it together
(Haggai ii, q Isaiah xl, 81.
st. Paul assures us that every fea-
ture Of the Divine Plan which we see
in process of execution was known to
Jehovah from before the foundation
of the world. He declares that these
things God purposed in himself before
the foundation of the world. The
creative processes, which have been
operating for thousands of years, were
all surely elaborated in the mind Of
Jehovah before the creative work be-
gan. In that purpose angels had a
part--of how many grades we may
not surely know, but they are various
ly designated in the holy Scriptures as
"angels, principalities and powers"
Later came the creation of man, "a
little lower than the angels" and
crowned with earthly honor, dignity
and power, in the image and likeness
of his Creators glorious power.
These creations varied not in degrees
of perfection and lmperfection. Each
was perfect on its own plane. Each
intelligent creature was free, moral
agent, and hence, whether on the an
gelic or human plane, was created in
the likeness of God, unblemished, but
with different capacities and abilities.
Almighty God, infinite in Wisdom,
justice, Love and Power purposed the
orderly exercise Of his infinite powers,
as q great Father, desirous Of giving
life and happiness to his creatures.
These intelligent ones were desig-
mated "Sons of God" SO long as they
maintained their attitude of perfect
loyalty to him, their Creator and Fa.
ther. Not only was 1t the Divine
intention thus to give pleasure to
millions of creatures to be created, but
it was also the Divine will to manifest
to his creatures his own greatness and
the perfection of his own goodness
that they might enjoy him and he en-
Joy them everlastingly.
We are not to understand that AL.
mighty God was lonely in that great
Eternity before creation began. On
the contrary. human loneliness is
largely because of human deficiency
What we lack we seek for In others
But the great Jehovah lacked nothing