The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-12-29

wonderful and gracious management
Of the Great Creator. Elsewhere. Gods
will was perfectly done. Amongst
men there had been for forty cen
turtles reign of sin and death. Satan
exercised usulped Influence over man.
kind. preylng 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" UI
! Cor. il, a; Eph. ii. -. In the language
Of Jesus he WAS the Prince. or ruler. OF
, his world. in that the great mass OF
mankind. some willingly. more isno-
rantly. we're his servants.
We can only imagine how matters
| must have appeared to the holy an
f, gels, who for long centuries previously
had witnessed no disloyalty TO God
and no nhappiness amongst His crea.
lures on any plane OF being; for them
now to see Satan in rebellion and 9th
err 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 selfishaess. so that
Mans inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn
All this must have been bewilderiDg
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
of a better day, as expressed in the
promise that the Seed Of the woman
should ultimately bruise the Serpents
head; but alb. things had gone from bad
to worse since that glorious promise
was made. and Divine Power seemed
less able than ever to grapple with the
powers of darkness. How they must
have wondered at this.
Gods Oath bound Promise.
Undoubtedly the angels bad heard of
the Divine promise made to Abraham,
and buttressed with the Divine oath.
that by these two immutable assur
ances-Gods Word and His oath-the
blessings promised might be confident
ly expected. And that promise was
twofold: ~ That all the families of the
earth should eventually be blessed. and
ca that this blessing should come to
them through Abraham's pOsterity Or
seed. We can well imagine how this
joyful news would spread amongst the
heavenly hosts: "A better day 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 'Ah!" they must have said, Eli
to demonstrate His great Power. We
felt sure all along that He possessed
this Power; and yet it seems strange
to lis that He did not exercise it sooner.
But these rejoicing angels must have
wearfed IS they perceived the 'appar-
ent failure of their expectations. Aft.
er long years Of waiting. Ishmael was
born, but seemed a very unsuitable
heir--scarcely a fulilment OF the prom
Use. Long years later came Isaac.
whose supernatural birth seemed TO
point to tho fulfilment OF the promise.
hut he accomplished nothing wonder.
ful ard died, transmitting thels'orious
promise and hope to Jacob. More long
Years passed and Jacob did not fulfil
the promise but left it TO his family
as q whoie-a rather. nnpromising fam
fly 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
IF the earth would be bessed-not-
withstanding the fact that Abraham WaS
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 j. 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 a 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 typified that of the
coming Messiah. of which they knew
nothing. Then came further failures.
Babylonian captivities-all wasting dis.
couragements.
Meantime the discouraged Istaelites
found that they themselves were not
81.