News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-06-15


| 3$ the great object
| is man and his
| $$$: good. Man de-
#Al sres peace from
S;efs TOO frequent war,
| ~ $$Ss% rest from h | S
| II IVA ==%: heavy burdens,
/ # and surcease from
| #@ his constant pain;
| *: he would ex-
| n, ;$#s change the sorrow
lgss "a ,Sss8$ for JOY. A "a
| therefore he is
Iss Co., 800 o$ fond of thinking
of Christ as the
l'szss!zs zszssszzss4s esSs.-AI Great II eale r
whose primary business it was ana Is
to bring into the world what Wouiu
relieve man of the ills he is heir TO.
Certainly Christ will yet do all lhls'
but only when He is given the place
| appointed for Him by God-the pre-
eminent place. Then only can man
look for permanent and lasting peace
with God, with nature, with his TEL
lows and with himself.
Man Not First With GOO.
To think of man holding the 're-
eminent place in the counsels Oh the
| GOdhead gives the lie to much we
find in Scripture For example, when
we read of Christ going to the dis-
tressed by the pool of Bethesda, by
which was "a great multitude OF IN
potent folk" to none of them dld lie
| extend the word of healing save only
! to one man.
| 1t is quite true that blessing for the
| human race was in the thought of God
when He sent His Son into the world,
but this blessing was in a sense mere
ly incidental to the supreme object
viz-that in all things Christ might
! have the prominence. What God has
| been and is doing finds its terminus,
not i'll man, but in Christ Jesus the
Lord. Keeping. Christ out of the place
given Him by God delays the cate
when man will come to the time when
| his suffering and sorrow will be turned
10 joy and gladness.
1t Is sometimes said that the pre-
! eminent object of Gods counsels IS
the glory of God and the good of man.
But the organizations founded for the
glory of God and the good of man all
! gradually degenerate, until God is
| thrust out and man occupies the SUI
preme place; they become purely hui
manitarian, where the Word of God
must give way if it interferes nth
what man supposes makes for his own
good The motto quickly becomes.
Whatsoever ye do, do all to the bene-
| fit of man." But not until we give to
Christ the place God intends Him to
| hold will we ever come individually or
collectively, to the place of blessing
| God has for us.
Christ Preeminent From Eternity.
Christ has ever occupied this su-
preme place with God, and has ever
been Gods resource in working out
| His purposes concerning the whole
| universe. Even before man was Gre
ated and placed upon earth Christ was
before God as the one preeminent OBJ
iect of His counsels. So we are told
by Christ himself in Prov. S:26-3O
"While as yet He had not made the
earth then was | by Him as
one Drought up with Him; and l was
daily His delight"
And even during THE period of 9ter-
! nifty called time" it is still true that
| Christ and not man is the pre-eminent
object of the counsels of God. We are
told that during time "it pleased
the Father that in Him (ChrisD
| should all fullness dwell' Col l 10.
And the Holy Spirit declares in Heb.
. that God hath appointed Him
| (ChrisD heir Of all things" For us
men" was Christ surely given but "us
| men" will never find that which is ours
until we find it in Him who has thus
been appointed heir of all things" by
! God the Father.
And this principle of the preemi-
| nence of Christ in the counsels of the
| Godhead will still be true when time
| has forever passed and we enter into
| the coming eternity. We read in Eph.
| l 10, "In the dispensation of the full
| ness of time lie will gather together
| In one all things in Christ, both wlich
| are in heaven and which are on eartn,
| even in Him."
| Exating Man Delays Golden Age.
The insistence that man himself is
the preeminent object before God is
one of the great hindrances to the
| coming of the golden age for which
man waits. 1t is the exaltation of
man, seen in much of the social @erv-
ice of today, and invites to its assist
ance men who. are avowedly opposed
TO the authority of the Bible.
But everywhere and always It s
| Christ Jesus the Lord who is the re-
eminent object of all the counsels of
| the GOdhead 1t was Christ who was
before the mind of God when He spoke
to the serpent concerning the "eed of
the woman, when He gave to Abraham
the promise of a seed, and when to
David was promised the seed TO sit
upon his throne. THAT in all things
He Christi might have the pre-