Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/137

 everlasting life under the favorable terms of the New Covenant, This, as the angels declared, is "Good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people. J ' And, as the Apostle declared, this grace of God that our Lord Jesus "gave himself a ransom Jor all? must be "testified 71 to all "in duetime." (Rom. 5:17-19; i Tim. 2:4-6.) Men, not God, have limited to the Gospel age this chance or opportunity of at* taming life. God, on the contrary, tells us that the Gospel age is merely for the selection of the Church, the royal priesthood, through whom, during asucceedingage, all others shall be brought to an accurate knowledge of the truth and granted full opportunity to secure everlasting life under the New Covenant.

But what advantage is there in the method pursued? Why not give all men an individual chance for life now, at once, without the long process of Adam's trial and condem- nation, the share by his offspring in his condemnation, the redemption of all by Christ s sacrifice, and the new offer to all of everlasting life upon the New Covenant conditions? If evil must be permitted because of man's free moral agency, why is its extermination accomplished by such a peculiar and circuitous method ? Why allow so much misery to intervene, and to come upon many who will ultimately receive the gift of life as obedient children of God?

Ahl that is the point on which interest in this subject centers. Had God ordered differently the propagation of our species, so that children would not partake of the results of paren fc.il sins weaknesses, mental, moral and physical and had the Creator so arranged that all should have a favorable Edenic condition for their testing, and that transgressors only should be condemned and " cutoff," how many might we presume would, under all those favorable conditions, be found worthy, and how many unworthy of life?

If the one instance of Adam be taken as a criterion (and he certainly was in every respecft a sample of perfect man-

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