Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/157

 an individual trial, tinder the eye and control of him who so loved him as to give his life for him, and who would not that any should perish, but that all should turn to God and live, we may be sure that only the wilfully disobedient will receive the penalty of the second trial. That penalty will be the second death, from which there will be no ransom, no release, because there would be no objedl for another ran- som or a further trial. All will have fully seen and tasted both good and evil ; all will have witnessed and experienced the goodness and love of God-; all will have hdd a full, fair, individual trial for life, under most favorable conditions. More could not be asked, and more will not be given. That trial will decide forever who would be righteous and holy under a thousand trials ; and it will determine also who would be unjust, and unholy and filthy still, under a thousand trials.

It would be useless to grant another trial for life under exactly the same circumstances ; but though the circum- stances of the tried ones will be different, more favorable, the terms or conditions of their individual trial for life will be the same as in the Adamic trial. The law of God will remain the same it changes not. It will still say, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die ;" and the condition of man will be no more favorable, so far as surroundings are concerned, than the conditions and surroundings in Eden ; but the great difference will be the increased knowledge. The experience with evil, contrasted with the experience with good, which will accrue to each during the trial of the coming age, will constitute the advantage by reason of which the results of the second trial will differ so widely from the results of the first, and on account of which divine Wisdom and Love provided the " ransom for all, 7 ' and thus guaranteed to all the blessing of a new trial. No more favorable trial, no mord favorable law, no more favorable conditions or cir-

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