Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/199

 joices most in those things which are old and perfect. So will it be with man when restored to the image of God. The perfeft man will not know or appreciate fully, and hence will not prefer, the glory of spiritual being, because of a different nature, just as fishes and birds, for the same reason, prefer and enjoy each their own nature and element most. Man will be so absorbed and enraptured with the glory that surrounds him on the human plane that he will have no aspiration to, nor preference for, another nature or other conditions than those possessed. A glance at the present experience of the Church will illustrate this. " How hardly," with what difficulty, shall those who are rich in this world's goods enter into the kingdom of God. The few good things possessed, even under the present reign of evil and death, so captivate the human nature that we need special help from God to keep our eye and purpose fixed on the spiritual promises,

That the Christian Church, the body of Christ, is an ex- ception to God's general plan for mankind, is evident from the statement that its selection was determined in the divine plan before the foundation of the world (Eph. i : 4, 5), at which time God not only foresaw the fall of the race into sin, but also predetermined the justification, the san6lifica- tion and the glorification of this class, which, during the Gospel age, he has been calling out of the world to be con- formed to the image of his Son, to be partakers of the divine nature and to be fellow-heirs with Christ Jesus of the Millennial Kingdom for the establishment of universal righteousness and peace. Rom. 8 : 28-31.

This shows that the ele<3ion or choice of the Church was a predetermined thing on God's part; but mark, it is not an unconditional election of the individual 'memiers of the Church. Before the foundation of the world God deter- miBed that such a company should be selefted for such a par-

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