Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/221

 and Joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. ' ' In view of these things, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may ol> tain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, while we fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on "the crown of glory ' ' immortality, the divine nature. 2 Tim. 4:8; i Peter 5 : 4.

THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS.

While the special hope of the Gospel age is so surpass- ingly glorious, and the way to it is correspondingly difficult narrow, hedged in by hardships and dangers at every step so that few find it, and obtain the great prize at its end, the new order of things in the age to come is to be entirely different. As a different hope is held out, so also a different way leads to it. The way to immortality has been a way which required the sacrifice of the otherwise lawful and proper hopes, ambitions and desires the sacri- fice forever of the human nature. But the way to human perfection, lo restitution, the hope of the world, requires only the putting away of sin : not the sacrifice of human rights and privileges, but their proper enjoyment. It will lead to personal purification and restoration to the image of God as enjoyed by Adam before sin entered the world.

The way back to actual human perfection is to be made very plain and easy ; so plain that none may mistake the way; so plain that "the wayfaring man, and those unac- quainted therewith, shall not go astray " (Isa. 35:8. Leeser)\ so plain that none will need to teach his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest. (Jer. 31 : 34.) Instead of be- ing a narrow way that few can find, it is termed "a high- way/' a public roadway not a narrow, steep, rugged, diffi- cult, hedged by-way, but a way specially prepared for easy travel specially arranged for the convenience and comfort

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