Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/227

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from the fact that man's wickedness became so great that God in his wrath and righteous indignation destroyed with a flood the whole of the race then living with the excep- tion of eight persons. Gen. 7 : 13.

During the " present evil world/* man is permitted to try governing himself; but by reason of the fall he is tinder the control of Satan, the "prince of this world,'* against whose secret machinations and intrigues he has vain* ly striven in his efforts at self-government during the long period from the flood to the present time. This attempted reign of man under Satan is to end in the greatest time of trouble the world has ever known. And thus will have been proven the futility, not only of angelic power to save the race, but also of man's own efforts to reach satisfactory conditions.

The second of these great dispensations, B, is composed of three distinct ages, each of which, as a progressive step, leads upward and onward in God's plan.

Age D was the one during which God's special dealings were with such patriarchs as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Age E is the Jewish Age, or the period following the death of Jacob, during which all of his posterity were treat- ed by God as his special charge "his people/' To these he showed special favors, and declared, " You only have I known (recognized with favor) of all the families of the earth." (Amos 3 : 2.) These, as a nation, were typical of the Christian Church, the "holy nation, the peculiar peo- ple." The promises made to them were typical of the "bet- ter promises" made to us. Their journey through the wilderness to the land of promise was typical of our jour ^ ney through the wilderness of sin to the heavenly Canaan. Their sacrifices justified them typically, not really; for the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. (Heb. in * 4j But in the Gospel Age, f> we have the "better

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