Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/24

 The flan 0f the Ages.

_ the diagram was published. Its conclud-

ing sentence is : ** Evangelize the mighty generations abroad the one thousand million souls who stre dying in Christ- less despair at the rate of 100,000 a day."

But though this is the gloomy outlook from the stand- point of human creeds, the Scriptures present a brighter view, which it is the purpose of these pages to point out. Instructed by the Word, we cannot believe that God's great plan of salvation was ever intended to be, or ever will be, such a failure. It will be a relief to the perplexed child of God to notice that the Prophet Isaiah foretells this very condition of things, and its remedy, saying: "Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people ; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles [heathen] shall come to thy light." (Isa. 60: 2, 3.) In this prophecy, the gross dark- ness is lighted by the bow of promise : " The Gentiles [the nations of earth in general] shall come to thy light/'

Not only have the continued misery and darkness of the world, and the slow progress of truth, been a mystery to the Church, but the world itself has known and felt its condition. Like that which enveloped Egypt, it has been a darkness that could be felt. In evidence of this, note the spirit of the following lines, clipped from a Philadelphia journal. The doubt and gloom, intensified by the clashing creeds of the various schools, had not yet been dispelled from the writer's mind by the rays of divine truth dire<5t

from the Word of God :

Life ! great mystery 1 Who shall say What need hath God of this poor clay ? Formed by his hand with potent skill-~ Mind, matter, soul and stubborn will ; Born but to die : sure destiny death. Then where, oh I where this fleeting breath. Not one of all the countless throng,

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