Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/72

 66 The flan of the Ages.

ure. . . Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it" (Isa. 14 : 24-27 ; 46 : 9 j J0 ) Therefore, however hap-hazard or mysterious God's dealings with men may appear, those who believe this tes- timony of his Word must acknowledge that his original and unalterable plan has been, and still is, progressing sys- tematically to completion.

While the mass of mankind, groping in the darkness of ignorance, must await the aftual developments of God's plan, before they can realize the glorious charafler of the Divine Architeft, it is the privilege of the child of God to see by faith and the light of his lamp the foretold glories of the future, and thereby to appreciate the otherwise mysterious dealings of the past and the present. There- fore, as interested sons of God, and heirs of a promised inheritance, we apply to our Father's Word, that we may understand his purposes from the plans and specifications therein given. There we learn that the plan of God, with reference to man, spans three great periods of time, be- ginning with man's creation and reaching into the illimit- able future. Peter and Paul designate these periods "three worlds," which we represent in the following diagram.

CREAT EPOCHS CALLED "WORLDS/*

���These three great epochs represent three distinct man- ifestations of divine providence. The first, from creation to the flood, was under the ministration of aagete, and is

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