Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/79

 Epochs and Dispensations* p

With this age the " present evil world" ends; and mark well that while God has been thus permitting the predominance and reign of evil, to the seeming detriment of his cause, nevertheless his deep designs have been steadily progressing according to a fixed and definite plan, and in the exact order of the seasons which he has ap- pointed. In the end of this age, and the dawn of its successor, the Millennial age, Satan is to be bound and his power overthrown, preparatory to the establishment of Christ's kingdom and the beginning of "the world to come, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

Millennium, signifying a thousand years, is by common consent used as the name for the period mentioned in Rev. 20:4 the thousand years of Christ's reign, the first age in the "world to comt k ." During the Millennial age, there will be a restitution of all things lost by the fall of Adam (Acts 3:19-21), and before its close all tears shall have been wiped away. Iteyond its boundary, in the ages of blessedness to follow, there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there beany more pain. The former things will have passed away, (Rev. 21:4.) God's revelations particularize no further, and there we stop.

We have here only glanced at the mere outline of this plan of the ages. The more we examine it, the more we will find in it perfeel harmony, beauty and order. Each age has its part to accomplish, necessary to the complete de- velopment of God's plan as a whole. The plan is a pro- gressive one, gradually unfolding from age to age, upward and onward to the grand consummation of the original de- sign of the Divine Architect, " who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. 1 ' (Eph. x :ix.) Not one of these great periods is an hour too long or too short for the aocomplishmcnt of its object, God is a wise economist ojF

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