ance in glory-such are the objects of the following pages. An honest effort has been made to render a sincere apology for the church of God and to explain some of the most perplexing questions of modern theology and ecclesiastical polity.

We earnestly invoke the divine guidance and wisdom upon the reader, that he may understand the deep mystery of God revealed to his church by his Spirit. May the same Spirit that conceived the plan and developed it into the divine ecclesia reveal it to his people. Amen. John A. D. Khan.

Anderson, Ind.

The Christian Church
Its Rise and Progress

Israel's Night.

As a result of the fall of man into sin back at the foundation of the world, Adam and Eve lost Paradise, holiness, eternal life, and the companionship of God, and reaped sorrow, misery, and death. Moreover, all their posterity fared the same result, and the whole world was enshrouded in darkness and sin. In this period, we are told, "death reigned"; that is, spiritual death, which came as a result of universal sin. Man stood in the attitude of a guilty violator of God's holy and infinite law, and hence was under an infinite penalty. Since the broken law was eternal, the penalty for its violation was eternal. The justice of God demanded that man suffer for his disobedience. God's immutability demanded that the penalty of his law be executed. To lift the penalty, he would have been obliged to abolish his law; but since that law was "holy, just, and good," he could not abol

ish it and yet be the God of law and order. Thus man seemed eternally and hopelessly lost.

But mercy rejoiced against judgment. The infinite love of God for lost humanity brought his infinite wisdom and knowledge into action. That wisdom, which is far beyond our comprehension, yes, "past finding out," schemed a way of escape, a plan of salvation. It was by providing an atoning sacrifice in the person of his own Son. This secured deliverance from the awful penalty and made the salvation of a lost world possible.

Long ages before that plan was fully revealed and opened to mankind in the coming of Messiah, the Lord cast its shadow upon earth. It takes a substance to make a shadow, and the substance must exist before the shadow. In this, the substance was the wonderful plan of salvation and redemption then hid in the wisdom and knowledge of God-a "mystery hid from generations and ages," hid in God, "kept secret since the world began"; a mystery "which in other ages was not made known to the sons of ," but "now is made manifest" "in Christ Jesus our Lord." Its shadow was the law, its tabernacle, sacrifices, blood, and service. The

men,

"law was a shadow of good things to come.” God selected the literal seed of Abraham-Israel-to be his chosen people. To them he delivered the law and all the blessings of his kingdom in figures and shadows. The giving of the law was the ushering in of a day of good things to Israel. In type, "they all drank of that spiritual Rock"-Christ. That dispensation and law had some "glory" (2 Cor. 3:711). Yes, brilliant rays of light from heaven shone upon earth. Through priests and prophets man could converse with his Creator and make his desires known. This was a blessed privilege enjoyed by Israel; a day of preparation for the ushering in of a still more glorious day.

But that people, to whom God delivered the lively oracles, forsook the God of their fathers and, as a nation, drifted into darkness and idolatry. This brought the wrath of God upon them, and he answered them no more through prophets. The last prophet through whom God definitely spoke to Israel was Malachi. Then came an awful night of about four hundred years upon that favored people, in which no prophet's voice was heard. This was foretold by the

prophet Micah as follows: "Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets.

. . Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God." Micah 3:5-7. Midnight darkness filled the earth. No prophet spoke; there was no answer from God. This was the period from Malachi to the ministry of John the Baptist. Men sought in the darkness of that night to find the word of the Lord, but could not find it. Thus was the prophecy of Amos fulfilled: "They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst." Amos 8:11, 12.