By the Reverend Jesse L. Fonda,
Providence, Ill.
Moral results are the final results in the universe.—Redemption is the evolution of moral character in the race.—This of necessity involves an experience and growth.—Mistakes at the first are inevitable.—Everything has to be tested, only so can the good be found.—Jesus brought the full development of the means for effecting this moral character.—At the last stage of things man's character will be so firmly established that a lapse will be morally impossible. This verse indicates that the moral work for the race parallels the material; taking into account considerations developed since creation, we can claim that moral results were the final ones sought in making the world and the race. Then we may think that the moral planning was the first that was done. To create a physical world with its elements, verdure, animals and man, is really grand; but the creation of moral character in a race is infinitely grander and more worthy a spiritual creator. We cannot think that it comports with divine wisdom to fore-ordain or predestinate a race to sin, and then by a superior skill in atonement save it; neither that the infinite mind should be surprised by a " fall " and institute an impromptu redemption to restore the fallen. But, by a well-conceived plan to create a race, and then to produce moral character in it by means adapted to the end, is truly dignified and worthy of deific thought. The idea of evolution is so comprehensive that it can well be applied to this work: that redemption is simply the evolution of moral character in the race. One has also said that " redemption is creation ", which expresses the idea to be brought out.
Speaking modestly
and reverently, we think that it
was impossible for God to create
a race with moral character
right out of hand. A father can
buy for his boy a whole library
of scientific works, but cannot
give him knowledge; he can
provide him with a chest of tools,
but not with skill to use them.
These come by individual effort,
choice and purpose. So with
moral character: the Creator can
endow a race with all spiritual
powers necessary, but the being
himself must gain the skill in
using them. Moral character, in
this view, is simply skill in
moral perception and choosing;
experience in discerning good as
opposed to evil, and in choosing
the good and rejecting the evil.
The first ones of the race were
perfectly innocent in the
garden. They had a knowledge of
God, some simple commands, but
no experience with the opposite
and no decided choice of good
and God for reasons of their own
origination. The insinuating
tempter came to them with a very
plausible plea casting doubt
upon the commands that they were
under, and they did not know of
their own proving but what his
statements were true. So they
disobeyed, ate, and were driven,
much to their surprise, out of
the garden. The fact of their
ignorance did not affect their
responsibility; it was a
misfortune, but unavoidable, for
they must learn of themselves,
from their own individual experience, to hold to God and his
commands in spite of every enticing promise that can be made.
They had the power to resist,
but the knowledge and deeply
laid preference, on their own
responsibility, they did not
have. So they were driven out,
and the training of the race to
produce moral character began.
Without going into details, men
as a race have tried almost
everything in life and have
proved it of themselves to be
either right or wrong. They
began with the grossness of the
antediluvians, then tested the
orgies of the Babylonians, the
culture of the Greeks, the law
and legions of the Romans, the militairism of Napoleon, and the
wealth of today. It is the same
lesson, to learn by experience
whether they are good or not.
The good, righteousness,
truthfulness, benevolence, have
not been tried thoroughly by the
world as a whole, but these
moral traits are fast coming to
the front.
The Jewish nation in
its inception was to prove the
safety and value of following
the true God as opposed to Baal
and Moloch. They made sorry work
of it, and not until the
captivity did they fully
prove the truth in it. Then Pharisaism sprang up; and it has
been proved that that is not
good, and the race as a whole is
against it although not entirely
free from it.
We think that this
American nation had a mission in
civil and religious liberty, to
prove beyond a doubt that such
liberty is best for the world.
When Jesus came, there was the
full development of the means
for producing this moral
character-; this moral creation
of the race had reached a
definite stage. His coming, as a
whole, showed more fully God's
redemptive or creative purpose;
His teachings filled the minds
of men with divine truths about
character, necessary to
character; his death revealed
the height and depth of the
infinite sincerity of the Father
in the matter, and the
outpouring of the day of
Pentecost fully invested the
race with the spiritual powers
necessary for the complete work.
This Gospel did not do the work
for man, but dwelt in him,
helping him to do it. Jesus is
the model, and the Spirit uses
Him in His work on the race. He
takes the things of Christ and
shows them unto us; He is
"formed within, the hope of
glory," that is, the exalted
character; we are to "put on the
Lord Jesus"; "to be found in
Him, not having any
righteousness of our own"; for
us "to live in Christ." All are
to be brought to Him as the
model and standard.
When the
last things shall come to pass,
all works shall have been
judged, death and hades cast
into the lake of fire, the great
red dragon bound and cast into
the abyss, then all rule and
authority other than God's will
be abolished, God will receive
the kingdom and be all in all,
and the race, the saints,
presented, without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing,
before the throne of his glory
with exceeding joy. The Savior
shall receive all praise, glory
and honor, for he was slain and
has redeemed us and made us
kings and priests unto God and
his Father. The human race then
will have demonstrated beyond
all possibility of a doubt that
God's good is true, and all evil
is false. Man's moral character
will have become so settled and
firm that no temptation which
could be devised could turn it
aside or draw its notice in the
least. Men can then be trusted
for all eternity with any message or work that
the kingdom may need and it will
surely be accomplished. God
shall lead them by fountains of
living waters, and they shall be
sons worthy of the Infinite
Father and his great loving
heart.
This makes a complete
plan, worthy of the dignity of
the highest moral being that we
can conceive, worthy of the
counsels of eternity, and of
"the Lamb that hath been slain
from the foundation of the
world."
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