RIGHTEOUS ATTITUDE TOWARD EVIL. HOLY AFFECTIONS. THE GRACES. STRENGTH. DOMINANCE OF HIS HIGHER PRIMARY GRACES. BALANCE. CRYSTALLIZATION. THREE CLASSES OF GRACES. THE HIGHER PRIMARY GRACES. WISDOM. JUSTICE. CHARITY. LOVE. POWER. THE FUNCTION OF GOD'S HIGHER PRIMARY GRACES.

IN THE preceding chapter we have considered the attributes of God's being. As an initial feature to the study of His character it would be proper to study the elements of His character, i.e., the general forms in which His character exists and acts, the general ingredients of which it consists. There are seven of these: (1) a righteous attitude toward evil; (2) holy affections; (3) the graces; (4) strength in every element of character; (5) domination over His lower primary affections and graces, and His secondary and tertiary graces by His higher primary graces properly blended; (6) balance of character; and (7) crystallization of character. In this discussion it is not our purpose to give details on these points; rather it is our purpose to give only generalities thereon, as details naturally will follow. The first element of God's character suggested above is that it sustains a righteous attitude toward evil. A righteous attitude toward evil, first of all, abhors it, hates it as an abomination, and God does this because He is righteous, and it is evil—evil in itself and evil in its effects. It is evil in itself because it is opposed to God's law, which is based on, is in harmony with, and flows out of His justice, and because it works harm in a moral order of affairs; for certainly it disrupts the fellowship relations between God and His sinning free

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moral agents and does this to the relations of those creatures to one another, as well as harms these creatures. Accordingly, a righteous being's righteous attitude toward evil must be one of abhorrence. Therefore, God, as a righteous being, in the nature of the case, must abhor evil. The Bible gives us abundant evidence to this effect: "All His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity; just and right is He" (Deut. 32: 4). "The Lord is upright: … there is no unrighteousness in Him" (Ps. 92: 15). "What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me?" (Jer. 2: 5). "Thou are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Hab. 1: 13). Additionally, the following cited passages show that God abhors evil: Gen. 6: 6; Deut. 25: 16; Ps. 5: 4-6; Prov. 6: 16­ 19; 21: 27; Jer. 44: 4, 22; Zech. 8: 17; Luke 16: 13; Rev. 2: 6, 15. Thus the first feature of His righteous attitude toward evil is abhorrence, which we recognize is proper.

Out of such abhorrence God avoids evil. He will not practice it, because it is contrary to His character in its holiness and in its righteousness. He, being perfect in character, naturally must abhor it and, therefore, will not, nor can He, practice evil. The Scriptures are plain on this feature of His righteous attitude toward evil. We will quote a few pertinent Scriptures: "Far be it from God that He should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that He should commit iniquity. Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment" (Job 34: 10, 12). "Who can say, Thou has wrought iniquity?" (Job 36: 23). "To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. … Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil." (Lam. 3: 36, 38). "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18: 25). "There is no iniquity with the Lord, our God" (2 Chron. 19: 7). "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid" (Rom. 9: 14).

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"Neither is there respect of persons with Him" (Eph. 6: 9). "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love" (Heb. 6: 10). Accordingly, we see that the Bible teaches that God avoids evil as a part of His righteous attitude toward sin. And from the same attitude of Him toward sin He opposes it. He opposes it by teaching against it, by warning against it, by punishing those who play with it, by setting up arrangements and movements against it. In the Bible are many teachings and examples of this feature of His righteous acts against evil. His teaching and warning of Cain, Pharaoh, Israel, Balaam, Saul, David, etc., are illustrations of certain forms of His opposition to evil; and His punishments of these and others are illustrations of still another form of opposing evil. The arrangements that He gave natural and spiritual Israel against it in its various forms constitute another way in which He has shown His opposition to evil. Furthermore the experience of the race under the curse, the Day of Vengeance and the Second Death are only some more illustrations of His opposing evil. The following citations bear this out: Gen. 3: 7-24; 4: 9-14; 6: 5-7; 1 Kings 13: 33, 34; Ps. 94: 23; Is. 50: 11; Jer. 5: 25; 21: 14; Ezek. 11: 21; Rom. 5: 12-21; Gal. 6: 7. Thus we see that God opposes evil. Accordingly, in His abhorring, abstaining from, and opposing evil, God shows that one of His character elements is a righteous attitude toward evil.

The second element of God's character is holy affections. This means that God's affections are holy in their nature, in the objects to which they attach themselves, and in the manner in which they express themselves. These affections are partly intellectual, partly artistic, partly religious, partly selfish (not sinfully selfish) and partly social. His intellectual affections are His love for knowing, love for remembering and love for reasoning. This form of His love is holy; it exercises itself in a holy manner and toward holy objects.

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His artistic affections are His love for the beautiful, His love for the sublime, His love for the eloquent, His love for the humorous, His love for the pleasant and His love for the creative. This love is holy in itself: it exercises itself in holy ways and attaches itself to the holy in these things. His religious affections are His love for believing in, and relying upon the things of faith, His love for hoping for the things of hope, His love for firmness of the will, His love for perseverance of the will, His love for just veneration toward good principles, His love for just love for His creatures and His disinterested veneration for good principles and for His creatures. His religious love, His disinterested love, He exercises in a holy manner, it reaches out toward holy objects; and if certain objects, like the fallen angels and men, are not holy, He exercises this love toward making them holy.

Then God's selfish affections are holy. Selfish affections may be holy or unholy, dependent on their quality, their manner of exercise and the things to which they attach themselves. In God all His selfish affections are holy, for their qualities are holy: they work in a holy manner and attach themselves to holy things. Thus He has love for a proper self-esteem, others' esteem, ease, safety, life, self- defense, concealing, gaining and retaining, attacking and (spiritual) eating and drinking. God's social affections are holy. On these sentiments there must be some explanations made so as to clarify matters. E.g., God loves His wives; but it must be explained that, as man understands the matter of wives, God has not had, does not have and will not have wives. But He has had, does have and will have symbolic wives. Is. 54: 1-17, compared with Gal. 4: 27, proves that the Sarah Covenant, i.e., the oath-bound promises to the Christ, Head and Body, and the servants that apply them to the faithful new creatures, are God's (symbolic) wife. Gal. 4: 21-31 proves that also the Hagar Covenant, i.e., the Law

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promises to Israel and the servants that applied them to Israel, have likewise been a symbolic wife to God. The same will be true of the New Covenant, which is typed by Keturah, the third wife of Abraham, as we gather from the parallels of Sarah and Hagar and the allusion to Keturah's descendants as picturing those developed as children under the New or Millennial Covenant (Is. 60: 6). Hence we say that God has a love for wife, love for children, love for friends, love for home (His Paradise, Rev. 2: 7) and love for country (the universe). This love is holy, because holiness is its quality, because it is exercised in a holy way and goes out to holy objects. Accordingly, God's affections are the second element of His character.

The third element of God's character is His graces. Usually we speak of the main attributes of God's character as wisdom, power, justice and love. But, as St. Peter shows us in his famous addition problem (2 Pet. 1: 5-7), these are capable of being resolved into their parts as follows: Wisdom is a combination of faith, hope (which is the heart of fortitude) and knowledge. Power (will power as distinct from omnipotence, which is an attribute of being and not of character) is a combination of self-control and patience. Justice is a combination of piety (duty-love to God; in God's case this goes out to good principles, not to any person, which, if it did, would imply that God has a superior—an impossibility) and brotherly love (duty-love to the neighbor). St. Peter does not analyze love; he simply mentions it as charity. These seven graces we call the higher primary graces, because they are the graces that, acting through the religious affections as their qualities, are the chief and dominating graces. These graces in God are holy; they act in a holy manner and attach themselves to holy objects only. But in addition to the higher primary graces God has as parts of the third element of His character lower primary graces, secondary graces and tertiary graces.

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God's lower primary graces are the qualities that act through His selfish and social affections, as their qualities. Thus God's self-confidence, self-satisfaction and self- respect are the graces that act through His self-esteem, as its qualities. God's approbativeness is the grace that acts through His love of others' esteem, as its quality. God's peace is the grace that acts through His love of rest, or ease, as its quality. God's combativeness is the grace that acts through His love of self-defense, as its quality. God's self­ preservativeness is the grace that acts through His love of life, as its quality. God's cautiousness is the grace that acts through His love of safety, as its quality. God's tactfulness is the grace that acts through His love of concealment, as its quality. God's aggressiveness and executiveness are the graces that act through His love of attacking injurious, opposing and difficult things, as its qualities. God's enterprisingness and providence are the graces that act through His love of gaining and retaining, as its qualities. God's appetitiveness (love for the Truth and its spirit) is the grace that works through His love for (spiritual) food and drink, as its quality. God's conjugality is the grace that acts through His love for His (symbolic) wives, as its quality. God's fatherliness is the grace that acts through His love for His children, as its quality. God's friendliness is the grace that acts through His love for friends, as its quality. And God's domesticity and patriotism are the graces that act through His love of home and country, as their qualities. Thus these graces—those that act through God's selfish and social affections—are His lower primary graces.

God's secondary graces do not have any affections through which they act. Rather, they act from the higher primary graces' suppressing the control of Himself by the selfish and social affections and their graces. Thus suppressing self-esteem's control, God exercises humility; suppressing the control of others' esteem,

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God exercises reticence, modesty and simplicity; suppressing His love of ease, God exercises industry; suppressing the control of love for self-defense, God exercises longsuffering; suppressing the control of love for life, God exercises self-sacrificingness; suppressing the control of love for safety, God exercises bravery; suppressing the control of love for concealment, God exercises candor, frankness; suppressing the control of love for attacking, God exercises forbearance and forgiveness; suppressing the control of love for gaining and retaining, God exercises liberality, generosity; suppressing the control of love for spiritual food and drink, God exercises temperance. Thus He exercises His secondary graces as these are related to a proper control of the selfish  affections. He exercises the secondary graces as these are related to the proper control of His social affections as follows: Suppressing the control of love for wife and children, God exercises family headshipliness; and suppressing the control of love for friends, home and country, God exercises impartiality. God's tertiary graces are mixed graces, i.e., they are the graces in which there is a combination of higher primary with lower primary and secondary graces, in which combination the higher primary graces control. The following are God's main tertiary graces: Meekness, zeal, moderation, goodness, gentleness, joy, obedience, faithfulness. As we have shown elsewhere how various of the higher primary, the lower primary and the secondary graces combine in the exercise of these graces, we will not enter into that phase of the subject here. But it will be in place to remark that in God everyone of the primary, secondary and tertiary graces is a holy quality, acts in a holy manner and attaches itself to holy objects alone.

The fourth element of God's character is His strength of character in all the respects hitherto mentioned. His character is strong in its righteous attitude toward evil and never does He exercise the slightest

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weakness in abhorring, avoiding and opposing evil. His character is strong in the exercise of His intellectual, artistic, religious, selfish and social affections. His character is strong in His exercise of the higher primary graces, of the lower primary graces, of the secondary  graces and of the tertiary graces. Never does He show any weakness in the exercise of His intellectual, artistic, religious, selfish and social affections, His exercise of His higher and lower primary graces or of the exercise of His secondary and tertiary graces. And this strength that He has and exercises in all His attitudes and acts toward evil and in all of His affections and graces is a very important element in His character, as being a necessary part of its perfection.

The fifth element of God's character is the domination of His lower primary affections and graces and His secondary and tertiary graces by His higher primary graces properly blended. In God's varying relations, as proper principles will require, there always must be a varying blending in coordination, superordination or subordination among His higher primary graces, when they are the only ones of His graces called into activity by the needs and conditions of certain given actions. Furthermore, when His attitudes and works toward evil and His lower primary affections and graces and His secondary and tertiary graces act, these must act under the domination of the higher primary graces properly blended, since otherwise sin would set in—a thing that is impossible with God. This domination is exercised in two ways (1) In suppressing the control or, if the case require, even the activity of the lower primary graces and affections and the secondary and the tertiary graces. This prevents sin and keeps right-doing in activity. (2) In using the lower primary affections and graces and the secondary and tertiary graces as servants of righteousness and holiness. E.g., when love for self-defense

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and anger would be contrary to the control of the blended higher primary graces, God's higher primary graces suppress the activity of these. If longsuffering or zeal in God should be inclined to work and the higher primary graces forbid it, they will, as blended, suppress its activity. But if any of these or any other of their fellow affections or graces would further righteousness or holiness, God's higher primary graces would set them into exercise to make them servants of righteousness and holiness, e.g., God's higher primary graces use His combativeness to overthrow the attacks of sin and error whereby He uses combativeness as a servant of righteousness and truth.

The sixth element in God's character is balance. By balance in God's character is meant the adjustment of His affections and graces in harmony with one another in such coordination, subordination and superordination as the principles of Divine wisdom, power, justice and love in their ordered relations to one another require. Balance in God's character, therefore, operates in all of the previously mentioned five elements of His character and adjusts all their details within each of them and in their relations with one another. It is due to this fact that balance in God's character is almost universal in His character activities; for it permeates all the preceding five elements of His character.

The final element in God's character is crystallization in the preceding six element of His disposition. By crystallization in God's character its unbreakableness in the six preceding elements is meant. This is the crowning perfection of God's character. It means that nothing can change God from His righteous attitude toward evil, in abhorring, avoiding and opposing it, nor change His affections from their holiness in their qualities, manner of working or objects, nor change His graces of all three kinds into the opposite disgraces, nor change His strength of character into weakness in any point, nor change the domination of

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His blended higher primary graces over His lower primary affections and graces and over His secondary and tertiary graces, nor change His balance of character, nor change such crystallization in itself. No matter what the pressure on God may be, it cannot impair this crystallization in the slightest degree. Hence the climax of God's perfection of character is His crystallization therein. And when God invites us to be perfect as He is perfect, He means that we, after His example, are to have all seven of these character elements in our characters. But, among others, there is this difference: God has not had to develop any of these features of His character; for He has always had them, while we have to cultivate them as the chief thing in life.

All of God's attributes which are not qualities of character we call His attributes of being. Above, in the previous chapter, we treated on fourteen of God's attributes of being. There are other attributes of God's being than these fourteen, but those considered are the principal ones of that class of His characteristics, and their discussion will, we trust, suffice for our present study of that class of His attributes. We now turn to the discussion of His attributes of character, and believe their study will bless us even more than that of His attributes of being; for the former are in themselves more noble and appreciable, and in our relation to Him are fuller of joy, peace and satisfaction for us than the latter. Moreover, they occupy a larger place in God's Word and works than His attributes of being. In the study of them more especially do the words of the Lord to Moses apply, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." May we enter into this study with reverence, faith and love; so it will prove a very rich blessing indeed, such as all of us desire.

A few explanations on the classes of God's attributes of character should precede our study of our subject in order to its better understanding and appreciation.

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God has three classes of character qualities, corresponding to our three classes of character attributes, a correspondence due to our being as new creatures mental, moral and religious images of God. These may be called primary, secondary and tertiary qualities or graces. Like ourselves God has a variety of affections, each one of which has its own separate organ of expression, e.g., firmness, continuity, spirituality, combativeness, secretiveness, restfulness, self-esteem, etc. By our affection-organs exercising themselves we develop graces or attributes of character. Those qualities that are the direct effect of such exercise of our affection-organs are the primary graces. E.g., by exercising our organ of spirituality we develop faith; by exercising our organ of firmness we cultivate self-control; by exercising our organ of continuity we produce patience, etc. The natural working of any affection-organ produces as its primary effect the quality that corresponds to that organ of affection. It is for this reason that we call that grace that is produced by the direct action of an affection-organ a primary grace. Hence we define the primary graces as the qualities produced by the direct exercise of the affection-organs.

The primary qualities are of two kinds—higher and lower. The higher primary attributes are those that should control all our other qualities, i.e., the lower primary, the secondary and the tertiary graces. The higher primary graces are faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity. The following are some of the lower primary graces: self-confidence, dignity, attractiveness, restfulness, defensiveness, aggressiveness, tactfulness, providence, etc. These lower primary graces must not be allowed to dominate us or they will produce  the disgraces, e.g., self-confidence controlling us produces self-sufficiency; dignity controlling us produces arrogance and self-exaltation; attractiveness controlling us produces ostentatiousness and vanity; restfulness controlling us produces

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laziness; defensiveness controlling us produces contentiousness; aggressiveness controlling us produces cruelty; tactfulness controlling us produces hypocrisy; and providence controlling us produces covetousness. Controlled by the higher primary graces, the lower primary graces do much good. They are, therefore, not to be controllers, but to be controlled by the higher primary graces.

For the sake of clearness we will make a few explanations on the secondary and tertiary graces, qualities or attributes. The secondary graces individually do not have individual affection-organs by whose natural exercise they are developed. If they had, they would not be secondary, but primary graces or qualities. They are developed by the primary, especially the higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of the lower affection-organs to control us. Thus the higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of self- esteem to control us produce humility, suppressing the efforts of restfulness to control us develop industriousness, suppressing the efforts of combativeness to control us produce longsuffering, suppressing the efforts of destructiveness to control us cultivate forbearance, forgiveness, etc. Thus the secondary graces are more or less negative, for they are not produced by an affection-organ as its natural effect, but by other graces forcing the lower affection-organs to remain inactive so far as controllership is concerned.

The tertiary graces, attributes or qualities differ from the primary graces in this: that whereas the primary graces are the direct effect of the working of the higher affection- organs by themselves, or of the lower primary affection- organs by themselves, but never by combination of the higher and the lower ones to produce primary graces, each tertiary grace is the effect of one or more of the higher and lower affection-organs and secondary graces combined. E.g., faith, a higher primary grace, is developed by the activity of

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the affection-organ of spirituality; and tactfulness, a lower primary grace, is cultivated by the working of the affection- organ of secretiveness. While, as in the case of the higher primary graces of piety, brotherly love and charity, there is a combination of operation in higher affection-organs, the higher primary graces are not qualities produced by a combination in the workings of higher and lower affection- organs. But zeal, a tertiary grace, results from the combined working of the higher primary graces of faith, hope, piety, brotherly love and charity, the lower primary graces of aggressiveness and enterprisingness and the secondary graces of self-sacrifice, industriousness and bravery. Thus the tertiary graces are produced by a combination in the working of the higher and lower affection-organs and secondary graces. And therein consists their difference from both the primary graces and the secondary graces, the latter having no direct organs for their expression.

The above explanations on the three classes of graces, qualities or attributes of character in us as new creatures are made in order the better to enable us to understand and appreciate these three classes of character attributes in God. The reason why they are helpful toward these ends is that as new creatures we are becoming images of God in attributes of character. And if faithful, we will be perfect character images of Him. Hence the understanding and appreciation of our new creaturely qualities enable us better to understand and appreciate God's attributes of character. We are now ready to take up our subject for discussion.

The Scriptures stress as God's higher primary graces four attributes, which may be analyzed into seven. These four are wisdom, justice, love and power. There is no one literal passage in the Scriptures that expressly contains mention of all four of these Divine attributes, though there are several figurative ones that picture forth all four of them under the symbols of an

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eagle (wisdom), a lion (power), an ox (bullock, used in the atonement sacrifice—justice) and a human face (love) (Ezek. 1: 5-14; Rev. 4: 6, 7). In Job 37: 23 all four of them are mentioned, two of them expressly and two of them by other terms: "He [the Almighty] is excellent in power, and in judgment, [discernment, i.e., wisdom] and in plenty of justice, and He will not [willingly] afflict [love]." So in Jer. 9: 24 they are all indicated, either expressly or impliedly: "I am the Lord that exerciseth [a function of power] lovingkindness [love], judgment [wisdom] and righteousness [justice] in the earth; for in these things [power, love, wisdom and justice] I delight, saith the Lord." So, too, partly by implication and partly by expression these four attributes are set forth in Deut. 32: 4: "His work [the expression of His power] is perfect; all His ways are judgment [wisdom]; a God of truth [the basis of wisdom and love] without iniquity; just and right [justice] is He." There are, of course, many passages that treat of at least one or another of these Divine attributes. Thus, e.g., wisdom as a Divine attribute is set forth in Rom. 11: 33, 34; Eph. 1: 8; 1 Tim. 1: 17. So, too, is power as a Divine attribute set forth in Gen. 17: 1; Ps. 115: 3; Matt. 19: 26; Luke 1: 37; Rev. 19: 6. Likewise this is true of justice as a Divine attribute in Ex. 20: 4; Ps. 89: 14; Jer. 50: 7. And, finally, this may be said of love as a Divine attribute in John 3: 16; Rom. 5: 8; Titus 3: 4; 1 John 4: 8-10, 19. Thus the Scriptures prove that these are Divine attributes.

In a celebrated passage where St. Peter tells of our call to glory and virtue, i.e., to a character like God's, he analyzes these four attributes as they are to be developed in us into seven graces and a mental acquirement, i.e., knowledge—2 Pet. 1: 3-7. By the words faith, fortitude [the heart of fortitude is hope of victory, hence here fortitude is used for hope, which, as one of the three chief graces (1 Cor. 13: 13), should

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appear in a list of the seven chief ones] and knowledge (v.

5) he gives us the elements or ingredients of wisdom; by the words self-control [temperance] and patience (v. 6) he gives us the elements or ingredients of power as an attribute of character, but not as an attribute of being; by the words piety [godliness] and brotherly love [neighbor love, brotherly kindness] he gives us the elements or ingredients of justice; and by the word charity he gives us the synonym of love. Thus seven of these—faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity—are graces, and one—knowledge—is a mental acquisition. It is certainly true that wisdom is a combination of faith, hope and knowledge; for confidence in our knowledge and the hope to effect good by it is exactly what wisdom is—the trustful and hopeful use of the Truth in making plans for securing good results. It is also true that self-control and patience [steadfastness, constancy] are the ingredients or elements of power as a character attribute, i.e., will-power, as distinct from physical power or might; for will-power is firmness [self-control] and continuity [patience] in a good course. Justice certainly consists of supreme love to God [piety] and equal love to the neighbor [brotherly love]. Thus in this section St. Peter analyzes into their component parts what are the four attributes of God's character that must be developed in us as our higher primary graces.

Having given above a few general considerations on God's higher primary attributes of character, we will now discuss each one in turn, beginning with wisdom. Wisdom may be defined as the confident and hopeful use of true knowledge in planning practical things in harmony with power, justice and love. It will be noticed that in this definition a number of things are affirmed of wisdom. In the first place, it is shown what the ingredients or elements of wisdom are—faith, hope and knowledge (2 Pet. 1: 5). Second, the work of

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wisdom is noted—planning practical things. Third, the sphere of wisdom's operation is presented—things harmonious with power, justice and love. Each one of these features of wisdom may well engage our attention. Among its ingredients—faith, hope and knowledge—the basal one is knowledge. But knowledge as the basis of wisdom is not every kind of knowledge. Sinful and erroneous knowledge is not the basis of wisdom. It is the basis of its opposite— folly. And if such knowledge is confidently and hopefully used, cunning, not wisdom, is the actor. Therefore true knowledge—the Truth—is the basis of wisdom. This is the reason that the Scriptures so frequently speak of wisdom and true knowledge connectedly, and not infrequently synonymously, when using wisdom in its narrow sense (Job 12: 12, 13; 28: 12-28; 32: 9; Prov. 1: 5, 7; 2: 1-10; 3: 13-23; 4: 4-13, 18-22; 7: 2-4; 8: 1-11; 9: 10; 14: 8; 22: 17; 23: 23; Acts 6: 10; 1 Cor. 2: 6-16). It weaves all its plans out of and in harmony with true knowledge—the Truth. This also shows the reasonableness for faith and hope as elements of wisdom acting in respect to such knowledge. Of course faith can rest upon it, and hope can desire and expect according to it. Assuredly faith can confidently use such knowledge in hope when planning practical things, and both faith and hope can act with it in planning things harmonious with power, justice and love. So God's wisdom acts. He confidently and hopefully uses His knowledge— the Truth—in every plan that He forms and makes such plans to secure practical purposes in harmony with power, justice and love. He never makes a plan by erroneous or sinful knowledge; for He could have no confidence and hope in such a plan. Nor do any of His plans—the product of wisdom—ever conflict with power, justice or love.

If we look at His plans in nature and grace as manifest in His works, we will always recognize in them that they are worked out of true knowledge, in

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confidence and hope of attaining practical results, and are harmonious with power, justice and love. Contemplate for a moment God's creative works. All of them display the thought that true knowledge, confidently and hopefully used, wove the plans of which creation is the product. Creation, material and spiritual, is the marvelous product of a plan that confidently and hopefully made use of a knowledge embracing all things natural and spiritual, in all their qualities, relations, reactions, possibilities and potentialities, blended with the principles of power, justice and love. The providences that sustain such a creation are the product of similar plans similarly conceived. If we look at God's creative work as concerns man, we see here again Truth trustfully and hopefully used in forming a plan that blends in its every feature power, justice and love. In the creation of man fit for everlasting life, Divine wisdom had to solve the following problem with reference to which it was to make a practical plan, displaying the harmonious co­ operation of power, justice and love: the creation of a race of free moral agents, who, from an intelligent appreciation of sin in its nature and effects and of righteousness in its nature and effects, would forever hate and avoid the former and forever love and practice the latter.

The creation of such a free moral agent implied certain conditions, i.e., he could not be a machine; for that would destroy his free agency. Hence he had to be made a free agent who could choose sin, if he would, and could choose righteousness if he would. Therefore Divine wisdom had to plan for a being endowed with intellect, sensibilities and will, as well as with a physical organism. Power, justice and love demanded that he be planned as a sinless being in God's image, since it would be weak, unjust and loveless to make him sinful, and powerful, right and loving to make him good. Power, justice and love further required that he be made mortal, so that if he should sin, he could be destroyed.

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Power, justice and love required that he should not live forever in sin; and they required that he should never live again unless a deliverance would be effected to the satisfaction of justice, and he would become perfectly in harmony with righteousness. Thus we see that Divine wisdom had to work out a plan for man's creation compatibly with man's free agency and God's power, justice and love. This, then, was the problem given to God's wisdom to solve. And in its solution God's foreknowledge, as well as other knowledge, supplied Him all the intelligence needed for this plan; and His faith in His knowledge and His hope to use it to plan good ends furnished Him with the planning power to work out what the Bible calls the Plan of the Ages, because its progressive development requires several ages for its full outworking.

To solve the problem, wisdom, after planning man's creation in God's image and likeness, first planned at the behest of power, justice and love that perfect man under test should prove whether he would choose good or evil. God's foreknowledge, showing wisdom, enabled Him to know that inexperienced, perfect man under a crucial test would fail and that thus, primarily at justice's demand and secondarily at power's and love's demand, man would have to give up the life that was his as a grant on condition of obedience. Wisdom, therefore, and that in harmony with power, justice and love, which variously required the death sentence, had to make a plan taking into consideration the fact and its implication that man because of sin must die. It evolved the following things as parts of this plan: (1) that man while dying for sin might, by experiencing its rigors in physical, mental, moral and religious evils, learn its hatefulness and the desirability of avoiding it; (2) that power, justice and love might by a ransom co-operate in giving man another life free from the sentence imposed for his original sin; (3) that man might be given in another life an opposite experience,

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i.e., one with righteousness, from which by experience he might learn the desirability of practicing righteousness, through its healing the many physical, mental, moral and religious effects of his first experience, i.e., with sin, and through its keeping him in that restored condition— perfection; (4) that man, having these two opposite experiences with their opposite effects, might be given a final trial to determine which he after this double training would choose; (5) that eternal destruction might be meted out to those who fail to practice righteousness after the double experience, and that eternal life might be given to those who would practice righteousness after these two experiences; (6) that thus sin and evil would be put eternally out of existence; and (7) that God would get what He started out to get—a perfect race of free moral agents who from an intelligent appreciation of the pertinent principles would hate and avoid sin, and would love and practice righteousness.

These were the general things that wisdom thought out to bring into existence a perfect race that from an intelligent appreciation of sin and righteousness would hate and avoid the former and love and practice the latter. The wisdom of this plan will become apparent on a little consideration. Since experience is the most thorough, though by no means the most gentle teacher, of course wisdom would arrange for its use to teach the sinful race the undesirability of sin, because of its terrible nature and fearful effects in physical, mental, moral and religious degradation. The principle herein displayed is that exemplified in the old saying, "the burnt child dreads the fire." Certainly the hatefulness of sin and the desirableness of avoiding it cannot better be inculcated than by the sinner's feeling the painful scourgings that it as a sore taskmaster gives him as its slave; especially so, if by a contrasted experience, i.e., with righteousness, all the effects of the experience with sin be healed and the opposite blessing of physical,

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mental, moral and religious elevation unto perfection be wrought; for after these two trainings—educations—the race, when put on final trial as to fitness for everlasting life, will be a thousandfold more likely to avoid sin and practice righteousness than was perfect Adam who had no such contrasted experiences as educators. And surely in this way more will be rendered fit to live forever in a moral universe in harmony with truth and righteousness than by any other method of which we can think. And thus by the method that Divine wisdom has suggested God will get a more numerous race to illustrate eternally the reign of moral law than by any other method of which we can think. Thus, as a general proposition, wisdom has arranged very wisely to permit but not to cause the existence of sin.

But, looked upon from the standpoint of general details, the quality of wisdom shines out in the reason for God's permitting sin. For its permission for a limited time and sphere wisely circumscribes its operation to a comparatively short time and to a comparatively few of the moral agents whose creation the Lord designed in the various Ages; for the example of fallen angels and men in their terrible experiences as a result of dabbling in sin will be sufficient as a teacher to keep back all future orders of beings from sin—a thing that we conclude from the fact that after the end of the Millennium sin never again will rear aloft its head. Again we see God's wondrous wisdom in permitting the race to fall in and by one man's offense (Rom. 5: 12-21), and sin and its effects to be transmitted from parents to children; since thereby the dreadful effects of parents' sin through heredity upon their unborn generations is exhibited as a thing that will make parents hate and avoid sin all the more because of its effects on their descendants, when once they come to the contrasted experiences with their pertinent teachings on the first experiences. Furthermore, the thought of the contagiousness of sin and its effects will in due

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time help toward reformation in the contrasted experience. A still greater mark of wisdom is manifest in reducing the race's suffering to a minimum by making all fall into condemnation by one man's (Adam's) offense; for this paved the way for one, by death for the one, to save all from that condemnation by becoming an acceptable substitute to justice for the one sinner, even as justice requires a life for a life, and a perfect life for a perfect life; for if God had created as perfect human beings the estimated 20,000,000,000 humans who have lived and had put them all on trial for life individually, with no experimental or observational knowledge of sin, Adam being the example of what a perfect man under such circumstances would do, we see that all would, like him, have fallen into sin and thus incurred condemnation of their own accord. But such a contingency, in view of justice requiring a perfect life for a perfect life, would have required 20,000,000,000 perfect men as saviors to die for the 20,000,000,000 individually tried and fallen men. Thus by one master stroke wisdom saved 19,999,999,999 perfect lives and thus prevented the doubling of human sufferings by arranging for the condemning of all in one and for the redeeming of all by one, even as St. Paul in Rom. 5: 12-21 teaches. Wisdom had other objections to trying all individually and thereafter redeeming all by individual saviors; for some, yea many, of these would-be saviors might have failed. Thus not only those for whom they would have attempted to act as substitutes would not have been redeemed, but the failing ones would have needed saviors—all this increasing suffering beyond that provided for in the plan that Divine wisdom has formed. Moreover, all these saviors for their self-sacrifice would come in for as high a reward as was actually provided for our Lord in the plan. This would result in so many beings attaining to the Divine nature as would not only be too many for that plane, but also too many to make practical use of

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in the future creative work of the Divine class. Wisdom, of course, forbade such a thing.

Moreover, Divine wisdom saw in the fact that the race would consist of believers and unbelievers that another practical benefit could be wrought out of the permission of sin among men. While the best that Divine wisdom could plan for the unbelief class is bringing a very large majority of them into fitness for everlasting perfect human life in earth through an experience with sin and a subsequent experience with righteousness as effective dissuaders from sin and effective persuaders to righteousness, it saw that the faith of the faith class could be so used amid the experience with evil as to develop them to such a high degree of character as would fit the very best of them for the Divine nature, and the rest of them for some spirit nature lower than the Divine. This consideration moved wisdom to plan for two salvations—a general one for the unbelief class and an elect one for the faith class. The reasonableness of this is apparent when we consider that the unbelief class cannot walk by faith—they cannot trust God out of sight—while the faith class lives out the saying, "though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." As a result the unbelief of the unbelief class makes them resort to all sorts of violations of Divine law to save themselves from acts and conditions which will bring them earthly harm or prevent their obtaining their desires, while the faith class will suffer all things rather than displease God, and endure all things in order to please Him.

Therefore Divine wisdom planned to let the former class now have its experience with evil and later its experience with good, because while evil is rampant in the world they could not stand the tests now necessary for developing the character fitted for the elective salvation; while it planned that the faith class now be tested for fitness for that salvation, since they can be loyal to God amid the most crucial tests. Faithfully

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standing such tests, they can develop a much finer, stronger and fuller character than the unbelief class will be able to do as a result of their two experiences. These considerations prompted Divine wisdom to arrange for the elective feature of God's plan, whereby arrangement is made for four elect classes: the kings and priests—Jesus and the Church, and the nobles and Levites—the Ancient Worthies, the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies. These standing trial in this life, before the world in the Millennium gets its experience with righteousness, will be fit to bless as Priests and Levites and to rule as kings and nobles the unbelief class in that experience with righteousness, unto their complete deliverance from the effects of sin, as they obey righteousness. Thus Divine wisdom planned to use the experience of evil in a second way—to develop the finest of characters in the faith class— characters that God will be able to depend on as faithful to Him and His principles under all circumstances, characters better than the unbelief class will be capable of developing through their two experiences. Accordingly, Divine wisdom has so arranged to use the experience with evil as to benefit the largest possible number and to develop each one to his highest capabilities and at the same time to destroy the incorrigible of both classes, thus insuring eventual annihilation of sin and the permanence of righteousness in the spirit and human planes of existence.

Divine wisdom planned these two salvations and their experiences as to sin and righteousness to progress in various stages through the three Worlds and the four Ages of God's plan, each World and each Age contributing its share to the plan as a whole. In The Herald Of The Epiphany we have traced these Worlds and Ages in a series of articles appearing from No. 21 to No. 31. A consideration of the things therein set forth shows how Divine wisdom acted in planning every feature of these Worlds and Ages. Wisdom

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planned the first World to prove that fallen man,  even under angelic care, could not recover from the fall or stay the corrupting influence of sin. In the second World wisdom planned to teach that fallen man left to his own resources could not stay the downward course of sin, nor free himself from the influence of evil angels. These two features of wisdom's plan proved themselves as well taken by the result. Wisdom planned the third World to prove that man's rescue can be brought about only by Divine power exercised by God's elect for the world's uplift. The Ages of the second World display especially the wisdom of God in the elective features of His plan—in dealing with an elect individual and his family on covenant basis in the Patriarchal Age, in dealing with an elect fleshly nation on covenant basis in the Jewish Age and in dealing with an elect spiritual nation on covenant basis in the Gospel Age. Mark the Divine wisdom in arranging for the carnation of the Logos, His sinless birth, His development to perfect manhood, so that He might stand as Adam's substitute, and thus rescue from the curse all condemned in Adam. Mark the wisdom of God in testing His new creature, and in perfecting it through suffering so that as a Divine Being God could depend upon Him unto the utmost to be merciful and faithful as His Vicegerent in all things. Mark the Divine wisdom in selecting for Him a Bride out of all nations, conditions and stations of men to assist Him mercifully and faithfully in carrying out all of God's designs. Mark the wisdom of God in developing and testing this class unto fitness for such a mission. Mark the varied experiences given to them as conducive to this purpose. Only in a less degree does the same wisdom show itself in selecting, developing and testing the Ancient and Youthful Worthies, and in developing and testing the Great Company. This wisdom manifests itself in working out all things for their good in fitting them for their present and future offices.

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It enters into the minutest circumstances and smallest experiences and events of their lives, as well as in their general circumstances, experiences and events. Yea, indeed, wisdom devised every phase of the plan to save rebellious man and the faithful elect. And the success of the features of the plan already enacted, as well as the assured success of its as yet unfulfilled features, will forever stand sure as praise to the manifold wisdom of God.

Nor are we to think that God's wisdom will have exhausted itself in the plan for human redemption. In the numberless Ages of the future His wisdom will be ever framing plans for new creations of whose marvels we have yet but the faintest impressions. Forever will God's wisdom invent new plans and hand them to power to execute in line with justice and love. Thus endlessly will "the manifold wisdom of God" praise Him—reflect credit on Him. And let us who know His wisdom as displayed in His Plan of the Ages praise Him, the Fountain of all wisdom; for He is worthy of our highest praise!

Having in the preceding discussion in this chapter given a general description of God's attributes in their three kinds—primary, secondary and tertiary, as well as having given a general description of His higher primary attributes of character and a somewhat detailed description of the first of these, Wisdom, we now proceed to discuss the second of His higher primary attributes of character, justice. The idea of justice is closely related to that of law, which we may define as the principle that regulates the thoughts, motives, words and acts of moral agents in their relations to themselves and others. God is the ultimate Lawgiver (Jas. 3: 12) to all moral agents. And we find that He has two laws: (1) that of duty-love, justice, which applies to all His moral creatures, whether of the Elect or not; and (2) that of disinterested love, charity, which applies to Himself and to all the elect

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classes and probably to all spirit beings. Accordingly, God has put all moral agents under the law of justice, and in addition to putting His Elect under it, He has also put them and likely all spirit beings under the law of love, i.e., disinterested love. These two laws differ from one another as follows: the law of justice obligates to the good-will of duty; the law of love suggests to disinterested good-will. One binds all moral agents as subjects of it by their very existence to obedience; the other invites certain ones, the prospective Elect, to come under it as a privilege, without their being obligated so to do. The law of disinterested love is willingly assumed, without one's being obligated to assume it, and by its nature leads its acceptors to sacrifice their rights and privileges—a thing that the law of justice never does.

We are now ready to define justice: It is the love, the good will, that by right is owed to self and others. It is a matter of obligation, duty, to give it. To withhold such a love in thought, motive, word and act is sin; to give such a love in thought, motive, word and act is right. God's justice, therefore, is the love, goodwill, that by right He owes to Himself and others. This implies that God himself is subject to His law of justice. Justice is, therefore, impressed upon His heart as one of His attributes of character: He is not, however, subject to this in the same way as we are; for this law binds us to give Him duty-love with all the heart, mind, soul and strength, and to give our neighbor duty-love as to self. There is nobody whom God loves, or should love, with all His heart, mind, soul and strength; for such a love would make Him the subject of the one so loved; and God is not subject to anyone, since He is supreme over all. But God does love good principles with all His heart, mind, soul and strength; and this makes Him subject to good principles—He obeys His own law in its applications to Him. Nor has God any neighbor in the sense of an

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equal, because He is supreme over all. His duty-love goes out to all others in the sense of their being His creatures— creations—and to perfect moral agents in the sense that they are His children. His justice did not obligate Him to make any creature; for creating beings is a work of grace  on God's part, not of obligation. Nor is He obligated to make all creatures equal, He having the right to make some divine, others angelic, others human, others brute, others vegetable and still others inanimate (Rom. 9: 20, 21). But having once decided to make free moral agents, His justice, duty-love, does obligate Him to make them perfect, sinless and righteous (Gen. 18: 25); otherwise He would be the author of imperfection and sin, which He is not (Deut. 32: 4). Some angels and all men being now sinful, does not militate against this principle, since when they came from God's creative hand they were perfect, sinless and righteous (Eccl. 7: 29). Beings lower than man are not free moral agents, hence the Creator in making them saw that other principles than ethical ones should underlie their being— principles like utility and service to man and his habitat, after performing which, they pass away forever; nor is this cruel toward them, since not having a high mentality and a delicate nervous system they are incapable of appreciating, feeling and suffering acutely like man.

The justice of God, His duty-love, toward His perfect, sinless and righteous creatures, obligates Him to a second thing, and that is to put them under perfect, happifying, useful and prosperous conditions, so that they may have a perfect, happy, useful and prosperous existence. In harmony with this activity of God's justice He has put the heavenly hosts in their original perfection amid perfect, sinless, useful and prosperous conditions. So did He also do with the human family as represented in Adam and Eve; for the garden of Eden furnished just such conditions.

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And when mankind attains restitution and the privilege of everlasting life, and when the repentant fallen angels shall be restored to God's favor, they will again find themselves amid perfect conditions. This feature of justice does not require that fallen men and angels be kept in such conditions, because another feature of God's justice requires another method of dealing.

This other feature of God's justice, or duty-love to His creatures, requires that in case they sin, they be deprived of life; because in a moral order of affairs, to give sinners everlasting life would injure them by keeping them alive in unhappiness forever, which the Creator's duty-love to them forbids, which would injure the righteous in their happiness, which God's justice will not permit, and which would be dishonoring to God, which God's justice to Himself and others will not permit. Hence the justice of God requires the death and forbids the eternal torment of the sinner (Gen. 2: 17; Rom. 1: 32; 5: 12, 15, 17; 6: 16, 21, 23; 1 Cor. 15: 21, 22, 56; Jas. 1: 15; 1 John 5: 16), and that out of duty-love to all concerned. Therefore justice punishes the wrong-doer to the intent that wrongdoing cease. It will be noted that in our definition of God's justice, as well as in our discussion of its three spheres of activity, we have held out the thought that God's justice is, and acts in harmony with, duty-love. Justice, neither in God nor in His moral agents, is a feelingless thing. It is a feelingful thing; for it has in it good-will, the good-will of duty. It is not simply duty. It is not simply a perfunctory external act. It is something hearty, but has not the heartiness of charity. It is duty-love, and not the loveless sense of duty or obligation simply, as some think. This is apparent when we note that the law of justice, binding on all God's moral agents, is supreme love to God and equal love to one's fellows.

God's justice, as one of His four higher primary attributes of character, has had a determining influence

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on the various features of God's plan towards angels and men. It, therefore, required that, as these came from God's creative hand, they be perfect, sinless and righteous, and that they be given surroundings and works conducive to their lasting happiness, righteousness, usefulness and prosperity. Such were the conditions in heaven, the abode of the various orders of angels, and such were the conditions in Eden, the abode of sinless man. But God's justice required under test the proof of men's and angels' loyalty to Him; and that under such conditions as made it possible to be given. That is, God created both angels and men good (Gen. 1: 31), and thus strongly inclined to righteousness and strongly adverse to unrighteousness, so that if they would sin, it would be against the trend of their moral natures. They therefore were favorably created as to such a test. Again, the test was of such a character as they were able to bear up under. Furthermore, man was given clear instructions as to the nature of the test, obedience, the desirability of being faithful and the undesirability of being unfaithful thereunder, resulting in life for obedience and death for disobedience. Thus God's justice showed itself in the trial itself. A trial so justly conducted could in justice not be expected to end otherwise than God's justice demanded when disobedience set it—the sentence of death for man. Apart from Satan the fallen angels evidently sinned not, until deceived into assuming human bodies, marrying women and raising families in the hope of being thus enabled to extirpate sin from the human family.  Hence, instead of being put under the death sentence, they were imprisoned within the atmosphere of this earth (Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2: 4; Eph. 2: 2) until the judgment day; but in their final trial the sentence will be of life or death.  The justice of demanding death as the penalty of sin is evident from the following consideration: Since God offered moral agents life on condition of obedience, if the condition

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is refused to be fulfilled by the conditional recipient, the conditional Giver has a perfect right to take back the conditional gift. And since He takes it back for the good of all concerned, He is just in sentencing the disobedient to death—to the withdrawal of the conditional gift. Thus God's justice in the sentence is vindicated.

So, too, is He just in letting come upon Adam's race by heredity Adam's condemnation (Rom. 5: 12, 15-19). Adam, having by his sin forfeited his right to life and its conjoined light-rights, no longer possessed them, and therefore could not transmit them to his posterity. He could transmit to his children only what he had—forfeited life-rights and right to life. That Divine justice did them no wrong therein is evident from the fact that He is not obligated to give perfection, sinlessness and happiness to that which is imperfect and sinful, since only to perfectly sinless and righteous beings does justice obligate Him to give perfection. Furthermore, they are not God's direct creation, being the progeny of sinful Adam; and thus God did not create them. Finally, they have no right to complain of injustice in their coming into existence imperfect, sinful and sentenced to death through Adam; for had they been in his place they would have done what he did; and since they get in the permission of evil certain advantages that they would not have gotten had they been individually tried and sentenced (e.g., they suffer on the average much less than they would have done if they had directly forfeited life- rights and the right to life, even as perfect Adam suffered more than we do under the curse), no injustice has come to the race in its being condemned in Adam. Thus the death penalty transmitted by heredity is no injustice to man; but had the penalty been eternal torment, as the creeds of the dark ages teach, there would have been a violation of justice in placing a severer penalty on sin than justice requires. Thus God's penalty is just in its application to the whole race.

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Some people have had more or less difficulty in harmonizing with the justice of God great calamities like the flood, the destruction of Sodom, etc., of the firstborn of Egypt, of Pharaoh's host, and God's charge to extirpate whole nations, like the nations of Canaan, the Amalekites, etc. The following considerations will show that there was no injustice in these things on God's part. In the first place, all of these being justly under the death sentence, it would make little difference whether they had been taken away suddenly in a calamity, or whether they had died by inches through disease. Usually their sufferings in such calamities have been less severe than those of such as died of lingering sickness. Hence they were in reality much more leniently dealt with than had they died the ordinary death of man. Moreover, such a calamitous death will, when they return for their opportunity for restitution, arouse them to greater hatred of sin and make them more amenable to righteousness. Further, their catastrophic end has been used by the Lord to work types of future events, which will make them result in ultimate blessing to their sufferers and to others. Then, too, in the case of the seven nations of Canaan, the Amalekites and others, archeological finds prove them to have been almost wholly afflicted with syphilis, which they were spreading to other nations; and to prevent this great evil from spreading to other nations, it was a mercy to all concerned to destroy them. Let us remember that for mankind in general evil has been permitted to teach them the hatefulness of sin in its nature and effects and the desirability of avoiding it, and to make them all the more appreciative of righteousness when by contrast with the terrible nature and awful effects of sin they learn by experience the blessed nature and effects of righteousness. This kept in mind will make clear to us not only the permission of evil in general, but of particular and great calamities,

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and thus will vindicate God's justice in connection with their permission.

The justice of God was active in connection with the ransom for Adam and his race. As God was just in condemning Adam and his race for sin, i.e., when Adam refused to fulfill the condition on which the grant of life might be continued with him, the Giver was right in taking it from him, so without a complete satisfaction of justice it could not allow him to receive it again. Sinful man could not give this satisfaction since he was himself unsatisfactory to God by reason of his sinfulness and the sentence resting upon him, and dead men could not give a ransom, because they can do nothing (Eccl. 9: 5, 6, 10); additionally they are under the sentence of death and hence unsatisfactory to justice. Therefore wisdom planned to transfer God's Son from the spirit to the human plane of being, and by arranging for this transfer from one nature to another the necessity of having a human father for our Lord was avoided. Such avoidance justice insisted upon, because the condemned life coming through the father, for Jesus to have had a human father would have brought Him under sin and condemnation—hence unsatisfactory to God's justice as a substitute—a ransom for Adam and his race (Matt. 20: 28; 1 Tim. 2: 5, 6). Justice did not require, but was satisfied for the pre-human Word to become flesh— human (John 1: 14), because justice does not demand sacrifice, but will accept it when the sacrificer willingly gives up his rights in devotion to the Lord, provided the sacrificer in the long run does not become the loser by such sacrificial devotion to the Lord. But in the carnation of the Logos—the Word—the Greek name for our pre-human Lord Jesus, justice did insist on two things: (1) that the Word in becoming flesh should not thereby become sinful; for it would have been wrong to make a sinless being sinful; and (2) that He as a human being should be an exact equivalent

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or ransom—a corresponding price—for Adam and his race. Both of these conditions were fulfilled to the entire satisfaction of justice in the carnation of God's Son.

Let us pause awhile and see the exercise of Jehovah's justice in connection with the ransom, which word is the translation of the Greek word anti-lutron, literally a price instead, i.e., a corresponding price. In the ransom, which is decidedly a commercial transaction, a number of things are implied: (1) a debt consisting of Adam's right to human life with its conjoined life-rights; (2) a debtor—Adam and the unborn race in his loins at the time of his sin; (3) a creditor—God; (4) the method of collecting the debt—the surrender of the debtor's all by death to the Creditor; (5) a friend of the debtor and the Creditor who agrees to buy the debtor from the Creditor by paying his debt; (6) the purchase-price, consisting of Jesus' right to human life and its conjoined life-rights; and (7) the method of making the purchase-price available for the purchase—Jesus' death, and the actual purchasing of Adam and his race by paying to Divine justice the price itself. In these seven points we see the operation of justice. By sin Adam forfeited for himself and his race the right to life and its conjoined life- rights, both of which were conditionally granted him by his Creator. Forfeiting by his sin to Divine justice all that he was and had, because such was his debt, the collection of the debt was made through the dying process thoroughly operated on him unto the death state. Thus Divine justice exacted and received the debt. Be it noted that the dying process was simply the way of collecting the debt, the debt being all Adam was and had—a perfect human being, with the right to life and its associated life-rights. In Adam's remaining in the death state justice has in its possession the debt payment. That debt payment justice, because of its very nature, cannot release, unless a substitute payment is

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given in its stead. Divine love at the suggestion of Divine wisdom gave (John 3: 16) the Logos to become a perfect man, with the right to human life and its pertinent life- rights, and thus furnished an exact equivalent to the debt that involved Adam and his race before Divine justice. Therefore it could accept this equivalent for the debt, and thus cancel the latter so far as Adam and his race are concerned. Jesus' death was the way by which He divested Himself of His personal use of His perfect humanity with its right to life and life-rights, and thereby He made the ransom price available for the payment of Adam's debt. Instead of accepting the price for the whole race during the Gospel Age, God, on account of the elective features of His plan now working, accepts it by imputation for the elect ones' deliverance from the debt, and in the Millennium will accept it in payment for Adam and the non-elect members of his race. Thus the ransom in its relation to Divine justice is its perfect revelation.

In considering the exactness of justice in relation to the debt and the ransom therefrom, it is very necessary to keep in mind the nature of the ransom—a corresponding price— an exact equivalent. The law of justice pertinent to this subject is stated in the words, "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Deut. 19: 21). That is, justice insists on an exact equivalent for a debt. If the debt be a perfect human being, with the right to human life and human life-rights, it cannot from justice's standpoint be paid for by less than a perfect human being with the right to human life and human life-rights. While love may not exact a full payment, justice must; hence no imperfect being, with cancelled right to life and its life- rights, could redeem Adam and his race (Ps. 49: 7, 8); for he would not be a corresponding price. Therefore the Redeemer could not derive His life from Adam; for so to have done would have made

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Him a sinner and less than a ransom. Thus justice could not be satisfied by less than the corresponding price—the ransom. Love prevailed unto the satisfaction of justice by giving the pre-human Logos to become a perfect man born of a woman, but not begotten by a man. On the other hand, justice could not take as the Redeemer one more than a perfect man; with more than the human life-rights and right to life. Therefore the Logos had to cease being the mighty spirit being through whom all things were made, and become a man (John 1: 1-3, 14; 2 Cor. 8: 9; Phil. 2: 6-8; Heb. 2: 9, 14). Thus when the Logos became a human being He ceased being a spirit being—changed in nature, just as the water that became wine ceased being water— was changed in its nature into that of wine. For Him to have remained the mighty Logos would have made impossible the ransom; for in such a case the person offered as a ransom would have been more than a corresponding price to the debt, and justice would have rejected this just as completely as it rejected sacrifices less than that of a perfect man (Heb. 10: 4), they not being a corresponding price. Thus we see how the justice of God demanded that the Redeemer be no more and no less than a perfect man, with the right to life and its pertinent life-rights.

In the reward of glory, honor and immortality given the Redeemer for His faithful and loving sacrifice, God's justice was satisfied. His justice did not give Him this reward. It was His love that gave it; but His justice was satisfied for Him to have it: first, because no principle of justice was thereby violated, and, second, because the interests of justice could thereby be advanced. Had such a reward—the bestowal of the Divine nature and heirship of God, Vicegerency for God throughout the universe (Matt. 28: 18)—been given without His having been proven worthy to receive it, and without His having been demonstrated as proof against abusing it, justice would have interposed

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objections to it, and it would not have been bestowed; for Divine love never works against Divine justice. Christ's present ministry for the Church is, and His future ministry for the world, to say nothing of what will come afterward, will be an everlasting honor to the operation of Divine justice. Thus we see in connection with Christ's personal reward for His sacrifice a manifestation of God's justice, though the principal actors therein were God's love and power.

In the use of the ransom-price for the deliverance of the Church now from the Adamic sentence, we further see the operation of Divine justice. The Church is not now  actually, but only reckonedly bought by Christ from Divine justice, i.e., instead of Jesus now actually buying the Church, He actually makes a reckoned purchase of her by the imputation on her behalf of the merit of the ransom- price, which at His death for this very purpose He  deposited with the Father (Luke 23: 46). The following is the literal translation and sense of Luke 23: 46: "Father, into Thy hands [at Thy disposal] I deposit My spirit [right to life]." This deposit was made so that He could impute for all that come to God by Him during the Gospel Age His merit for a covering of their Adamic sentence and its effects. To impute in such a case means reckonedly to purchase. Thus Jesus having enough on deposit with Divine justice to cover the debt of the entire race, He can impute the merit of the ransom-price to anyone of the race for his deliverance from this debt. And so far as God's justice is concerned, this is as satisfactory as an outright purchase, since it holds the full price of the purchase in hand anyway; and thus it is satisfied to sell us to Jesus reckonedly, since that is about one and the same thing as an outright purchase, so long as justice holds in its power the full price. But why are we now purchased reckonedly as distinct from the world's being actually purchased in the Millennium? The right answer to this will show that only so could

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the world later be purchased; for since the same debt is held against every member of the race individually as well as against the whole race collectively (for it is Adam's debt that is against all of us and every one of us), it takes as much to redeem one as a million, or a billion, or twenty billion, or the whole race. Consequently, had Jesus made an outright purchase of the Church during the Gospel Age, it would have exhausted the entire ransom-price and, as a result, no ransom-price would be available for the world in the Millennium, which would mean that there would be nothing with which to purchase them, and consequently they would never be redeemed; while an imputation of a deposit—a loan of credit—still leaves Jesus the owner of the deposit to be used otherwise after the entire Church's death, when the imputation is no more needed, and the deposit is released from it.

Thus to prevent the ransom-price from being made unavailable for the world, Divine wisdom devised the expedient of a reckoned purchase for the Church in the form of an imputation of the merit of the ransom-price for the Church, with the ransom-price deposited with the Creditor—God's justice—as a guarantee. This guarantee being the exact amount of the debt and being put into the power of justice, it is just as satisfied with all in whose interest it is imputed as though they were purchased outright. This imputation is to make the Church in her humanity acceptable to God as sacrifices through Jesus Christ (Rom. 12: 1; Heb. 13: 15; 1 Pet. 2: 5). Thereby is given us the privilege of undergoing, as the Elect, preparation for the Divine nature and joint-heirship with Christ, whereby we may as Christ's associates help the world to return to God in the Millennium. But one may ask, Why is this imputation made as a guarantee? We answer, Divine justice holds us as debtors unto death for Adam's sin. And that sentence must be exacted from us or from a substitute. In harmony with the Divine program,

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which arranges for the death of the Church sacrificially, Jesus guarantees to Divine justice that He will keep the faithful acceptable while undergoing sacrifice unto death. To qualify her for such a death she must be reckoned perfect despite her actual imperfection. This reckoned perfection is attained by the reckoned purchase—the imputation of the merit of Christ's ransom-price to her; and at the same time it guarantees to God's justice that which it holds against us—our share in Adam's debt. Thus throughout our sacrificial course we are kept acceptable to God as sacrifices, and Divine justice is guaranteed as to the Adamic debt against us by the same ransom-merit. And the thing imputed for us being the exact equivalent of the debt, God's justice, having it in its possession, is as satisfied with a reckoned purchase as with an actual purchase, which if now made for the Church would destroy hope for the world. Surely in this feature of the Divine Plan we see the activity of justice; and His wisdom and love therein manifested make us praise, worship, adore, love and serve our God and Father, who has done all things so very well. No wonder that the ransom is the center of God's Plan! No wonder that in it more than in anything else God's Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power shine forth in resplendent glory!

"In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time,

All the light of sacred story

Gathers 'round its head sublime."

There is another phase in the operation of justice toward the righteous,—in so far as God's arranging for their sufferings is concerned. Apart from our Lord Jesus, doubtless all the righteous, like the rest of mankind, suffer more or less for their faults, which all will at once recognize as just; for every transgression should receive a just recompense of reward. But the righteous also suffer for their righteousness, e.g.,

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Jesus, the Apostles and all other godly servants of God (Matt. 5: 10-12; Acts 14: 22; 2 Tim. 3: 12). In Jesus' case we have seen that justice did not demand that He suffer for others, but accepted His willingness to suffer for them. So it was Himself who freely gave up His personal rights and willingly suffered for others. Thus justice did Him no wrong in permitting Him to suffer for righteousness in the interests of the race. But how about the other righteous? Does not justice wrong them in permitting them to suffer for righteousness? We answer, No, because like Jesus they freely offer themselves to God as sacrifices in the interests of righteousness, counting it a privilege so to suffer (1 Pet. 2: 19-24; 4: 12-14, 16, 19). God does not any more demand of them that they suffer for righteousness than He demanded of Jesus that He so suffer. In both cases a voluntary and joyful sacrifice was offered to God. Hence the Bible speaks of us as suffering with Jesus and drinking of His cup—as being His associates and partners in suffering (Rom. 6: 3-11; 8: 17; 2 Cor. 1: 5; Gal. 2: 20; Col. 1: 24; 2 Tim. 2: 10-12; Mark 12: 35-39). Covered with His righteousness (Rom 10: 4), we are acceptable sacrifices with Him (Rom. 12: 1; 1 Pet. 2: 5). We deem it a joy and a privilege so to suffer, and would consider it a supreme calamity, if refused the opportunity so to do. Therefore justice does not wrong us in arranging for our suffering for righteousness, but does what we desire to have, and it is pleased to accept such sufferings as a sweet-smelling savor (2 Cor. 2: 14-17; Phil. 4: 18). Accordingly God's justice is vindicated in His arranging for the righteous to suffer for righteousness.

The great tribulation with which the Jewish Age ended, and the still greater tribulation with which this Age is ending (beginning with the World War, shortly to progress through the World Revolution and to culminate in the World Anarchy and Jacob's Trouble, famines and pestilences accompanying all stages of

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this trouble) are spheres in which God's justice acted and is acting. One may ask, How could justice inflict such exemplary punishments? We answer: While Jesus' death provides for the cancellation of the Adamic sin for those in whose interests it is used—for the Church now and for the world in the Millennium—it does not cleanse from the willfulness of any sin, apart from Adam's. Wholly willful sin brings eternal destruction on its committers, who can be those only on whose behalf the ransom merit has been used—the Church now, and the world in the Millennium (Heb. 10: 26-29). But there are mixed sins—sins that are partly due to Adamic weakness and partly due to willfulness. The weakness in such sins is taken care of through the ransom, but their willfulness is not. The latter must be expiated by stripes (Luke 12: 47). Justice requires the punishment of such willfulness, and that in the interests of all concerned—such striping being reformatory in its purpose. The Jews at the end of their Age were very willful in much of their wickedness; therefore wrath— punishment—came to them unto the uttermost (1 Thes. 2: 16). When those Jews come back in the Millennium and recognize the character of their punishment, they will be thereby helped to reform. The same is true in principle of our generation. Never did any generation have so much light, privilege and opportunity to do good as ours; yet the vast majority go on with a large measure of willfulness in evil doing, e.g., undoubtedly the wrongs against better knowledge wrought by the European nations against one another brought about the World War, by which all of them were severely punished. When the present tribulation will be ended, those remaining alive will by it be humbled into yielding obedience to the Kingdom; while those who die in it will, on their return by an understanding of it be helped to reform. Thus the tribulation will beat out of their characters the willfulness that they developed, and thus

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justice will be satisfied and they will be benefited. So is God's justice vindicated in its dealings with Jews and Christians who have sinned in measurable willfulness against the light and privilege of their respective Dispensations or Ages.

Some have difficulty in seeing that God is just in inflicting the Adamic death upon the race since Jesus' death, whereby He has provided the ransom-price. Why, they ask, has Adamic death not ceased since He died, if He died as a ransom for all? To this we reply: It is one thing to provide the ransom-price, which Jesus did by His death; it is another thing to pay over that price in the purchase of the race. Jesus' resurrection as a spirit being put Him into a position where He no more needed His perfect humanity, with its right to life and its life-rights, for Himself. He therefore could from that time on use them as an asset in the interests of others. Thus He could from that time on use them to buy Adam and Adam's race. But instead of using them in that way, though He is the propitiation for the world's sins as well as for the Church's (1 John 2: 2), He has during the Gospel Age been reckonedly buying  only the Church (Heb. 9: 24), for whom only He has appeared in God's presence; just as Aaron's first typical  appearance with the typical blood was for the types of the Church only—the priests and Levites (Lev. 16: 6). Hence the world, not yet being purchased, is under the Adamic sentence, and thus is dying for Adam's sin at the demand of justice. They are to be purchased in the Millennium, when Christ will appear the second time in the presence of God with His merit, just as at Aaron's second typical appearing in the Holy of Holies with the typical blood for the types of the world—all the people of Israel—the atonement was made for the people, as distinct from priests and Levites (Lev. 16: 15). The two appearances of Aaron in the Holy of Holies for the two classes in Israel were furnished by

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God to type the two appearances of Christ in heaven for the two classes in the human family, the time of Aaron's first appearing typing the Gospel Age, when Christ appears before God for the Church, and the time of his second appearing typing the Millennium, when Christ will appear before God for the world and ransom—buy—them. Thus there is justice in God's exacting the Adamic sentence from the world, since the world is not yet purchased from the Adamic death. But, some object, why does the Church die the Adamic death in spite of its being reckonedly purchased? We answer: The Church does not die the Adamic death; for by the imputation of the merit of the ransom-price the Church has been justified from that death by justice itself (Heb. 10: 14); hence it does not exact that death from the Church. The death which the Church is dying is the sacrificial death, as we showed above, which is not exacted by justice, but is freely and gladly undergone by the Church with Christ, in sacrifice for the world.

The next stage for the play of justice will be its release of the deposited purchase-price from the embargo that the reckoned purchase of the Church placed upon it; for as long as it has against it the claims of the reckoned purchase, justice holds it, as it were, mortgaged for the Church, and therefore will not let it go for the purchase of the world until these mortgage claims are removed from it. When the humanity of all who have had this reckoned purchase made for them is dead, they will no more need the imputed merit to free them from the Adamic death, since when they return they will return from death as spirit beings. Thus at the death of each of these the imputed purchase is no longer needed for him, and thus the embargo is lifted from his share of the purchase-price. Consequently when all of these are dead, the embargo on the deposited ransom-price is entirely lifted; for then there are no more imputations outstanding. Hence

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the deposited ransom-price will be Christ's, without any claim against it for what He has done for the Church. It will then be free from all claims against it, and as such can be used by Christ in actually purchasing from justice Adam and his race. This will be done at Christ's second—the Millennial—appearing in heaven, and that for the world, whose propitiation He is, as well as that of the Church (1 John 2: 2). On receiving the price, justice will hand  over the world to Christ as His purchased possession, free from the Adamic sentence. As a result, the Adamic death sentence being cancelled, Jesus will raise mankind out of death, free from the death sentence. And His ownership of the world Jesus will use to give the world the Millennial opportunities of restitution. And whoever faithfully obeys Christ will be restored to the original perfection of Adam. Those who will not even outwardly obey will by Jesus, acting as the Agent of justice, be put to death, and that eternally, after 100 years' opportunity (Is. 65: 20). Those who obey only externally, and not from the heart, will be destroyed by God's justice, when after a final trial at the end of the Millennium, they openly sin under Satan's lead (Rev. 20: 7-9). This is just in the case of both of these classes of sinners; for they alike will refuse to use life upon the condition on which justice, its giver, will require it to be used; it will also save them from eternal unhappiness, and prevent their making the righteous eternally unhappy. Therefore, justly will it withdraw the conditional gift. But the obedient of the Millennium will be granted everlasting life in the perfected earth by justice, because they will have fulfilled the condition upon which its continuance is granted; and because they will use their privileges for mutual good and God's honor.

Thus the entire plan of God is in harmony with, and marvelously displays, His justice. And as we look over the operation of Divine justice, as presented

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above, from the creation of Adam until God's plan has reached its complete fulfillment in the eternal annihilation of the incorrigible and in the everlasting bliss of the obedient, we may well cry out in wonder, praise and adoration: "Just and true are all Thy ways, thou King of Ages" (Rev. 15: 3)! We may also be sure that in the plans that He will work out for His future creations in the universe about this earth, there will be in them a similar harmony with, and display of, His justice, His throne's foundation (Ps. 89: 14).

We now proceed to the study of the third of  God's higher primary graces, i.e., charity, or as we usually call it in more modern speech, love. It is regrettable that the word charity has suffered a degradation in meaning from that prevalent formerly; for instead of its being usually employed in the noble sense of former times, it is now used mostly to represent alms and alm-deeds. The reason we regret the almost entire disuse of the word charity in its noble sense and the substitution of the noun love in its place, is because love is a broader term than charity, which is only one kind of love. The noun love is in both the Authorized and Revised Versions used for the love of justice and also for the love of charity. The original Greek uses two different nouns for these two forms of love— philia for the love of justice, and agape for the love of charity. But since we have in English only the one verb to express the action of loving in justice and in charity, we will in our article treat of the attribute of charity, under the term love. For clearness' sake we will define its two forms. The love of justice is duty-love, the love of charity is disinterested love. By duty-love the love that is by right owed to others is meant; and by disinterested love the love that, apart from obligation, is given out of a delight in good principles is meant. In a preceding portion of this chapter we treated of the former, now we propose to treat of the latter. Disinterested love, therefore, is the sense in

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which we use the word love as God's third higher primary character attribute.

What is love in its wider sense? We answer that it is good-will. This definition fits both the love of justice and the love of charity. The reason that we define love as good­ will is because it is the only quality that never disappears from the idea or expression of love. Therefore it must be its essence. Love may express itself in a variety of forms each one of which may exclude all other forms, but never is the idea of goodwill excluded from it. Thus a father desiring to benefit a wayward child may give him a severe beating. Hence from the father's act, gentleness, leniency, longsuffering, forbearance and forgiveness—various manifestations of love—are absent, but good-will is present. A man refusing alms to a proven unworthy subject in order to reform him is not expressing liberality, but is expressing good-will. The parent sending an oft disobedient child to bed early and supperless so as to better its conduct is not expressing kindness, but is expressing good-will. Jesus' rebuking the Pharisees and driving out the defilers of the temple did not show politeness, but did show good-will. Thus there are many expressions of love in which this, that or the other grace is lacking; but never can there be an expression of love without good-will. This being the case, love must be good-will. Disinterested love—charity—is therefore disinterested good-will, and duty-love—justice— is duty-good-will. What, then, is disinterested love or good­ will? We once asked this question of a member of a Bible class, and were told that it is the love or good-will in which we have no interest in another. On our asking how we could love at all, if not interested in others, the error in the answer became apparent. The answerer was looking at the wrong party for the one in whom no interest was had. It is the actor who is disinterested in self, but is interested unselfishly, from love of good principles, in others,

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when exercising disinterested love. Disinterested love is an unselfish love that goes out to others in good-will, regardless of consequences or sacrifices brought upon self thereby. In duty-love there is always an element of natural, but not sinful, selfishness. Thus in duty-love we love God for the good He has done us, and we love our neighbor as we would have him love us; but in disinterested love we love God and others, because we delight in good principles, and that apart from any selfish consideration. This is the quality in God that we understand to be meant by the third attribute among His higher primary graces. Such a love in God is referred to in many Scriptures, e.g., John 3: 16; 14: 21, 23; 17: 23, 26; Rom. 5: 8; 2 Cor. 9: 7; Eph. 2: 4; Tit. 3: 4; 1 John 3: 1; 4: 8-10, 12, 16, 19; Jude 21.

God's disinterested love, like ours, is based on a delight in good principles (Jer. 9: 24; Ps. 1: 2; 40: 8; 45: 7). Therefore the first element in God's love is delight in, or appreciation of, good principles. He delights in, i.e., appreciates, them because they are good. Therefore He abhors and is grieved at bad principles in themselves and in action (Gen. 6: 6). Based upon this delight in good principles is a second element in God's love—delight in, i.e., appreciation of, those who are in harmony with good principles (Ps. 146: 8; Prov. 15: 8, 9; 11: 2; 12: 22; John 14: 21, 23). Hence He abhors totally wicked persons  proven irreformable after full opportunity (Lev. 26: 30; Ps. 5: 6). Based upon this delight in good principles is also a third element in God's love—sympathy with the righteous and pity for the unrighteous. This sympathy with the righteous first of all feels at one with them, i.e., is in heart unison with them (John 17: 11, 21, 23, 26). Then it feels with them when they are treated by others out of harmony with good principles (Is. 63: 9; Rev. 6: 9-11). And, finally, it feels for them in whatever disharmony with good principles they may have (Ps. 103: 13-18). It also pities the unrighteous in their disharmonies

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with good principles, in their resultant sufferings and in their being treated out of harmony with good principles (Ex. 34: 6, 7; Judges 10: 16; 2 Kings 13: 23; Ps. 78: 38, 39; Is. 63: 9; Lam. 3: 22; Jas. 5: 11). As a final and fourth element of love, it delights, from the above described appreciation and sympathy or pity, to sacrifice in order to further good principles in and for others, thereby seeking to bring them into harmony with good principles, and to oppose wrong principles for the rescue of others from their evil nature and effect. From this analysis of love into its four component parts, we recognize that it is not gush or sentimentality, but is one of the noblest, yea, the very noblest of all good qualities. "The greatest of these is charity"—love. Love in God's character is of the highest possible kind. It adorns His character more than any other of His character attributes.

All of God's acts, some more, some less, manifest His love in one or more of its four elements. This will appear from a consideration of His acts. His creative acts are all more or less expressions of love; for in ultimate analysis creation exists as a product of, and a sphere for the activity of God's love in the blessing of beings in harmony with good principles. Yea, He made all things for His pleasure, i.e., the pleasure of doing good (Rev. 4: 11). Do we look above us at the starry heavens? In them we see worlds that God is preparing for the abode of holy beings whom it will be His pleasure to make in order to exemplify forever the reign of good principles. Do we look at our own planet? In it we see a future home for a sin-rescued and holy race forever one with God along lines of good principles. Do we behold His providences? They are working together for good now for the Church and later for the world. Does He give sunshine to the good and the evil, and does He send rain upon the just and the unjust? It is to help them on toward harmony with good principles. Yea, all His creative and

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providential works in nature display as well as flow out of His love, even if not exclusively so.

This is also manifest in man's original creation. His delight in good principles prompted Him to make man very good—in His image and likeness (Gen. 1: 26-28, 31). It was a loving thing in God to make man good in all his faculties of body, mind and heart, and thus endowed with happiness. It was a loving thing in God to surround man with everything that ministered to his well being and happiness. Flower and fruit, light and warmth, air and water, earth and sky, vegetable and animal, man and woman, life and health, perfection of being and fellowship with God, were one and all gifts of love to man from His loving Creator. God's intention in all this was to advance man in harmony with good principles. Thus love shines out in God's creative work in and for man. This is also apparent in God's work toward man on trial. It was disinterested love that sought by man's trial to advance him unto crystallization of character and thus to fitness for everlasting manifestation of harmony with good principles. Love saw to it that the conditions of the trial were such as would have contributed to this end, had man remained faithful in the trial; and when man failed, love agreed to the death sentence as a means to prevent man's living forever  in suffering and sin, which would have meant eternal torment and eternal existence of sin—things that of course God's love would not permit.

We see Divine love in the permission of evil. Ardently desiring good principles forever to reign, and being informed by Divine wisdom that the reign of evil would educate man as to the hatefulness of sin and the desirability of avoiding it, by teaching him through experience its terrible nature and effects, Divine love was willing to consent to the permission of evil, if ultimately God could effect good from it. All the more so was Divine love willing to consent to it when apprized by Divine wisdom that Divine love would, after

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man's experience with evil, be given the opportunity to favor man with an experience with righteousness, which would heal him, as he would obey, from all the effects of the experience with evil and restore him to God's  image and likeness. Since Divine love delights to spread good principles, it was of course delighted to consent to man's experience with evil, seeing that by the two above experiences it could be used to advance good in man.

In the meantime Divine love compatibly with the rights of justice was glad to draw into fellowship with God, and thus to advance good principles, those who, while evil prevailed in the world, felt after God and longed for fellowship with Him. Thus it delighted to help Abel into fellowship with God, Enoch to walk with God, and Noah, a preacher of righteousness, to witness for God amid a crooked and perverse generation. It was glad to bring the latter and his family safely through the flood to make a new start toward righteousness for mankind under the second dispensation. It took pleasure in drawing Abraham to the Lord until he became the trusted friend of God. It was glad to bless him and his descendants with covenant relations with God, inasmuch as this would not only keep some truth and righteousness alive, but would prepare the faithful of these as Ancient Worthies for participation in the great work of deliverance. Thus Divine love labored with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph unto this end. Moreover God's love acted toward Israel in making a covenant with them—the Mosaic Covenant. Not that it gave them life thereby, but that it gave them thereby further revelations fruitful in the spread of truth and righteousness among them, gave them a knowledge of their sins and sinfulness, brought the faithful among them to see that by their own best endeavors they were unable to save themselves, worked in them an intense longing for the promised Savior, prepared them to receive Him, helped the faithful

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among them to qualify for Ancient Worthies and helped the measurably faithful among them to be fit for the first place among the world of mankind in the Restitution Age. Further, Divine love, so far as this was in harmony with justice, to whose demands it must ever defer, forgave sinning and backsliding Israel whenever it would repent, aroused movements conducive to repentance, blessed them with new revelations and ministries of the prophets and blessed their experiences and chastisements unto the furtherance of good principles. Thus throughout the Jewish Age, in which justice was the chief actor toward Israel, love wrought many a thing conducive to the spread of good principles. Love was delighted with the loyalty to faith and righteousness manifested therein. Hence Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Daniel and many others were highly esteemed by God, and His appreciation, sympathy and services toward them were abundant. Hebrews 11 shows how His disinterested love acted toward these. Then, too, God's love in its form of sympathy repeatedly had compassion on His people under oppression, e.g., by the Egyptians, Midianites, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Syrians, etc., and out of such sympathy effected their deliverance. Furthermore it showed itself in His sending faithful prophets to remonstrate against the wickedness of Israelites and to call them to repentance and renewed fellowship with God. The missions of Elijah, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah and John the Baptist are illustrative of this. Beautifully is His love on this head, described in Jeremiah in the language, "rising early and sending them"—the prophets.

As the Jewish Age was ending Jehovah exercised the greatest expression of love ever manifested—making His only begotten Son human and giving Him up to the most shameful and painful death on behalf of His enemies (John 1: 14; 3: 16, 17; Rom. 5: 6-10). Only a good, loyal father who has an only and very

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well beloved and promising son, if called upon to give him up to degradation and a shameful and painful death on behalf of enemies, could come to the nearest realization of what this meant to Jehovah. God's power to love is greater than we can imagine. His only begotten Son was His delight (Prov. 8: 30; Matt. 3: 17). In Him were the Father's ambitions centered. His companionship and co-operation gave the Father the most intense pleasure. He was continually making plans and entrusting them to the Son to execute, which He always did faithfully and efficiently. No wonder that the Father loved and favored chiefly His only begotten Son, who above all others had proven His faithfulness, trustworthiness and efficiency. No wonder that the Father greatly appreciated the Son, who brought all creation, animate and inanimate, earthly and heavenly, into existence and efficiently and faithfully superintended their preservation and activities. The love, appreciation and confidence of the Father toward such a Son was great.

On the other hand, those for whom the Father gave His Son had no claim on God. His justice had properly cast them off from His favor and sentenced them to death. The bulk of them cared nothing for Him. Yea, the bulk of them became confederate at a price—self-gratification—with the enemy of His person, character, word and work, to displease Him, to violate His laws, to seek to overthrow His cause, to pervert His subjects from loyalty to Him and to defy His authority. In a word, they became His enemies. But their sad estate of enslavement to sin, error and death, despite their indifference, callousness and enmity, deeply stirred up His compassion for them. He longed to deliver them from their bondage and bring them back into harmony with Him and good principles; and when justice at wisdom's suggestion offered to release these for a return to such a blessed estate on condition of His degrading His only begotten and well beloved Son

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from the next highest nature to the lowest nature of free moral agents—humanity—and further suggested that in this degraded condition His Son be given up by Him to a death of the most disgraceful and painful kind, it suggested that love make the greatest possible sacrifice. And, marvelous to think, God's love was equal to this sacrifice; for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [to degradation to the lowest free agent nature and to death in supreme shame and excruciating pain] that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. God's love felt the degradation, shame, pain and death of His Son more deeply than His Son, Himself, felt them, even as in the type of this, Abraham felt the sorrows of Isaac's offering up more than Isaac did. But Divine love triumphed. It made the supreme sacrifice, and that in order that sin, error and death might be annihilated and righteousness, truth and life might forever prevail. Thus His delight in good principles and persons, His sympathy with the prospective Elect and pity for the world, enabled Him to offer the costliest sacrifice of all time and beings.

This is love's general sacrifice; but within its  ample folds are various features of disinterested love. In offering His Son in sacrifice, not only love for the world actuated Him, but also love for that Son wrought mightily in Him unto His successfully giving up that Son. He saw in the circumstances of the case the possibility of exalting His Son in character, nature and office. He saw that the Son's co-operating with Him heartily in the sacrifice would develop in the Son a character even finer and stronger than the character He already had, and this desire of working in His Son such an improved character was delightsome to Him in His love of advancing good principles. We are not to think that there was anything imperfect in the Son's prehuman character and in His human character; for there was no blemish of any kind in these. But the

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character of the prehuman Logos, though perfect for the nature that He then had, was not of so high a quality as the Divine nature needs; much less was His perfect human character of so high a quality as is fitted for the Divine nature. But God saw that through the sufferings that His Son would undergo He could be developed into a character fitted for the highest created possibilities of the Divine nature; and His great love for His Son, desiring such a nobler character for Him, was willing to sacrifice Him that it might be attained. Moreover, knowing that such exaltation in character and nature would fit Him for higher uses than His prehuman nature could attain—the office of executing all God's future purposes as His vicegerental Son throughout the Universe, God in love for that Son was willing to endure the hardships incidental to the preparation of the Son for such an exalted career. This was love indeed, from which a loving parent might well shrink back, but to which God was able to measure up. Yea, the love that God exercised when He gave His Son to be made perfect in character for the Divine nature and office of Jehovah's vicegerent, was love of the highest quality, of the greatest sublimity and of the most worthy kind.

There is still another feature of love that was in God's heart, prompting Him to give His Son unto degradation, disgrace, pain and death, i.e., for the Elect, who through that death were to be most highly benefited. For, knowing that through our Lord's carnation and death He could lift up the four faith classes to much higher grades and qualities of character than that to which the world could be elevated in their Millennial experience with righteousness, God in His disinterested love gave up His Son to carnation and death to secure these blessed results for the four faith classes, who constitute the four elect classes—the Little Flock, the Ancient Worthies, the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies. Thus disinterested love, delighting to

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advance good principles, sacrificed the Son in order to develop these four classes in character fitting them for spiritual existence—the Little Flock in the Divine nature as having the highest form of character among these four classes, and the other three classes in some spiritual nature lower than the Divine—perhaps in the nature that the  Logos had before, and left at the time of His carnation. The Son, willingly submitting to His Father's sacrificing Him in such disinterested love, co-operated with the Father's love to secure the glorious ends in view as to the four elect classes.

Foregoing we have shown how in relation to the world, to His only begotten Son and to the four elect  classes, God's love acted and manifested itself in giving up His Son in carnation and in death. We now will trace the activity of God's love to the Gospel-Age Elect and to the world.

God's love in its delight to do good to the world has been using up some of the human all of His Gospel-Age children in their measurably correcting the world as to its sin and their measurably instructing it as to righteousness, as well as in witnessing to it of the coming kingdom—the judgment to come—all of which has been intended to curb sin, spread righteousness and prepare the world for their place in the Millennium. But such activity on the part of Divine love has been sacrificial, for it means that God has been giving up to pain, weariness, sorrow, persecution and death, His well beloved children in order to do the world the good that giving them refutations as to sin, and instructions as to righteousness and the coming kingdom, has done and will do them. God loves His children, if not with the same degree, yet with the same kind of love as that which He gave His Son Jesus while the latter was in the flesh (John 17: 23, 26). As Jehovah felt with His Son Jesus while the latter was being sacrificed, so He feels with His many other sons as they have been sacrificed to give the world the Scripturally marked reproofs

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as to sin and instructions as to righteousness and witness as to the judgment to come. Yet His love was willing and able to bear this out of His desire to give the world the benefit of such reproof, instruction and witness. Additionally was God's love active in giving up these sons to a sacrificial death amid much weariness, pain, disgrace, persecution and death, often of a martyr kind, in co-suffering with Jesus that the blessing of restitution might be offered the world in the Millennium. When we realize "the great love wherewith He loved us," we can come to something of a realization of how strong must be the Divine love for the world in order to endure the hardships incidental to sacrificing His many spirit—begotten sons for them. Surely God's love for the world, as manifest from the two above standpoints, is great and good. It is surely disinterested—unselfish—love, like that manifested in giving His only begotten Son for the world.

Further, His disinterested love acts toward the Church during the Gospel Age; for He is giving up those whom He specially loves to sufferings in order to perfect them in character, nature and office. Not only the consideration that their sufferings will bless the world, now measurably and in the Millennium very greatly, moves His love to bear the hardship of sacrificing them for the world, but the consideration that their sufferings will perfect them, if faithful, in a Divine character. Such a character is high, noble and good, and therefore the most desirable thing to have. And so greatly does God in disinterested love prize such characters that He is in disinterested love willing and able to do all the work and to bear all the hardships incidental to their sufferings, whereby such characters are developed and perfected in them. His love perseveres further in this course, because He sees that He can raise those faithful amid such sufferings to the Divine nature and offices, whereby they will be able

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with the greatest efficiency and faithfulness to spread the reign of good principles, and thus lift up and bless others. Thus His disinterested love shines out in His sacrificing the Little Flock.

But some whom He is giving up to suffering on behalf of the world fail faithfully to co-operate in those sufferings. These do not attain the heights of character, nature and office given to the Little Flock of more than overcomers. But if they, under the Lord's corrective teachings and providences, wash their robes from their spots and then co­ operate with the Lord in faithful service unto death amid sufferings, they will be enabled to develop characters fit for a spiritual nature and office subordinate to the Little Flock's. These also God loves; and He also loves so much the good to which they may attain that He has been willing to endure the hardships incidental to their cleansing and sufferings that they may attain the intended good. Thus disinterested love is active in God's dealings with the Great Company. The same love of God acts toward the Youthful Worthies, who, though not now children of God, like the Little Flock and the Great Company, are now friends and servants of God. Later—in the Millennium—they, with the Ancient Worthies, will become sons of God. They, like the latter, belong to the faith-elect-classes, and as such their loyalty to God greatly delights Him. But His delight—the appreciation of disinterested love—in them does not keep Him back from letting them suffer pain, sorrow, persecution and death, in the course of their advancing truth and righteousness in and about them. On the contrary, to develop in them an overcoming character fitting them for perfect human nature and earthly princeship throughout the Millennium, both for the good they now will do and get and the good they in the Millennium will do and get from such sufferings, His love, to gain these good results, endures the hardship of seeing them suffer incidentally to His obtaining

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these good results. Thus Divine love acts toward the Youthful Worthies now, because of the good results for them and the world unto God's honor now and later. Thus we see that God's love delights to advance all the elect classes despite the incidental sufferings, in order to make truth and righteousness prevail in them and through them towards others. We will not get a right focus on the Divine love in its Gospel-Age activities unless we view it as the love-testing activity of giving up His beloved Elect for their own development and for the blessing of the world.

There is still another sphere in which Divine love acts towards the Elect—their faults. God's disinterested love is pained whenever these fail to do good, or whenever they do evil. This is so because disinterested love delights in good. Hence it must be pained at evil. Yet His love, despite its pain, does not give them up. Intent on their reformation it works faithfully, sympathetically and sacrificially to rescue them. It is His love that instructs them as to the evil character of these wrongs of omission and commission. It is His love that stripes them for their cleansing (1 John 1: 9), whenever they show any willfulness. His love in some cases even withdraws His smile of favor, i.e., if there is much willfulness in them. It nevertheless follows them in its delight to reform and reinstate them into His favor. How freely His love forgives them when they are repentant! How He manifests in many ways His delight when He wins them back to the right way! What a great love this is on His part so faithfully and patiently to seek them for truth and righteousness! Yea, how great is that love that for nearly 19 centuries has labored for their reformation and character perfection.

Midway between the lost world and the elect is another class to whom God has shown much love in this Age, i.e., the faith justified. We do not here refer to those of the faith justified who proceed to consecration,

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but to those who do not so do. While the real purpose of the Gospel-Age faith justification has been to prepare responsive persons for consecration and election, yet many—yea, the vast majority—fail to use it for these purposes. Nevertheless, God's disinterested love has acted toward these. Yea, even before their justification it acted toward them individually; for it pitied them in their lost, undone and alienated condition to such a degree as to use some of the humanity of His sons and servants to preach repentance to them, and by the Word aroused them to hate and forsake sin and to love and practice righteousness. Of course such an action on God's part was one of disinterested love. Furthermore, on their exercising repentance He aroused some of His sons and servants to help them further by the Word to accept Jesus as their Savior, and through faith in His merit to come into justification and consequent peace with God. In this action we recognize His love acting. So, too, has He been using the humanity of His sons and servants to help these to more knowledge of His Truth, to further cleansing from filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to greater practice of righteousness. Surely such activities of His have been expressions of disinterested love. To do this unweariedly for many centuries is a still greater manifestation of love, and to continue doing it, despite the backsliding of many and the half-hearted responsiveness of others, in the interests of truth and righteousness is a high expression of His love. O, how great has been the love of God in the Gospel Age!

Even in the great tribulation which began with the World War, which will proceed with the World Revolution, and which will end with the World Anarchy and Jacob's Trouble, all accompanied with famines and pestilences, we can see Divine love active, though of course Divine power and justice chiefly act therein. Nevertheless there is love in the wrath—the love that can use wrath for reformatory purposes when nothing

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else can prove effective. God's love has for nearly 1900 years been calling the world to repentance, but apart from a comparatively few the world has not repented. This call to repentance has been a marvelous exhibition of longsuffering and patient love toward the sinful race; for it has been accompanied with many blessings, which are all the greater expressions of love when the fact that they were bestowed on enemies is considered. Moral suasion accompanied with much and long-drawn-out kindness failing, there is no other recourse for the love that earnestly longs for man's deliverance from sin, error and death, than to resort to the rod with only that degree of severity necessary to put man into a salvable condition by humbling him and thus fitting him obediently to receive the only means that will deliver him—the Kingdom of God. Thus we can see Divine love in the greatest wrath.

The organization of God's kingdom with perfect adaptation for man's deliverance from evil and uplift into perfection will be another exhibition of Divine love. The establishment of Christ and the Church as the controlling power in the kingdom is an action of love, because they will have characters adorned with all the mercy necessary to make allowance for human weakness and ignorance, with all the faithfulness necessary to apply unto a completion the varied means for man's reformation, with all the knowledge necessary to apply these means efficiently and with all the will power necessary to persevere in the good work unto the end, as they will be clothed with God's authority and power to inaugurate and to control completely every Millennial condition. Certainly Divine love is apparent in such an organization of the controlling part of the kingdom. So, too, Divine love is manifest in the organization of the three subordinate parts of the kingdom—the Ancient Worthies to act as the main visible representatives of the invisible Christ in establishing and operating the main visible agencies and means for

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ruling and blessing mankind, the Youthful Worthies to act as the less important visible representatives of the invisible Christ in establishing and operating the less important visible agencies and means for ruling and blessing man, and the Great Company as the invisible and subordinate agents of the invisible Christ in supporting the two visible parts of the kingdom and in executing the disciplinary orders of the Christ Class. Such an organization of the kingdom will be just the thing to suppress every feature of the curse, introduce its opposite good features and bring the willing and obedient into sympathetic oneness and co­ operation with the kingdom arrangements, whereby they will be delivered from every part of the curse, be given all the blessings of restitution and be prepared for the paradisiac earth. When we think of the lavish abundance of goodness that will be ministered through this arrangement in its healing, uplifting and perfecting effects, we must recognize the love of God as acting in the Millennial arrangements for man's uplift.

So, too, will the love of God be manifest in the final test at the end of the Millennium, because this test will be for the purpose of establishing truth and righteousness eternally in the restored human family. God's delight in good principles and His delight to preserve them forever— features of disinterested love—of course, in the nature of the case, will operate in that final test.

The sentence to, and the execution of eternal destruction on those who chose evil under that final test, while primarily matters of Divine power and justice, will nevertheless be accompanied by love; for love will be willing to have them blotted out in order to destroy all sin, to prevent the wicked from suffering eternally and to keep eternally the good from mental suffering, and thus will God secure the undisturbed permanence of good. And as these results could not be attained so

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long as sinners exist, love in its delight to support good, will co-operate in the destruction of the wicked.

Of course Divine love will be exercised in rewarding those found faithful in the final trial. It will take delight in blessing them with every good pleasure, possession, condition and progress. Before they call He will answer, and while they are yet speaking He will hear. With lavish profusion will Jehovah gratify their every desire; and this will eternally draw out their love, appreciation, hope, faith and obedience. Thus Divine love will triumph in blessing with every good thing those who will use their blessings to their own and others' profit and happiness and to God's credit and pleasure. Surely all of the considerations presented in this article prove that God is love. And His great love calls out our love; for we love Him, because He first loved us.

In our discussion of God's higher primary attributes of character we now come to the fourth and last—power. We have in the preceding chapter discussed God's power as an attribute of His being, and will not treat of it in that sense in this chapter. Rather, as our subject implies, we desire in this chapter to study power as an attribute of character. One may ask, What is the difference between power as an attribute of God's being and power as an attribute of God's character? We answer, The former is an attribute of God's body, whereby He can by His strength do whatever He wills; the latter is an attribute of God's heart and mind, whereby He rules Himself in well doing and perseveres therein with cheerful endurance in spite of obstacles. Thus the external work of the creation and preservation of the universe and of the execution of His Plan are examples of His power as an attribute of His being, while the internal strength of will necessary to rule Himself in well doing and to persevere in well doing with cheerful endurance in spite of any obstacle arising in the course of His

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works of creation and providence and of the execution of His Plan, are examples of His power as an attribute of character. When under the symbol of a lion in Rev. 4 and Ezek. 1 God's attribute of power is represented, we are to understand that God's power is there set forth in the sense of an attribute both of His being and character. But having already discussed power as an attribute of His being, we will here study power as an attribute of His character.

Power, then, as an attribute of character means strength of the disposition and will—the mind and heart—primarily along the lines of wisdom, justice and love, and secondarily along the lines of other mind and heart qualities. It is a universal grace, yea, we may call it the universal grace, because it is the only one which, when properly functioning, rules and reinforces every other grace. Its function, therefore, is primarily executory, for it makes all the other qualities act. Other graces supply the proper motives for action; this one makes them execute the action. It puts its strength back of the motives that prompt to action and by the instructions of wisdom makes them work in the performance of the action. Thus power is related to wisdom, justice and love. The relation is this: Wisdom supplies a tactful plan for an action in harmony with justice and love; then justice and love supply the main motives for the action, and power takes this plan and puts back of justice and love its strength to make them carry out the plan. This is precisely the way the four higher primary Divine attributes acted in making, and are acting in carrying out, the Divine Plan of the Ages. It is necessary  for us to see this primary function of power properly, if we would be in a position to understand power as an attribute of God's character. In a word, its function is primarily executory—it executes wisdom's plans, harmonized with and propelled by justice and love. In exercising this executive function

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power suppresses the activity of non-pertinent qualities and uses other pertinent qualities than justice and love to support these as motives. Thus in support of justice and love, acting in the execution of wisdom's plans, power, as the needs of the case demand, will use secretiveness, combativeness, aggressiveness, self-esteem, friendship, patriotism, etc. This suppressing and supporting function of power may be called its secondary function. And the result of such functional activities of power in us is an increased strengthening of power as an attribute of character and an increased strengthening of our other good qualities—a result, of course, which it cannot have in God, since He is and always was infinite in power as an attribute of character.

Power as an attribute of character, both in God and in us, consists of two elements—self-control and patience. Self- control alone rules the heart and mind in God and us amid ordinary experiences and situations. But when obstacles present themselves self-control, both in God and us, is reinforced for purposes of self-rule, by patience. Self- control works through the faculty of firmness; patience works through the faculty of continuity. There is a very widespread error as to the nature of patience. Most people regard it as synonymous with longsuffering. This is a mistake, as a definition of these two qualities will show. Longsuffering—the opposite of anger—is a calm and unresentful carriage of oneself amid naturally exasperating circumstances; while patience—the opposite of inconstancy—is joyfully enduring perseverance, continuity, stick-to-itiveness, steadfastness in well-doing despite obstacles. When we therefore speak of power as an attribute of Jehovah's character we mean His strength of self-control and perseverance. These two qualities have been constantly manifesting themselves in connection with Jehovah's activities. Let us look at the salient features of God's

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Plan and observe how these two qualities have characterized Jehovah in the outworking of His Plan.

When God's foresight apprized Him of the fall of man and of some angels, His self-control sustained Him to make a plan suitable for their needs as to deliverance, and His patience persevered unto a complete making of that plan. God's self-control ruled Him in making men and angels and His patience persevered in that work until it was completed. Self-control and patience backed justice and love in putting man and angels on trial, as they have supported these in executing the sentence for disobedience under that trial. For upward of 6,000 years God has permitted evil in man and fallen angels and therein has manifested great self-control and patience from the standpoint of His purpose in its permission. How great has been God's self-control and patience in relation to the persecutions and sufferings of His people, inflicted by the wicked! The course of Cain toward Abel, of the antediluvians toward Noah, of Laban toward Jacob, of Jacob's sons toward him and Joseph, of Pharaoh and the Egyptians toward Israel, Moses and Aaron, of the Israelites toward Moses and the prophets and of the oppressive nations toward Israel throughout the Jewish Age, required and was attended by self-control and patience on the part of Jehovah.

Even a more marked exercise of power—self-control and patience—on God's part is manifest in His attitude and acts connected with the sufferings of Jesus and His faithful followers. The mental sufferings that Jesus underwent, especially in Gethsemane and on Calvary, required the exercise of self-control and patience in Jehovah to permit them. To see His beloved Son endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, in the murmurings, disputings, harassings, accusations and revilings of the scribes, Pharisees and priests, in the buffetings, mockings and torturings of the soldiers, and in the rejections, execrations

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and derisions of the mobs, called for Jehovah to exercise self-control and patience in carrying out a sacrificial feature of His Plan amid such circumstances. To hear Himself blasphemed, His character and Plan misrepresented, and His righteous laws and gracious favors set at naught, certainly demanded self-control and patience on His part, in order to carry out His arrangements in the presence of such conditions. How often did the persecutions, the misrepresentations and the cruelties exercised against the Gospel messengers and people in the Harvest of the Jewish Age require Jehovah to exercise self-control and patience in carrying forward the purposes of that Harvest! Certainly the rise of false teachers among the brethren at that time, the development of the great apostasy immediately afterward, the rise of the clergy class among God's people, the development of a hierarchy out of the clergy class, and of the papacy out of the hierarchy, the crushing of the Truth, the union of Church and State, the perversion of the mission of the Gospel-Age Church, the persecution and overpowering of the saints, particularly of their leaders, the exaltation of the unfaithful, the tortures of the Inquisition, the oppression and degradation of the laity by the clergy, the proscription of the Bible and other Truth writings, the violence of wars, massacres, exilings, the devastations of homes and countries, against Truth and righteousness, and the distress of His oppressed children, as expressions of Antichrist's wrath against the Lord, His cause and His people, must have greatly required the exercise of self- control and patience in God.

Emerging out of the Dark Ages God's faithful people have had to suffer in the Reformation period a double set of injuries. On the one hand, the papacy kept up its terrible opposition of them, and on the other hand, later reformers and their supporters had to endure the opposition of the previously existing

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Protestant sects. The Presbyterians persecuted the Baptist and Servetian reforming brethren. The Episcopalians and Presbyterians persecuted the Congregational and Quaker reforming brethren. The Episcopalians more mildly persecuted the Methodists. All of these in still milder forms persecuted the Christians and Adventists. And the Harvesters were persecuted by Catholics and Protestants of all sects. As God viewed His people, crying out by their sufferings, but not by their words, "How long, O Lord?" we may be sure that His self-control and patience had to be active to keep right on in the carrying out of His Plan despite the incidental sufferings to which His people have been exposed through Catholic autocracy and Protestant sectarianism. Nor are these all the sufferings through which God's Elect have had to pass and yet must pass. The late war brought considerable sufferings upon the Little Flock, Great Company and Youthful Worthies. They have yet to pass through tribulations to be brought upon them through certain civil powers at the instigation of the symbolic beast and false prophet. Doubtless the strenuous times of the future parts of the Great Tribulation will bring much sufferings upon them. All these experiences will call forth the exercise of Jehovah's self-control and patience; for He loves and deeply feels with His people. "In all their affliction He was afflicted." He will also exercise self- control and patience at the sufferings of the Ancient and Youthful Worthies and of the faithful Restitution class during the trying experiences of the Little Season, when Satan with great wrath comes forth and works deceptions. Thus we see that the sufferings of God's people from the beginning have called upon God to exercise self-control and patience in order to work out His Plan in connection with such sufferings.

Jehovah has likewise had to exercise self-control and patience in connection with the wickedness of

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fallen men and angels. Above we showed His power acting in connection with their suffering evil. Here we would show it acting in connection with their sin. The wickedness of Satan in rebellion, ingratitude, deceitfulness, power grasping, in tyrannizing over and debauching the race for many millenniums, in entrapping the incautious angels before the flood, in organizing and administering a kingdom opposing God's Plan and in seeking most wickedly to blaspheme and misrepresent God's character, person, word and work, to thwart God's work, to seduce His servants, to incite others against them and to do them unto ruin and death, has undoubtedly occasioned God to exercise self-control and patience as He in spite of these things proceeded on His course of carrying out His Plan. The co-operation of the demons with Satan in his wicked course, consisting mainly of the things enumerated in the preceding sentence, increased the occasion of God's exercising self-control and patience in carrying out His Plan amid such a wicked course on the part of the fallen angels as Satan's co-operators. And what shall we say of man's wickedness as making conditions prevail in which it became necessary for God to apply power as an attribute of character in the way of self-control and patience? The idolatries, grossly material and refinedly mental, the unbeliefs and misbeliefs, the blasphemies and perjuries, the disregard for the higher powers and parental authority, the individual murders and collective slayings, the adulteries, fornications, unnatural lusts and vices, the marital, parental and filial sins, the thieveries, plunderings, banditries, briberies, devastations, corruptions and spoliations, the slanders, misrepresentations and character assassinations, and the envies, jealousies, evil surmisings, covetings, hatreds and cruelties and multitudes of mankind's other sins, have been occasions innumerable for Jehovah to exercise self-control and patience. Had He not done this, the race and

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the fallen angels might have been blotted out, His Plan gone by default and His kingdom have been much undermined. We glory in God that His strength of heart and mind in self-control and patience are such as to have met in proper poise of character all the conditions confronting Him in the prevalence of evil among fallen angels and men and among His faithful people, and in the prevalence of sin among fallen angels and men.

In God's dealing with His elect peoples there has been constant need of His exercising self-control and patience. His typically elect people—Israel—gave Him many an opportunity of exercising self-control and patience, through their frequent lapses from their covenant obligations to Him. They were frequently wayward. Often they murmured and complained. They fell into idolatry and the wicked orgies connected with idolatrous religions. Not seldom did they rebel against God's ordinances and arrangements. For the sake of having a royalty they rejected Him as their King and His democratic arrangements as to their civil and social relations. They frequently mistreated His prophets. Many times in distrust of His protection they sought alliances with surrounding heathen nations. Time and again they corrupted their religious services and reduced them to mere formalism. Yet God continued to deal with them, correcting their faults, blessing their graces, striping their rebellions, reinstating them on their repentance in His forgiveness, sending them warnings, giving them encouragements, surrounding them with His protection, exalting them in their loyalty, abounding toward them in their needs, and giving them every helpful influence. Had He not possessed infinite self-control and patience, how could He have continued for over eighteen centuries in dealing with them throughout the Jewish Age? He would long before have cast them off.

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We can discern His self-control and patience in His dealing with the Ancient Worthies. Thus His self-control and patience worked continually toward Abraham, the friend of God; Isaac, the peaceful shepherd; Jacob, the man of action; Joseph, the man of humiliation and exaltation; Moses, the servant of God; Joshua, the warrior of God; Gideon, the daring; Jephtha, the courageous; Samson, the strong; David, the beloved and reliable; Elijah, the austere; Isaiah, the eloquent; Jeremiah, the sorrowful; Daniel, the loyal, and multitudes of less prominence, but of the same faithfulness. All of these needed help, were deficient in various respects, faultful in others; some of these were at times willful, forgetful and backsliding. To supply their lacks, to cleanse their faults and to strengthen their graces in their varied personal bents and circumstances required a continued exercise of self-control and patience on God's part in His efforts to enable them to fulfill His will and to qualify for their places in the earthly phase of the Kingdom. When we include among these Abel, Enoch and Noah, we find that God dealt with these Ancient Worthies over 4,000 years. Acting toward them successfully for so long a period required, among other qualities, self-control and patience of a unique degree.

A still greater display of these two graces as the elements of God's power in character respects is found in His dealing with Christ and His prospective Bride. Great were the expressions of His self-control and patience in His depriving Himself of Christ's prehuman companionship and service and in His emptying the Word of His prehuman nature and office when making Him flesh. It certainly required great self-control and patience in God's arranging for Him to be absent from Him for over thirty-four years. Great were the self-control and patience of God in making Him a sacrifice unto death for His enemies and in developing His new creature unto Divine completion

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amid most heart-searching and crucial experiences. Under these circumstances it was especially the Father's love for His Son that made it necessary for Him to exercise such great manifestations of self-control and patience in order to accomplish His purposes with His Son. In His dealing with the Church in connection with the sacrifice of its humanity, its cleansing itself from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and its development, strengthening, balancing and crystallizing Christlikeness, there have been the most marvelous exhibitions of His self-control and patience so far enacted. This will become apparent, if we consider how God is as a rule choosing the weak, the base, the despised, the poor and the ungifted as heirs of the Kingdom. To train these into fitness for such a position is truly the greatest work of self-control and patience ever yet performed, if it is not in need the greatest work of self-control and patience that ever will be performed.

Certainly Jehovah's past, present and future activities with the Great Company, before recent years individually, and since recent years as a class, exhibits remarkably His power in the forms of self-control and patience. It is in these measurably unfaithful new creatures that Satan found more or less fit instruments for developing the errors of doctrine, practice and organization in Greek and Roman Catholicism and in Protestant Sectarianism. These were by their waywardness, stubbornness and revolutionism continually trying God's self-control and patience; for, children of His, they were using, doubtless ignorantly, their greatest endeavors to advance what actually were the plans of God's chief enemy—Satan. Only a good father who has constantly sought the best interests of his children, who despite this turned against his interests and sided with his mortal enemy and unscrupulous competitor, can to a large degree enter into Jehovah's feelings as to the course of the Great Company

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now and in the past. Surely, great self-control and patience have been His in dealing with them. How great care in these qualities must He take in opposing their revolutionism! How much of these will have to be in evidence until their fleshly mind is destroyed! How highly will they have to act to bring them to a complete cleansing and to a proper service of Himself! The same remarks with slight modifications apply to His dealing with those of the Youthful Worthies who in character act much like, as they are also cooperators with, the Great Company; as also the same remarks as were made on Jehovah's self-control and patience in dealing with the Ancient Worthies apply to the activities of these two elements of God's power as an attribute of character in His dealings with the good Youthful Worthies.

It is, of course, manifest that in the great tribulation, already begun and to last yet many years, though we are now in one of its lulls, God's power in the forms of self- control and patience finds a marvelous field of action in overruling the tribulation for ultimate good to all concerned. In protecting His own, as well as measuring out adequate retributions on institutions, involving their individual supporters, whom by the trouble He designs to bless, there have been and will be marvelous displays of God's power as an attribute of character, ruling Himself and persevering on His course as to the workings of the tribulation.

Then, too, when we look forward to the times of restitution, we can with faith's eye see many evidences of God's exercising His power in self-control and patience in gradually giving the kingdom arrangements, in applying these to the billions of mankind, returned from the dead, in restraining, chastising, correcting and instructing the weak and wayward and in punishing the wilful, and that all for the sake of their reformation. Nor will there be wanting such power in the forms of self-control and patience in dealing 100

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years with the fully wilful before He destroys them as incorrigible sinners. So, too, will there be many exhibitions of His attribute of power in self-control and patience in dealing 1,000 years with the reformable for their full restoration to human perfection—restitution—especially in dealing with those who will reform externally, but not from and in the heart. God, knowing their hypocrisy—that of the symbolic goats (Matt. 25: 31-47)—all through these 1,000 years, will nevertheless control Himself as He perseveres to uplift them. How great will be the display of these qualities in the Little Season, when Satan and his impenitent angels are permitted to attempt to deceive the whole perfected race! He will exercise these qualities for the perhaps 40 years of that season, in order to complete the outworking of His Plan. He will show them, too, in His relation to the rebelliously wicked and in His relation to the obediently righteous of mankind in the varying stands that they will then make. Self-control and patience will manifest themselves in Him when the sentence of destruction is pronounced and executed upon Satan, his demons and incorrigible men, as well as when the reward of life is pronounced upon and given to the righteous. Therefore in the Ages to come, among others, His glorious power in its forms of self-control and patience will be celebrated by all creation (Rev. 5: 13).

We have now finished our individual study of Jehovah's four higher primary graces. But we should not close this chapter without some remarks on the relation of these four attributes to one another and to other graces. Of these four, wisdom and justice are fundamental, i.e., truth and righteousness are the foundations for love and power, as well as for God's throne (Ps. 89: 14). Always the first consideration that arises in Jehovah's mind as respects any action, course, principle or thing is this: Is it in harmony with truth and righteousness? No matter what other

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good qualities may be found in it, if either truth or righteousness is in any way compromised or impinged in that action, course, principle or thing, Jehovah refuses to sanction it or co-operate in it. If a thing is in harmony with truth and righteousness, and if God desires to enter into it in activity, He will then act with respect to it in love and power, deferring always, however, to wisdom and justice. God's love and power have never acted, nor will they ever act, except in harmony with and in deference to His wisdom and justice. So, then, wisdom and justice are the foundations, and love and power are the superstructures of God's higher primary attributes of character. The harmonious activity and co-ordination of these four attributes in the order and way above indicated is manifest in every principle and feature of God's Plan. Therefore His Plan is a most sublime revelation and manifestation of His character. The harmony of His character is manifest in this Plan in that the foundation of its every feature is wisdom and justice and the superstructure of its every feature is love and power. If we view God's creative, providential, redemptive, instructional, justifying, sanctifying and delivering works as they are displayed in His Plan, we will find that they manifest the harmony and co-ordination of these four sublime qualities in the order and procedure above indicated. Thus we recognize that each of these attributes is perfect in itself and in its relations to the other three. Therefore there is a harmonious co-operation between them; for they never act in variance to, but always in support of, one another. Otherwise God's character would be imperfect.

And not only are there harmony and co-ordination in the activities of God's higher primary graces in their mutual relations, but there is also in this harmony and co­ ordination a dominance on the part of these four graces over all God's other graces. It will be recalled that in the first part of this chapter we explained

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that God had, in addition to His higher primary graces, lower primary, secondary and tertiary graces. None of the graces of these three later classes, or the other elements of the character has the right of controllership in God's acts. Whether they will be permitted to act or not is dependent on the decision and controllership of His higher primary graces acting in the harmony and co-ordination described above. Therefore God's higher primary graces have in the above-defined harmony and co-ordination the function of controlling all His other graces and elements of character. It is theirs to suppress, support, employ, modify, harmonize and inter-relate the others' use or uses. They are God's ruling, dominating graces. And in the wondrous perfection of each of these four graces, in their harmony and co­ ordination with one another and in their dominating in such harmony and co-ordination all God's other graces and elements of character lies the marvelous balance of God's character. Never in the least item is there a deviation from this wondrous balance which, existing in infinite strength, constitutes the perfection of Jehovah's character. O, how sublime is His character! Worthy from every standpoint of disposition, thought, motive, word and work is He to be praised! He is so supremely good that our weak, fallen powers are unutterably inadequate properly to appreciate and praise Him. Lost in wonder, love and appreciation, we bow down before Him in worship and adoration, crying out, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the Ages. Who shall not reverence Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy" (Rev. 15: 3, 4)! Let us consider His holy character as displayed in His Plan so devoutly, so believingly, so lovingly and so adoringly, that little by little and more and more we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3: 18).

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