THE NATURE AND NAMES OF THE TERTIARY GRACES. MEEKNESS. ZEAL. MODERATION. MAGNANIMITY OR GOODNESS. FAITHFULNESS.

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WE HAVE come in our study to the tertiary graces of God's character. This book began with a chapter entitled, "The Existence of God." It proceeded with chapters on God's attributes. Of these we first discussed fourteen of His attributes of being; thereafter we began to discuss His attributes of character, treating first of His four higher primary attributes, then of fourteen of His lower primary at tributes and finally of ten of His secondary attributes. There remain yet for our study of God's character His tertiary attributes, which we will now take up for discussion, praying the Lord's blessing upon our study of the tertiary attributes of God's character.

In the outstart of this study we are confronted by the question, What is meant by the tertiary attributes or graces of character? Properly to appreciate the answer to this question we should first refresh our minds as to what is meant by the primary and secondary attributes or graces of character. As we have already learned, a primary attribute or grace of character is one that is developed by the direct action of one or two of the affection-organs; and a secondary grace or attribute of character is one that is developed by the primary graces laying hold of and suppressing the efforts of the lower affection-organs to control us. Several of the higher primary graces, e.g., piety, brotherly love and charity, are the direct products of the activity of several higher affection-organs. Thus, piety is the direct product of conscientiousness and veneration; brotherly love is the direct product of conscientiousness

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and benevolence; while charity Godward and Christward is the direct product of appreciation and sympathy on the one hand and of veneration on the other hand, and charity manward is the direct product of appreciation and sympathy on the one hand and of benevolence on the other hand. The only affection-organs that operate in the production of the higher primary graces are the higher affection-organs. While several of the higher primary graces are produced by the direct action of more than one higher affection-organ, the lower primary graces are in  each case the product of but one lower primary affection- organ. So, too, the secondary graces in each case are limited to the effect of the suppression of each lower affection's efforts to control our motives, words and acts.

The tertiary graces result from the combination of higher and lower primary graces and secondary graces. A higher primary grace is never the direct product of a lower primary affection-organ; nor is a lower primary grace the direct product of a higher affection-organ; but whenever the products—graces—of both of such organs combine with one or more secondary graces, then the resultant grace is a tertiary grace. E.g., meekness is a tertiary grace, and exercised Godward it is a combination of the higher graces, faith, self-control, patience, piety and charity on the one hand, and of the secondary graces, humility, longsuffering and forbearance on the other hand, along the line of a mild submissiveness of heart and mind; for in the exercise of meekness toward God the above eight graces blend with  the five higher primary graces in control of the three secondary graces along the lines of mild submissiveness of heart and mind, which is what the Bible means by meekness. Manward, meekness is a combination of self- control, patience, brotherly love and charity with the above- mentioned three secondary graces in a mild submissiveness.

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An examination of the other tertiary graces will show such a combinative feature in each of them. The other six tertiary graces are: zeal, moderation, magnanimity or goodness, gentleness, joy and faithfulness. Zeal results from a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of combativeness, aggressiveness and industriousness (lower primary graces) and, third, of bravery, self-denial and liberality (secondary graces), along the lines of ardent and active devotion to a cause. Moderation results from a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of tactfulness, restfulness, thoughtfulness and friendliness (lower primary graces), and, third, of humility, longsuffering and forbearance (secondary graces), along the line of balance of mind and heart. Magnanimity or goodness results from a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of agreeableness, peaceableness, and friendliness (lower primary graces) and, third, of generosity, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness and leniency (secondary graces), in thought, motives, word and acts, in favor of proper persons, principles and things. Gentleness is a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of agreeableness, friendliness, restfulness, peacefulness and tactfulness (lower primary graces) and, third, of generosity, longsuffering, forbearance, humility and modesty (secondary graces), along the line of leniency or mildness in manner of action. Joy results from the proper activity of any single grace or of a combination of any two or more or all of the graces along the lines of delight of heart and mind. Faithfulness results from the activity of any single grace or of a combination of any

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two or more or all of the graces along the lines of loyalty to principles, persons or things.

The above descriptions and analyses of the seven tertiary graces prove that they are a combination of higher and lower primary graces and of secondary graces. It because of their being compounded by certain features of other graces that they are sometimes called compound graces. Those who so call them speak of all the other graces as simple graces. This method of classifying the graces is fairly good; but not so good, we believe, as the method used in our pertinent series of chapters; for the classification of primary, secondary and tertiary, sets forth their nature, originating organs, relations and functions, while the other has respect to their ingredients only. We trust that the preceding remarks on the three classes of graces will help us, one and all, better to appreciate the nature and function of each class, and thus better fit us to understand and appreciate God's tertiary graces of character. The first of these that we will discuss in this chapter is God's meekness.

Meekness is a mild submissiveness of heart and mind. It is not enough to define meekness as submissiveness; for there are many expressions of submissiveness that are not expressions of meekness. The convict who has in his stubbornness been subdued by a severe chastisement into submissiveness could hardly be called meek. The necessity for his chastisement—his stubbornness—proves him not to be meek. We could rightly speak of him as subdued, but that very expression proves him not to be meek. There is, therefore, more than mere submissiveness implied in meekness. It implies that the submissiveness be one that flows from mildness and must come from the heart and mind. A truly meek person is always mild; and if one lacks mildness he lacks an essential ingredient of meekness. The mildness of meekness makes us refuse

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to ascribe meekness to all characters that must be subdued by force or fear before they become submissive.

But the kind of mild submissiveness of which we treat exercises itself in activities of both heart and mind. Its activities of mind have as their essence docility— teachableness—and its activities of heart have as their essence leadableness—tractability. The unteachable are not meek, nor are the intractable meek. To be meek one must be both docile and leadable. But true meekness is not docile and leadable as to everybody and everything. It is docile as to truth and righteousness only, and leadable as to truth and righteousness only. It refuses to be docile and leadable as to error and unrighteousness. Hence, true meekness only then exercises itself toward others when this is in harmony with truth, righteousness and love. This accounts for meek Christians refusing to exercise meekness toward those who have sought to dissuade them from their loyalty to the Lord, as during persecutions, time and again, efforts were made to induce them to renounce the Lord, the truth and the brethren. In such cases their meekness exercised itself, not toward their persecutors, but toward the Lord, the truth and the brethren, as was very proper.

Nor should we, as many do, confound meekness with humility, which is a proper self-estimate, and hence in us is lowliness of heart and mind. The reason for this mistake is on the surface; for humility being one of the ingredients of meekness, of course, wherever we have meekness we will find humility. But we sometimes find humble persons who are not meek; for there are some who have a proper, hence a lowly self-estimate who, however, are not mildly submissive in heart and mind. On the other hand, humility is conducive to meekness, as it must be, since it is an ingredient of meekness. It is also very apparent from their definitions that they are not the same, for one is a proper self-estimate, i.e., in us lowliness of heart and

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mind, and the other is a mild submissiveness of heart and mind. Furthermore, their Scriptural uses show that they differ, e.g., when our Lord said, I am meek and lowly in heart, He certainly did not mean that He was humble and humble, or meek and meek (Matt. 11: 29). Again, when St. Paul exhorts us to "put on … humbleness of mind, meekness, etc.," he certainly means not one thing, but two different things. Eph. 4: 2 is another passage to the point. Accordingly, we do well to avoid confounding  humility and meekness.

But how can we say that God is meek—that meekness is one of His tertiary attributes of character? Certainly we can not say that God is meek toward His creatures; for none of these teach Him anything, nor can He be taught anything  by them. None of these lead Him, nor can He be led by any of them. Hence He does not exercise meekness toward any being in the universe. Can He, then, be meek at all? Yes, we answer. How, then, is it possible for Him to be meek, if He does not have or exercise it toward anyone? We reply, He is meek as to good principles; for. He is mildly submissive to His own law of truth, righteousness and love. It is a great mistake, yea, a blasphemy, to say that God is not subject to His own law of truth, righteousness and love, as those mistake who teach that He predestinated some angels and Adam and Eve and all their descendants to sin, and gave them such dispositions and placed them into such circumstances as forced them to sin. Had God done such a thing, He would have violated His own law, and by that very fact would have sinned against meekness—would have made Himself stubborn—the opposite of being meek. He would thus have denied Himself—a thing that the Scriptures say is (morally) impossible of Him (2 Tim. 2: 13). Hence we know that He did not predestinate anyone to sin.

That God is meek toward the principles of truth, righteousness and love, the following Scriptures abundantly

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prove: "God is not a man that He should lie … hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" (Num. 23:19). "All His ways are judgment; a God of truth … is He" (Deut. 32: 4). "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth" (Ps. 25: 10). "Thou hast redeemed me, Thou God of truth" (Ps. 31: 5). "All His works are done in truth" (Ps. 33: 4). "I have not hid Thy righteousness … and Thy truth" (Ps. 40: 10). "God shall send forth His mercy and His truth; for Thy mercy is great … and Thy truth" (Ps. 57: 3, 10). "O Lord, Thou art … plenteous in mercy and truth" (Ps. 86: 15). "Mercy and truth shall go before Thy face" (Ps. 89: 14). "His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations" (Ps. 100: 5). "Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name, [i.e., subordinated Thy character to Thy truth]" (Ps. 138: 2). "Who keepeth (obeyeth) truth forever" (Ps. 146: 6). "Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth" (Is. 25: 1). "I will direct their work in truth" (Is. 61: 8). "All whose works are truth" (Dan. 4: 37). "But He that sent Me is true" (John 8: 26). "Let God be true" (Rom. 3: 4). "O Lord, holy and true" (Rev. 6: 10). "Just and true are Thy ways" (Rev. 15: 3). These passages, one and all, show that God is subject to His law of truth and some of them show that He is subject to His law of justice and love.

We will now quote some showing that He is subject to His law of justice: "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18: 25). "Shall one man sin and shalt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?" (Num. 16: 22). "Just and right is He" (Deut. 32: 4). "Judge Thy servants, condemning the wicked … and justifying the righteous" (1 Kings 8: 32). "There is no iniquity with the Lord" (2 Chro. 19: 7). "Far be it from God that He should do wickedness and … iniquity. Surely God will not do wickedly … He will not lay upon man more than is right" (Job 34: 10, 12, 23).

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"The righteous Lord loveth righteousness" (Ps. 11: 7). "Thou shalt judge the people righteously" (Ps. 67: 4). "Justice and judgment [truth] are the habitation of Thy throne" (Ps. 89: 14). "The Lord is upright … There is no unrighteousness in Him" (Ps. 92: 15). "His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the nations" (Ps. 98: 2). "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Ps. 145: 17). "The Lord, our God, is righteous in all His works which He doeth" (Dan. 9: 14). "The just Lord … will not do iniquity" (Zeph. 3: 5). "Is God unrighteous? … God forbid; for how then shall God judge the world?" (Rom. 3: 5, 6). "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid" (Rom. 9: 14). "God is not unrighteous" (Heb. 6: 10). "He is faithful and just" (1 John 1: 9). "Thou art righteous, O Lord. righteous are Thy judgments" (Rev. 16: 5, 7). These passages prove that God is subject to His law of justice.

We will now quote some passages that prove that God is subject to His own law of love: "Thy lovingkindness is better than life" (Ps. 63: 3). "The Lord loveth the righteous" (Ps. 146: 8). "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of destruction" (Is. 38: 17). "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jer. 31: 3). "I have loved you, saith the Lord" (Mal. 1: 2). "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). "The Father loveth the Son (John 5: 20). "He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father … if a man love me … My Father will love Him" (John 14: 21, 23). "The Father Himself loveth you" (John 16: 27). "Thou hast loved them, even as Thou hast loved Me … that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them" (John 17: 23, 26). "Beloved of God, called to be saints" (Rom. 1: 7).

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"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom: 5: 8). "God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9: 7). "The God of love and peace shall be with you" (2 Cor. 13: 11). "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ" (Eph. 2: 4, 5). "God, even our Father, who hath loved us" (2 Thes. 2: 16). "The kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared" (Tit. 3: 4). "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth" (Heb. 12: 6). "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3: 1). "God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins … We have known and believed the love that God hath for us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him … We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4: 8-10, 16, 19). These verses show that God obeys His law of love.

Thus, according to these three sets of verses, God is subject to His own law of truth, justice and love. But a blending of truth, justice and love, produces a mild submissiveness of heart and mind, which is meekness, and, therefore, since these qualities blend in Him, they make Him meek—mildly submissive in heart and mind to His own law of truth, righteousness and love. This proves that God has the meekness of wisdom which He commends to us for our practice (Jas. 3: 13). But it proves that His meekness is not exercised toward any person, i.e., any of His creatures, since it is exercised only toward the law of His own being. This last remark should be given its due weight; for the law to which God is subject is not something external to

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Himself, but is the law of His own being. It is His own character. Hence it expresses itself in all His thoughts, motives, words and acts, which are but the outflow, the expression and the revelation of His character, especially in wisdom, justice and love.

God's meekness, as just described, naturally warrants His expecting and requiring meekness of us. He is not unreasonable and unjust to ask of us good qualities lacking in Himself. Meekness, being in us a part of the image of God, self-evidently is a part of His character—the law of His being—whose images we are. And laying this requirement upon us, by His exercising meekness toward truth, justice and love, He gives us an example, encouraging our imitation of Him. This example shines out repeatedly in His acts as they display themselves in His Word and plan. As the requirements of truth, justice and love call for expressions of meekness on His part toward these qualities in His dealing with the opponents of, and sinners against His plan, He has exercised it most markedly. This can be seen in the way that He has borne with the opposition of Satan, the wicked antediluvians, the peoples of the cities of the plains, Laban, Joseph's envious brethren, Pharaoh, the murmuring and rebellious Israelites in the wilderness, the heathen nations with whom they had more or less contact, the backslidings of Israel during the periods of the judges and kings, the weakness, self-will and apostasies of some of their kings, nobles and priests, their and others' persecutions of His prophets and His other worthies, their making His religion a formalism and His teachings a background of traditions and manmade ordinances and their rejection and persecution of His Son and His messengers in the Jewish Harvest, i.e., from 29 A.D. to 69 A.D.

His meekness toward the law of His own being can be seen in His Gospel-Age experiences with His opponents and with the weaknesses of His people. Satan's

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oppositions have during the Gospel Age been much more subtle than his previous ones; the persecution of God's people has during the Gospel Age been more severe than in former times. Error has been decidedly more rampant than formerly. Sin has increased and abounded the more as the Age has advanced. Blasphemies against God and His Christ have been multiplied increasingly during this time above former times. God's plan has been caricatured, misrepresented and distorted as never before. But none of these things have turned God against acting with meekness toward the law of His being. Throughout it all has He been mildly submissive in heart and mind to the law of truth, justice and love, as these are written in His character. So, too, have the weakness, the unprofitableness, the slowness to hear, heed and do, on the part of His people, and their lack of more fruitfulness, not availed to detract God from exercising the meekness that mildly submits in heart and mind to His law of truth, justice and love. Always, everywhere and amid all conditions and experiences, has God preserved His meekness, as He will so continue to do.

From God's meekness toward His own law of truth, justice and love, we can learn many lessons. The first is  that we exercise meekness to whomsoever and whatsoever we owe it. Always, everywhere and in all circumstances and experiences do we owe it to God and Christ. And the example of God's exercising it always, everywhere and in all circumstances and experiences, should arouse us to exercise it toward Them. Again, God's meekness toward the law of His being should arouse us to exercise it toward His law of truth, justice and love. Furthermore, His general example of mildly submitting in heart and mind to everything to which it is due that He so do, gives us the example of doing this, not only toward what He does it, but toward others to whom it is due to us so to do, even though it is not due for Him so to do to them. Here

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His example lies in the principles and not in the external things concerned. We owe it to be meek toward many beings to whom God does not owe it to be meek; for meekness is a quality that works especially toward superiors, to whom it is impossible for God to be meek, because He does not have them. Accordingly, we should exercise meekness toward our parents, rulers, teachers, employers and elders, compatibly, of course, with our higher duty toward God and Christ. As servants of the Truth, we make ourselves submissive to the principles of service toward many who in God's sight are our inferiors. Thus, we will be "in meekness instructing those that oppose." Even when mistreated, reviled, persecuted and slandered, we are to be so mildly submissive in heart and mind to the principles underlying the experiences as to exhibit "the meekness of Christ."

Another good lesson that we may learn from God's meekness, is to trust Him as reliable in His words, plans and acts, as being always in harmony with and subordinate to His law of truth, justice and love. As God never deviates from a mild submissiveness in heart and mind to these, we may depend upon His exemplifying these in all His dealings with us. If we are His in justification and sanctification, we may be certain that in all His dealings with us He is acting in harmony with His own law, and  ever will so do. Even when, for the time being, we are not able to trace Him, "faith can firmly trust Him, come what may," because it knows that truth, justice and love are the source, expressions and channels of all His promises, purposes and acts toward us. Hence we know that He will work and is working all things for our good in harmony with truth, justice and love. If meekness as above described were not a characteristic of God, we could not trust Him through thick and thin, in good days and in evil days, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, in pain and in pleasure and in

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living and in dying. Then we would be in doubt at any turn of circumstances and experiences as to whether He would not forsake us, change His attitude toward us, cast us off and have nothing more to do with us. We could not be sure that He would keep His promises, observe His oath, continue to execute His plan and perform works of providence, instruction, justification, sanctification and deliverance for us. God's meekness is a guarantee against all such evils and is a shield and buckler to us in our fight with its incidental dangers on behalf of His cause. Therefore God's meekness is His pledge to us of the fruition of all His good purposes on our behalf. Hence we are by it given strong consolation. We, therefore, rest in faith on account of His meekness. It incites us to imitation. It gives us hope for present overcoming and of future inheritance. In it we may well glory; and for it we may well praise God; for all His qualities call for praise of Him; and meekness, next to His higher primary graces, does this perhaps above all others of His graces of character.

In the preceding portion of this chapter we have treated on the tertiary attributes in general, and on God's meekness, as the first of these, in particular. We will now proceed to treat of God's second tertiary attribute—zeal. As a rule people do not associate zeal with God. In fact, to most people He seems to be without zeal. They rather think of Him as so self-contained and self-restrained as to allow of no place for zeal in His character. This is certainly a mistake, as we will see. That the Scriptures attribute zeal to God is evident from a number of passages. Speaking of the various works of Christ in both of His Advents, particularly in His Second Advent, God promises, in Is. 9: 7, to bring them to a complete success: "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." The same prophet (Is. 37: 32) in foretelling the discomfiture of Sennacherib and of the deliverance of

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God's elect Israel, said: "The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." Yea, and not only did the events fulfill the prophecy, but God made them a type of the greater discomfiture that He by His zeal would bring upon Satan as the antitype of Sennacherib and of the greater deliverance of His elect spiritual Israel shortly. The same prophet (Is. 63: 15), voicing the heart fears of God's fleshly and spiritual Israels at times when God seems to have forgotten to carry forward His plans and promises, cries out in language that implies that God has zeal, but seems to keep it in abeyance: "Where is Thy zeal and Thy strength … are they restrained?" Ezekiel (5: 13) likewise gives testimony to God's zeal in the words: "They shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have accomplished My fury in them." In the following citations the same original root in various forms is translated as jealous and jealousy: Ex. 20: 5; 34: 14; Deut. 4: 24; Ezek. 39: 25; Joel 2: 18; Nah. 1: 2; Zech. 1: 14; 8: 2; 1 Kings 14: 22; Is. 42: 13; Zeph. 1: 18; 3: 8. In every case the meaning is zealous or zeal. Accordingly, we see that zeal is an attribute of God's character, and is needed for its perfection.

Above we saw that, as a tertiary grace, "zeal results from a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of combativeness, aggressiveness and industriousness (lower primary graces) and, third, of bravery, self-denial and liberality (secondary graces), along the lines of ardent and active devotion to a cause." It will be seen that in the above statement on zeal we pointed out especially two things on the subject: its elements and its nature. This statement shows, first, the composition of zeal; and therefrom we note that all of the higher primary, some of the lower primary and some of the secondary graces are compounded as its elements. We might have mentioned some other lower primary graces as sometimes

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entering into the make-up of zeal, like patriotism, friendship, domesticity and family love, which were not mentioned because they are frequently absent from zeal expressions. But not only did our statement on zeal previously given set forth its elements, but also its nature, and that in the words: "along the line of ardent and active devotion to a cause." There can be no zeal disassociated from a cause, nor can there be zeal without devotion, and that devotion must be both internal (ardent) and external (active). Thus all of the ideas in the expression, "ardent and active devotion to a cause," are implied in the nature of zeal. They make it what it is; for it is what it is because of its constituent elements.

God's zeal is, therefore, His ardent and active devotion to a cause. In Him it springs from, and is constituted of, the higher and lower primary and secondary graces mentioned above. But this must be kept in mind, that when we speak of piety and brotherly love in connection with zeal,  we refer to them as they are in God's creatures. To accommodate to God our statement of these two higher primary graces as being elements of zeal in God, we must modify their pertinency by understanding piety in God as applicable to His duty-love to the principles of truth, righteousness and love, and brotherly love in God as applicable to His duty-love to His creatures. With this modifying explanation kept in mind, our statement of zeal above given is applicable to God as well as to His spiritual and human creatures. God's zeal, therefore, means His ardent and active devotion to a cause, springing out of, and consisting of a combination of the higher primary graces, faith, hope, self-control, patience, duty-love toward good principles, duty-love toward His creatures and charity; of the lower primary graces of combativeness, aggressiveness and industriousness; and of the secondary graces of bravery, self-denial and liberality (generosity).

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The cause for which God's zeal, as an ardent and active devotion, exercises itself is, generally speaking, the creation, preservation and well being of the universe and its creatures, and is, specifically speaking, The Divine Plan of the Ages. Therefore the universe, its creatures and the Divine Plan are the sphere in which God's zeal works. This statement of the matter implies the immensity of God's zeal; for it concerns all His works and creatures. Therefore He is zealous as the Creator, Preserver and Benefactor of the universe and its creatures, and of His Plan with respect to His spiritual and human creatures. In the Ages to come, as He initiates one plan after another for the creation, preservation and development of other free moral agents, His zeal will exercise itself in the execution of each one of them unto a completion. Hence God's zeal is an eternally active quality. Hence its sphere of activity is as wide as the universe and as lasting as eternity! And this implies a never-ending and all-embracing activity. Certainly it must be a very strong quality to be never-ending and all- embracing in its sphere of activity. And before Him, as the Exemplar of such a stupendous quality, it is fitting that we bow down in praise, worship and adoration. All glory, praise and honor be to our God as the Exemplar of such an all-embracing and never-ending quality! It surely honors Him.

And be it observed that His zeal is one of wisdom, power, justice and love. Many are selfish and worldly in their zeal; some are sinful and erroneous in their zeal; and the majority of those who have zeal do not have it according to knowledge. But God's zeal, by virtue of His character and the sphere of its activity, is in harmony with His wisdom, power, justice and love. Never does it act independently of these; never does it act contrary to these; but it always flows out of these as its principal source and expresses itself along the lines of these as its principal ingredients. If

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God's zeal acted independently of these or contrary to these, it would be a fault, not a grace; and He would consequently be sinful and not holy. Accordingly, we see that this quality in God must, like all lower primary, secondary and other tertiary graces, act in subjection to God's higher primary graces. The same principle applies to the activity of this grace in all of God's creatures. An unbalanced character and unbalanced conduct, as is often exemplified in zealots, bigots and fanatics, results from the failure to subject zeal to the control of the higher primary graces as its dominating ingredients. And the perfect balance that exists in God's character and conduct subjects zeal to the control of His character's chief ingredients— perfect wisdom, justice, love and power, all perfectly balanced with one another. Such a subjection of zeal to these qualities guarantees that God's zeal is always pure, holy and good, and acts accordingly.

And these qualities are also the main incentives to the exercise of zeal in God. God has no base motives for His active and ardent devotion to the causes that He espouses. All men may have, some men do have, and the devil  always does have such incentives for their acts; but not so Jehovah. Purer than the light, holier than the best of His creatures, as loving as supreme love, as just as supreme justice, as wise as omniscience and as strong as omnipotent will, is God's zeal. If His zeal were not so, if it were like Satan's or fallen man's, we could not safely nor wisely attach our zeal to a cause championed by Him. We would forever be haunted by the fear that He was enlisting our zeal in a failing and injurious cause—catastrophic to itself and injurious to others and to ourselves. But with a zeal that is subject to His higher primary graces, and that flows out of them as its incentives, God engages only in wise, just, loving and powerful causes; and when He invites us to enlist zealously in the outworking of His plan, He honors  us with an

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invitation to participate in the execution of a holy, just and good cause. What cause could be holier, more just and better than the cause of the Divine Plan of the Ages? What cause calls for holier motives, better thoughts, more truthful word and nobler acts? Verily, none! And this is because of the character of Him who made and is executing it. Hence our faith in Him is justified in following Him in zeal, even when unable to trace Him; for "faith can firmly trust Him, come what may." Therefore we rejoice that the Divine Plan of the Ages was produced by Divine wisdom, power, justice and love, is supported by these and will completely, in its every feature, be enacted by these; for "the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish it" in due time in each of its parts.

And yet to the natural man God seems to be without zeal in His conflict with Satan, sin and the curse; for the race looks back on over six thousand years of human history in which these have seemingly triumphed. It sees to this day sin on the increase and righteousness oppressed and baffled. It sees Truth crushed to the earth and fighting for a foothold with its back to the wall, and error raising its head in boasting triumph. It sees the curse multiplying its sorrows, suffering and deaths, and their stunting and injurious effects. "Where," it cries out, "is there evidence that God is working zealously against the oppressions of Satan, the corruptions of sin, the delusions of error, the exactions of selfishness and the degradation of worldliness? Where?" Ah, to him who sees not the Divine Plan all this seems but contradictory to God's zeal as enlisted in the cause of man's deliverance. "What man," the race cries out, "would allow sin, error, selfishness and worldliness, as manipulated by Satan, to triumph for more than six thousand years and would not overthrow them, had he the power, wisdom, justice and love to do so? Surely his professions without fulfillment would by now be regarded as

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hypocritical and his promises without performance would by now be regarded as deceitful." To such we answer, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God" (Matt. 22: 29). Shortsighted man sees not the depth of the Divine Plan, which in its present operating features is accomplishing God's good pleasure, as its future operating features will do the same (Is. 55: 10, 11). Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan His work in vain. Hence all this seems to be an unsolvable enigma to those who have not faith.

But wherein the world is blind and sees not God's zeal outworking those features of His Plan that have been due for execution, those who have the necessary faith, hope, love and obedience see the complete success of those parts of the Plan so far due to be fulfilled. They see His zeal to execute His Plan in sentencing sinful man to death, to be undergone amid an experience of evil, well knowing that an experience with it in the present life, followed by one with righteousness (in the Millennium), will more effectively than any other method teach the race to hate and  forsake the former and love and practice the latter, and thus exemplify forever the reign of moral law, to secure which  is God's purpose in connection with these contrasted experiences for the unbelief class. Hence he can see God's holy zeal in the over six thousand years of sin's seeming triumph; for God will in due time cause the wrath of man, sin and the curse, to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain (Ps. 76: 10). Again, he sees God's zeal in permitting evil to afflict the righteous; for he sees that through no other schooling could the righteous by their faith in God be better developed in character for their high future office than in the school of affliction, whereby they develop graces, and that to a degree of strength otherwise unattainable, so indispensable to their fitness for their future exalted office. He sees the zeal of God active throughout these six thousand

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years in selecting and training His agents for the work of delivering the unbelief class when their experience with evil will have been completed, and when they thereby will have been prepared for a proper reception of the experience of righteousness to be administered under the superintendence of those elect helpers who will, by their faithfulness in their experience with evil, have been qualified to deliver the others. He sees that in these six thousand years God has been zealously proceeding with the work of preparing four elect classes—the Little Flock, the Ancient Worthies, the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies—as the deliverers of the non-elect classes. He sees God's zeal, unchilled by six thousand years of effort amid utmost and subtle opposition, persevering, amid much weakness in these elect classes, in the work of selecting and developing them. He sees the work, so long and zealously persevered in, now approaching its completeness. He, therefore, does not at all doubt the activity of God's zeal in these over six thousand years. And in it all He sees that that zeal is all of what we described it to be and more than we could describe it to be; for it baffles adequate description.

Having seen so many features of God's Plan successfully carried out by God's zeal, he has the full assurance of faith that the unfulfilled parts as due will be zealously carried out by God. The prophetic Word assures him that the zeal of the Lord will shortly overthrow Satan's Empire, in its governments, religions, aristocracies and bourgeoisies, in the time of wrath, which had its start in the World War. He confidently looks for the zeal of God to establish God's kingdom at the hands of His Elect under Christ, on the ruins of Satan's Empire, to offer the Kingdom blessings, first to the living Jews, then to the living Gentiles, then to the non-elect dead from our times even to Adam's time, by canceling the death sentence, awakening them from the dead, giving them an accurate

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knowledge of the Truth, putting them under conditions inconducive to error and sin, and conducive to Truth and righteousness, favorably influencing them Christward and bringing all of them to the door of consecration, inviting them helpfully to the highway of holiness and offering the Holy Spirit to all, teaching them by experience the desirability of righteousness as against the undesirability of sin, lifting up the obedient to human perfection and giving the faithful everlasting life on this earth, turned into paradise. This work will require the full Millennium to complete and will be an impressive exhibition of Jehovah's zeal. And in the Ages to follow the Millennium, God's zeal, in the plans that He has for new creations in the worlds about us, will find an eternal sphere of activity and will be equal to any demand put upon it; "for the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."

Moderation is the next tertiary attribute of God's character that will engage our study. Like the other tertiary graces, it is a compound quality. Previously we pointed out this fact when we stated that moderation results from a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of tactfulness, restfulness, thoughtfulness and friendliness (lower primary graces) and, third, of humility, longsuffering and forbearance (secondary graces),  along the line of balance of mind and heart. According to the above, moderation masses certain primary and secondary graces to the activity of securing and exercising a balance of thoughts, feelings, words and acts. It may be defined as the quality that avoids extremes of thought, feeling, word and act and strikes a happy mean of disposition and its expressions. No extremist is moderate. The moderate person avoids extremes. He pursues a middle course that balances him amid the various and conflicting relations of life. He takes an all-sided view of principles, circumstances, persons,

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conditions, positions; demands, needs, etc., related to the matter at hand, and blends in his thoughts, motives, words and acts the above-mentioned qualities so as to secure balance in his mental states, words and acts relative  to those principles, circumstances, persons, conditions, positions, demands, needs, etc. Thus he moderates, governs, himself so as to maintain a proper relation toward and amid them. And the quality by which he does this is moderation. This quality finds its supreme exemplification in God, whose moderation is manifest in all His thoughts, motives, words and acts, as the Bible shows.

The quality can be better understood, if its opposite is considered. We speak of a person as an extremist. What do we mean by that? We thereby understand a person to be meant who is radical in his thoughts, motives, words and acts, one who is unbalanced in his thoughts, motives, words and acts, one who overemphasizes or under-emphasizes principles, circumstances, persons, conditions, positions, demands, needs, etc., one who considers matters very one­ sidedly and very narrowly and feels, speaks and acts accordingly. To him things are either the best or the worst; people are either paragons of virtue or personifications of vice; times are either the hardest or the easiest; pains are the worst ever or pleasures are the keenest ever; and their acquaintances are either the best of friends or the worst of enemies. Such jump from one extreme to the other and are never happy unless they are at one or the other extreme of the matter at hand. To them those who are otherwise minded seem cranky, zealless, conscienceless. Of course, such are really the cranks, however zealous and conscientious they may be. They usually make a mess of their social relations; for their extremes make them almost constantly fly off on some tangent and hurt those with whom they have to deal; and all the time they wonder at, and speak of others as peculiar and hard to get along with!

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Exaggeration and belittling are their middle names; and their course frequently is a great trial to their fellows. No such, or other extremes meet in God, whose perfect rulership of Himself, through His wisdom, power, justice and love, guarantee His moderation in thought, motive, word and act.

Of course, there is a Divine necessity for moderation in God. The ruler of others, He must of course rule Himself. Moderation is needed to impart to Him that roundness, allsidedness and balance of character for which His absolute perfection calls. If He were immoderate, this would not only introduce imperfection into His own thought, motives and qualities, but also into His Word and acts. A devout consideration and understanding of His Word shows that it is well rounded out, all-sided and balanced in itself and in its purposes and in its adaptability to its purposes. And this is so because of His moderation. If God were immoderate, His creation would express this fault; His providence would be replete with it; His redemption of us would manifest it; His instruction of us would be one-sided; His justification of us would be imperfect; His sanctification of us would be blemished; and His delivering of us would need amendment. Every detail of His creative works shows moderation; and the same remark applies to His providential, redemptive, instructional, justifying, sanctifying and delivering works. Thus His moderation is a necessary part of the perfection of the Divine character. And this quality is needed for the best interests of His creatures. If God were not moderate,  neither the good nor the bad angels would be so favorably dealt with as they have been; nor would His future dealing with the fallen angels be so fruitful as we believe it will be. How greatly to the advantage of the fallen race now and especially in the Millennium is God's moderation! The same remark applies with special emphasis with reference to the Ancient

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and the Youthful Worthies. Certainly His dealings with Satan and the second death class show very great moderation. The Great Company has and will have reason to extol God's moderation toward them. And the Little Flock will recognize in the highest measure the operation of this quality of God toward them. Thus moderation in God is a quality required by His perfection and by the needs of His creatures in all, their classes and planes of being.

The scope of God's moderation is universal. Hence it expresses itself in all His thoughts, motives, words and acts. If any of His thoughts, motives, words or acts could be shown to lack it, He would be proven imperfect. The fact that all of these are replete with this quality proves that He is the perfect Jehovah, whom we rightly adore for His perfection. We search nature in vain to find one expression of immoderation in God. We analyze grace in vain to find one intimation of immoderation in God. Everything, everywhere and all the time, manifests the presence of this quality in Him. Every feature of His plan and every act of His in connection with that plan unite in ascribing moderation to our God. A brief review of some of His chief pertinent Scripturally-described works connected with the outworking of that plan will show this to be true of this glorious attribute to God.

God's moderation is plainly manifest in the creation of the race perfect in Adam and Eve. Every faculty of theirs, every power and privilege of theirs ascribe honor to God's moderation. How well arranged were their capacities, surroundings and incidences connected with their trial for life! How moderate was death as the sentence on their disobedience, as compared with the immoderate alleged penalty of eternal torment! Moderation marks the infliction of the death penalty through a gradual experience with evil. Especially does this become manifest when we consider the purpose of its permission—to teach by experience the

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unprofitableness and detestableness of evil, as a lesson instrumental for reformation; and also when we consider the transitoriness of its permission and its being followed by an experience with righteousness, calculated to teach the profitableness and loveableness of good, both experiences conjointly being designed by God to win for everlasting life more than could have been saved by any other method conformably with the blending of wisdom, power, justice and love. His moderation is manifest in His letting the antediluvians have such favorable environment, until evil had so increased that the watery canopy that in part made these favorable conditions had to be removed from about the earth, and thus bring about the flood; for when wickedness had increased so much as to make it necessary to reduce the race to but one family, God's moderation showed itself in choosing the easiest method of death for the race—drowning. And when it became necessary to furnish a type of the eternal destruction of the second death class (Jude 7), God's moderation limited the typical destruction to a small district, Sodom, etc., and to a few people whose wickedness well merited their exemplary punishment. Mark the moderation of the Lord in dealing with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the latter's evil brethren. Certainly God showed great moderation in dealing with Pharaoh and the Egyptians in connection with their oppression and His deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and His later dealings with them.

This moderation shows itself in the ten plagues, the first being mild and the following nine arising by small degrees in severity as the willfulness of Pharaoh and the Egyptians arose in intensity, God at no time afflicting them with too great severity, but moderating each chastisement compatibly with the idea of efficiency in its use. Thus God spread over ten plagues an amount of severity that was more lenient than the average imperfect earthly ruler would condense into

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one chastisement under the circumstances. And God's final punishment of the Egyptians at the Red Sea was as mild as compatibility with His deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh's murderous purpose would permit. God's moderation with Israel in the wilderness is manifest in many ways. He Himself charges them with the guilt of ten national rebellions against Him before He turned them back to wander in the wilderness until that generation of sinners died (Num. 14: 22). To endure ten rebellions was a great expression of moderation. To seek to reform the people so that they would be fit to enter the land after each one of the first nine, was certainly another expression of moderation; and then, after the tenth, not to proceed with harsher methods than simply to delay their entrance into the land until the willful sinners among them were dead was a still greater exhibition of moderation; and then to permit those rebels for the most part to die off by natural deaths was a still higher expression of moderation. To have borne with them during the untoward experiences of the remaining 38 years in the wilderness, reasoning with them, encouraging them, correcting them, delivering them, always distinguishing in His dealings between the weak and the ignorant on the one hand, and the willful on the other hand, and then between the measurably willful and the totally willful, and measuring out rewards and punishments accordingly, shows how very moderate God was to all of them. This is reassuring to us.

God's dealings with Israel during the period of the judges is likewise an exhibition of His moderation. He sanctioned no extreme measures for Israel's dealings with their enemies. His dispossessing the latter from the land was only after centuries of aggravated wickedness on their part coming to the full; and their being so depraved physically, morally and religiously as to make them a curse to themselves and an exceptional menace to others was ample reason for their

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suppression, which was accomplished as mildly as  possible. Moderate, indeed, were His methods in dealing with frequently backsliding Israel during this period. Their ever recurring apostacies during this time were dealt with by the Lord by no severer measures than were required to bring them to repentance and to a whole-hearted seeking after the Lord. And the chastisements that He meted out on their oppressors were limited by the amount of stress necessary to inflict on them for Israel's deliverance from their oppressions. This is seen in God's dealings with Israel and Israel's oppressors, through Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson and Samuel. In the times of the kings the same moderation on God's part is everywhere and always evident. Mark His moderation with Saul, both while he was good and when he became evil. Certainly the career of David in its lights and shadows, in its ups and downs and in its reverses and victories, manifests God's remarkable moderation holding Him back from extremes and moving Him on in the golden mean. The same quality marks His dealing with the subsequent kings of Israel.

His dealings with the prophets show the same characteristic. No extreme measures did He take with  Elijah nor with His opponents. He exerted only such influence or pressure as the circumstances, position and characters of the pertinent ones required, as can be seen in the pertinent account of Elijah, Ahab, Jezebel, Obadiah and Elisha. Elisha's prophetic course shows the same quality in God as to His relations to Elisha as the latter was connected with Elijah, Jehoram, Ben-hadad, Hazael, Jehu, Gehazi, the Shunammite, Naaman and Joash. How moderate were God's dealings with Jeremiah in his dealings with the wicked kings, priests, prophets and people, toward whom he acted as God's prophet. No extremes of thoughts, words or acts mark God's pertinent dealings. Always and everywhere He shows Himself as taking a moderate

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course, even in managing the crisis of the exiling of His people from the land. He went only so far as effectiveness in the purpose at hand required. God's dealings with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and toward their friends and enemies are replete with evidences of God's moderation in encouraging, restraining, correcting, rewarding and using these. The same spirit characterizes His dealings with Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah and their friends and enemies. Certainly God's Old Testament acts are a remarkable evidence of His moderation.

And no less so are His Gospel-Age acts. No exaggerations, no belittlings, no extremes are found therein. Everywhere and always does He show Himself as exercising moderation. His dealings with His Son in His carnation, early life, consecration, ministry, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification, are marked by an absence of exaggeration, belittlings and extremes. He pursued a balanced relation to Him in all these experiences, and to His opponents and friends. And this balanced state of heart and mind did not make Him indifferent to what time and occasion required of Him; but it did make Him moderate toward all concerned, even including unbelieving Israel and its wicked hierarchy. Moderate were  His dealings with the Apostles and the early Church, as is manifest in His shielding them from too great evils and in His permitting untoward experiences only as they were ready for them, in His concealing from them too strong light and too exacting activities, and in His revealing to them the light as due and the work as practicable. Surely, as He did not suffer them to be tempted beyond their ability, neither did He allow any experience to become theirs beyond their ability. Moderation, therefore, has marked His thoughts, words and works toward them. And this same spirit was present in His activities toward His people all through the Age; and it will likewise be manifest in His activities toward the

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Millennial world and in His Little Season and postmillennial dealings with all His creatures. All the descriptions found of these periods inculcate this thought; and this quality will eternally express itself in God's thoughts, motives, qualities, words and works, to His praise.

And great has been the fruitage of God's exercising this quality. It vindicates Him in His character, words and works before all His creatures. It has made mankind under the experience of evil fit candidates for, and, generally speaking, responsive recipients of the Millennial opportunities, as it will also inure to the perfection of the obedient and everlasting life for the faithful of those times. It has resulted in the winning and preparing of the Ancient Worthies for their Millennial office, as it will later result in their fitness for everlasting spiritual existence. During the Gospel Age it has helped to win many millions to faith justification and perhaps several millions to consecration. It has co-operated with others of God's qualities in winning the entire Little Flock and ere long it will inure to bringing them to glory. It has likewise helped with others of God's graces in winning the Great Company, and presently it will inure to their perfecting for the spiritual plane. It has operated in every stage of the development of these for their respective places and it will continue so to operate until they are perfected. Therefore it has in its effectiveness been exceedingly fruitful to all classes of the saved.

In this quality God is an example worthy of our imitation. Unlike God, we are more or less unbalanced in our characters, and more or less extreme in our thoughts, motives, words and acts. We often find it quite natural to jump from one extreme to another, and find it quite hard to draw back from these extremes and walk in the happy mean. Therefore we lack more or less the moderation so sublimely present in God's character, thought, motives, words and acts.

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We, therefore, need just what He has in this respect; and He will gladly help us develop this goodly quality. A devout contemplation of His moderation, with a strong determination to imitate it, will prove one of the best methods of our developing this desirable quality. We may well rejoice that this example is so perfect, and that it calls so winsomely upon us to imitate it. We may also be sure that He will be pleased to help us in our every endeavor to develop it in imitation of His own moderation. Therefore let us think much and often of God's moderation as it is set forth in nature and in grace, especially as it is set forth in the Scriptures, and thereby will we be given strength to become like God in this respect. And to this glorious consummation may the Lord graciously help us.

The next tertiary attribute of God's character that we will here consider is magnanimity or, to use its Biblical name, goodness. This word is compounded from two Latin words: magnus, meaning great, and animus, meaning soul. It has retained this compound meaning—great-souledness—in the two significances given the word in English. Formerly this word in English referred to courage—a great-souled thing. Such courage centuries ago found its main exemplification in the nobility; and this occasioned the word to be used generally with reference to the nobility. Then, later, by reason of the fact that the nobility usually were characterized by a large-heartedness that ignored petty things, the word magnanimity took on its second meaning, in which it is now almost exclusively employed—large­ mindedness and large—heartedness. It thus by association took on a meaning kindred to nobleness because of the relation of its use with the nobility.

In the beginning of this chapter we gave the following description of the quality meant by magnanimity, goodness: Magnanimity results from a combination, first, of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly

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love and charity (higher primary graces), second, of agreeableness, peaceableness and friendliness (lower primary graces), and third, of generosity, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness and leniency (secondary graces) in estimation of, sentiment toward, and dealing with persons and things. It is thus seen to refer to breadth of mind and heart in estimating, feeling toward and dealing with persons and things. It does not hold these to too strict an account. It makes many allowances for weaknesses, faults, lacks, ignorance and small attainment in knowledge, character and work. It is the quality that shuts one eye, and part of the other, if necessary, to imperfection and that construes things for the best. It gives others the credit of having the best of intentions, gives them the benefit of every doubt, and construes unjustifiable things and blemishes as due to lack of knowledge and unavoidable weakness, rather than to deliberate willfulness, as well as blesses them with kindness and beneficence. It therefore gives others many chances for betterment, all the time hoping for the best results from their endeavors, and rendering them needed help, all given with a full, noble, generous, cheerful spirit.

A glance at its opposite will help us better to understand it. Narrow-mindedness and narrow-heartedness are its opposite, or, as we might put it, little-souledness. This is the spirit that offered the unique prayer, "God bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife—us four and no more." It is the quality that thinks its sect or sectlet alone has the truth and contains all the saints, that sees nothing admirable in any other sect or in sectless religion, that feels that one's own nation is the only worthwhile one, that one's own family embraces all the worthwhile members of the race, and is sure that one's own political party monopolizes the essence of political wisdom and the only honest and able party members. It is, in brief, the self-centered and others- depreciating complex. It makes no allowance of time,

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place, condition or attainment. It recognizes almost no weakness as forgivable, almost no blemish as excusable and almost no lack as ignorable. It holds one to the mark without pity and turns a deaf ear and an implacable heart to failure. It is the stickler for trifles and forms, and the rule­ insister without exceptions. It exacts the last farthing and will tithe the smallest seed belonging to the poor, without reduction or exception, and always ends in straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. It will insist on punctiliousness, despite great injury to others, and will put the rules and traditions of man above the laws and thoughts of God in their practices.

The scope of magnanimity's operation is the field of one's own privileges and of things permissible as respects others, not that of duty. That its scope is not the field of one's duty toward self or others is manifest from the fact that one dare not exercise it against the calls of duty; for that would be sin. In matters of duty, one must indeed be so narrow-minded and narrow-hearted as not to deviate from it in thought, motive, word or act; for to be magnanimous in that field will make one trample underfoot right and truth, violate conscience and play fast and loose with God's Truth and commands. Hence its field of operation cannot be that of duty and truth. But in matters of one's privileges, in matters of things that are not of moral obligation, i.e., things morally indifferent, in things wherein we may do or leave undone, we find its theatre of action. If one's own rights are infringed upon by others ignorance, lacks, faults, weaknesses and blemishes, he with propriety, so long as avoidable injury is not thereby done to the trespasser, or unbearable injury is thereby done to himself, may well in magnanimity ignore the infringement, making all sorts of excuses for the trespasser. Thus we may be magnanimous at interruptions, discourtesies, insulting insinuations, unfair accusations, rebuffs, mistakes, personal

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peculiarities and habits, differences of opinions and tastes, contradictions, inconveniences, etc., ignoring them as non­ existent, or overlooking, without rankling and with sincerity of heart, whatever of disagreeableness they might naturally arouse in one's thoughts and feelings. At such acts we naturally are inclined to take a narrow-minded and narrow-hearted view of the trespasser; and if this inclination is acceded to, we lose our magnanimity; but if we are broad-gauged and generous amid such experiences, magnanimity exercises itself in its proper sphere of action in blessing to all.

It should be remarked that neither the word magnanimity nor the word magnanimous occurs in the Bible, its equivalent being goodness (Gal. 5: 22). But the idea underlying these words is of frequent occurrence there, and that with respect to God, Christ and others. Especially is God therein shown to have this quality in very large measure. The large scope of freedom that He allows Satan, the demons and fallen men, attests this fact. Giving freedom of will to His free moral agents and allowing them to exercise it is another proof of His having this quality. His giving liberally to the just and unjust without upbraiding likewise attests its existence in Him. The numberless occasions on which He has "winked" at human ignorance and weakness also show it. And the exceptional privileges and liberties that He allows the good crown this quality in Him. How far from Him is a fault-finding and censorious spirit! How lacking is He of the spirit of him who is a stickler for trifles and mere forms, an exacter of non­ essentials, and an insister on needless and unfruitful rules. Pettishness and inconsequentialities find no place in His thoughts, motives, words and acts. His practicable nature makes Him overlook and ignore the morally non-essential, the trivial, the inconsequential, the negligible. And even where justice requires strictness in Him toward the sinner, He has

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through the merit of Christ as a satisfaction of justice made it actual to excuse the wrongdoer and to remember that he is but dust, thus in love making all sorts of allowances for him before the bar of strict justice. How magnanimous He has been in the presence of dense ignorance and denser conceit, lacks, faults and weaknesses! How noble He has been in remaining unruffled, apparently oblivious and surely generous amid interruptions, discourtesies, insulting insinuations, unfair accusations, rebuffs, mistakes, personal peculiarities and habits, differences of opinions and tastes, contradictions, etc.! And how often He has, figuratively speaking, turned the other cheek to wrongdoers and then turned and blessed them as though they had never done Him a wrong! Certainly God is the highest exemplification of magnanimity!

Examples of His magnanimity meet us on all hands in Biblical and in extra-Biblical experiences. He was magnanimous toward His unfallen creatures, angelic and human. But His magnanimity shines out most in His dealings with sinners, angelic and human. Certainly in His allowing Satan and the fallen angels the degree of liberty that they have is magnanimous on His part. This becomes apparent when we consider their evil course of opposition to Him and their bad effects upon themselves and mankind. All the more does this appear so when we learn His benevolent design therein toward both fallen angels and mankind. Certainly, while sentencing man for sin, to give him the ray of hope in prophecy of ultimate victory and deliverance shows God's magnanimity. His protecting wicked Cain from unbearable punishment shows it also. His course toward the world through Noah before the flood proves it. His continual lowering of the required number of righteous souls in Sodom, etc., as conditional to saving all at Abraham's request exemplifies it. His generosity to Laban and Esau as respects Jacob evidences it. And His indulgence

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toward Joseph's brothers through Joseph demonstrates it. How His magnanimity shines out in His repeated relieving of hardened and hardening Pharaoh from the plagues, despite His knowledge of the latter's wicked and treacherous heart. How magnanimous He was to Israel in their deliverance from Egypt, in their tenfold special and national bantering of God during their first year and a half in the wilderness, in His care and provision for them throughout the wilderness period, in His giving them Canaan as their inheritance, in their frequent apostacies from Him during the period of the judges and in their worse conduct toward Him during the period of the kings! Magnanimity marked His course toward Israel during their Babylonian exile, in their return to the land and in their protection and deliverances after their return to the land, even to the time of Christ.

The acme of God's magnanimity or goodness shows itself in His dealings with His saints, including the Chief of these, Jesus. To offer the latter, while He was in His prehuman nature, the privilege of becoming the Executor of God's plan and His Vicegerent throughout the universe, with the Divine nature as His ultimate mode of existence, shows a hitherto unparalleled magnanimity on God's part. To have given up His Son to the associated sufferings was indeed magnanimous. For Him to have endured the sight of His Son's great sufferings and injuries was a further demonstration of it. Probably the greatest expression of God's magnanimity was His offer to some of the fallen members of Adam's race—children of wrath, the curse, even as others—the privilege of becoming partakers in the Divine nature and in Christ's vicegerental office. If we reflect but a little on who and what they were, especially on who and what the bulk of them were, this becomes manifest even to the most obtuse. And what shall we say of the magnanimity that has throughout this Age been marking God's

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various dealings with these whom He, as it were, found on the dunghill and exalts to His own family, nature and throne? Only in a less degree does the same glorious quality shine out in His dealings with the lower elect classes of mankind—the Ancient Worthies, the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies.

This same blessed quality shows itself toward the human enemies of His Old and New Testament elect. He was magnanimous in His blotting out the antediluvian world, the inhabitants of the cities of the plain and the nations of Canaan. How so? They had become so corrupt, all of them morally, and most of them physically, that it was a mercy  to them to be put into the sleep of death until the Millennial Age would bring them the needed help out of their corruption. It was likewise a mercy to others that they should be so dealt with in order to preserve the former from the contamination of such corruption. And in dealing so with them God manifested His magnanimity, even though the unenlightened world of sinners does not understand it so. This same remark applies to God's judgments upon Israel's enemies during the period of the judges, kings, exile and return after the exile. With greater pertinency does it apply to God's Gospel-Age dealings with hardened Israel. And with the greatest pertinency does this apply to God's dealing with apostate Christendom throughout the Age and in the end of the Age when a full end will be made of it in the great tribulation. And, looking forward to those who will, after 100 years' or 1,000 years' trial, be remanded to the second death, the fact that such will be spared the evil of living eternally in sorrow and evil and the fact that the righteous will be spared the suffering of eternal contact with such, certainly show in a clear light God's magnanimity or goodness in blotting the incorrigible out of existence, after they demonstrate unfitness for life.

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Then, too, the amazing riches of His goodness and generosity shown to the world of mankind in providing all the opportunities of gaining Restitution with its ministering blessings, throw a bright light on His magnanimity. When we consider the physical, mental, moral and religious corruption and degradation of the world, especially that of a very large part of them, and when we consider the oppositional course toward God that many of them exhibited in this life, we are astounded at so magnanimous a spirit as will permeate God's dealings with the world in the Millennium, all of whose arrangements on behalf of man's rescue, blessing and uplift will be on the most generous scale and in lavish abundance. And our minds stand simply dumbfounded at the magnanimity of the perfect and blissful conditions which God will provide for, and with which He will surround those of the world who will be faithful to truth and righteousness under the trials of the Millennium and its following Little Season. No wonder that all in heaven and earth will for such magnanimity join the hallelujah chorus of the universe in ascribing "blessing and honor and glory and power unto Him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb forever and forever!"—Rev. 5: 13.

Certainly, to us, there are valuable lessons to be derived from a consideration of God's magnanimity. Its first lesson surely is gratitude; for we are the beneficiaries of its exercise. Its second lesson is appreciation; for it deserves and calls forth our appreciation. Its third lesson is imitation; for it incites us to, and is worthy of our imitation; and its fourth lesson is commendation; for as its observers and recipients we would worthily respond to it by commending it to the consideration of others that they, too, with us, might learn and practice these four lessons.

There yet remain three of His tertiary attributes of character that have not been discussed: gentleness, joy and faithfulness. As in the case of God's attributes of

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being and of His lower primary and secondary attributes of character we discussed only the more important, so will we do with His tertiary attributes of character. Considering God's joy and gentleness less important than the other five, we will omit a formal discussion of these and will conclude in this chapter on God's tertiary attributes of character with a discussion of His faithfulness, which is to us perhaps the most important of all His qualities. As the Lord blessed us in the preparation of this discussion on the Divine attributes, so we trust that He has blessed our readers also in the study of them.

In the beginning of this chapter we described the origin of faithfulness as follows: Faithfulness results from the activity of any single grace, or of a combination of any two or more or all of the graces, along the lines of loyalty to principles, persons or things. Faithfulness has, therefore, to do with principles, persons and things. So do other qualities. But that which distinguishes it from other qualities in its relation to principles, persons or things is loyalty. It exercises fidelity toward these, and such fidelity is exercised perseveringly, despite all untoward things, conditions and experiences in contact with which it comes. If there should be a break down amid such untoward things, conditions and experiences, there would be a lapse of faithfulness. If one does not maintain this quality perseveringly, faithfulness could not be truly ascribed to him. Hence only those who prove loyal to the end are faithful (Rev. 2: 10). The principles toward which faithfulness exercises itself in loyalty are those of truth and righteousness. The things toward which it exercises itself in loyalty are one's privileges, duties, engagements and promises. And the persons toward whom it exercises itself in loyalty are those to whom truth and righteousness bind one or to whom one has bound himself by an agreement or promise. From these remarks on, and descriptions of faithfulness we

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may gather the following as our definition of it: It is the quality of character whereby one, despite all difficulties, perseveringly exercises loyalty to truth and righteousness and to the persons to whom and the things to which he has obligated himself. God's faithfulness, therefore, means His characteristic whereby, despite all obstacles, He perseveringly exercises loyalty to truth and righteousness, to His covenants and promises and to the persons to whom He makes these.

The idea of faithfulness can better be grasped by a consideration of its opposite, unfaithfulness, which is disloyalty to truth and righteousness and to the persons and things to which one has obligated himself, regardless of whether such disloyalty is exercised amid or apart from difficulties. The professed Christian who, to shield himself from earthly evil or to advantage himself with earthly good, compromises, forsakes or betrays truth or righteousness, his engagements, his promises and those to whom he is obligated, is unfaithful as a Christian. The citizen who, to shield or advantage himself, fails to support and defend his country, violates its laws, conspires against its peace and prosperity, rebels against its existence or betrays it to its enemies, is unfaithful as a citizen. The husband or wife who fails to be a real spouse, who violates his or her marriage vows and who forsakes the spouse on any pretext, is unfaithful as a husband or wife. The official who does not fulfill the duties of his office, and who, from cowardice or for gain, prostitutes or betrays his office, is unfaithful as an officer. The employee who does not fulfill his engagements or who uses his position to do evil to his employer or others, is an employee unfaithful to his employer. The policemen, magistrates or politicians, who use their office to protect favorites, or to wink at law violations, or who favor law breakers for graft, are unfaithful public servants. The man who violates valid contracts, agreements or promises, is unfaithful to his pledged word.

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In short, every sin of omission or commission against truth and righteousness, and every avoidable failure to keep, or every avoidable transgression of, one's engagements or promises, are so many evidences and expressions of unfaithfulness.

Never has God been guilty of any of such things. Search His acts as the Fountainhead of Christianity, and none of them evidence a failure to exercise loyalty to truth or righteousness or to His obligations and promises, let alone a violation of these. As the symbolic Husband of the covenants, He has been without disloyalty to His symbolic wives. As the King of the universe, He has not neglected or violated the duties of such an office under any circumstance. No gain could bribe Him into neglecting the administration of the laws of His kingdom; and no fear of danger or loss could make Him relax such administration. As the Maker of covenants, He does not neglect to keep His parts therein, much less violate His obligations thereunder. As the Maker of promises, He does not prove untrue to them by violating them or neglecting to fulfill them. Unfaithfulness is further removed from Him than the East is from the West. If it were not so, He could not justifiably appeal to us to exercise faith in Him, nor would He do so.  If He were unfaithful, everything that is the object of our faith and hope would become unreliable; and we might  well despair and lapse into infidelity.

By four lines of thought the Bible stresses God's faithfulness. We will cite a list of Scriptures under each head, the looking up of which will prove a blessing to our readers. In the first list there is a general ascription of faithfulness to God as one of His characteristics. The following are some of these Scriptures: Deut. 7: 9; Ps. 36: 5; 40: 10; 89: 1, 2, 5, 8, 24, 28, 33; 92: 1, 2, 15; 119: 65, 89, 90; Is. 49: 7; Lam. 3: 23; John 8: 26; Rom. 3: 3, 4; 1 Cor. 1: 9; 10: 13; 1 Thes. 5: 24; 2 Tim. 2: 13; Tit. 1: 2; Heb. 10: 23;

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1 Pet. 4: 19; 1 John 1: 9. Every one of the above passages proves Him to be faithful in general. A second set of passages follows, which proves Him to be faithful to truth and righteousness: Deut. 32: 4; Ps. 18: 30; 19: 9; 31: 5; 33: 4; 100: 5; 117: 2; 132: 11; 146: 6; Is. 25: 1; 51: 6, 8. The following set of passages shows that God is faithful to His covenants and promises: Gen. 9: 15, 16, 18; Ex. 6: 4, 5; 12: 41; Lev. 26: 45; Deut. 4: 31; 9: 5; 2 Sam. 7: 28; 23: 5; 2 Kings 13: 23; Ps. 89: 34; 105: 8; 111: 5, 7-9; Is. 54: 9, 10; Luke 1: 70, 72, 73; Rom. 11: 29; 15: 8; 2 Cor. 1: 20; 2 Tim. 2: 14; Heb. 6: 13-19; 2 Pet. 3: 9. And, finally, a fourth set of passages shows that God is faithful to those to whom He has obligated Himself: Gen. 24: 1, 27; 28: 15; 32: 10; Lev. 26: 44; Deut. 7: 8; Josh. 23: 14; 1 Sam. 12: 22; 1 Kings 8: 23, 24, 56; 2 Kings 8: 19; 1 Chron. 28: 20; Ezra 9: 9; Neh. 9: 7, 8; Ps. 9: 10; 25: 10; 37: 28; 94: 14; 103: 17; 121: 3, 4; Is. 44: 21; 49: 16; Jer. 31: 36, 37; 32: 40; 33: 14, 20; 51: 5; Ezek. 16: 60, 62; Dan. 9: 4; Mic. 7: 20; Hag. 2: 5; Luke 1: 54, 55, 68, 69; Acts 13: 32; Rom. 11: 2; Heb. 6: 10. These four lists of passages prove that God is faithful and prove that our definition of faithfulness for Him and others is correct.

Faithfulness is perhaps God's most widely applicable quality. Its scope seems to be universal, that is, it underlies and pervades all His thoughts, motives, words and acts. In vain would we search a thought, motive, word or act of Jehovah to find it devoid of this quality. Next to faithfulness God's self-control, patience and perseverance, are His most universal qualities; but since His faithfulness backs and projects His self-control and patience in all their activities, it is even more universal in its scope of activity than they. Certainly, this is an encouraging and comforting thought to us; and, held in our hearts and minds in our times of trial and difficulty, it will arm us with double strength, since it gives us the assurance of His

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support, protection and guidance. Blessed be our God that He is faithful in all His works and ways toward truth and righteousness, toward His covenants and promises and toward those to whom He has condescendingly obligated Himself.

The Scriptures abound in examples of God's faithfulness. The above-cited passages give a partial proof of this proposition. Loyalty to truth and righteousness are manifested in His creation of angels and humans perfect in organ and disposition, in His trial of Adam and Eve for life and in His sentencing them to death and in executing that sentence upon them and the race in Adam's loins; for wisdom, justice, love and power in the interests of truth and righteousness required this. This becomes clear when we remember His design with the permission of evil in view of the ransom to give the race a more favorable opportunity of gaining life in the Millennium than Adam had. In permitting righteous Abel to suffer for righteousness at Cain's hands, and Cain to become a protected outcast therefore, we again see God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness, inasmuch as Abel's sufferings prepared him for Millennial rulership, and Cain's prepared him for Millennial reformation. From many standpoints God's judgments on the antediluvians and His rescue of Noah and his family show God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness; for certainly temporarily to blot out those who were increasingly depraving themselves and others, and to preserve those whose influence was morally and religiously elevating, were in the interests of truth and righteousness. The same remark in principle applies to the confounding of languages and the scattering of the nations; for this limited evil and furthered righteousness by segregating the evil and the righteous. The destruction of the cities of the plain with their inhabitants and the rescue of Lot was in the same sense in the interests of truth and righteousness as God's acts in connection with the

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deluge. The same remark applies to God's judgments on the Egyptians and Pharaoh and His deliverance of Israel, His punishment of the unbelieving and blessing of the believing Israelites in the wilderness, His destruction of the nations of Canaan and giving their land to Israel, His punishment of wayward and blessing of repentant and obedient Israel and His judgments and blessings on the then Gentile nations.

The same principles apply in the history of  Christendom, especially along the lines of spiritual punishments and rewards meted out to the pertinent classes. God's dealings with cast-off fleshly Israel and accepted spiritual Israel, viewed from the standpoint of His present and Millennial purposes with these two Israels, show God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness. Of course, the selection of the Ancient Worthies, the Little Flock, the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies, to develop them first in every good word and work, and afterward to use them to bless others with the same kind of a development, markedly manifests God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness. His rewarding these four elect classes according to their character development and loyalty to Him shows the same faithfulness, as also does every step that He has taken in their preparation for such rewards. Every one of His covenant arrangements for these four classes proves His faithfulness to truth and righteousness. Thus everything about His dealings with the four elect classes reveals God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness. When we contemplate His Millennial arrangements for the restitution of the world—the helpers that He has provided for them, the cancellation of the death sentence from, and the return of, the race from death, the world's Millennial environment as conducive to righteousness and inconducive to unrighteousness, the favorable trial amid corrections that He has arranged for them to have, the adaptation of all the helps to the varying needs of

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the race, the requirement of obedience only according to ability, the giving correctly of the teachings of truth and righteousness to the world, the striping of the recalcitrant for reformation, the destruction of the incorrigible after 100 years of wasted and misspent opportunities for reformation and the rewarding of the responsive—all of these being calculated to suppress wrong and spread truth and righteousness—one and all show that all of God's Millennial arrangements are due to His faithfulness to truth and righteousness.

So, too, will God's post-millennial arrangements and works be an outflow of His faithfulness to truth and righteousness. That He will then require a final trial in harmony with truth and righteousness proves His faithfulness to these. That all will be required to act perfectly in harmony with perfect truth and righteousness, if they would gain life, shows His faithfulness to these principles. That those who fail to maintain loyalty to these principles must be blotted out so as to prevent the eternal continuance of sin and error, evidences God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness. And that those who maintain loyalty to truth and righteousness will be given everlasting life, to be spent in harmony with truth and righteousness, again proves that God is faithful to these principles. That God will forever surround the elect and the non-elect with conditions of truth and righteousness, in harmony with which they will remain, proves His loyalty to these principles. And that from the beginning of creation God has had these results steadfastly in mind, and that He perseveringly worked these thousands of years to realize them, prove that all along He has been loyal to truth and righteousness and He will so remain.

Not only do the above-cited examples of the Scriptures prove God's faithfulness to truth and righteousness; but many Scriptural examples prove His faithfulness to His covenants and promises. The first express covenants into which God entered bound Him no

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more to destroy society by a flood (Gen. 9: 8-17). This covenant was made to every living thing on earth, as well as to man, and is one of the unilateral covenants—not one that is contractual, pledging two parties to certain conditions whose fulfillment gives each party to the covenant certain blessings, but one that is a simple promise, binding only one party to do certain things to others. The Abrahamic covenant is also such a unilateral covenant. So, too, are the covenants to the Seed and our covenant of consecration to God. The covenant to Noah has been kept by God. He has never since permitted a flood to destroy human society; and this proves His faithfulness to that covenant. While the Abrahamic, the Sarah and the rest of the parts of the Oath-bound Covenant to the various classes of "the Seed" (Gen. 12: 2—14; 22: 16-18) have not yet been fulfilled in their entirety, certain features of them being yet future, the parts of them that have already been due have been fulfilled and certain others of them are being fulfilled. Certainly, to the Ancient Worthies the parts of the Oath-bound Covenant due in their day were fulfilled, i.e., they were developed in character by God for fitness for Millennial princeship and were given victory over all enemies to such development. So to Abraham God in the past gave part and is giving now the rest of the Seed that is to do the blessing. During the Gospel Age God has completed the selection of the Christ class, part of the Seed, and is at work completing the development of the Great Company and Youthful Worthies, also parts of the Seed. And this proves His faithfulness in carrying out these covenants, even if they have not yet been completely carried out. The progressive and continued working out of their fulfillment is a pledge of their complete fulfillment in due time, and thus is a proof also of God's faithfulness.

There are especially two conditional covenants revealed in the Scriptures: the Old Covenant (the Law Covenant)

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and the New Covenant. Both of these are between God and Israel, the second of them not yet having been sealed, and therefore not yet operative, it belonging to the Millennial and post-millennial Ages. Both of these covenants are conditional, God in each of them promising Israel everlasting life on condition of perfect obedience to the law of these covenants. God stood ready to keep His part of the Old Covenant to any Israelite who obeyed it, and gave such eternal life to the only Israelite who kept it—our Lord Jesus—and at the same time made Him the Heir of the Sarah Covenant, whose inheritance He obtained by His fulfilling His covenant of sacrifice. Thus God's faithfulness in giving Him everlasting life through His obedience to the Law is manifest and is not at all set aside by our Lord's giving up that life sacrificially; for thereby He not only gained the power to redeem all from the Adamic sentence, but additionally to save Israel from the added condemnation of the Law Covenant. And even to Law- violating Israel God showed much grace and mercy in addition to faithfulness in encouraging and helping them to the best conditions conducive to reformation for keeping the Law, and compatible with fallen men's being under the curse. Therefore, during their trial period, the Jewish Age, He gave them the best laws and conditions on earth, gave them the best land and prosperity on earth, sent them the best teachers and teachings, surrounded them with the best providences, freely and perseveringly forgave them and reinstated them from their backslidings on their repentance and, finally, sent them His Son to offer them fitness for transference to the Sarah Covenant. In these acts He not only showed Himself faithful in keeping His part of the Law Covenant, but He additionally added grace and mercy to which He was not obligated by His part of the Law Covenant. And His faithfulness to truth and righteousness and to His past covenant engagements are a guarantee that

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He will be faithful to fulfill His part of the New Covenant when it is set into operation.

Again, God has also been faithful to His promises. For the most part, these have been simply an elaboration of the general promises implied in His covenants. Isaac, as promised, was given to Abraham and Sarah, even though a miracle was necessary to work on the sterile parents to effect it. Expatriated Jacob realized God's promise to restore him to the promised land. God's promise, after 400 years (Gen. 15: 13), to deliver Abraham's descendants from Egypt's oppression, was fulfilled, and that to the very day. His promise to sustain Moses in the work of deliverance was fulfilled. His promise to give Israel the land promised their forefathers was fulfilled. His promises of victory over their enemies as long as they were obedient were always fulfilled whenever they exercised such obedience, as is evidenced in their victories over the Amalekites, Arad, Sihon, Og and the Midianites during their wilderness journey, over the seven nations of Canaan under Joshua and over their oppressors during the period of the judges under Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Shamgar, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson and Samuel. During the times of the Kings they were likewise victorious as long as they obeyed, as certain experiences in the lives of Saul, David, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, etc., show. The deliverances that God wrought for David, the prophets, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, Mordecai, Esther, Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, all prove the faithfulness of God to His promises to deliver those faithful to Him. Well could Joshua (Josh. 23: 14) and Solomon (1 Kings 8: 56) glory in God for not having failed in any particular to fulfill His good promises.

During the Gospel Age such faithfulness to His promises has characterized God's course. Every promise that He made to Jesus was fulfilled as due. The Apostles in their experiences found that His promises

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were not yea and nay, but yea; for every one of them was kept. So have all the others of God's people in this Age learned by experience. Did He promise to raise up for them the Messiah? He kept His word (Acts 13: 22). Did He confirm the promises to them? He did so by Christ's ministry (Rom. 15: 8). Did He promise them fellowship— partnership with His Son? He has given it to them in its Gospel-Age aspects (1 Cor. 1: 9). Did He promise not to suffer them to be tempted above their ability? He keeps His promise (1 Cor. 10: 13). Did He offer them a genuine invitation to the high calling? He has realized the promise in their experiences (1 Thes. 5: 24). Did He offer them opportunity of gaining life? He has fulfilled it to the responsive (Tit. 1: 2). Did He promise to remember their good works and their labor of love? He has kept the promise (Heb. 6: 10). Did He promise to support them in life's storms? The promise has been fulfilled (Heb. 6: 17­ 19). Did He promise to stand by them in their sufferings? He has redeemed His promise (1 Pet. 4: 19). Did He promise them forgiveness and cleansing? He has performed His word (1 John 1: 9). In a word, has He as due fulfilled all His promises? We answer, Yes (2 Cor. 1: 20; Heb. 10: 24). Have any of His promises failed? We answer, No. We know by thousands of our personal experiences that none have failed us; and we have never heard a faithful Christian say anything to the contrary in connection with his experiences; but, on the other hand, every one of them, that we have ever heard or heard of, as touching this point, has testified that He has ever been faithful and never once has broken to them a promise of His.

Confidence in God's faithfulness has given unconquerable strength to God's people; and they have always found Him loyal to them. The heroes of faith cited by St. Paul in Heb. 11 were empowered to do, to dare, to suffer and to achieve by their confidence

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in God's faithfulness. How otherwise would Abel have endured martyrdom, Noah braved the mockery of the antediluvians for at least 120 years, Abraham left native land and kindred and offered Isaac, Joseph borne his calamities, Moses endured as seeing Him that is invisible, and performed the onerous labor of leading Israel from Egypt to Canaan, Joshua conquered Canaan, Gideon defeated Midian, Amalek and the children of the East, Jephthah overthrown Ammon and Ephraim, Shamgar and Samson slaughtered the Philistines, David freed Israel from all their enemies, Jehoshaphat dispersed by the temple music the Ethiopian host, Hezekiah obtained deliverance from the Assyrians, Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-nego quenched the heat of the fiery furnace and Daniel stopped the lions' mouths? How otherwise would our Lord have faced Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha and the tomb, the Apostles their labors, hardships, sufferings and deaths, the confessors the dread examination of persecutors, the martyrs their tortures and deaths, the isolated dark-age witnesses have faced their papal opponents, the reformers met and defeated Rome's ablest defenders, the harvesters done their reaping work and the Epiphany saints endured the breaking of tenderest ties amidst all kinds of misrepresentation and misunderstanding? In a word, how could any one of the four classes of the elective Seed have made and carried out a more or less intelligent consecration, which means death to their humanity, unless they had full confidence in God's faithfulness to truth, righteousness, His covenants, His promises and His  people? How could any of them carry out such a consecration faithfully unto death, amid the most taxing of trials, temptations and difficulties, unless they strongly trusted in God's faithfulness? It would be impossible. And they have consciously and confidently, amid the most harrowing experiences, walked up to and into the jaws of death, with the peace of God ruling their

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hearts and minds, fully assured that God was faithful to them as His very own. If it were not for such a faith, they would all have gone to pieces amid the experiences that faith in His faithfulness called upon them to undergo. And their victories have been due to God's faithfulness to His people in their exercise of such a faith. And this confidence gave them the necessary peace, comfort and even joy to undergo these experiences to the glory of God, their own profit and the blessing of others. Hence they gloried in God as faithful and risked their all on His faithfulness; and He never left, forsook nor failed them.

To us, therefore, the thought of God's faithfulness should be exceedingly precious. It should prompt us, if not consecrated, to consecrate ourselves unreservedly to Him; and, if consecrated, faithfully to carry out our consecration. It will give us every mercy and every help in every time of need. It will relieve us when wearied, sustain us when faltering, energize us when faint, encourage us when fearful, quiet us when worried, cheer us when distressed, comfort us when bereaved, embolden us when attacked, make us victorious in our battles and, finally, bring us off more than conquerors when we reach the end of our warfare. Well may we rely upon God's faithfulness. It has never faltered and will never falter. No difficulties can overcome it; no obstacles can impede it; no foes can put it to flight; no combination can make it waver; and nothing ever has or ever will undo it. It is as eternal as eternity; as changeless as unchangeableness, as constant as constancy, as incorruptible as incorruptibility and, therefore, is as dependable as God, because it is the all-pervasive quality of His character, which, because of its perfection in all good attributes, is the glory of God and the magnet that draws all responsive hearts to devotion, praise, worship, adoration and service of the God of all grace and all faithfulness. Let us, therefore, bring devotion, praise, worship,

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adoration and service to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus; for He is worthy of these, and that in a higher degree than we are able to render them to Him.

Surely our study of God's attributes of being and character should greatly enhance Him to our faith, hope, love and obedience; for it presents to us a God who is glorious in His person, holy in His character, wondrous in His plan and great in His works. And as we devoutly contemplate Him from these standpoints, such contemplation greatly enhances Him to our minds and hearts and thus effectively draws out toward Him our faith, hope, love and obedience, and blessed are those who permit and encourage these results by engaging in such contemplation! All things are theirs—God and Christ, the present and future with all their promises and fruitions are theirs!

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