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is not the author of its confusion, sin and disorder, but he has permitted mankind. liberty within certain bounds. He has permitted Satan to oppose righteousness and permitted humanity to become the slaves of sin and of Satan.

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Satan is Scripturally declared to be the "Prince of this world," who now operates in the hearts of the children of disobedience. We are not to understand, however, that Satan is exercising a Divinely delegated authority to mankind, but rather that he has usurped his position by taking advantage of humanity's ignoránce, fallen tendencies and superstitions. Neither are we to think that humanity knowingly and intentionally serves "the Prince of this world." Rather, under his delusions they are deceived. While thinking to please themselves, to serve their own best interests, to attain happiness, they are misled into sin and sorrow and death by paths of ignorance and superstition. What St. Paul calls "this present evil world," St. Peter denominates "the world that now is," and points us forward to the New World, the New Dispensation, in which righteousness will reign, and styles that dispensation "the world to come."

All three of these "worlds" or dispensations are connected with our planet, the earth. Following this figure, the Apostle divides these "worlds" or dispensations into heaven and earth, by the heavens referring to the spirit beings and influences, and by the earth referring to humanity subjected to those spiritual influences. Thus in the "world" or dispensation which ended at the flood, the angels, fallen and unfallen, constituted the heavens and mankind the earth of that dispensation. During "this present evil world" from the flood to the Second Coming of Christ the heavens represent Satan, the "Prince of the power of the air," and religious systems amongst men, more or less corrupt and more or less representative of Satan and of his organizationor rather of human organization more or less under Satanic direction. "The world to come" is likewise represented as having a heaven and earth classification. The heavens of that new dispensation will be the glorified Jesus and his Church, in the Millennial Kingdom.

In the first "world" or dispensation the corruption of its heavens or angelic class brought degradation and disaster to the earth class, humanity. During this "present evil world" the power of Satan and the corrupting spiritual influences which he has been able to manipulate have hindered the blessing of mankind, notwithstanding God's favor given to Israel under the Law Covenant and his still greater blessings to Jew and Gentile through Christ. The next "world" or dispensation, to be ushered in at the Second Coming of Christ, is Scripturally styled "a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Pet. 3:13.) That new heavens will be perfect, and consist of Christ and his "Elect" Church or "Bride" glorified—“called, chosen, faithful." (Rev. 17:14.) That new earth will represent mankind under the new conditions of the New Covenant, sealed with the precious blood. Not only in the new heaven, but also in the new earth righteousness will prevail, even though in the latter it will require the thousand years of Christ's reign to fully conquer sin and death and to uplift humanity in general back into harmony with God.

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"In the Ages to Come." St. Paul mentions "ages to come," though only one of these is specifically noted in the Scriptures-the Millennial age. The other ages beyond the Millennium will be beyond all the defilements and ensnarements and tribulations nected with sin; and are properly, therefore, styled by the poet, "Ages of glory." Looking back, however, we may discern clearly-marked ages or epochs, subdividing "this present evil world." First came the Patriarchal Age, in which God dealt with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then came another distinctly different epoch in which He no longer dealt with. individual patriarchs, but adopted the entire nation of Israel as his peculiar people and dealt with them accordingly. He entered into the Law Covenant with them and provided them a typical mediator, typical underpriests and judges and prophets, so that, as the Apostle Paul declares, the nation of Israel had "much advantage every way, chiefly because to them

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oracles of God." That Jewish Age had a distinct beginning in the death of Jacob, whose twelve sons were designated the heads of the twelve. tribes constituting the one nation of Israel. That age had an ending just as distinctly marked by the death of Christ, as shown by Jesus' words, "Verily I say unto you, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matt. 23:38.) A third age followed, namely, the Gospel Age, which began at Pentecost and is to terminate at the second coming of Christ and to gather to himself the completed church, the Bride of the Lamb and joint-heir in the Millennial Kingdom.

The present Gospel Age, which is to end with the establishment of the Kingdom, the Church in glory, is the particular and all-important age of "this present evil world." Neither of those preceding it brought any fruitage to full perfection. The patriarchs received a blessing, but could not enter into the Kingdom privileges. The nation of Israel had a blessing through the Law Covenant, yet its highest service was the making of types of glorious conditions to follow it, some of the antitypes belonging to this Gospel Age and some to the Millennium. It is the Apostle who declares of that Age that its Law Covenant "made nothing perfect." Nevertheless, the same Apostle points out in Hebrews XI that all who were faithful to God from Enoch down to the close of the Jewish Age will receive a special blessing, in accord with their faith and zealeven though they lived before the time of the calling and proving of the spiritual Seed of Abraham-the Gospel Church, of which Christ is the Head. ("And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's Seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3:29.) Of those faithful ones St. Paul declares, "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."—Heb. 11:39, 40.

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Divine Program set apart the entire Gospel Age for the selection of the Bride of Christ, under another figure spoken of as the "members in particular of the Body of Christ." (1 Cor. 12:27.) These are said to fill up the afflictions of Christ, to suffer with him, to be dead with him, and are correspondingly promised a share with. him in his glory, honor and immortality.

This Age Parenthetic.

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It may help some to grasp the situation if they will consider the gospel Age from Pentecost to the Second Coming of Christ as parenthetic, and in their minds link together the Jewish and the Millennial Ages. The Jews, properly enough, were expecting Messiah to come to their nation, to establish them as his "peculiar people," to sanctify them and to use them in the spread of his dominion world-wide, according to the promise made to Abraham that in "his Seed all the families of the earth should be blessed." They were right in that expectation, and it will be fulfilled at the Second Coming of Christ. What they did not see and what God did not wish them to see, but kept a "mystery," is the fact that the Divine Program included a Christ of many members, Jesus the Redeemer being the Head over all, "God blessed forever." (Rom. 9:5.) "This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." (Eph. 5:32.) "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints; to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:26, 27.) God will do no less for natural Israel than his original promise, for, as St. Paul declares, "The gifts and calling of God he will not repent of"-nor change from.

The bringing in of the Bible hope of this Gospel Age, the selecting of a "little flock" for joint-heirship with the Redeemer on the spirit plane, was that much more than God had revealed to Israel through the Law and the prophets. Some of natural Israel profited by this-all those who, at the beginning of the Gospel Age, were in the right attitude of heart, "Israelites indeed in whom was no guile.' Such were received to membership in spir

itual Israel at Pentecost. And then to filling up of the remainder of the predestinated number of the "elect," from among the Gentiles began; and this age has been devoted to the gathering of these "members" of the Christ, the Messiah, out of every land, people, kindred and tongue.

The Law Covenent-Old and New.

Continue the thought of this Gospel Age being parenthetic as respects the outward features of the Divine Program. Note the fact that the Law Covenant given to the Jews failed to secure for them eternal life -because they could not keep so high a Law, a Law which commanded love for God with all the heart, mind, soul and strength and love for one's neighbor as for himself. Moses, the Mediator of that Law Covenant, was unable to make up for the deficiencies of the people and hence eternal life was not secured under the Law Covenant. However, through the Prophet Jeremiah (31:31) God sent to Israel a message of his love and assured them of a future relief under a New Covenant which, in some respects, would be better than the one they had. He said, "The days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt (the Law Covenant); which my Covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord."-Jer. 31:31, 32.

Christ and his Bride, his members, Spiritual Israel, surrender their earthlylife rights and earthly inheritance in favor of Natural Israel, and thus are said to mediate and ultimately to seal for Israel. a New Law Covenant, which will be far better than the old one. Not, however, that the Law of God will change in any respect; for God could not give an easier Law than the one given to Israel; he could not give an imperfect Law; he could not properly require less than love and obedience with all the heart. Wherein, then, will a New Law Covenant be better for Israel than the old one? We answer, It will be better in that it will have a "better mediator"-a more capable one. Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant; and

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all those called of God and accepted as his "members" during this Gospel Age will be members of the Mediator. To this Mediator, by reason of the merit of the Head and his sacrifice, God has granted. "all power," so that he is able from the plenitude of his grace to make up for the unwilling, the unintentional, blemishes of the nation for which he will serve Mediator during the thousand years of his Millennial reign. It is on the strength of this merit of the Mediator that all of Israel's sins and iniquities of the past will be forgotten and remembered no more. Moreover that Great Mediator will have full responsibility in the premises in dealing with all who shall accept that Covenant, because the virtue, the merit of Christ's sacrifice, is sufficient to meet, to cover, to cancel the sins of the whole world -all that are not willful and deliberate sins. Israel will thus become God's people, and all gentiles will be privileged to join them by "circumcision of the heart." Thus, ultimately, besides spiritual Israel there will be Natural Israel, which will include the willing and obedient of every nation and tongue as it is written, "I have constituted thee a father of many nations."

During the Millennium, therefore, Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and "the church his Body," will not only apply the merits of his sacrifice in offset of Adamic sin and weaknesses, but will also have the right, power and authority to chastise for every misconduct and to reward every good endeavor, to the intent that under that New Covenant all Israel may have the opportunity of rising from the dead-rising from the condition of sin and death up to the full perfection of human nature and a perfect environment. As for the others not rightly exercised by these favorable providences St. Peter declares that they "Shall be utterly destroyed from among the people."-Acts 3:23.

From Amongst Your Brethren.

St. Peter explains the nature of the selection of the members of the Mediator, saying, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from amongst your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear (obey) in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you. (To that Prophet every

knee must bow and every tongue confess.) And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people"-in the Second Death.-Acts 3:22, 23.

Notice that the Prophet was to be raised up from amongst the brethren. In fulfillment of this our Lord Jesus was called and accepted and begotten of the holy Spirit, and finally, in his resurrection, became the Firstborn from the dead, the Firstborn of many brethren. Meantime, since Pentecost the other members under that glorious Head have been in process of raising upout of sin, out of death, out of the world, out of human nature, to glory, honor, and immortality. And these have the promise that in the First Resurrection their raising up will be completed-they shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The raising up and the changing

begin with the present life. As the Apostle declares, "We are risen with him." And again, We are being changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. But still we wait for the grand climacteric change to Resurrection glory, honor and immortality. .

In view of the foregoing all will readily discern the value of order in the study of the Bible the value of noting its dispensational features, the object served by the various "worlds" or dispensations and their various ages or epochs. The Bible, studied in the light of the Plan of the Ages, becomes a new Book. Its various statements, prophetic and otherwise, quietly drop into their proper places, so that the study of the Word becomes both interesting and profitable, as thousands are continually testifying-many of them rescued from agnosticism.

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THE MODERN PENOLOGICAL

MOVEMENT

BY REV. AUGUST DRAHMS

LATE RESIDENT CHAPLAIN STATE PRISON, SAN QUENTIN, CAL.

HE DISTINCTIVE

features and principles involved in the modern penological movement are simple, and easily understood. To the classical idea of retributive justice implied in its broad legal interpretation, and which must ever be considered basic in any rational conception of the criminal problem, the modern progressive spirit has added the reformative idea, making the offender the legitimate subject of the altruistic as well as of the expiatory sentiment in criminalistic treatment.

It interjects the idea of cure as well as of punishment-the flowering of the better sentiment of humanity in the treatment of its recalcitrant classes. Time was, when the former method was the all-and-in-all of the curative process, supposedly. The corrective effect was presumed to be commensurate with the severity of treatment of the incarcerate, and the Draconian theory lapped over into the latter periods of English history when, to trespass upon a nobleman's preserves, or to steal sheep, merited the death sentence. The facts, however, amply show that punitive severity was never in any sense a check upon crime. The average offender never recks the cost in the joy of the criminal act. A truer study of the criminal predisposition dictates otherwise. Method answered to the deeper insight. The humanitarian principle came to the rescue. Reformation was soon found to be a nobler desideratum, more commensurate with the innate dignity of the subject. To save is better than to damn. The subject is at least worthy of the attempt. New preventive methods came early into vogue, hand in hand with the

curative process. The results have thus far verified the effort. Its ultimate value is to be determined by time, while its conformity to the best instincts of humanity are unquestioned. Its chief danger lies with its friends-in the swinging of the pendulum to the opposite extreme of the arc. There is almost as much danger from the dagger of Brutus as from the sword of Cassius. A happy blending of the humanitarian with the punitive may ultimately solve the problem for the

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better.

The main pillars of the reformatory idea in prison control may be briefly summarized under the heads of (a), The Seggregation and Classification of incarcerates on the two-fold basis of character and conduct duly determined by a proper system of credits; (b) The Indeterminate Sentence, and (c) The Parole. The latter we have already the cart before the horse, for the parole is supplemental to the Indeterminate Sentence, as that in turn is corrollary to the proper segregation and classification of prisoners. Without going into explanation, the late Legislature acted wisely in postponing further prison reform measures until such time as they could be put into active operation by a due enlargement of prison accommodations, to which end the present prison authorities have bent every effort during the past two years. When that shall have been accomplished the time will be ripe for the introduction of these upto-date measures with the prospect of immediate and full operative force, under expert management.

The Indeterminate Sentence is the sheet anchor of the new method. It does away with the present glaring inequalities of sentence by which a first offender is given an onorous sentence of five or

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