In the beautiful thirty-eighth chapter of the very ancient Book of Job,
we find a distinct allusion to a time when God "laid the foundations" of
the earth, prescribed "its measures," made a "decreed place" for the
sea, and framed the "ordinances of heaven," and this in presence of the
heavenly host assembled--
"When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted
for joy.[1]"
[Footnote 1: Job xxxviii. 7. The sons of God are clearly the angels
(_cf_. Job i, 6).]
The same idea can be gathered from the text which I have placed on the
title-page of this book. "By faith we understand that the aeons (the
whole system of nature in its various branches, physical, moral, and
social) were ordained ([Greek: kataertisthai]) by the word of God." The
_process_ of actual development is here passed over, as not being the
main thing; what attracts attention is the Divine Design, the "framing"
of the wonderful ideal or ordinance without which the "aeons" could not
proceed to unfold themselves. I do not mean, of course, for a moment to
imply that, after God had formulated the laws and designed the forms, He
left the working out of the results to themselves. I should be sorry if,
in bringing into prominence what has generally been overlooked, I seemed
to throw the rest in the shade.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185