IN CHURCH HISTORY. 9 



purposes of God during the long ages before Christ, 

 and also fail to see the unity of God's plans of 

 mercy to our race throughout all time. 



But we are to think of all of the ages before 

 Christ as the time of preparation for His coming, 

 and the Church which He founded as the realiza- 

 tion of God's plans of mercy towards the fallen 

 race. 



If it seem strange to us that so many ages 

 elapsed before the Redeemer appeared, and so many 

 epochs of preparation came and went, we must 

 remember that God is infinitely wise and good, 

 and that a thousand years to Him are but as a day. 



And thus it is that we regard the Old Testament 

 Scriptures as the grand prelude to the sweet har- 

 mony of redemption so distinctly heard when the 

 Son of God became incarnate for man's redemp- 

 tion. Just as an overture to a great musical com- 

 position combines the many melodies which are 

 subsequently developed more clearly, so will we 

 find in the Old Testament, suggestions of the 

 truths which it was the mission of the Christ to 

 reveal in His life and work. 



Beginning with the first book of the Bible, we find 

 the promise of salvation from ruin ; then going on, 

 we note the conflict between good and evil in the 

 world ; further on we have histories of individuals 

 who illustrated the principle of trust in God, and, 

 in some particulars, became types or shadow pic- 



