THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES. 



161 



seen the personification of evil, and as a result of the Fall came 

 the consciousness of good and evil : Adam and Eve were no 

 longer innocent, but they had a conscience, and that conscience 

 convicted them of shame and guilt. The guilty one in the form 

 of a serpent and the man and the woman are arraigned before 

 God : the serpent is dealt with first. His doom is sealed. He 

 will bruise the seed of the woman (not of the man), and whose 

 Seed he shall bruise shall in turn bruise his head. Thus is given 

 the great promise of deliverance from the power of sin and evil. 

 No sooner does man fall than God sets Himself to rescue man 

 from the doom under which he has placed himself. But man 

 has to learn several lessons before world redemption is effected. 



1. The holiness of God. 



2. The sinfulness of sin. 



3. The utter helpless and hopeless condition of man in himself 

 to. save himself : and throughout succeeding ages these lessons 

 in various ways are consistently taught. There is only one way 

 of salvation, and that is through the Seed of the woman, " the 

 Second Adam." Each succeeding age reveals these great truths 

 in one form or another. 



The Second Age. 



The first trial of man ended in utter failure, and judgment closes 

 the dispensation of innocence. Man is now without law and 

 without government; there is no law from God and no law 

 between men — conscience is his only mentor. There was no 

 law from Adam to Moses, " yet sin was in the world." Con- 

 sequently death reigned, and this age was pre-eminently an age 

 of murders, violence, and unrestramed sin. Gen. vi. 5, God 

 saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth .... 

 and it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth." 

 Man left to himself goes from bad to worse. Gen. vi. 12, " God 

 looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh 

 had corrupted his way upon the earth." Thus this age had to 

 be terminated by God through the Flood. 



The Third Age. 



This dispensation extended from the Flood to the call of 

 Abraham. Man had been tested, first in innocence, then by 

 conscience without government or law, and in each case had 

 lamentably failed, and judgment ended those dispensations. Gov- 

 ernment is now put into man's hands. God said to Noah, " The 

 fear of you .... and the dread of you shall be upon all ; into 

 your hands are they delivered." Gen. ix. 6, " Whoso sheddeth 

 man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Capital punish- 

 ment for murder is instituted; a law of government amongst 



K 



