INDICATIONS OT A SCHEME IN THE UNIVERSE. 



171 



When did God plan the Atonement ? St. Paul tells us, " Before 

 the foundation of the World." It was before the creation of man, 

 and therefore before and not after the Fall. 



The statements correspond with the acts of God : for after the 

 Fall, instead of destroying the pair of sinners and beginning afresh, 

 He let them live a mortal life and become the parents of a fallen 

 race. From this we may infer that He intended that the human 

 race should have the experience and discipline of conflict with evil. 



" The Eternal Purpose " that included the creation of man and 

 the incarnation of Christ that He might be the perfect Man and the 

 true " Image of God," and the Saviour to raise up for God a people 

 like Himself ; included also Christ's conflict with evil, His sufferings 

 and death. His victory, His atonement for sin, and His glory. 



So it seems also necessarily to include the permission of the Fall 

 and the subjection of the human race to " the bondage of corrup- 

 tion," in order that Christ's people may follow Him through suffering 

 and conflict to victory and conformity to the image of Christ, andi 

 become sharers with Him in the glory of the perfect world here- 

 after ; being not merely without actual sin like little babes, but 

 experienced in conflict and victors over m.oral evil. 



The recognition of this glorious future as the realisation of " the 

 Scheme in the Universe " according to " the Eternal Purpose of 

 God," may give us much comfort in the consideration of many 

 moral mysteries that can only baffle and distress us if we try to 

 unravel them without the aid of Divine Revelation. 



Dr. Withers Green said : In the history of the creation in 

 Genesis man became a living soul. It is particularly stated that 

 they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed... 

 They were more spiritually minded than bodily minded. After the- 

 fall their natures were inverted, so that they became predominantly 

 carnal. God's scheme in the universe is to restore man to spiritual! 

 excellency. The great means God has used are leaders, judges, and 

 judgments, priests, and prophets, and last of all His eternal Son 

 and the Holy Ghost. Man is tripartite — spirit, soul, and body. 

 The soul or pysrhe is intermediate and does not change its place, 

 being dominated by the uppermost of the trio, be it spirit or body. 

 Education by enlarging the sphere of the j^syche has militated 

 against the strength of the body. Are not men acknowledging 

 the spirit more in their daily lives. The artist becomes vegetarian, 



