GLORIOUS PROSPECTS by W. C. Mathewson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 42.

GLORIOUS PROSPECTS.

By W. C. Mathewson

God is “from everlasting to everlasting;” but man is as “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Ps. 90:2; James 4:14. His days are not only “few,” but “full of trouble;” and “his heart taketh not rest in the night.” Job 14:1; Eccl. 2:23.

Thus man’s entire earthly existence is far from being a happy one. Therefore God commands, “Cease ye from man;” “put off . . . the old man.” Isa. 2:22; Eph. 4:22. These are no arbitrary commands; they express the longing of the loving heart of God for the welfare of His dear people. He desires to see two characteristics in all His earthly subjects—eternal life and complete happiness. Most joyfully, then, He invites poor miserable sinners to “put off the old man,” and to “put on the new man;” the “man Christ Jesus.” Col. 3:10; 1 Tim. 2:5.

We are to put on Christ, because He is “everlasting.” Being made “one” with Christ, and “complete in Him,” we thereby become in Him everlasting. God created man for His “pleasure,” but He has “no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Rev. 4:11; Eze. 18:32. Evidently, then, man was created to live forever. But “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6:7. Having sown the seeds of sin, he is reaping the inevitable harvest of death.

Thus the original man, capable of eternity, became the natural man, perishable; but God, who is “not willing that any should perish,” has undertaken to make of every child of Adam an eternal being. How?—By actually imparting to him, through the medium of Christ, eternal realities. The Spirit he receives is called the “eternal Spirit;” his life “eternal” or “everlasting life;” his salvation “eternal salvation;” his glory, “eternal glory;” his inheritance, the “eternal inheritance;” himself, an “eternal excellency.” Heb. 9:14, 15; John 6:54; 5:24; Heb. 5:9; 1 Peter 5:10; Isa. 60:15. Many spiritual blessings God bestows, all being eternal. “O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness.”

While sin is ultimately cruel, it is presently enticing, offering to “lovers of pleasures” many temporary enjoyments; but those who are willing to forego the “pleasures of sin for a season,” “to suffer affliction with the people of God,” may confidently exclaim with the apostle Paul, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 2 Cor. 4:17.

What a blessed experience is affliction! “It worketh” just now. At this moment the afflicted child of God is being transformed into an “eternal excellency.” He is Christ’s workmanship, constructed out of imperishable material, by virtue of which he can “never perish,” but remains the workmanship of Jesus.

At the close of six thousand years of sin, the old man finds himself near the lowest depths of physical, mental and moral degradation; while the new man begins to ascend immeasurable heights, never to retrace his steps throughout the boundless ages.

Luce, Mich. W. C. MATHEWSON.