IN HARMONY WITH GOD'S PURPOSE.
FEW of us realize what God's fixity of purpose means to us or to this old world on which we live. He declares of Himself that He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If His purpose were a vacillating one, the history of this world would be far different from what it is. "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." That was said many hundred years ago, and still they are not consumed, tho they are mingled with every nation under heaven. God had promised a Redeemer to come through that people; and until that was accomplished, God kept them a homogeneous people in the land where they had been an independent nation—and all this in spite of their overthrows and uprootings. Other nations had been overthrown and disappeared; but God had spoken a purpose concerning Israel, and that people could not be lost. In every nation the scattered fragments of that people are found to-day, and still the people are not lost as a distinct people. The scattered condition of the Jewish people to-day is in direct fulfilment of the word of Jehovah concerning them. "They shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries." Eze. 12:15. God's preservation of Israel was in harmony with His purpose concerning them and the world. He shows that same unchangeableness now in bearing with a sinful world until every honest soul has been won from the clutches of the enemy, whether that soul be Jew or Gentile, "barbarian, Scythian, bond or free." Were He changeable, we might expect Him to alter His purpose and wipe the wicked world out of His sight. But He does not do it. We learn from Eph. 3:11 that God has an "eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus." An eternal purpose is not a changeable one. "Every purpose of the Lord shall be performed." Jer. 51:29. "I have purposed it, I will also do it." Isa. 46:11. True, the Lord has not carried into execution all the punishments pronounced upon individuals. When they have repented, He has turned away the punishment. But that did not affect His great purpose concerning man. Rather it was in direct line with that purpose and with His character as "the Lord God merciful and gracious." Because the Lord is unchanging and His purpose an eternal one, this earthly home will again be man's possession, in spite of man's forfeiture of his right, and righteousness will yet replace the rule of sin. To fulfil that mighty purpose, God found it necessary to "lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." Isa. 28:16. We learn from Eph. 2:20 that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is that foundation-stone, upon which was established, and is now being completed, that wonderful building of God's purpose concerning man. It was necessary that such a foundation stone as God required for that work should be a tried and proved one. God's purpose must not fail. That Stone was first tested when rebellion raged in heaven. It was tested again when the author of that rebellion in heaven attempted Christ's overthrow in the wilderness of this world. The test came again in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the cross. It was indeed a tried one; its worth was demonstrated; and now it has become the foundation Stone of God's glorious building. Ritual-ridden religion refused to honor or accept that Corner-Stone. As a result of that attitude, that system withered and shriveled and wasted into the bleakest kind of dead ceremonies, its house left desolate, its holy of holies flung open to the gaze of the multitude. To that system and to those who held it that Stone became "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." But those who belived on and accepted Him became "lively stones," and are built into that "spiritual house," offering up "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God." Thus has God shown us by a wondrous object-lesson the wisdom of harmony with His eternal purpose. It is never safe or wise to battle against the purpose of the Almighty. The better way, the only sure and true way, is the way of His choosing, harmony with His unchanging purpose. Then will we share in His everlasting triumph. It is better to do right than to do the way our wills may choose; better to think right than to think the way we may choose to think. Our doing can not make wrong right; our thinking can not alter fact. God's way is right and will triumph; if we are in harmony with that way, we will triumph with it. The question for each one is: "Would I rather have my own way? or would I rather share in the eternal triumph of God?" We can not have both unless we have chosen God's way for our way. It is the part of wisdom to say, "I will be in harmony with God's way and triumph in His victory."