he
blindness of their heart" (Eph. 5:18). How important, as a preparation
for salvation, is the illuminating work of the Spirit in conviction, by
which He lifts the veil and opens the mind to a new vision of the
redemption and glory that is in Christ! Without this God-given vision
there can be no understanding of the way of life, nor any intelligent
decision for Christ.

Chapter IV.

This Age and the Satanic System.

It may also be concluded from the study of the ages that God has not
been pleased to meet the presumptuous claims of Satan or of man by a
simple denial of those claims; He has chosen, rather, to bring
everything to an experimental test. One advantage of this method is
obvious: every mouth will be stopped, and the entire universe of beings
will see clearly the utter folly of that which might have been
arbitrarily denied. Man can no longer claim that his conscience is
sufficient to guide him to his highest destiny; since the whole race,
when standing on that basis before God, so utterly failed that their
destruction, by a flood, was necessary: in like manner, by the history
of a most favored people in the age preceding the first advent of
Christ, man has demonstrated his own inability to do right or to keep
the law. In the present age, man proves his separation from his Creator
by his spirit of self-sufficiency and positive rejection of God. The
present issue between God and man is one of whether man will accept
God's estimate of him, abandon his hopeless self-struggle, and cast
himself only on God who alone is sufficient to accomplish his needed
transformation. All Divine love, wisdom, and power have wrought to make
these conditions open to man; and when this last and supreme effort of
God has been rejected, the final pleading with man must be forever
past, and the long delayed judgment upon sin be executed in
righteousness.

It has already been pointed out that Satan purposed in his heart to
attempt all the functions of God; and, according to Scripture, that
which he purposed is being permitted, to the extent of his ability,
throughout the course of this age. Though his failure and defeat have
been predicted from the beginning, yet it has pleased God to permit the
Satanic ambition to come to its own destruction, and to demonstrate its
own weakness and wicked folly. No other solution is given of the present
power of Satan and the terrible manifestations of his increasing
authority yet to be exp