reversed: they who are God's appear to be the devil's, and
the devil's to be God's. This condition is painful to the pious.
Indeed, heaven and earth and all creatures cry out in complaining
protest, unwilling to be subject to evil and to suffer the abuse of
the ungodly; to endure that dishonor of God that opposes the
hallowing of his name, the extension of his kingdom and the execution
of his will on earth as in heaven.

9. Because God's children are thus unrevealed and denied their true
insignia, all creation, as Paul says, cries out with them for the
Lord God to rend the heavens and come down to distinguish his
children from those of the devil. Considering the unrevealed state of
God's own on earth, the ungodly in their great blindness are not able
to discern them. The doctrine of the righteous which magnifies God's
grace manifest in Christ is by the wicked termed error, falsehood,
heresy and diabolical teaching. So Paul says the whole creation waits
for the manifestation of the children of God.

THE CHRISTIAN'S GLORY TO BE REVEALED.

John, also, says: "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not
yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be
manifested, we shall be like him." 1 Jn 3, 2. That is, when our Lord
Jesus Christ comes with his loved angels and we are drawn up into the
clouds to meet him in the air, he will bring to God's children a
glory consistent with their name. They will be far more splendidly
arrayed than were the children of the world in their lifetime, who
went about in purple and velvet and ornaments of gold, and as the
rich man, in silk. Then shall they wear their own livery and shine as
the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Such is the wonderful glory
of the revelation that the radiant beauty of poor Lazarus who lay in
wretchedness at the rich man's gate surpasses all expectation. Upon
this topic, see Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 5, 2ff.

10. The hope of this wonderful glory, Paul says, is ours and that of
all creation with us, for creation is to be purified and renewed for
our sakes. Then will we be impressed with the grandeur of the sun,
the majesty of the trees and the beauty of the flowers. Having so
much in prospect, we should, in the buoyancy of our hope, attach
little importance to the slight suffering that may be our earthly
lot. What is it compared to the glory to be revealed in us? Doubtless
in yonder life we shall reproach ourselves with the thought: "How