VI.

THE SEED OF ABRAHAM.

"For not in any manner does He lay hold of angels, but He lays hold of the Seed of Abraham."

THE Son did not lay hold of angels. We repeat the remark made a few pages back, that human reason may wonder why He should pass by beings of such might and intelligence, and who might rather be deemed worth saving, to take on Himself the nature of so insignificant a creature as man. When the Lord Jesus, looking upon the starry heavens, exclaimed, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" He was not making a comparison between man and the mere physical vastness of the Universe. All this might be as nothing in value, compared with one human soul. The comparison was of like with like. That the worlds are peopled we cannot doubt, since both Scripture and analogy teach it. The prodigality, so to speak, with which God has filled this earth with life in multitudinous varieties and forms, would tell us that He has not

whom has been kept the blackness of darkness u the Age." Jude 13. It is there that the Lord kn eth how to reserve the unrighteous for a day judgment to be punished (literally, cut off). 2 I ii. 9. It is eventually to be destroyed, as it is sa "O Death, I will be thy pestilence; O Hell, I v be thy destruction!" Hos. xiii. 14. Death and H shall be cast into the lake of fire.

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norant; nor in conngs who do know as he himself now he is acquainted.” the Scripture conpower pertaining to

than ours." Judg

ilation of the earth

all, as well as insigred with that of the rations may enable orce of the comparitis man, that Thou

of the fact that of ation, a considerable can, that we can unnot hold of angels." re are governments, ckedness, the "rulers

in the heavenlies." is defection from the 1 when Satan, mani

left unpeopled the orbs and systems with which He has abundantly filled space; and it is also revealed in Holy Scripture that there are governments, authorities, principalities, and powers in the heavenlies. Not in "Heaven itself," where Jesus went to appear in the presence of God for us, but in the heavenly spaces of the Universe. The beings who constitute these governments and principalities are all mentioned under the comprehensive title of angels. Therefore when the Son of God became for a little while lower than the angels, He took His place at the foot of God's intelligent creatures. There was among them all none so low as Man. Of angelic might and dignity we have some glimpses in the Scriptures. Man is very proud of the results of his investigation into the facts of nature, and of the limited extent to which he has been able to apply those facts. A modern writer says, "There is no difficulty in conceiving how a complete knowledge of all natural laws would give, if not complete power, at least degrees of power, immensely greater than those which we now possess." . . . “No man can have any difficulty in believing that there are I "The Reign of Law," by the Duke of Argyll.

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natural laws of which he is ignorant; nor in conceiving that there may be beings who do know them, and can use them, even as he himself now uses the few laws with which he is acquainted." This would seem to accord with the Scripture conception of the knowledge and power pertaining to the inhabitants of "other worlds than ours." Judging also from analogy, the population of the earth. must be almost infinitesimally small, as well as insignificant in personality, as compared with that of the entire Universe. These considerations may enable us more fully to apprehend the force of the comparison implied in the words, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?"

But it is only in consideration of the fact that of this immense and mighty population, a considerable portion is under the sway of Satan, that we can understand the words, "He laid not hold of angels." We have already seen that there are governments, authorities, and potentates of wickedness, the "rulers of worlds of this darkness, in the heavenlies." Eph. vi. 12. The extent of this defection from the authority of God will be seen when Satan, maniΚοσμοκράτορας.

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