Future

 

     In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new. When Christ desired to open to His disciples the truth of His resurrection, He began "at Moses and all the prophets," and "expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of the New that glorifies the Old. He who rejects the New, does not really possess the Old. For him it loses its vital power, and becomes but a lifeless form. In every page, whether history or precept or prophecy, the Old Testament Scriptures are irradiated with the glory of the Son of God. So far as it was of divine institution, the entire system of Judaism was a compacted prophecy of the Gospel. To Christ "give all the prophets witness." From the promise given to Adam, down through the patriarchal line and the legal economy, Heaven's glorious light made plain the footsteps of the Redeemer. Seers beheld the Star of Bethlehem, the Shiloh to come, as future things swept before them in mysterious procession. In every sacrifice, Christ's death was shown. In every cloud of incense His righteousness ascended. By every jubilee trumpet His name was sounded. In the awful mystery of the holy of holies His glory dwelt.

The Signs of the Times

June 20, 1902