1917_The_Finished_Mystery_Text

creatures, with his four faces.— The word"cycle," or "wheel," is familiar in bicycle,motorcycle, and in cycle as applied to epochs.The Divine attributes operate upon humansociety, the symbolic earth, in cycles, or ages(Eph. 3:11), and in the mechanisms of ages bywhich God's Plan is carried forward, Hischaracter, or face, is seen.Ezekiel 1:16.The appearance of the wheels and their workwas like unto the color of a beryl: and theyfour had one likeness; and their appearanceand their work was as it were a wheel in themiddle of a wheel.— Pliny says of the beryl orchrysolithos, "It is a transparent stone with arefulgence like that of gold." Says Smith's BibleDictionary, "The ancient chrysolithos, or moderntopaz, appears to have a better claim than anyother stone to represent the tarshish of theHebrew Bible." Gold is symbolic of thingsDivine. These golden cycles are the Divinelyappointed ages in connection with the fourattributes ofFM374Deity. The Divine operations are not in onesimple age, cycle, or manner of operation, butcycle within cycle, age within age, manyoperations working together "manifold' (Eph.3:10), like a vast and complicated machine.Ezekiel 1:17.When they went, they went upon their foursides: and they turned not when they went.—Divine Justice conflicts not with Divine Love,nor with Wisdom nor Power, but all qualities arein simultaneous operation. They proceed alonglines planned ages ago.— Jas. 1:17.Ezekiel 1:18.As for their rings, they were so high that theywere dreadful; and their rings were full ofeyes round about them four.— "As the heavensare higher than the earth, so are My ways (plans)higher than your ways." (Isa. 55:9.) The Plan ofthe Ages reveals the lengths, breadths, heights