Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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The only way out of the labyrinth is the Ariadne thread of the love of God
in Christ, and this is a still greater, but more blessed mystery, which we can
adore rather than comprehend.
THE FACTS OF EXPERIENCE.
We find everywhere in this world the traces of a revealed God and of a
hidden God; revealed enough to strengthen our faith, concealed enough to
try our faith.
We are surrounded by mysteries. In the realm of nature we see the
contrasts of light and darkness, day and night, heat and cold, summer and
winter, life and death, blooming valleys and barren deserts, singing birds
and poisonous snakes, useful animals and ravenous beasts, the struggle for
existence and the survival of the fittest. Turning to human life, we find that
one man is born to prosperity, the other to misery; one a king, the other a
beggar; one strong and healthy, the other a helpless cripple; one a genius,
the other an idiot; one inclined to virtue, another to vice; one the son of a
saint, the other of a criminal; one in the darkness of heathenism, another in
the light of Christianity. The best men as well as the worst are exposed to
fatal accidents, and whole nations with their innocent offspring are ravaged
and decimated by war, pestilence, and famine.
Who can account for all these and a thousand other differences and
perplexing problems? They are beyond the control of man’s will, and must
be traced to the inscrutable will of God, whose ways are past finding out.
Here, then, is predestination, and, apparently, a double predestination to
good or evil, to happiness or misery.
Sin and death are universal facts which no sane man can deny. They
constitute the problem of problems. And the only practical solution of the
problem is the fact of redemption. “Where sin has abounded, grace did
abound more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our
Lord “(Rom. 5:20, 21).
If redemption were as universal in its operation as sin, the solution would
be most satisfactory and most glorious. But redemption is only partially
revealed in this world, and the great question remains: What will become
of the immense majority of human beings who live and die without God
and without hope in this world? Is this terrible fact to be traced to the