Then reading from the first verse: "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou are God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep; in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth."

We find that if the Bible is the Word of God we ought to accept every statement in it as important and containing a precious lesson. What does the statement mean which says, "A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday?" It simply means that God takes a greater view of time than we do. This statement is in harmony with the words of the Apostle Peter, who says, "One day with the Lord is as a thousand years."

We are going to and fro to learn this lesson; it is couched in such peculiar language. We will go back to the beginning. God created this earth six thousand years before He created man-a wonderful being. The man was like the animals; he was like the angels; the man God made was like God Himself. God's Book says that He created Father Adam of the dust of the earth; breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

A college professor said: "I don't believe God made man out of dirt." It doesn't say that He did. He formed man of the dust of the earth. What is the dust of the earth? If you approach any person with a limited knowledge of chemistry with this question, he will tell you there isn't any [PE368] such thing as dirt. The dust of the earth consists of certain chemical elements. We see it is made up of fine particles of lime, carbon, aluminum, silver, iron, copper, and various other metals. There is no chemical element called dirt. God formed man of the dust of the earth. This does not mean that He made him out of mud. He took of the elements composed of these metals, and He had plenty of these to make up the man. There is not a single element in the human body but what is found in the earth. It is found that the proportion to the different elements of the human body is like that of the earth. Nearly three fourths of the body is water. There is comparatively little gold in the earth or in the body.

So we see how accurately the statement is true that God formed man of the dust of the earth. This is why we have to eat things that grow in the earth in order to live. They grow by absorbing certain dusts in the earth. Corn absorbs elements that are not good for potatoes, yet there are elements found in the same field that potatoes need, and they grow by absorbing from the soil. This is why you have to plant something else in that field other than corn, because the corn has already absorbed its needed elements.

Why do we eat potatoes? It is because we need those elements in our bodies. Those elements go from the dust of the earth into the fruits and vegetables that we eat. So we have more of the dust of the earth in us. This indicates Divine wisdom behind every statement in the Bible.

The beasts of the field are made of the same material as our bodies, containing lime, carbon, stone, etc. That is why we get strength by eating the flesh of animals. God gave man an earthly body, made out of earthly materials. So we can see why man likes to stick to the earth. He is made of the earth and is better satisfied with the earth than with Heaven, and would rather stay here.

Man was made like the angels. Not because he had a body like the angels; that was more like the brute creation. We have no idea what angels' bodies are made of, but the angels were made in the image of God. He gave them the ability to reason, moral conceptions, freedom to reason and comprehend and judge of the blessings the great Creator provided for them. Animals could not do that.

God created man in His own image. Man also could reason. He was morally free and capable of deciding for himself what he might do. In one respect he was created like the brute beast; next like the angels, given moral qualities similar, and he was created in the likeness of God.

Angels were in the image of God, but not in the likeness of God. (Isa. 14:4. [should be Isa. 14:12 - site Editor) Here we find the words of "Lucifer, son of the morning." "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." [PE369] He was in the image of God, but not in the likeness of God. He was not satisfied.

What does the likeness of God consist of? "God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness let him have dominion." God was King and ruled over all beneath Him. God made man a king, and beneath him were all the animals. God is King over the universe as man was king over the animal creation. Angels were never given a kingdom and dominion.

"What is man that thou mindest him; that thou crownest him with glory and honor?" the Psalmist would say. God made man lower in one respect; in other respects higher than the angels. God gave man dominion, but never gave such to the angels.

The Scriptures tell us Satan became dissatisfied. He said: "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God-I will be like the Most High." If man was king, he wanted to be a king. He was going to be a king and have man for his subject. God intended that man should continue in that way, but he lost both the likeness and the image of God. Man is not now in the likeness of God. He cannot control the wild beasts. How easy it would be for him to do so if man were in the likeness of God! As the result of sin he lost his dominion and has become like the brute beast at the present time. (Psa. 49) "Man being in honor abideth not. (He was in an honorable condition back in the Garden of Eden.) He is like the beasts that perish." If he had remained obedient to God! Man was not meant to die, animals were. Away back in the days before Christ, animals died. Animals were created thousands of years before man upon the earth. How rapidly they multiplied! Animals would have over-run the country, but God arranged that they should devour one another. They were made to die, "made to be taken and destroyed." (2 Pet. 2:12.) It is natural for an animal to die, but there is no unpleasantness connected with its death. God allows man to have trouble because he is going to have a future life.

Animals will not have a future life to counterbalance this. Like people who suffer from epileptic fits, when they regain their senses they do not remember that they felt anything. That is the way with the brute beast. The beast has not mental suffering like the man. It is natural for the beasts to die; man was made to live.

When man sinned against God he imitated the animals. The Scripture tells us how the serpent tempted Mother Eve. Probably like this: Walking about the Garden of Eden, where there was a tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she thought: "Of this tree we must not eat." But lying up there was a snake. She may have said: "Isn't [PE370] that terrible-up there in that tree?" That snake began to eat. She saw him. Next thought, "I wonder if he will drop dead?" He didn't die. You cannot safely eat a green apple. A cow could eat it and not be hurt at all. So that tree was all right for animals, but not for the human race. Then it was that the invisible serpent Satan whispered and said: "If it won't hurt that snake it won't hurt you."

So she copied the animal. She probably thought she could copy in one respect and then stop. You can't do that. A man may say, "I'll copy the thief and steal some money. Then I'll stop. I won't copy the thief any more." But he would begin to have the feeling that a thief has. It would be an injury to his character and make it easy for him to commit another theft. And soon he cannot stop being a thief. That was the way the human race lost the likeness of God and of the angels, and from that time to this has been like the beast. He is like the beast that perisheth. It is natural for the beast to die, but unnatural for the man to die. It was not God's intention for him to die. Animals love to take things easy. There are many men living like brute beasts-having a good time. We can see that man has fallen. We do not realize his actual condition at first. We never saw a perfect man.

Jesus was a perfect man. What marvelous thing Jesus did! He had dominion over the beasts of the field. He could ride an ass' colt up to Jerusalem. Jesus had more power over that colt than its mother had. It had never been ridden before, but Jesus had no trouble with it. And the crowd strewed palm branches in the way. A young colt that had never been ridden would gladly have run away because that strange Man was on its back.

On another occasion Jesus told his disciples to go to a certain place and catch a fish. They did so. They caught the fish and brought back a coin that was in its mouth.

And on another occasion, when they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, He told them to cast their net on the other side. They did so with wonderful success. Jesus had dominion over the fish of the sea. This shows something of the power of a perfect man. He raised the dead because of the power of God that was in Him. And some of the other things He did were not of the special power of God, but because of the power He possessed as a perfect man. He could walk on the sea in time of a storm. What we generally call "perfect men" simply means some that are a little better than some of the rest of us.

Man lost all that because of sin. He lost his home in the Garden of Eden with all its blessings. We have the Word of God that some day it shall all be restored to him. In that day "the lion will lie down with the lamb." We believe the time will come when all the beasts will [PE371] probably be docile. That also means that the time will come when men that are sinful and angry and beast like will be able to get along together. The time will come when men will have all of the beastliness taken out of them and will again be in the image of God.-Acts 3:21.

There is to be a restitution-a restitution of what was lost. Things are going to be as they were in the Garden of Eden. Things will be so grand and so wonderful, nobody will desire to leave this earth. I am sure everything will be glorious and wonderful, and when that day comes people will want to stay here.

But here we find that God is intending to take a class of people out of the world. Why is this so, if everything is to be so perfect as that? We think we find that is what God has been doing for the past nineteen hundred years. Those following closely in the footsteps of Christ have been receiving a change of nature and are going to have a nature like God-the image of God.-2 Cor. 3:18.

In other words, God is looking to see whether we are so anxious to be like Him that we are putting forth every effort to copy Him. Jesus was like Him. (John 14:9.) "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." As you look at Jesus you can see the goodness of the Father-the mercy of the Father. We want to copy the Lord Jesus, and the Heavenly Father is looking to see how we do this.

People wonder why it is so hard to be a Christian-why the way is made so strait and narrow. If it were made too easy there would be too many. He is just seeking a few. If all were chosen there would not be enough left to fill the earth. The Heavenly Father intended the earth to have a large population. Another reason: the reward would be so glorious and so high. The chosen ones would be heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God intends that His Son shall occupy the highest place in the universe, above the angels. Jesus prayed for His followers that all might be one as He and the Father are one. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Church.

The Bible never indicates that the Holy Spirit is a person. God is an individual Being. Jesus is an individual Being; the Holy Spirit merely an essence. We say man has a kind spirit-he is a good neighbor-meaning his disposition or character. The spirit of God was in Christ. Christ had the same spirit that God had-loyalty to the principles of righteousness. It does not mean some person to come in and live in us, but God's disposition is to come in us. Thus God, His Son, and the Church are all to be one. The Father would be above the Son, the Son above the Church, yet all would be one in the Father's great plan. That will be the real Trinity; God will be above all.

The Apostle speaks of the sufferings of the present hour, saying they [PE372] are not to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We find that class will undergo much suffering from natural and spiritual causes.

That class will share with Jesus in blessing all the inhabitants of the earth. Men long for blessing, realizing that things are not what they ought to be. Everybody will admit that man's efforts have been failures. The effort to establish peace on earth has been a failure. With all the medical skill of the doctors they have not found the way to keep people alive. Their efforts to make earth a happy place have all failed. God is going to accomplish this. Jesus and the Church are going to exercise Divine power, and then all things are to be brought to perfection, so that finally there will be as perfect an earth as Heaven is perfect. The Bible tells us that all the family, Heavenly or earthly, will be happy and satisfied.

To make this a perfect earth will take a thousand years. (Rev. 20:5.) At the close of the thousand years Jesus will deliver the Kingdom back to the Father, having put down everything contrary to the Father's arrangement. There will be not a sinner on earth. They will have put away all desire for sin. All who will not give up sin will be annihilated. We may say, God could surely have changed every sinner in one way or another. We understand that those who refuse to be renewed will be destroyed in the second death.

In Scripture various names are applied to God. We find that Moses before going down into Egypt asked the Lord, Who shall I say sent me? The Egyptians had names for their gods, some called one name and some another. Moses wanted to know what to tell the people as to who had sent him. God said to Moses: "I am that I Am." Tell them that I am sent you. He was what He was; no description of Him could be given. How Moses must have been impressed with that!

A little later another name came to be used generally, and that was the name Jehovah. This is a peculiar word. It simply means "That shall be", "He shall be." It is the verb to be represented with the future tense. Our Heavenly Father wants us to know that the real time will be in the future. When all other gods have passed away is the time when He will be, and His power will never be exhausted, but will continue. In all ages He will be-He is the great Jehovah. When our Father talks to us He talks of things in the future.

God, looking down to the time when all sin would be blotted out, seems to take a standpoint there, saying, I will be so glad when that time come. I can rejoice in all my creation when sin will be blotted out.

"A thousand years are but as yesterday." What is yesterday? It is generally spoken of as the day just over. Where did God take His standpoint? Down just beyond the Millennium. God's yesterday will be the [PE372] Millennium. He speaks of it as a day just past-the great Rest Day of one thousand years.

Now, dear friends, think what that day is going to bring to man. Nobody now is really satisfied. Hardly a day passes when we feel just right. We have trouble with our minds and with our bodies, our hands, our feet, our eyes. We have trouble with our families and with our neighbors and with our neighbors' families-trouble with everything.

Now imagine where there would not be trouble with anything-when all trouble will be at an end, gone entirely out of existence. Wouldn't it be a happy place to live-a heaven?

A good many of the denominations tell us about God. But we have to get another definition of God if we accept their views. How glad we are that we can help to tell them about the seventh thousand-year day, though they do not believe it while we are telling them about it. The time will come when they will believe it. "Thou shalt prophesy again before many peoples, and nations and tongues and kings." (Rev. 10:11.)

In the next age the world will be glad to receive the testimony respecting the goodness of God, when everything shall be brought back to the condition that God meant it should be on this earth; and the Christ will be in the condition to magnify the name of this wonderful God and mighty Creator.