uplift and ennoble humanity. God’s church is filled with varied
gifts and endowed with the Holy Spirit.
From the beginning God has wrought through His people to
bring blessing to the world. To the ancient Egyptian nation God
made Joseph a fountain of life. Through him that whole people was
preserved. Through Daniel God saved the life of all the wise men of
Babylon. These deliverances illustrate the spiritual blessings offered
the world through the God whom Joseph and Daniel worshiped.
Everyone who will show forth Christ’s love to the world is a worker
with God for blessing humanity.
God desired Israel to be as wells of salvation in the world. The
nations of the world had lost the knowledge of God. They had once
known Him; but because “they glorified Him not as God, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, ... their foolish
heart was darkened.” Romans 1:21. Yet God did not blot them out.
He purposed to give them opportunity to become acquainted with
Him through His chosen people. Through the sacrificial service,
Christ was to be uplifted, and all who would look to Him should live.
The whole system of types and symbols was a compacted prophecy
of the gospel.
But the people of Israel forgot God and failed to fulfill their
[11] holy mission. All their advantages they appropriated for their own
glorification. They shut themselves away from the world in order to
escape temptation. They robbed God of service, and their fellowmen
of a holy example.
Priests and rulers became satisfied with a legal religion. They
thought their own righteousness all-sufficient. The good will of God
to men they did not accept as something apart from themselves, but
connected it with their own merit because of their good works. The
faith that works by love could find no place i