Jesus speaks of people who, seeing, see not, and hearing, hear not: neither do they understand. And it is a fact, well understood by every thoughtful, well-informed Christian, that the great mass of the people, including a vast majority of church members, has an altogether erroneous conception of life, of what it is for, and how it should be lived. They start with wrong ideas, which they drink in, as it were, with their mother's milk, and which they never get rid of. As a result they miss the mark all the journey through: they are continually doing what they ought not to do, and leaving undone what they ought to do. They see things in such a false light, in such a perverted way, Jesus says they are blind. Seeing, they see not: and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand. So widespread is this dreadful misconception, this appalling darkness, even the best, the most intelligent of God's children are liable at times to be affected by it. All need to be on their guard.

      One of the best helps to right living is to get, and to keep well fixed in the mind, the object of the life of man. For what did God make this world? For what did he make us? What is the ultimate destiny of this earth and of them that dwell thereon?

      That he made the earth for man is plain. He said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26). And so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them, and gave them dominion over the earth and over all that therein.

      For what did he make man? The earth is for man, man is for what? The Bible makes this plain, namely, that man was created for the purpose of enlarging the family of God. That family, it appears, consisted at first of three persons--the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. But the time came for the enlargement of this family. There must be added to it a great host of "sons of God," of beings made in the image of God, after the likeness of God, being educated, trained and fitted to reign with Christ as members of the royal family, as children of the King. (See 1 John 3:1-3; Rev. 20:4-6; Rev. 22:3-5; Dan. 7:18, 27; Matt. 19:28, 29; Rom. 5:17.)

      From these considerations it is clear that the earth is God's nursery, his training grounds, made primarily for the occupancy of his children, for their education, development and training until they shall have reached their majority, until the end of the Messianic age has come; then it is to be purified a second time by a great washing, a mighty flood, but this time in a sea of fire. Then God will take up his abode himself with his great family upon this new, this renovated and purified earth: "And there shall be night no more: and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever," or, as it is expressed in the Greek, "unto the ages of the ages" (Rev. 22:5).

      So it is apparent that the one great, all-including purpose for which we were made, for which we exist, is to be educated, trained, developed, so as to be indeed sons of God; brothers of Christ, heirs of God, who will dwell with their Father forever, and will reign with him. We were made for rulers to start with (Gen. 1:27), and the faithful are to be members of the ruling family of the universe, rulers for ever more. Daniel prophesied, saying, "The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. . . . I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the ancient of days came [1042] and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. . . . And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (Dan. 7:18, 21, 22, 27). Paul indignantly asks of the Corinthians, when they were so foolish as to go to law before the unbelievers, "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (1 Cor. 6:2, 3). In the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), and of the pounds (Luke 19:11-27), Jesus plainly shows that the faithful are to be made rulers. Referring to the time of his second coming, he says to the faithful, "Well done, thou good servant: because thou wast found faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities," and, to another, "Be thou also over five cities"; or, as he expressed it in another place: "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Again, he says (Matt. 24:45-47), "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath."

      I have seen numbers of Christians who did not seem to realize that they were in training, being prepared for citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem, and for a rulership how vast, how extensive and important we know not; they seem not to realize at all that every opportunity should be improved, every moment utilized with all diligence in this preparation."

      What becomes of those who do not get ready for the great end for which man was made? The answer is plainly given in 2 Thess. 1:7-10, where the Lord Jesus is represented as coming "from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believeth."

      Malachi, referring to what will occur after the second coming of Christ and the judgment day, says: "Behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, and that it shall leave them neither root nor branch" (Mal. 4:1). And, in the following verses, he shows that where the bodies of the wicked are utterly consumed, there will the righteous walk, the wicked being ashes under the soles of their feet. This passage, in connection with 2 Peter 3:3-13, shows that this earth on fire is "the lake of fire" into which the family impenitent are cast; and that this earth, after its purification by fire, is the place where the righteous will walk on the ashes of the wicked, the new earth. Scientists hold to the judgment that the inner part of the earth is a vast lake of fire thousands of miles in diameter. It may be so, and it may be that here will be the final home of Satan and of the hosts that followed him. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever [unto the ages of the ages]. . . . And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more" (Rev. 20:10, 13, 14 and 20:1).

      Every father and mother, when they look into the face of their babe, should realize, "This is a most precious treasure which God has given to us to prepare for the everlasting kingdom of God." Everything they do, say and are to that child, should look to this end. This is the one all-important matter in comparison with which all other things are of no consequence. He who secures this one end has succeeded brilliantly; all others have failed, and it would have been better for them if they had never been born. The dogs and the hogs are better than they. They may have been rich, great, worldly-wise, kings, presidents, counselors, philosophers; they may have been clothed in purple and fine linen, and have fared sumptuously every day, but they have utterly failed; they are the filth, the refuse, the offal of the earth to be cast out into the awful lake, "where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched."

      But the grand and glorious are they who attain to the everlasting kingdom.

      In the light of these teachings of the Holy Word, many a question of duty can easily be settled. It is as plain as light that we should let no earthly pleasure, no fleshly love, no temporal connection interfere with our race toward the eternal goal. Should a man that is a christian go into a partnership with one who is not? Certainly not: for the sinner is traveling the wrong way, is governed by wrong principles, and he can not but be a hindrance to the Christian, who for a million dollars ought not to encumber and hinder himself in the least in running this race. To take upon himself knowingly any burden that operates against his success is a plain mark of lack of faith, of appreciation of the prize, of worldly-mindedness. "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6:14).

      Ought a Christian to be married to one who is not a Christian? Certainly not: for, next to the union with Christ, this is the closest, firmest yoking known on earth. If it is dangerous to enter into a business partnership with an unbeliever, much more so is it dangerous to marry one. The one danger is many fold greater than the other. God would not allow the ox and the ass to be yoked together, because it was an unequal yoke. The ox was so much stronger than the ass; the ass so much quicker than the ox. How much worse it would have been, had they been traveling in different directions, and the yoking one [1043] which was never to be loosed while both lived? But the Christian and the sinner are traveling in opposite directions, and the marriage bond is not to be loosed while both live, except for one cause. My sister, my brother, if you marry that sinner, will it not be because you love that human being more than you love your God?