“Only those who see (who understand) the divine plan of the ages, and the relationship between the past, the present, and the future, are in any degree able to make known the greatness of our God, his glorious power, and his honorable majesty. This class is referred to by the Revelator as singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb – they sing in the sense of declaring in harmonious and beautiful cadences the relationship of the types and figures of the Law and the Prophets of the Mosaic dispensation with the antitypes of these of the Gospel dispensation; showing that all things written in the Law and in the Prophets are finding glorious fulfilments in the Lamb of God and in the great plan which the heavenly Father is working out through him. –Rev 15:3,4.

The Revelator tells us the substance of this song; namely, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints!”

But what great and marvelous work has God performed, and how shall we see that he is both just and true in all his ways and dealings?

From the standpoint of those who can sing this song everything must be clear as noonday!

First amongst the great and marvelous works of the Almighty was the sentence of death upon father Adam and his posterity because of disobedience – NOT a sentence of eternal torment, which would be as unjust, and unreasonable, as it is untrue and contrary to the Word of God – not the false presentation respecting this divine act that is held forth in all the creeds of Christendom, – but the great and marvelous act which God declares he accomplished when he let fall upon our race the sentence of death, which has brought in its train all the various disasters and difficulties, mental and physical, to which our fallen flesh is heir, all of which are tending to, and resulting in death, the penalty. As we look at this marvelous work, we must concede that it was just (in that it was merited), that it is true (in the sense of not being an unreasonable penalty), true in the sense that it was exactly what God forewarned father Adam the penalty of disobedience would be. “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”

But Jehovah’s first great and marvelous work of condemnation was, after four thousand years, followed by another great and marvelous work; viz., the work of redemption. How stupendous this work of the ransoming of all Adam’s race of hundreds of millions by the sacrifice of one man! How great and wonderful indeed this act, and how just and true, and how fully in harmony with every feature of divine justice and love! Even the philosophy of the ransom is explained to the Lord’s people, – how that all mankind were included in one man’s sentence, to the intent that in due time the penalty of sin could be paid on behalf of all mankind by the one sacrifice for sins, “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.” (1 Tim 2:5,6; Rom 5:12,18,19.)

Was not this a great and marvelous work?

Who that realizes the lengths and breadths, and heights and depths of this manifestation of divine justice and divine love, can do aught else than sing this song of Moses and the Lamb, declaring to all who have ears to hear it, “Great and marvelous, just and true are thy ways, Lord God Almighty.” But few see it clearly; and hence few can sing this wonderful story to others.

But there is still another feature to this song, and it is glorious also, though it pertains not to the things that are past, but to the things yet to come. It declares, “Who shall not reverence thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?” It looks forward to the time when this great redemption, accomplished by the blood of the Lamb, shall be made available to every member of the human family. It looks forward to the glorious Millennial age, to the time when, under divine providence, the knowledge of the Lord, essential to faith, and to any acceptance of his favor and mercy through Christ, shall be extended to every creature, – who indeed will not reverence the Lord and glorify his name?

Surely, as the Scriptures have declared, at that time, “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess,” and while this bowing and confessing may at first be compulsory, and not with all the volition of the heart, yet the Scriptures assure us that ultimately all who will not come into heart harmony with the Lord and with all his gracious arrangements and provisions, shall be cut off from amongst the people, – in the Second Death. (Acts 3:23) So that ultimately, instead of the universe being filled with hundreds of millions who to all eternity will wail and gnash their teeth and blaspheme God’s holy name in agony – instead of this the time shall come when every tongue in heaven and in earth shall be heard praising God, and giving honor to him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb, forever; for by that time all evildoers, all lovers of unrighteousness, shall be cut off from amongst the people.

But this song continues, and has yet another strain. It declares, “Thou only art holy” – all holiness, all perfection, wherever it is found, must proceed from God, the great fountain of holiness. How strange, then, that any of God’s dear people (and we ourselves were once amongst this number) should so misunderstand the divine character and plan as to misrepresent the same as being the very essence of unholiness, injustice, unkindness, inequity, lovelessness, toward the great mass of God’s creatures! (Having as they say, predestinated these to eternal torment), It will indeed be a glad day when all shall reverence God’s name, and when all shall recognize that he is indeed the fountain of holiness.

But there is still another strain in this song, and it is a grand one also, like all the others, – reaching down into the Millennial age. It declares, “All nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” “All nations” will include, not only all the nations then living, but all the nations of the dead, just as does the promise which God made to Abraham, saying, “In thy seed [the Christ, Head and body] shall all the families of the earth be blessed” – all nations.

How few, how extremely few, are able to learn this song! How extremely few learn it so well as to be able to sing this song to the glory of God! How many who supposedly were trained to sing “the good tidings of great joy” for all people, are in the pulpits to-day singing totally different songs; some of them songs, which are not so much good tidings at all, at least not for the vast majority, others sing songs of “Evolution,” declaring that there was no fall, consequently no redemption from a fall, and consequently that there is to be no recovery from a fall; but that man is grandly climbing up, up, up, and proving to be his own Savior, and hoping to attain they know not what, – they know not when.

Others are singing the song of Calvinism, predestination, foreordination and election. Others are singing the song of Arminianism, and hoping that God will be able to accomplish much in the future through their assistance, – which they hold he has unsuccessfully been trying to do for six thousand years. Others are singing the song, “In union there is strength,” and seeking to combine for what they term a “social uplift,” or “the salvation of society.” Others are singing the song of works and universal salvation.

But how few are able to sing this song of Moses and the Lamb, or to see how God’s great and marvelous works of the past reflect gloriously upon his character, both for justice and love, and give us the best of all assurances for the working out in the future of the glorious plan which he has already outlined and begun!

But why are there so few who can sing this song?

The reason why so few can sing this song is because it is only for those to sing who have “gotten the victory over the beast and his image and his mark and the number of his name.” These symbols, representing earthly institutions which now hinder and bind and enslave the Lord’s people to creeds, must be overcome by every soul that would hope to be able to appreciate this song, and to sing it in his daily life to others according to his opportunities. Those who try to sing this song while yet in Babylon find their mistake.” R2713