THE pheasants are beautiful birds and have a natural shyness and wildness, apparently impossible to breed out. They make their homes in long grass, willows or alders and when frightened they start up with a tremendous wher-r-r and shoot off like the wind in search of new cover. They continually chase grasshoppers, flies and other insects for their food and seem to enjoy it as children do their play. But they, too, like all the rest of creation, have their pests and troubles.
Hawks of various kinds come down upon them, and foxes, too, are bitter enemies. Then also a disease known as “gapes,” sometimes gets among them and causes a great many to die.
Why, one may ask, does God allow such a condition to be in His beautiful creation?
The answer is, sin has come in, in connection with the head—Adam—and so the whole creation suffers. Just in the same way as when a father is a drunkard, the whole family suffers. But God will not always allow it to be so. He will make a new creation out of this ruined one, and every trace of sin will be done away. The head of this new creation is His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was the only One competent to bear the awful result of sin, and meet the righteous claims of a holy God, and He did all that on Calvary’s cross. He was forsaken of God, because He became the sin-bearer, and thus met God’s righteous and holy claims that stood against the sinner. Then according to all the value of that death, He will bring in the new creation, and there will be no more tears, nor death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. Everything will be perfect then, and the full result of the work of the Lamb of God on Calvary’s cross will be seen and enjoyed forever and ever.
Would you, my dear reader, like to be in that new creation? If you would, God does not ask you to do anything in order to have part in it, but simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God. That One, who by His sacrifice, has atoned for sin—or covered sin by his blood—must be believed in; and if you do, you can say— “My sins are covered, blotted out and will be remembered no more.” Then you will rejoice in looking forward to the time when all things will be made new. At the present you may point others to the Lord Jesus and say, “BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD. John 1:2424And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. (John 1:24).
On the other hand, how dreadful it will be for those who will not believe in God’s Son. The Scripture says: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.” Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8).
ML 06/11/1916