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There is something very impressive and admirable in that long look ahead which distinguished the worthies of old. None ever lived so sympathetically in the present as they did. None ever lived so far away from the present, and so far ahead of it, as they did. They fed their Souls upon the visions of ages to come.

1. We need just such a forelooking. The condition of the human race as it now exists is not a theme for pleasurable meditation. To those who believe in the moral government of God and in the active administration of affairs in this world and in nature by the Divine mind, the actual condition of the race seems inexplicable.

2. The condition of the Church itself leads one to rebound from the present, and to seek comfort in looking into "the ages to come."

3. Our knowledge of God in the present state of things, with all that has been done to winnow the wheat from the chaff, is exceedingly incomplete and unsatisfying.

4. The "ages to come," will reveal a personal experience in us of which now we have but the very faintest trace in analogy.

(H. W. Beecher.)

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KJV: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

WEB: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;