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CHAPTER XI.

THE GODHEAD REVEALED.

THE facts developed and established in the chapters preceding, make it plain

That Christ is the revealer of the Godhead.

God is an infinite Spirit, known only as He reveals himself to our apprehension. We cannot comprehend Him, neither can we understand Him except as He puts himself within our reach. What method, then, has God adopted, by which He comes out from His own eternity, and brings himself within the range of His intelligent creatures, so that they may apprehend Him? Jesus answers this question, John i. 18: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Paul also declares Christ to be the revealer, or the manifestation of the Godhead. 2 Cor. iv. 6: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Christ, then, has undertaken the work of unfolding the infinite Godhead.

As the first step in this process, He created these worlds to be a theatre for the Divine manifestations. This material creation was the first putting forth of the Deity. This, too, as the New Testament distinctly informs us, was the work of Christ. Man was the last link in the creation, and the brightest image of his glorious Creator-the noblest shadowing forth of the great In

finite himself, for he was made in the likeness of God. With man, too, God condescended to dwell, holding familiar converse with, and revealing to him His visible glory.

Who, now, was it that thus clothed himself with an embodied form, and brought himself within the range of the human senses? Not He, whom we designate the Father. He has never thus come out from His own hiding-place. But it was He who was subsequently known as the Christ. He put on that outward glory, clothing himself in flames of fire, and drawing near, so that He could speak to the children of men, and they might behold His face. Sometimes He put on the human form, as when He appeared on one occasion to Abraham, and was entertained by him; and again, to Jacob, wrestling with him to the break of day. In the fulness of time, He condescended to be born of a woman, and come under the curse with us, a full partaker of our nature. In this state He accomplished the work of our redemption, and ascended on high, bearing that humanity redeemed from the curse to the right hand of power, to be constituted head over all. Thus we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, which is the fullest, most perfect revelation of the Godhead, full of grace and truth. In times of old, men beheld it only in the face of Christ—God revealed in the fire, or the cloud. But the last revelation was in the person of Jesus, our elder brother-our anointed High-Priest and King. But it is the same One throughout, as John clearly and emphatically declares, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the

glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

The next point to be considered in connection with this subject, and full of instruction and interest, is

The peculiar name by which God has chosen to identify himself among His people.

Jehovah is the name which God has appropriated to himself forever, and by which He was to be known to His people through their generations. It is His memorial name, so declared to Moses, and through him to Israel that name by which, above all others, the memory of God was to be preserved on earth, and His most sacred relations to His children proclaimed-that name which tells the most of Him, and by which His people know Him best. It was given by God under very peculiar circumstances, and in answer to the request of Moses, that He would designate the name by which He would be known to Israel. "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Aм hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations; " Exod. iii. 13.

God thus gave this as a name of peculiar interest and significance, that should ever be dear to His people in their generations. How much significance, now, believer in Christ, does that name convey to your mind? How much meaning has it? Not much, we venture to say. You do not know or appreciate God more by that name than by any other. What, then, is the difficulty? Did God fail to give a name that had significance in it? Or have we failed to get its true meaning ?

To have this matter understood, we must state some facts familiar enough to Hebrew scholars, but not so well known to others.*

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The Hebrew language is peculiar in one respect, in that its letters are all consonants, the vowel sounds being unexpressed and supposed to be understood. In ancient Hebrew writing, therefore, there was nothing to mark the sounds for vowels. There was a consequent liability, as the language became a dead one, that the proper pronunciation of words might be lost. To prevent such a result, about five hundred years after Christ, vowel points were introduced by some Jewish Rabbins, which are not letters proper, but points or marks written above and below the letters to indicate the vowel sounds. These Rabbins fixed the vowel points that we have in the name Jehovah, giving it that pronunciation.

Again, the Jews did not allow themselves to pronounce that sacred name, Jehovah. They looked upon it with such superstitious awe that they would not take it into their lips. If, then, the vowel sounds of that name anciently were neither written nor spoken, the question might well be started, Do we know certainly that we have the right ones?

It is now agreed among the ablest Hebrew scholars, that the vowel sounds attached by the Rabbins are not the correct ones; that, instead of its being Jehovah, it is Yahoch, the consonants being the same in both. It is now admitted that the name is derived from the future tense of the Hebrew word, signifying, to be, the first person singular being Havah, I Am; and Yahveh is the third person singular of the future tense, formed into a

* This subject has been treated more at large and with great ability by Alexander Mac Whorter in his "YAHVEH CHRIST," the argument of which has not been successfully controverted, and to which the author acknowledges himself much indebted.

noun, and meaning, He who will be, or, Who is to come. The words, translated, I Am that I Am, are properly in the future tense, and should be rendered, I will be who I will be, and the I Am is, I who will be. The declaration of God, then, was as follows, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, "Yahveh (He who will be), God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." I will be known to Israel as He who will be, or, Who is to come. Is there significance to this name-any thing peculiar and appropriate?

Go back, then, to the beginning of the economy of grace and redemption, and mark the import of that great promise written over its majeste portals, and inscribed upon every stone of the structure-the promise which first fell from the lips of God upon the ears of the trembling pair in Eden, as they waited to hear their doom pronounced. Can it be that they are not to die? Yes, verily, there is a reprieve, and the gracious promise is made of One to be raised up of their seed, by whom the salvation should be accomplished. They might prevail yet against their mighty enemy-the tempter. They were taught to look in joyful hope for a deliverer-the Coming One.

Of course, our first parents knew at this time nothing of the person or character of this Deliverer, beyond the general fact that he was to be born of them. Neither did they know of the time of his coming, as nothing was indicated in regard to this. There was simply the promise of One, who should bruise the head of the serpent, and He to be of their seed.

What, now, were the thoughts of Eve in that joyful hour when she took her first-born in her arms? Her thrilling utterance was, "I have gotten a man from the

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