will be our wisdom humbly to receive and follow His teachings.

CHAPTER X.

THE GODHEAD REVEALED.

IN the preceding chapter on the Godhead, we presented two points: 1. That God made himself known as the Creator of all, and therefore in the beginning before all. This involves His eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, His infinite wisdom and goodness; inasmuch as He, who knew all and could do all things, and had all wisdom and goodness, could so create all. 2. That God revealed himself in a visible form to men, so as to be cognizable by their senses, He speaking familiarly to them; they hearing His voice and beholding His glory.

We do not assert that that flaming sword in Eden, or the glory which appeared to Abraham, or the fire in the bush at Horeb, or the pillar of fire in the cloud, was literally God. They were the manifestation of Godthat manifestation of His immediate presence, by which He saw fit to make himself known to men, and by which they might recognize Him. It is according to the usual method in which we employ language. When we look upon a man, we behold but the outward manifestation of the real man. We take no cognizance of the indwelling spirit, except through the external medium of the body, of which the face is the chief feature. The eye, the lips, the whole countenance speak, lighted up by the divinity within. We look, first and last, to the face, to see and judge the man. His very soul and character are stamped upon those features; and the fixed gaze which the little child fastens upon the countenance, shows what power is lodged there, and what a medium it is for revealing the spirit within.

God has thus manifested forth His glory, and put on, as it were, a face, through which we might recognize His divine presence, and by which He might speak. The form which He assumed was eminently appropriate, and such as would not be mistaken for any mere created object of earth. The thought might indeed be suggested, if God thus clothes himself in some material form, by which to approach us, and cause us to draw near to Him, why might we not mistake it for something created, belonging to earth? To this it is answered, that the very condition of its existence showed that it was not of earth. Take, for example, that flaming sword before the way of the tree of life. All human experience tells us that fire is dependent for its existence on fuel. A flame exists because there is something to burn; and as soon as the fuel is consumed, the fire goes out. Contrast with this familiar fact that mysterious, ever-living tongue of flame between the cherubim-a self existence, as it were, dependent upon no earthly conditions. Though fed by no fuel, it never went out, never waned. What a living representation of a self-existent, unchangeable Deity! How impossible to confound it with any thing of earth!

Notice, also, the fact, so particularly stated, of that appearance of Jehovah at Horeb. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." There was the mystery of the sight. The bush was not the fuel which fed the flame. It was not dependent upon the bush in any manner for its existence; and when the mysterious fire was gone, there stood the bush, green and flourishing as ever. No wonder that Moses said, "I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." So was it with that mysterious pillar of fire in the cloud, and that insufferable brightness ever dwell

ing in the inner sanctuary over the mercy-seat. There were no windows in that tabernacle of the Lord for the admission of light from without. It was lighted from within, the lamps being kept continually burning in the holy place, while in the Holy of Holies the glory of the Lord did shine. There was the face of the living God himself, a glory above the brightness of the sun. What an unmistakable representation of the self-existent One, dependent upon no earthly conditions! How impossible to be turned into any form of idolatry!

We proceed, upon the basis of these facts, to construct the Scriptural argument of the Godhead.

I. The facts show that the visible manifestation of God on earth, and His dwelling among men, are the normal condition of things.

Those early manifestations of the Divine presence on earth, which we have so little appreciated and understood, are regarded as extraordinary and abnormal, aside from all the ordinary methods of the Divine procedure. We look upon the present as the natural condition of things, where God is no longer manifest; while the thought of His ever again taking up His visible abode among men is strange and incredible to most minds, seeming to contradict all the appointed course of nature and providence.

But is this earth, now under the rule of the Prince of the power of the air, in its normal, natural state? Is this course of things, as we witness it, what God made at the beginning what He wants it to be what He intends it shall be? Is not the present condition of the earth, groaning under the curse, unnatural? Is not the whole course of Divine providence abnormal? It cannot be denied by those who admit the facts of revelation concerning the apostasy of our race, and the introduction of a remedial system. Yet from this very abnormal

condition of earth, we have, to a large extent, judged of God and His ways both in the past and with reference to the future. From the same point of view our philosophers have reasoned, and built up their intellectual systems, assuming that the human mind was in its normal condition, and overlooking the terrible, yet patent fact, that the soul of man was in ruins, under the dominion of sin. But they have gone on, reasoning as if that fact were of no account, and they could study man as still the perfect work of his Maker. A fallen nature has been made little account of by philosophy. In a similar way theology has been studied to no slight extent, on the assumption that what we now see is the true course of nature. As if the curse of God, under which earth groans and travails, were all natural-as if it were natural for man to be in rebellion against Heaven-or for the bride to be clothed in sackcloth, mourning the absence of her beloved!

No, no! It lies upon the whole face of revelation, from beginning to end, that nature is out of course—that God has withdrawn and hidden His face, concealing His glories behind the dark cloud, so that we may no longer behold them. We thus are compelled to walk as pilgrims and strangers here, looking to the future for our glorious city of habitation, where we shall behold His face, with His full beauties revealed to our ravished vision.

The facts of the past, too, if we will but carefully study them, make this all plain.

What was the normal condition of earth, as we find it drawn by the pen of inspiration itself, and left on record for our instruction?

We have shown how God walked in familiar intercourse with our first parents in Eden, revealing His will, and manifesting to them His glory. This was nothing strange, nothing extraordinary, nothing out of the course

of nature. God did thus dwell with men on earth, and, even after the fall, did not withdraw himself, although He was not on the same familiar terms as before. Man had now become a sinner, and, as such, was under condemnation, unfit to stand in the presence of a holy God, or speak unto Him. It was necessary that he should understand this, and be made to feel it. His approach to the Divine presence, therefore, was put under restrictions. He was given to know clearly that God had not forsaken him; for there was His visible, manifested presence, still before the way of the tree of life, now permanently established as in His own sanctuary, and to be approached only by the appointed sacrifice, until the promised day of redemption should be brought in, when all things should be restored again to their natural order. Man was made to understand that he had been widely separated from God by his sin, yet not without hope; for there was mercy in store for him, and an appointed way by which still he might come and find favor. God was now to manifest himself under the restrictions of an economy of grace, forbidding a near and familiar approach as before, in his state of innocence; yet holding out the promise that the blessed time should come when his redemption should be effected, and he should know the full joys of God's blissful presence and salvation.

These, clearly, are the facts of the case as they were understood by our first parents; and we must endeavor to put ourselves precisely in their position, if we would perfectly understand the teachings of God to them. We must go back, and begin with them this great study of redemption and revelation, taking them up in their first elements. If, moreover, there was any fact that was perfectly clear to our first parents, in regard to which it was impossible for them to entertain a doubt, it was that the visible manifestation of God on earth, and their familiar