is true of the manna in the wilderness. No scientist can tell where the elements came from, which made the water wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee; nor how the material was gathered for the abundance of bread and fish, with which Jesus fed the multitudes. When holy men performed their miracles, they spoke to dumb nature as if it understood their words. Translating their supernatural works into God's creations, Moses wrote, 16God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God created all things out of nothing by the power of his word. 17 He spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. Out of the dark abyss of nothing, without the sound of hammer or voice of workmen, the universe rose into being, and moves in incalculable measures, commanded by the will of God. God is more than a force. He is a person. Yet he is not an individual. He is apart from nothing. God is not a great big something, mightier than Ashtaroth, or Dagon, or Jupiter, high above the earth and outside of men, managing the world as a machine, and dealing with men as subjects, through the operations of positive laws, as civil rulers do. Men, whose thoughts are by their natural powers, conceive God as being an individual, dwelling perhaps in some high place: but the inspired worthies whose strength was by the holiness of their wills, their powers being without form, without boundaries, immeasurable and invisible, beheld God without bodily limitations, as not far from any one of them, the one in whom they lived, moved and had their being; and though every where present, yet a person as they themselves were. God is unique in that while he is a unit of life within himself, he is 16 Gen. 1:3. 17Ps. 33:9. separate from nothing. Truth necessarily is from everlasting to everlasting, and God is the ever living truth. God always has lived, he lives and always shall live, every where, the one living and only true God. As long as men are not rounded out in perfect holiness, they will hold to some lines of righteous conduct, while they are defective in others, and their supernatural powers will be limited. The prophets knew they ought to love their neighbors as themselves, but they considered the worshippers of Jehovah only, their friends, as their neighbors. 18Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. The prophets spoke of the divine life in men, as 19 Jehovah in the land of the living. They called the spiritual life in men, as well as the person of the most High, the Jehovah; and when they speak of the anger of Jehovah, or the wrath of God, it is not always clear, whether they refer to the depraved divine life in men, or the wrath of him who is on high. 20In the reading of the Old Testament there is a vail, which is of the flesh, but which vail is done away in Christ. Men are as their conceptions of the God they adore. Our scientific age sees God as the Creator and Providence. Astronomy opens up measures reaching out toward his immensity, chemistry is a kaleidoscope showing the innumerable forms of matter which God compounds out of less than a hundred atoms. His foot-prints in the rocks reveal the countless ages of his works in the past; consequently our age has been more abundant in inventions than any thousand years of the past. God revealed himself to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob "Math. 5:43. "Is. 38:11. as the Almighty. Abraham's mighty faith quickened Canaan into a fertility that no other land ever knew. God revealed himself to Moses as Jehovah, sympathizing with the children of Israel, bringing them out of their bondage with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments. But he revealed himself in the fullness of the Messias in Jesus Christ. 21God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, or by the angels has in these last days spoken unto us by a Son,being in the brightness of glory, in the express image of the person of the Father, for he had purged himself from the sins of humanity. A Son is better than the angels for he is in the same character of life as the Creator, consequently the heir of all things. Jesus was a man in the full maturity of life, ready for his possession and command of all things. 22The power of God and the wisdom of God has been manifested by the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. John wrote his Gospel to declare the power of the holiness of the divine life in men, with the perfect example Jesus the Christ manifested among them. "Logos" translated "word" means reason, the power of life by which we talk, word, speech. It is the power of life by which the Greeks distinguished men from the brutes. The sacred writers used it to denote the divine life in men. John introduced his Gospel saying; In the beginning was the divine life, the divine life was with God, God is divine life. All things were made by it, and without it there was not any thing made which was made. In it is life, and this is the light of men. This is the true life which lightens every man that comes into the world. The world was made by it and the world knew it not. It came to its own and its own nurtured it not, "Heb. 1:1-4. "I Cor. 1:24. but as many as nurtured it to them it gave the almighty power of becoming sons of God,―i. e., to them that believe, being in its nature, born not of the blood nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. The divine life was made perfect in one that dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as one begotten of the Father only, full of grace and truth. Jesus had a natural body. He was made a sin but he knew no sin, and thereby brought his being into a body living by the life of God alone. Our knowledge of God is in some relation or association with the physical. Jesus the express image of the Father, was a perfect manifestation of Jehovah. 23 Philip saith unto Him, Lord show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you and yet has thou not known me Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou, Show us the Father? The mission of Jesus Christ to the world was to manifest God to men in the power of their salvation. Our perfect salvation is by assimilation. We shall become like him by seeing him as he is. 24 Father I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. 25 To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. 26God 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. "John 14:8, 9. N the many. CHAPTER V JOSEPH OR SINNING LEGALLY ATIONS become great as the divine life is quickened in the people. When the strength of this life is inherited by children, who are ambitious for preferment, the strong few oppress Joseph was the great grandson of Abraham. Egypt in the beginning was a religious association under pious priests, probably the patriarchal form of government, and a people who were possibly the descendants of Job. Until the time of Joseph, Egypt was a community of freeholders owning their cattle and lands, but had departed from their ancient customs, as Israel in their rejection of Samuel, and had a king to rule over them. As long as the people are servants of the creature more than God, as long as the government of men is by force of the law, the conduct of Joseph in Egypt is not what possibly may come in free governments, but probably will come to be, as large wealth makes the temptation, and strong organizations give the opportunity. Moreover as the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it becomes unfruitful, cunning men perhaps wearing the profession of the religion of their fathers, at least posing as friends of the masses, will enslave the nation and that while the political movements are apparently the most benevolent toward the interests of the people. Joseph received a rich inheritance of life from his ancestors. He had a sound body and a strong endowment of life, which made him remarkable from the time he was a lad. The pre |