QUES. 15.-What is the force of the passage in 1 Tim. 3:15 :"The house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth?" What is the idea of pillar and ground?

ANS.-Such passages as Gen. 19:26-Lot's wife "became a pillar of salt;" ditto, 28:18-"Jacob . . . took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el;'' Ex. 33:9-"As Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses;" these, and others like them, show plainly that a chief idea in the pillar is that it is a witness to, or proclaims, something of importance. And the Church, by her very constitution, proclaims something of vast importance-the great "mystery of godliness," given in detail in the verse following that of your question. Bat as Paul was teaching all these things to Timothy to form his Christian character, that he might know how to behave himself in the house of God, so is the Church taught by the word of God in all the truth, that her character may be formed by it, that she may conduct herself according to the truth, and thus be the "ground" (support) "of the truth." It is the practical conduct of the people of God which supports the truth in the world. Inconsistency in them produces unbelief and discredit of the truth. Thus the Church is the pillar of the truth by what she proclaims, or rather by what God proclaims in her ; and she is the ground, or support, of the truth by the character she bears and her practical holiness.

QUES. 16.-We firmly believe, and justly so, I believe, that the three Persons in the Trinity-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-are co-equal and co-eternal. In what way, then, are we to understand John 14:28 :" My Father is greater than I ? "

ANS.-They are the same in nature, from and to all eternity, just as any man's son is absolutely the same as his father in nature. But in position the Father is greater than the Son, in the Godhead as also in creation.