In the faith of our souls we must hold fast the truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The importance of it is seen in the way God has guarded it in His Word, and in the way in which Satan seeks to undermine it. Rob us of the truth of His blessed Person, and you have robbed us of all; for if He is not God, as well as man, divine as well as human, then, as a matter of course, we have no sacrifice to expiate our guilt, no blood to purge our conscience and bring us nigh to God. Reduce Him to a mere man-the best of men, if you please- and you have no revelation of God, no shelter from His just judgment. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins"; nor is the blood of a mere man capable of doing more; it required a sacrifice of infinite worth to meet the just claims of a holy God against sin.

But, thank God, we are not left to the imaginings of our own minds on such a subject, so infinitely beyond us; but we have in God's word the fullest and clearest statements of who the blessed Person is, and ever was, whom we, through God's grace, can with adoring hearts call our Saviour.

We will for a few moments consider Him in His own eternal Being and divine glory; in His work as Creator, for it is attributed to Him; and in His humanity and glorious work of redemption, and consequent ascended glory.

Every one who is at all acquainted with the Scriptures must have been struck with the way in which the Gospel of John commences. John, by the Holy Ghost, presents to us the divine aspect of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore in his opening words at once presents to us the divine glory of His blessed Person:" 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" (John i:i, 2).

Who but the Spirit of God could have enabled a man to write such words as these ?-the very first clause taking us back into that silent eternity before time and creation were; and there we see, in the eternity of His own glorious Being, the Son of God as the everlasting Word-the uncreated expresser of God.

In the second clause His distinct personality also:'' And the word was with God."

In other scriptures we read:"I was set up from everlasting … or ever the earth was." " When He prepared the heavens, I was there. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth:then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him:and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men" (Prov. 8:22-31). "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2). After His incarnation, when here on earth, He said of Himself, "Before Abraham was, I am " (John 8:58).

In the third clause of John i:i we have a statement which every child of God delights to meditate upon, and by which he refutes the horrible insult of thousands who, because of His voluntary humiliation in becoming a man, to accomplish the counsels of God, would rob Him of His divine glory. Let it stand out in golden letters before the soul-"and the word was god."

In the presence of the growing apostasy from the truths of Christianity, may God help us to hold them faster than ever, and "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints."

" And the Word was God." God claims deity for His blessed Son. "Unto the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom; " then, speaking of what He was as a perfect man here below-perfect in all His ways-He says, "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity ; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows" (Heb. i:8, 9).

The Holy Ghost too, in Phil. 2, speaking of His voluntary love in His path of self-surrender, commences with Him in the place which no creature could occupy, and traces Him until we see Him in the lowest depth of self-abasement-"even the death of the cross." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:but made Himself"-mark that!-"of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Mark, it was not what He was made, but what He became, in His voluntary love. He emptied Himself of His divine glory-without ceasing to be divine- which He had with the Father from all eternity, became a man and took a servant's form, and submitted to the death of the cross, so that the claims of the divine glory and our desperate need might be met, and met forever. And what heart but that filled with the poison and enmity of Satan would, because of His voluntary humiliation and sufferings, deny His divine glory ? It was because He was divine He could thus stoop; and having accomplished the work the Father gave Him to do, He could ask back the glory that He had laid aside, and which He had shared with the Father from all eternity (John 17:5).

" The same was in the beginning with God." In that beginning, before anything was called into being that has a being, when the Godhead dwelt alone in its divine glory, when no creature existed, He was with God. In the bosom of the Father the eternal Son dwelt-in the joy, intimacy and delight of the only-begotten with the Father. He was God's eternal Son.

With unshod feet and adoring heart would one dwell upon a scene like this, infinitely beyond the creature's grasp, and which, but for divine revelation, would be entirely hidden from our view.

In the third verse of John i we learn that creation was brought into being by Him. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." Also Col. i:16-"For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:all things were created by Him, and for
Him :and He is before all things, and by Him all things subsist " (Col. i:16, 17).In Heb. i:2, 3 we
read that He is the maker and upholder of all things by the word of His power. He is invested with creatorial glory. " By Him were all things created."

This glorious Being, the everlasting Word, the eternal Son of God, the creator and upholder of all things, became flesh, as we read:"And the Word was made [or became] flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten with the Father), full of grace and truth " (John i :14). Beyond the fathomings of human thought is this blessed and glorious fact, yet that which simple faith receives as the revelation of God. "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory " (i Tim. 3 :16).

He came into this world, born into it of a woman, in fulfilment of that scripture, "This day have I begotten Thee" (Ps. 2:7). "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God " (Luke r:35). His name was to be called "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. i:23). The prophet had said, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:and the government I shall be upon His shoulder:and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, Father of Eternity, The Prince of Peace " (Isa. 9:6).

It was a wonderful moment when the Word became flesh, the eternal Son became the Son of man,
born indeed in a stable and laid in a manger. As He lay there an infant, He was none the less the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity. Great indeed is the mystery of it, and infinitely beyond our little minds to comprehend; yet, blessed be God, a glorious fact that faith receives and delights in.

God is now revealed in the Person of His Son. In creation, His power, goodness and wisdom were displayed; in providence, His inscrutable ways; and in the law, the principles of His moral government; but in Christ, God Himself was revealed. " No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John i:18). Man by his scientific researches never found out God ; 'for the Scripture saith, " Who by searching can find out God ? " But "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Therefore Jesus could say, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; " and, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life:no man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (John 14:6, 9).

In the light of this, how solemn are the words, " Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father:let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father " (i John 2:23, 24). Let a man live and die in his denial of the Deity of the Son of God, and he will find that he "hath not the Father":that he has nothing to do with Him in that relationship, and that he will meet a God of judgment only. Tremendous discovery for those to make who have talked much about the universal Fatherhood of God, which is a denial of the family of God proper, while they themselves have never been born again, and therefore are not the children of God.

The Cross-the very mention of which touches a chord in the Christian's heart, and fills it with gratitude and praise! Displace that cross, and what have you but the dark and awful judgment of a righteous God ? Give it its proper place, the great central place it has in the word of God, and all is changed. God is glorified about sin, the just demands of His holy law met, the imperishable ground of our justification and peace with God laid, and the righteous ground upon which the new creation will rest forever. It was there that divine love provided what divine justice demanded; it was there the heart of God was told out in the infinite depths of its love for poor, sinful man; it was there the heart of man expressed its enmity to God; it was there the power of Satan was broken:it was there that Christ's love for His own was told out, and His perfect love and obedience to God His Father culminated in those infinite sufferings, which reached their climax when the holy Sufferer cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " (Matt. 27:46).

We shall never forget the cross, nor the sufferings of the One who died there; He and they will ever be before us. Eternal ages will not lessen the sense of His love to us in our souls, nor the feeling of our infinite indebtedness to Him. And as the mind of heaven is one, so our hearts will ever be one in singing that new song, and in our ascriptions of praise to God and to the Lamb (Rev. 5). Everlasting bliss will be ours, but we will never forget that it is the fruit of the bitter agonies of the cross, and but for those agonies and blood we should never be there.

It is our joy to know that the sufferings of the cross are over, and that the Sufferer is now the risen and exalted Victor. He has exchanged the cross and the crown of thorns for the throne of God and the diadem of heaven; and the mockings and insults of poor, sinful men for the adoration of the assembled hosts above. He sits as man upon the throne of God; but we must not forget that He who sits as man upon the throne of God is nevertheless "over all, God blessed forever " (Rom. 9:5).

How the true Christian's heart loves to treasure up the precious truth of the Person of the Son of God, and to utterly refuse anything lower than the Deity and spotless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ-God and man in one Person. "And we know that the Son of God has come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life" (i John 5:20).

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among 'us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John i:14). "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace upon grace " (ver. 16).

" Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father's only Son;
God manifest, God seen and heard,
The heaven's beloved One.
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow."

E. A.
"TILL HE COME."