Deity of Christ is the very foundation of the Christian faith; no truth is more vital, none more preciously treasured by the devout heart, and none is more insidiously and persistently assailed. The attestation of the Voice from heaven at the commencement of our Lord's public ministry, "This is my beloved Son," was speedily challenged by Satan's subtle "If"-"If Thou be the Son of God." Alas, the arch enemy has had many followers throughout this dispensation, but it remained for these "last days " to witness a widely-diffused denial of this fundamental truth of Christianity by professed
Christians!

Solemn indeed is this defection from the faith, which is being taught and tolerated amongst many of the bodies hitherto regarded as evangelical. The lowly, dependent place to which our Saviour stooped, when in infinite compassion as Son of Man he assumed the burden of a fallen creation in order to redeem it, is made to serve in denial of His supreme glory as God the Son; and the very perfections of His human personality in His pathway of obedient service, are adduced as disproof of His Deity! Whilst the sublime life of Christ is eulogized, His vicarious death is ignored or flatly denied. The Christian "religion" is accorded an honored and a leading place in the world, while "the Church which is His body," is practically unknown and unrecognized. Our Lord's preeminence as a moral and ethical teacher is universally admitted, while His divine mission to redeem to God by His blood is coldly discredited. As was the Son of Man of old, so the Son of God to-day is betrayed with a kiss.

But the Scriptures cannot be broken, however much men may wrest them to their own destruction, and Old and New Testaments unite in bearing manifold record that the One who came of the Jews according to flesh, "is over all God blessed for ever. Amen." On this divine foundation we stand with divine assurance; for "Ye are complete in Him," declares Scripture, "in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9).

No intelligent being can reasonably doubt that God had a supreme purpose in creation, which still awaits consummation. Mere human thoughts and theories as to man's destiny are vain and contradictory. Scripture alone can in errantly speak on this momentous question; and a divine revelation as to it is given us in Eph. 1:9,10:"Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself:that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth." This purpose of God is not contingent on the fall, nor summed up, as some think, in the recovery by the Second Man of what the first man lost. The first man could not claim, as did our Lord in resurrection, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." By no mere man could such omnipotent power be wielded, and assuredly no mere man, nor angel, could "redeem and reconcile sinful man to the most holy God.

Every counsel and purpose of God centers in the Son; in Him all the promises of God are yea, and in Him. Amen. The reconciling of all things in heaven and in earth unto Himself, the gathering all under His headship in a blessed and abiding unity, awaits final accomplishment by that One who "is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature"-"God manifested in flesh."

Isaiah 9:6 sheds a glorious ray of prophetic light on the Christ who was to come:"Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." What depths of grace, and heights of Godhead glory! A babe in a manger is The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father! Well may the creature adoringly bow and worship in contemplation of such grace and glory, and exclaim with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!"

Of the dispensational periods, or ages, wherein fallen man is being tested and proved under varying conditions, their true bearing can only be understood as it is realized that there is throughout a consistent progression towards the consummation of this purpose of God. And is there not an illustrative analogy between the marvelous"Name" of Isaiah 9:6 and the manifestation of the divine presence in the three latter dispensations?

"From the time when Jehovah brought His people out of Egypt "with a mighty hand . . . with signs and wonders;" in their journeyings through the wilderness; in their establishment in the land; in the years of declension and captivity, until Ezekiel saw the Shekinah glory departing from the temple and the city-the great outstanding fact in Israel's checkered history was the presence of "The mighty God" in their midst.

With the advent of Christ a new era began in the dealings of God with man, with a fuller and more blessed revelation. The person of the Son, "God manifest in flesh," is introduced with miracles and signs in attestation of His grace and power. "Whom say ye that I am?" is the great question now. To the caviling Jews our Lord emphatically says, "I and the Father are one." To one of the twelve asking, "Lord, show us the Father" He answers, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;" and the divine relationship into which the believers are brought by the redemption He has accomplished, was then made known by the message Christ sent to His own on the morning of His resurrection, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God"-thus linking them with Himself. Therefore, writing to the believers at Rome, the apostle of the Gentiles says, "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father;" and John writes, "Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." These and many other passages show that the coming of the Son revealing the Father brings in a new era in fulfilment of the purposes of God; and linked with this, and on the ground of an accomplished atonement a new and divine relationship is established and proclaimed. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," writes the apostle, "who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heaven-lies in Christ Jesus"-in contrast with the earthly blessings promised to Israel.

But the "times of the Gentiles" must be fulfilled and the usurping prince of this world must be overthrown before the varied glories of the "Name" of Isaiah 9:6 are fully manifested. "Peace on earth," no less than "peace with God," must rest on a divinely righteous basis. Like Melchisedek, Christ must first be King of Righteousness, and after that, King of Salem-that is, King of Peace. The wars of David were a necessary prelude to the glories of Solomon's peaceful reign. Every power hostile to God and inimical to man's blessing must be subdued, and every knee must bow to the rightful Heir and Lord of this poor earth before it can enter on that glorious age of blessing and felicity, so long foretold, under the righteous and beneficent rule of "The Prince of Peace."

While one divine affirmation ought surely to be sufficient for the creature, the God of all grace, forbearing with man's fallen condition, has multiplied the testimonies as to the deity of our Lord. Fulfilling the prophetic decree of the 2d psalm, "The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee," the angel Gabriel, a thousand years later, announced to the virgin Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Then, on entering His public ministry, the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him, and the Father's voice testified, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And when His rejection by the nation was fully manifest, a glimpse of His glory and kingdom to come is afforded us on the Mount of Transfiguration, and again the Voice out of the glory-cloud proclaims, "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased:HEAR YE HIM."

Concerning the whole race of Adam, the Holy Spirit's verdict is, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"-negatively failing to glorify God, and positively sinning against Him. In glorious contrast the challenge goes forth to the inimical Jews, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" Who but the beloved Son of the Father could say at the close of a life of service, "I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do?" And who save the Son of God could add, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was?" Every life but His was justly subject to death because o-f sin; but He, the Lord of life and of death, could say concerning His life, 'No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again;" and having this power, He voluntarily, out of love and deep compassion for a perishing world, "By the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God." Here again we see the same blessed Trinity acting in unity for man's salvation.

Satan, aspiring to an equality with God, revolted, and seducing both angels and men, assumed sovereignty over a fallen world. Thus, in revolt, he became exposed to the divine judgment. In wonderful contrast, Christ, the Creative Word and earth's rightful Lord, being in the form of God, voluntarily took the form of a servant, that in manhood and by death He might bear all the judgment resting upon sinful man, and thus retrieve and reconcile what sin had utterly alienated from God. At infinite cost, He bought the "pearl of great price" (the Church which He loves) and "the field" also-which is the world:but while the inheritance has been "purchased," it still waits to be delivered from its present bondage. And while we see not yet all things put under Him to whom all power in heaven and in earth is given, and the manifestation of God's purpose remains in abeyance, we see Jesus, victor over sin, Satan, death, and the grave, exalted to heaven, and crowned there with glory and honor. Who could conceive of any mere creature being seated on the eternal throne in equality with God? Yet no less than five times, is this predicated of the Lord Jesus in the epistle to the Hebrews (chaps. 1:13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2).

As revealed in Ephesians and Colossians, God's purpose embraces two spheres of blessing-the earthly and the heavenly. In keeping with its heavenly calling and destiny the blessings of the Church are spiritual, and in the heavenlies. But the O. T. prophets foretold the blessings and glories of a Messianic age to come-the kingdom of God on earth. In due time Israel's King, of the house of David, came to "His own;" but instead of receiving Him, led by their rulers they cried, "Away with Him-crucify Him!" The Messianic kingdom therefore is deferred by their rejection of the King; God meanwhile is visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name; the mysteries of the purpose of God, and of the Church, being also revealed.
The natural branches (Israel) were broken off the olive tree because of their unbelief, and the Gentiles are grafted in the place of blessing and testimony. God's earthly people are dispossessed and scattered till the "fulness of the Gentiles" be come in; and Jerusalem remains trodden down until the "times of the Gentiles" be fulfilled, and the rapture of the saints to meet our Lord in the air takes place when "the fulness of the Gentiles" has come in. The parables of Matt. 13 give the history of the Kingdom of Heaven in mystery, during this dispensation.

Because of their rejection of Christ the Jews were cut off dispensationally, and the Gentiles grafted in dispensationally also:then conies the warning, "Thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded but fear;" for, if not abiding in God's goodness, "thou also shalt be cut off." Have they continued? Alas, the mystery of iniquity has been at work, even from apostolic times, and is now rising up into an apostasy which will finally be headed by the Antichrist. In view of this Jude exhorted the saints to ''earnestly contend for the faith once delivered." And what of to-day? No one conversant with Scripture, and taught of God, can doubt that we are in "the last days." Laodicea is an open page. Rapid indeed has been the awful downgrade "progress" of the last few years. The departure from the vital and fundamental truths once delivered, with the unsettlement and upheaval in every relationship and activity of life, too surely tend, not towards that peace and equity of which men so vainly dream, but towards a universal apostasy.

But, thank God, ere the full development of the mystery of iniquity, the Lord shall descend from heaven and with a quickening shout gather home the saints of all the ages to be for ever with Himself. Cast out of heaven with his angels, Satan finds the earth-with the exception of Jewish and Gentile remnants called out and preserved of God- seething in apostasy, rapidly culminating, under his leadership, in open antagonism to God and to His Christ. Judgment swift and terrible falls. The opened heavens shall reveal the once-despised Nazarene, now robed in glory and in omnipotent power, as King of kings and Lord of lords, will smite the nations, redeem His earthly people, consign Satan to the abyss, and establish in power the Kingdom of God on earth. Delivered from the dominion of the arch-deceiver, the curse removed, and basking in the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, the remnant of Israel shall hail the Deliverer with songs of rejoicing and thankful praise, and the nations in universal peace enjoy the fulness of earthly blessings.

While many features of the Kingdom-age will foreshadow and partake of the blessedness of the eternal state, it will none the less be also the final test of man under the most favorable and blessed additions. Although Satan will be bound, and the divine glory manifest, yet sin (though restrained, and manifest wickedness effectively curbed-shall still be existent; like all previous dispensations, this also, alas! closes in judgment.

When a thousand years of Christ's beneficent reign shall have run their course, the arch-enemy, set loose for a little season, shall find unregenerate man, though yielding feigned obedience, in heart at enmity against God still. Chafing under the restraining rod, and loving darkness rather than light, hosts innumerable are found ready to flock to the Satanic standard of revolt. Fire from God out of heaven falls upon the rebel hosts. The dissolution of the earth and the heavens follow, and the judgment of the dead at the great white throne. The conflicts of the ages shall end with the destruction of that trinity of woe-Satan, sin and death for ever.

As to the eternal state, some conceive of earth, restored to Edenic conditions, as the abode of all the redeemed; while others, ignoring the earth entirely, think of heaven only in connection with the display of God's glory in redemption. Both conceptions are more or less at variance with the divine revelation. According to Scripture, distinct companies of the redeemed shall occupy the new heavens and the new earth with different blessings and glory, throughout the endless ages. Peter, in his first epistle, writing to believers of this dispensation, tells of an inheritance "reserved in heaven for you;" while in his second epistle, after referring to the dissolution of the present earth and heavens, he adds:"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The promise referred to, doubtless, is that of Isa. 65:17, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind;" and in Isa. 66:22-"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain"-may we not infer that, in fulfilment of the promises to their fathers, Israel is destined, in the purpose of God, to occupy on the new earth a place of distinctive blessing analogous to that accorded to the church of the Firstborn in heaven? As star differeth from star in glory, the companies of the redeemed may likewise differ, according to the wisdom and purpose of God. One spirit shall pervade and unite all in the blessed bonds of Infinite Love- the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named."

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth . . . And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them . . . And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:for the former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:1-4).

Thus shall redeemed creation enter into and share for ever, to His praise and glory, the ineffably blessed and inviolable rest of God. Glorious consummation of the divine purpose! W. L. G.