patriarchs in Exodus vj. 3.

Another commonly used form of the word Almighty is its Latinized form, "Omnipotent." Its meaning is expressed in Daniel iv. 35, "He doeth according to His Will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou." And by our Lord in St. Matthew xix. 26, "With God all things are possible."

The chief evidence of His Almighty Power is the Creation of the world, and its Sustenance by His Providence. He is "the Maker of Heaven and Earth," of "all things visible and invisible."

He created all things out of materials which He had created out of nothing. "In the beginning," it is stated in Gen. j. I, "God created the heaven and the earth." This "beginning" means some remote period which may have been many ages before the six days of Creation. After that "beginning" the earth remained "without form and void "-in a state of chaos and emptiness-until the six days' work began. Thus to create the materials or "matter" out of which anything is formed is within the Power of God alone. All productions of men's skill and industry are formed out of materials which owe their origin to God.

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After having created "matter" from nothing, God was pleased to use it for the formation of all organic beings and He did not make man out of nothing, but out of the "dust of the ground" which he had previously created. [Gen. ij. 7]. So also He commanded that the waters should "bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." [Gen. j. 20.] And in the same manner He said, "Let the

earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creepingthing, and beast of the earth after his kind." [Gen. j. 24]. But it was as much an act of Almighty Power to form living creatures out of matter already created, as it was to create the matter out of nothing. All three Persons of the Blessed Trinity co-operated in the work of creation. Wherefore it is said that "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," [Gen. j. 2.,] and that it was the Son of God "by Whom He made the worlds." [Heb. j. 2]. Which fact is probably referred to in the expression, in our Image, after our likeness." also in Psalm xxxiij. 6, "By the Word of the Lord"— the personal Word, the Son of God-" were the Heavens made; and all the host of them by the Breath," or Spirit, "of His mouth."

"Let us make man [Gen. j. 26]. And

All things were created for the glory of God. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." [Rev. iv. 11.] Hence the canticle, Benedicite omnia opera, "O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord." When therefore time comes to an end, the right of God as Creator is proclaimed by the angel in Rev. x. 6, who sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created Heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things that are therein," that there should be time no longer.

The end of the present Creation will be to be consumed, or purified, by fire. "The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." [2 Peter iij. 7,

also 10-12.] After which there will be " new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness: :" [Ibid. 13-a new creation out of the old materials; purified from the results of sin, and no longer open to the attacks of evil. So St. John writes in Rev. xxj. 1 : "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."

II. DOCTRINE RESPECTING GOD THE SON. CHRISTIAN doctrine respecting our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, contains great mysteries which can only be understood at all by long and careful instruction, and some of which cannot be fully understood at all in this life, but can only be received as God has revealed them.

For our Lord is a Person Who has two Natures, the Divine Nature, and the Human Nature; having always had the Divine Nature, but only taking the Human Nature when He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.

With reference to all connected with our Lord's Person and work as God and man, St. Paul says, "Great is the mystery of Godliness." [1 Tim. iij. 16.] And it is only by learning very carefully and reverently that we can have a right faith concerning this mystery.

§1. Our Lord's Divine Nature.

GOD the Son is our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God the Father. Other persons are called sons of God in Holy Scripture, but in a different sense; thus, Adam is called the Son of God in St. Luke iij. 38, because God created him without the intervention of any human father. The holy angels also, in Job, "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." [Job xxxviij. 7.] Again all human

persons are called "His offspring," in a verse which St. Paul quotes from a Grecian poet in Acts xvij. 28, because "in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Christians are also called the sons of God in 1 John iij. I 2, because they are adopted as His ch.dren in Christ Jesus.

But our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God in a different and higher sense, because He is, as the Nicene Creed states, “the only begotten Son of God, Begotten of His Father before all worlds; God, of God; Light, of Light; very God, of very God; Begotten, not made; Being, of one substance with the Father."

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Thus He is "God, of God," which means, God the Son," begotten of "God" the Father; and is not merely a superlative term like "King of kings and Lord of lords." The name, "Son of God," was proclaimed by the Father Himself, when at the Baptism and Transfiguration of our Lord the Voice of the Father was heard from heaven, saying, "This is My Beloved Son." [Matt. iij. 17; Luke ix. 35.] It refers to the Divine Nature of our Lord, which is derived by "eternal generation" from His Father. St. Augustine's illustration of this theological term has never been surpassed. He shows that light proceeds from, or is begotten by fire, that both are separate, yet both united, and that the fire and the light are contemporaneous and coexistent. "Give me then," he adds, "a fire without brightness, and I believe you that the Father ever existed without the Son." [Serm. cxvij. 8.]

But the term may also be said to have been communicated to His human nature, since the angel Gabriel said to the Blessed Virgin at the Annunciation, "He shall be called the Son of the Highest," and again,

"That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." [Luke j. 32-35.]

Various Titles of the Son of God.

[I.] JESUS. When He who had been from all eternity Son of God, became the Son of man also, He was called JESUS, which means Saviour," or "Saviour sent from God." This name had been foretold to

Joseph by an angel. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” [St. Matt. j. 21]; and referring to it, St. Peter told the Jews that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." [Acts iv. 12.] But it was not a new name. In two passages in the New Testament it is applied to Joshua. "Which also our fathers that came after, brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles." [Acts vij. 45.] "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterwards have spoken of another day." [Heb. iv. 8.] A false prophet is also mentioned whose name was BarJesus. [Acts xiij. 6.] Joshua bore the name of Jesus because he was a type or pattern of our Lord both in saving Israel from their Canaanitish enemies, and in leading them to the promised land, and his name, which was originally Oshea, meaning a Deliverer or Saviour, was changed to Jah-Oshea, or Jashua, "a Saviour sent from God."

We bow the head when we say the name Jesus as a sign that He who is called by that human name is God as well as man,—Our Saviour. We ought to bow at the name of Jesus at all other times as well as in the Creed, because the Bible says that, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and