have it, but would only shew, what Scripture itself asserts, that God has spoken to man through partial revelations, till he could receive a more perfect knowledge of the truth through Christ and His Spirit.

Of course in such a case, if men are not aware of their state as fallen from God, and as such unable to see Him as He is, it is easy to object that one partial presentation or revelation of Him contradicts or clashes with another. But all nature is full of similar apparent contradictions, which are found to be no contradictions, as its secrets one by one are opened to us. Is not the one white light made up of seven differing rays and colours? Is not the order of the heavens, so quiet and so firm, the result of forces, centrifugal and centripetal, which seem directly antagonistic? Is not the balance of the heart's life preserved by systole and diastole? Is not the unity of mankind made up of man and woman? In the moral world it is the same. Truth seems often opposed to love; yet are truth and love both outcomes and manifestations of the same one Blessed God. Christ, the perfect image of God, reveals to us the unity of all apparent antagonisms. While however we remain in the flesh, we can only "know in part, "1 and to meet us with such knowledge, He, whose fulness fills all things, has revealed Himself in a way which men may call imperfect, the very imperfection of which, if it may be called so, is its perfection, shewing its perfect adaptation for its

1 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

appointed end. If we can but see what the differing names of God declare, we shall be forced, I feel assured, like all who have seen this great sight, to fall down before Him, crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God, Almighty, Most High, heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory."

I will only add here, that, as these names of God speak of His nature, none can ever rightly see their import but those who are partakers of that nature; "for who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Mere intellect therefore will never open what these names contain, nor will even the desire for light, unless that desire is joined with faith and prayer and humility. On the other hand a walk of faith, a life of love, a daily waiting upon God for His Spirit, a humble treasuring of His words, even when at first they seem dark and mysterious, these things, as they come from God, will lead to God, and to a fuller knowledge of Him, and of His fulness, as He has revealed it in His written and in His Incarnate Word. He has made us to know and love Him, and to bear His image, and so to reveal Him to a world which knows Him not. And just as by grace that image is restored in us, by the indwelling of Him who is the image of

the invisible God, we may see what eye hath not seen, and hear what ear hath not heard, even the things which God reveals by His Spirit. There is indeed a stage of our experience, when the one question

which occupies the soul is, How can a sinner be brought to righteousness and peace? But there is no less surely another, in which the soul hungers after God, to know Him and His perfections, in the deep sense that to know Him is the way to be conformed to Him. The names of God serve both these ends. In the beatific vision God will be all. Even here, in proportion as His redeemed see Him, they are made like Him. May our meditations on His names serve this end, to His glory and our blessing evermore!

GOD OR ELOHIM.

1

HAVING thus seen that in Holy Scripture God is spoken of under different names, each given with a purpose, to set forth some distinct virtue or characteristic of His nature, we may now turn to the first name under which He is revealed. This is "God," -in Hebrew, "Elohim." This is the name, and the only name, by which God is set before us in the first chapter of the book of Genesis. Here we find it repeated in almost every verse. Under this name we see God, according to His own will, working on a dark and ruined creature, till by His Word all is set in order and made "very good." This is the name which we need to know before all others. This, therefore, is the first revealed in Holy Scripture; for it shews us One, who, when all is lost, in darkness and confusion, brings back, first His light and life, and then His image, into the creature, and so makes all things new and very good.

Now there are certain peculiarities connected with this name, which must be considered, if we would understand even in measure all that is divinely taught under it.

אלהים .Heb 1

This name then, (in Hebrew, "Elohim " or "Alehim,") is a plural noun, which, though first and primarily used in Holy Scripture to describe the One true God, our Creator and Redeemer, is used also in a lower sense in reference to the "gods many and lords many," "1 whom the ancient heathen feared and worshipped. Let us first look at the primary use of this name, in which we learn its highest significance. We shall then better understand how it could be applied to the gods of the heathen, or to the idols. which represented them.

First then this name, though a plural noun, when used of the one true God is constantly joined with verbs and adjectives in the singular. We are thus prepared, even from the beginning, for the mystery of a plurality in God, who, though He says, "There is no God beside me," and "I am God, and there is none else,' says also, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; "5 and again, "The man is become like one of us; "6 and again at Babel, "Go to, let us go down and confound their language; and again, in the vision granted to the prophet Isaiah, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us. And this same mystery, though hidden from an English reader, comes out again and again in

" 8

11 Cor. viii. 5.

2 For singular verbs with Elohim, see Gen. i. 1, 3, &c., and in countless places. For singular adjectives see 2 Kings xix. 4, 16; Psalm vii. 9, Psalm lvii. 2, &c. (see Gesenius, Thesaurus, under