Thus earth shall close, as earth began-with paradise; thus man shall be cherished of God at the close, as he was cherished of God at the beginning; thus man shall have dominion over all, for Christ shall reign until he has put all things under his footstool; and the end cometh, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, and absolute Deity, as distinguished from Christ, shall be all in all.

My dear friend, will you be at the first judgment, to receive the reward of the righteous, or at the last, to hear the curse of the lost? I say it solemnly-I say it with every recollection of the sovereignty of God and the helplessness of man-it rests with you. True, you cannot change your heart-true, you cannot grasp the Saviour in your own strength; but this you can do you can pray to the Saviour-you can appeal to him. "Fear not him that can kill the body, but fear him that can kill both body and soul in hell." But I will not appeal to you on such motives. Let me tell you, the great God has suffered that we might be saved; he hung upon a cross and bled for us that we might not die. Can you fail to love him who so loved you? Are you not prepared to say-not from the fear of the penalties of the damned, nor from the prospects of the joys of the blessed, but because God so loved me that he retrieved me from my sin, snatched me as a brand from the burning, and made me a son and a joint-heir with Christ-I do feel, and I will feel, and, by the grace of God, I will show, that I cannot but love him who so loved me, and that no sacrifice can be too great to testify my loyalty, devotedness, and love to him who is all my righteousness, my salvation, and all my desire.

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LECTURE XXIV.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." --Revelation xxii. 13.

I HAVE only one object in selecting this text as the subject of discourse, and that is to show Christians the reason on which they conclude that He who assumes these attributes is God; and to lead those, if any such should be present, who do not see that it is so, at least to pause-and if to pause, it may be to come to a better and a truer conclusion. I hold that the words here used, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," are an assumption of deity; and it seems to me plain that He who said so, either rightfully claims the attributes of God, or was guilty of blasphemy. In taking this, I shall have little in the way of argument to adduce; it will be simply texts. I do not suppose that Christians need to be convinced; they feel that Christ is God; but they will need to be reminded of the grounds on which so important a truth in our creed reposes. "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end;" that is, "I am God over all, blessed for evermore." Let me now ask your attention, then, to the following simple statement and comparison of texts, and see if our blessed Lord be not distinctly declared in Scripture to be, what we believe him to be, "God over all, blessed for evermore.' We read in Isaiah xl. 3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." The word "Lord," there, is Jehovah; in the corresponding passage in the Gospel of Matthew, (iii. 3,) it is said of St. John Baptist, "This is he of whom it was spoken by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Now, recollect that the being of whom it is predicted in the prophesy

that he should have his way prepared is called Jehovah; the whole passage, the relative position, and name and personal dignity, are ascribed and applied to Christ in the Gospel. Either the evangelist misquoted and misinterpreted the prophecy, which we cannot admit, or he believed, what Isaiah proclaims, that Jesus Christ is Jehovah the Lord of hosts.

Again, in Ps. xxiv. 10: "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." Compare with this

1 Cor. iii. 9: "They crucified the Lord of glory." In the Psalm we have the distinct statement, that the Lord of hosts, i. e. Jehovah, the name that a Jew would give to none but to essential godhead, is the King of glory; and in the Epistle to the Corinthians we have the apostle expressly declaring that this King of glory, or Jehovah, is the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah xliv. 6: "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." Then read the words of my text perfectly parallel to it, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." We thus see the Lord Jesus Christ in the Apocalypse assuming that he is the same as the Lord of hosts, the same attributes, the same dignity, the same glory, are His; I must, therefore, conclude, either that Jesus assumed to be what he was not—and if so, all Christianity falls to pieces like a rope of sand, without cohesion or consistency-or else that he is the Lord of hosts, and that he proclaimed himself rightfully, and, to us, most preciously to be so.

Malachi iii. 1: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord, whom ye scek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in." Luke ii. 27: "Christ came by the Spirit," who inspired the prophecy, "into the temple:" "the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple ;" and Simeon, who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, i. e. looking for it according to the prophecy, said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Simeon and Anna had read the promise in Malachi; they believed and knew, as every Jew knew, that that promise referred to deity; they took that promise, turned it into

prayer, and applied it to Jesus Christ; and we have Simeon and Anna, as well as the apostles, testifying that Jesus Christ is the Lord of hosts.

In Joel ii. 32: "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:" the word "to call on" there, is "to invoke," "to call on in worship." In 1 Cor. i. 2: "Grace be to all them that call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."

In Ps. cii. 25-27: "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Such is the language applied in that Psalm to Jehovaů: then the apostle Paul, in Heb. i. 10-12, thus applies these the works of deity, and of deity alone, to our Lord Jesus Christ:"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:" "Thou, Lord," addressing Christ, "in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."

Again, in Ps. lxxviii. 56: "They tempted and provoked" (in the wilderness) "the most high God." In 1 Cor. x. 9: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." Do you not see that the Being who was tempted in the desert was the most high God? and do you not see also that the apostle Paul declares that that most high God was the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they tempted in the wilderness? Again, in Isaiah vi. we have the record of that sublime and glorious vision in which the prophet saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple: above it stood the seraphim, and each had six wings: and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." Now, notice how the evangelist John views these very words, which he quotes from Isaiah-words that involve the worship and the praise of the Supreme Jehovah, and

which he refers to Jesus Christ, where he says, "Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." What am I then to conclude from this, but that if the evangelist be, what we believe him to be, an infallible commentator upon infallible prophecy; he sees in that prophecy a glorious manifestation of the Lord Jesus, and in his gospel thus distinctly and unequivocally pronounces Jesus to be God? I must again conclude, either that the evangelist John erred, as I said of the evangelist Matthew, and that therefore their writings are not inspired, or that Jesus Christ is God, what they do not hesitate distinctly to declare.

Again, in Isa. viii. 13, 14: "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and rock of offence." Now compare with this passage 1 Pet. ii. 7: "The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;" quoting the very words which refer to the Supreme God, and applying them to Jesus Christ. Again, Isa. xliii. 11: "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour." Compare with 2 Pet. iii. 18: "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." God says, "I am, and beside me there is no Saviour;" Christ says that he is the Saviour, and, by fair and honest inference, "I am that I am." Again: Rev. xxii. 6: "The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things that must shortly be done:" and in ver. 16: "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches." The same sender; and therefore the Lord God that sent his angel is Jesus Christ our Saviour. John iii. 29: "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom." Isa. liv. 5: "Thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name."

After comparing these passages, let me quote two or three more as in themselves express and decided proofs of this point. I am not supposing that any Christian in this assembly believes. that Christ is not God-far from it. Nor am I endeavouring to convince a Christian mind that Christ is God: I might as well