mere arbitrary sound, without a popular meaning. It is no wonder, therefore, that we should find some difficulty in drawing forth the idea wrapped up in it. And yet we think that the ordinary signification of the term may help us to conceive how it obtained its peculiar force in Hebrew usage. We may see the germ of the idea in the earliest account of the creation. As a human being thinks in language, and gives utterance to his will or purpose in audible speech, so the speaking of God was naturally regarded as the putting forth of his power. It was the expression of an omnipotent will. "And God said, light be, and light was." "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."

It is not necessary to conceive of his command as audibly pronounced; for with him, thought is power; to will is to do; to determine is to execute. Yet, notwithstanding, we may have this more philosophical conception of spiritual power, it seems natural enough for men, in the infancy of human language, to represent the Maker as clothing his purposes with speech. Accordingly, almost every thing is said to be done by the Word; and its significance is often the same with that of hand, or power, or spirit. "By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and the whole host of them by the breath (spirit) of his mouth."

If we should apply the same term to a human being, we should say that his Word is his spirit, his character, his internal self. Whenever the Deity expresses himself in any mode of action, his Word appears. The manifested Word then is a bodying forth, in some intelligible form, of a portion of God's self. The Word is that portion of the divine nature which is thus bodied forth. The Invisible has placed himself in a condition to be known; he has sent forth a spirit-form. It is the only way in which he is known, or can be, by his finite creatures.

We have for a long time been dissatisfied with the polemical methods of treating this subject. We believe it may be made more intelligible than it is to most minds by a free and simple paraphrase of some verses in the beginning of St. John's Gospel. We have only to disengage it from ancient learning and modern controversy; and look at it as it stands in the page of the sacred writer, apart from all those systems of human thought into which it has been forced.

"In the beginning was the Word." Before creation exVOL. XXIII. 3D S. VOL. V. NO. I.

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isted, before there was any working of Divine Power and Intelligence, the Word was. It was not made, but the Maker of all things that afterwards had being. It was not finite, but infinite, not effect, but cause. It was the incomprehensible, mysterious, all-pervading essence, cause of all causes, source of all being, and life, and power, dwelling alone in eternity, the Divine Self. This was no other than the Infinite Mind, uncreated, self-existent, eternal, the Word."

"And the Word was with God." The morning stars had not yet sung together, nor the sons of God shouted for joy, at creation's birth. There was nothing but God in His wide domain. Nature was unborn. No sun, nor moon, nor stars were hung up in the silent firmament. No light was yet in the dark, unfathomable all, save the mysterious glory of the Divine Presence. Then the Word was with God, for it had not gone forth in producing power. He had made no image of himself in the universe. His uncreated wisdom and energy were hidden and inactive in his own being. No thought or power of the Divine Mind had been manifested. No spirit-form had appeared. "The Word was with God."

"And the Word was God." It was himself, — his spirit, his mind. The Infinite One was alone. No idea or form of his being, had been embodied into a separate existence. All finite things, not yet formed into creations, existed only in his thoughts. There was but one being in the boundless vast, and that was God. He was not yet the Father; for he had produced no image of himself. He had not given utterance or expression in any mode to his solitary thoughts. The Word then was his everliving self, - the unmanifested God, not another being or production of his power; and so it was through the eternal, incomprehensible past, until thought expressed itself in action, and creation appeared. The Word began then to be manifested.

"All things were made by it, and without it, was not any thing made that was made." The Divine Mind conceived within itself manifold forms of things yet unproduced. Thoughts embodied themselves into shapes and appeared. The cause produced effects. Substance exhibited itself in phenomena. Nature was born, with an everliving, everworking energy, "weaving for God the garment thou seest

him by." The wisdom, power, and love of the Divinity, gave birth and form to the magnificent creation. The stars looked out as eyes of God from the serene heavens ; the mountains were brought forth; the hills were made; the wide and deep sea rolled upon the solid earth, the product was the manifested Word. Every created thing was an image of some conception in the Divine Mind, as a marble block, under the cunning hand of the statuary, reveals his ideal forms of beauty and grace.

All successive productions were so many apparitions of the Creator. Images of his thoughts they were, pictured on the frame work of the Universe he had made, living, moving, and being in him, the all-producing all-sustaining One; for every finite creature is a figure woven upon the ground work of the Immeasurable All. Every product of his handiwork was the expression of a spiritual idea. So that we may conceive of the universe as composed of the thoughts of God, carried into activity and embodied in the forms of divine art. Creation was the Art of God, in which he made his first manifestations.

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But there were other and nobler manifestations, which reveal his moral nature and perfections. He made man in his own likeness, a spiritual offspring of his mind, with spiritual forces and perceptions. Whatever in human nature bears any resemblance to the Divine, is a showing forth of God. Spirit, life, power, intelligence, goodness, love,—all that is capable of becoming great or Godlike in the human soul, is a revealing of the Divine Mind, or Word. Every conception of the beautiful, the good, the true, or the perfect, is the offspring of the Infinite One, in which he has reproduced some finite image of himself. And so the Great Spirit of the universe became the Father, when he had made beings in his likeness, who could revere, and worship, and love, and obey him.

"In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men." The author of all being was also the source of life and intelligence. "The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." "The Father hath life in himself." "In him we live, and move, and have our being." From him also, we have free force, activity, and intelligence. That living and working mind, which is the offspring of the

Highest, is but a ray of light from the inexhaustible fountain of light. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty hath given him understanding."

"That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The uncreated mind was no longer alone in the universe, for he had surrounded himself with other minds, and made them partakers of his own nature. They were to be moral manifestations of himself; and he preadapted them to their great mission. He wrought into the texture of their original constitution, the fundamental elements of a moral character. He gave them the faculty of moral discrimination, a taste for the true, the beautiful, and good, and the power of choice. This inwrought, unwritten revelation, is the necessary condition of religious life. It is the indwelling Word, "which," says the apostle, "is the true light which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world." It is a portion of the uncreated reason, "which from the beginning was with God and was God." Thus the finite is pervaded and inspired by the Infinite. Humanity even in its lowest state was never without some revelation of the Father, - some inspiration of wisdom and truth. And this divine. element is that which makes us moral beings, subject to law and accountable to authority.

But we must have a law, and know an authority. The spiritual faculties are blind. They qualify us to believe in spiritual truths, but they do not inform us what to believe. We need divine teaching; we need communings with a higher wisdom. Accordingly, when children of God with immortal capacities and destinies appeared on earth, new manifestations of the Father were made for their sake. They were already placed in communication with the outward universe, to be educated by the senses on that side of their being. They had bread for the support of animal life; "but they could not live by bread alone." They were spirits, and must have something for the nourishing of spiritual life. They were immortal, and must be sustained by immortal food. They were children, whose peculiar glory and happiness were to consist in reverence, and worship, and love of the Father, and they needed to know him better than the visible universe declared him. They were moral beings, designed for the discipline of sore trial, and wrestling passion, and the fire baptism of sorrow, and the victory of faith, and goodness and

self-sacrifice. Accordingly, he gave them instruction and law. The divine Word was put forth in a new kind of utterance. It became articulate speech adapted to the comprehension and use of men. He spoke to them by intelligible signs, and by living voices. His inspiration gave wisdom to the wise, to law its sanction, to virtue its hope. Every communication of spiritual truth was a new image of his thoughts, revealing more of his paternal character. And every revelation, by whatever messenger it was sent forth, was a manifested Word. Thus there were many imperfect Words, each showing forth but a portion of the Infinite Mind." At sundry times, and in divers manners he spake to the fathers by the prophets." And through the inanimate symbols of his presence in the holy of holies, his Word appeared.

And yet the Father was but imperfectly known to his children. They needed a more vivid apprehension of Infinite goodness and paternal love; and a holier, more powerful, and more trusting faith, which should reveal the spiritual world to their souls, as a present and felt reality. They wanted a deeper insight into the mysteries of their own being and destiny. Then,

"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The fullness of time was come for the final dispensation of pardon, and life, and God's mercy and infinite love. The Messiah appeared. The Word was incarnate. In one sublime specimen of perfect humanity, God had a representative of himself; and the manifestation of the Father was finished. Through the man Jesus, the Eternal Spirit was revealed as he had never been before. For "to him God gave his spirit (word) not by measure."

And here, perhaps, we may find the broadest distinction we are capable of perceiving between the inspiration of Christ and all other inspirations. We conceive of all spirits as of one species, differing from each other in power, wisdom, and holiness, from the lowest finite intelligence, up to the Infinite, but still having a common nature. We see not in the Christ, therefore, another nature, with which we could have but an imperfect sympathy; he owns his kindred, he belongs to our family. Though raised unspeakably above us by his divine office, and his divine virtues, he differs not in kind, but in degree from those "whom he is not ashamed to call his brethren.' And the word of truth, the fountain of spiritual