to single out one as pre-eminent among the three, whom he addressed as "My Lord." Keil says, "Jehovah and two angels: all three in human form." Murphy: "It appears that of the three men, one, at all events, was the Lord, who, when the other two went towards Sodom, remained with Abraham while he made his intercession for Sodom, and afterward he also went his way." Lange: "Abraham instantly recognizes among the three the one whom he addresses as the Lord in a religious sense, who afterwards appears as Jehovah, and was clearly distinguished from the two accompanying angels."

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As to the quotation from Psalms, Maimonides and David Kimchi say that the word "Elohim," in this case, means "angelic powers." Others that it means magistrates or "judges," as in Exodus xxii. 8, 9. 28.1 Alexander and Hengstenberg explain it as meaning "false gods"; Delitzsch, as "the superhuman powers deified by the heathen." The Syriac Peshito reads, "all his angels." ye

"2

Isa. xlviii. 16 is ambiguous in the original. "It may mean "Jehovah and his Spirit have sent me," or "Jehovah hath sent both me and his Spirit." So Delitzsch: "The Spirit is not spoken of here as joining in the sending..... The meaning is, that it is also sent, i.e. sent in and with the servant of Jehovah, who is speaking here."

1 John v. 7 is a spurious passage. It is found in no Greek manuscript before the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and in no early version. It is rejected by Alford, Abbot, Bleek, Scrivener, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Wordsworth, and most modern critics.3

It should be observed that the texts of the first series teach unequivocally and designedly the unity of God, while those of the second series, intended primarily to teach other truths— are fairly explicable in harmony with the former class.

1 In the Hebrew, verses 7, 8, and 27. Oliver's Translation of Syriac Psalter.

See Orme's Mem. of Controv. on 1 John v. 7 (New York, 1866).

God, a Spirit.

Immateriality.

A spirit hath not flesh and bones.

Luke xxiv. 39.
God is a Spirit. John iv. 24.

Has a material body and organs. Tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Ex. xxxi. 18.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. Ps. xci. 4.

He had horns coming out of his hand. Hab. iii. 4.

These texts, which represent God as having hands, fingers, wings, feathers, horns, and the like, are simply the bold figures and startling hyperboles in which the Orientals are wont to indulge. They would never, for a moment, think of being understood literally in using them.

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Finger of God" is his direct agency: his "wings" and "feathers" are his protecting care, set forth by an allusion to the bird hovering over and guarding her tender young.1

Henderson, Delitzsch, Noyes, and Cowles agree substantially in rendering Hab. iii. 4, " Rays streamed from his hand";—a decided improvement upon our version.

God, unchangeable.

Immutability.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Num. xxiii. 19.

And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. 1 Sam. xv. 29.

I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent. Ezek. xxiv. 14.

For I am the LORD, I change not. Mal. iii. 6.

The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Jas. i. 17.

Repents, and changes his plans.

I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest Í consume thee in the way. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Ex. xxxiii. 3, 15, 17, 14.

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein. Num. xiv. 30.

The LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; . Behold the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. 1 Sam. ii. 30, 31.

Then came the word of the LORD unto_Samuel, saying: It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. 1 Sam. xv. 10, 11.

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto

1 See Deut. xxxii. 11.

God, unchangeable.

Repents, and changes his plans. death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 2 Kings xx. 1, 4, 5, 6.

Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. Jer. xv. 6.

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. Jonah iii. 10.

In respect to his essence, his attributes, his moral character, and his inflexible determination to punish sin and reward virtue, God is "without variableness or shadow of turning."

Again, some of his declarations are absolute and unconditional; the greater part, however, including promises and threatenings, turn upon conditions either expressed or implied. The following passage is a very explicit statement of a great principle in the divine administration, of God's plan or rule of conduct in dealing with men: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." Here is brought clearly to view the underlying condition, which, if not expressed, is implied, in God's promises

"1

1 Jeremiah xviii. 7-10.

and threats. Whenever God, in consequence of a change of character in certain persons, does not execute the threats or fulfil the promises he had made to them, the explanation is obvious. In every such case, the change is in man, rather than in God. For example, God has promised blessings to the righteous and threatened the wicked with punishment. Suppose a righteous man should turn and become wicked. He is no longer the

man whom God promised to bless. He occupies a different relation toward God. The promise was made to an entirely

different character.

On the other hand, a wicked man repents and becomes good. He is not now the individual whom God threatened. He sustains another relation to his Maker. He has passed out of the sphere of the divine displeasure into that of the divine love. Yet all this while, there is no change in God. His attitude toward sin and sinners, on the one hand, and toward goodness and the good on the other, is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. It is precisely because God is immutable, that his relation to men, and his treatment of them vary with the changes in their character and conduct. In a word, he changes because he is unchangeable.

A homely illustration may be permitted. Suppose a rock to be located at the centre of a circle one mile in diameter. A man starts to walk around the circle. On starting he is due north from the rock, which consequently bears due south from him. After travelling a while, he comes to be due east from the rock, and that due west from him. Now the rock does not move, yet its direction from the man changes with every step he takes. In a somewhat analogous manner, God's aspect and feelings toward men change as they change. That is, in the words of Whately,1 "A change effected in one of two objects having a certain relation to each other, may have the same practical result as if it had taken place in the other.”

Wollaston: "The respect or relation which lies between 1 Rhetoric, Part i. chap. 3. Sec. 8. Religion of Nature, pp. 115, 116.

God, considered as an unchangeable being, and one that is humble, and supplicates, and endeavors to qualify himself for mercy, cannot be the same with that which lies between the same unchangeable God, and one that is obstinate, and will not supplicate, or endeavor to qualify himself. By an alteration in ourselves, we may alter the relation or respect lying between him and us." "1 To sum up, if man changes, the very immutability of God's character requires that his feelings should change toward the changed man.

...

Murphy:2 2 "To go to the root of the matter, every act of the divine will, of creative power, or of interference with the order of nature, seems at variance with inflexibility of purpose. But, in the first place, man has a finite mind, and a limited sphere of observation, and therefore is not able to conceive or express thoughts or acts exactly as they are in God, but only as they are in himself. Secondly, God is a spirit, and therefore has the attributes of personality, freedom, and holiness; and the passage before us is designed to set forth these in all the reality of their action, and thereby to distinguish the freedom of the eternal mind from the fatalism of inert matter. Hence, thirdly, these statements represent real processes of the divine Spirit, analogous at least to those of the human."

Those passages which speak of God as "repenting" are figurative. They are the "language of the event," the divine acts interpreted in words. We see an artist executing a picture. Having completed, he surveys it, then, without a word, takes his brush and effaces it. We say at once, "he repented that he had made it." We thus interpret his action; we assume that such were his feelings. So God performed such outward acts with reference to the antediluvians and others, that, if they had been performed by a man, we should say "he repented of

1 This author has also an illustrative formula which will be appreciated by the mathematician; "The ratio of G to M+q is different from that of G to M-q; and yet G remains unaltered."

* Commentary on Genesis, vi. 6.