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ficiency we make, the more deeply shall we feel that some 

 further knowledge of Himself and the relations in which we 

 stand to Him is necessary for us. 



We have already seen that we can only think of the Creator 

 according to those laws of thought by which we think of other 

 persons and things. It, therefore, follows that any communi- 

 cation from Him must be brought down to the human level. 

 There seems to be no difficulty in this, inasmuch as all His 

 work in the material universe is open to our comprehension. 

 But here a question arises, How are we to ascertain that the 

 communication professedly coming from Him does really so 

 come ? If it be merely local, temporary, or individual in its 

 application, all that can be considered necessary is the assur- 

 ance to the person to whom it comes that the speaker is God. 

 No improbability, no difficulty can possibly exist in any com- 

 munication of the Creator with His creatures. Several such 

 special, individual revelations are found in the Scriptures of 

 the Old and the New Testament. . Such communications, 

 however, cannot meet the general need, nor would solely indi- 

 vidual revelation be in harmony with the Creator's mode of 

 operation in material and secular things. A law for the race 

 must be publicly proclaimed, and there must be unquestionable 

 evidence that He who speaks is divine, or the speaker must 

 be attested as a divine messenger. We cannot suppose that 

 less than this would be done by God, and certainly less ought 

 not to be accepted by man. Otherwise we might be following 

 lying spirits, and not the Spirit of God. With such assurance 

 we may rest content. 



What, then, are the facts with respect to the Christian 

 revelation ? We find them cluster around two persons, 

 Moses and Jesus of Nazareth. Moses is our authority for the 

 records of all preceding revelations; we must, therefore, look 

 for an attestation of his character and office, of equal certainty 

 to the importance of the position which he occupies with 

 respect to the world. We see a personal call to his important 

 office in the appearance of God to him in the burning bush, 

 in which he has an assurance that the Creator would appear 

 in the government of His people, in all the plentitude of His 

 infinite, necessary, and eternal being, of which He gave a 

 pledge in assuming the new name Jehovah. This must be 

 considered as the pledge, the promise of all that followed. 

 This, however, immediately concerned Moses alone, and was 

 the assurance to him of that full divine revelation which by 

 him, in its continuous progression, should manifest God in the 

 flesh. This was necessary to give him the confidence needed 

 for the special and dangerous work he had immediately to do. 

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