BLENCOWE, 269 
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 plenitude 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. 
VOL. XIX. x 
