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ing to Revelation, is a necessary part of the Divine attributes.* * * § 
It is contained in every line of Scripture. He is related to 
them by Creation, and hence He is their Father. He is 
related to them by His continual care, and therefore He is 
their Preserver. He is related to them by ties of a moral 
character, involving government on His side, obedience on 
theirs, and therefore He is styled their King. He is related 
to them by spiritual ties, for He regenerated them when they 
had fallen from innocence, and hence He is their Redeemer 
and their Saviour. The word “ love ” is used to express the 
“ relation,” the “conditions” under which God stands in 
reference to His creatures. “ God so loved the world, that 
He gave His only begotten Son, to the end that all that 
believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 
Thus, then, so far from the God of the Christian being “ the 
Absolute,” He is essentially the direct opposite of the Abso- 
lute. Neither is He the Unconditioned, f for He subsists under 
certain conditions, — holiness, lor instance, — which constitute 
His essential nature. In point of fact, unless “ conditioned ” 
in some way, God could not be properly said to have any 
nature whatever. 
19. Whether it be right or wrong, therefore, the Bible offers 
us no metaphysical abstractions in its doctrine concerning 
God, but practical facts. And it was so from the beginning. 
The Hebrews conceived of God, not as the Infinite and the 
Absolute, but as the Power which ruled the Universe. J Moses 
presented Him to men, not as non-Being, but as Being ; as 
having life in Himself, and imparting it to all others. § He is 
continually described as the “Living God”; that is, as one 
Who possesses Himself all the energy which we instinctively 
connect with life, and Who communicates that energy to those 
beings which, however metaphysically inconceivable, we can 
see that He has made. And in the New Testament there are 
two other aspects in which He is presented to us. We are 
neither told that He is the “ Infinite ” nor the “ Absolute.” 
What we are told is that He is Spirit ( i.e ., breath), and that 
He is Love ; that is, that He communicates Himself, and that 
He wills the ultimate welfare of creation. 
20. These ideas, whether they be metaphysical or not, are 
* There are inter-relations, according to Kevelation, in the bosom of the 
Trinity itself. 
t The Conditioned, according to Sir William Hamilton, is the “ con- 
ditionally limited,” i. e. that which is limited by conditions, 
t Elohim, i. e. Power or Strength in all its various forms. 
§ J ahveh, i, e. the Eternally Existent. 
