THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever."-HEB., xiii., 8. "YESTERDAY" signifies in the Hebrew usage all past time, "to-day" present time, and "forever" all time to come. The declaration then is, that Jesus Christ is eternally the same, so that this attribute, which is ascribed elsewhere to God, is here ascribed to Christ-not only eternity, but immutability. The immutableness of God is maintained both in the Old Testament and in, the New in its every inflection and with great frequency. God is said to be without variableness or shadow of turning. The heavens shall change, the world shall be burned up, the universe itself shall feel the force of time, but God, eternal, shall never change. This subject is of chief moment. It takes hold of the very essence of our faith, and has the most important bearing upon our comfort. The question is not without difficulties. We have not grasp of mind enough to perceive perfectly the conditions in which God exists. It is no presumption, therefore, against religious teaching that in part it is uncertain, provided we distinctly recognize the uncertainty. No man supposes that the imperfection in a telescope which limits the range of investigation vitiates what we have found out respecting astronomy, or that because we can not include the whole sweep of the heavens, nor know all they contain, that therefore what we do know is not to be depended upon as truth. It is true that on every side of investigation we soon reach limits, and that when we have done our best our knowledge of God is yet remote, imperfect, fragmentary. It is sufficient for guidance in life, but it is not sufficient for the construction of any perfect system. Therefore, in speaking of this subject-God's immutableness, God's unchangeableness-it is not with the intention of framing any theory, or of presenting to you any thing like a perfected philosophy of the divine nature. It is rather to prepare for certain practical uses than to construct a harmonious system that I shall speak. The unchangeableness of God was taught originally as contrasted with the fugacious and forever changing views entertained when poets, and mythists, and theologists of antiquity were accustomed to weave just such fancies as they pleased, and twine them about an imaginary God, changing to-day the imaginings of yesterday, as one twines every day fresh flowers about some statue. Without revelation, without even the fixed data which science affords, men formed ideal images and called them God. There was perpetual change. Nothing was established; nothing was veritable beyond dispute. All human conceptions of God were in the shimmering light of ever-shifting imaginations. As opposed to such a view of God, a creature of fancy, that changed with all the moods of the imagination, God was declared to be unchangeable. His unchangeableness was also taught as opposed to any change of dynasties. The gods of heathen nations made war with each other, maintaining themselves by the exertion of force against other gods, so that there were revulsions in high and heavenly places, and reigning dynasties were overthrown. As opposed to such a conception as this, the Bible teaches God to be one, from eternity and to eternity, sovereign and immutable. God's unchangeableness was taught, also, as opposed to the caprice of heathen divinities. Heathen gods were but little better than deified despots, holding supremacy for the sake of indulging in all those lusts and appetites in which Orien |