5. Advance in Knowledge and in Heavenly Vision. Another element of the heavenly glory will be advancement in knowledge beyond all that is possible to man in this earthly life. "Now I know in part," says Paul (1 Cor. xiii, 12); "but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known." John assures us, as children of God, that at the heavenly manifestation of God "we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is" (1 John iii, 2). And in Rev. xxii, 4, 5, it is written that the servants of God "shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God shall give them light." All this is significant of mental and spiritual illumination. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1 John i, 5-7). Hence those who enjoy fellowship with God and with one another are fittingly called "children of light" (Eph. v, 8; 1 Thess. v, 5), for, according to 1 Pet. ii, 9, they have been called by God himself "out of darkness into his marvellous light." Jesus himself said: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John viii, 12). This light of life comes to every soul that is begotten of God, and, according to the ancient proverb concerning the path of the righteous, it is "like the dawning light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. iv, 18). But the light of the heavenly glory connotes a range and perfection of knowledge that far transcends the highest possibilities of attainment on earth. God "dwells in light unapproachable; whom no man hath seen, nor can see" (1 Tim. vi, 16). For it is as true now as in the time when Moses prayed that he might behold the glory of Jehovah: "Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see me and live" (Exod. xxxiii, 20). But when "that which is mortal is swallowed up of life” (2 Cor. v, 4), the saints in light shall see God face to face. "When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor. xiii, 10). The limitations of this mortal life will be removed. In the fullest sense will it be made to appear that "there is nothing hid, save that it should be manifested; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light" (Mark iv, 22). Of a thousand thousand mysteries the Lord may say to us, as he said to Simon Peter: "What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter" (John xiii, 7). Now we can see but parts of his ways, but in the heavenly light we shall not only see him as he is, but

understand his creation, his providence, his power, and all his universe as we can not understand them now.

6. Increase of Capacity. Along with such marvelous increase of knowledge we also associate personal fellowship in the glory of God, and a corresponding increase of capacity and power for all heavenly activity. All that is now realized in the richest religious experiences of saints is to be intensified in and after the resurrection of the just. The worship of God in the holy heavens of light must needs be a far more intelligent one than we may now offer. For the God of life and light, who has already "shined in our hearts, to give us the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus" (2 Cor. iv, 6) will assuredly increase our capacity for divine illumination in his house of many mansions, and what the apostle prays for, in Col. i, 9-13, will be carried to a perfection which it is now impossible for man to estimate: "That ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." According to verse 20, we may apply all this both to "things upon the earth, and things. in the heavens."

7. Reigning with Christ. We can now apprehend but dimly, at best, what it is to "reign with Christ." We read in Rom. v, 17, that "they who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through Jesus Christ." In 2 Tim. ii, 12, it is said, "If we endure, we shall also reign with him." In Rev. iii, 21, it is written: "He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne." In Rev. xx, 6, we are told that the second death has no power over the blessed and holy ones who have part in the first resurrection, "but they shall be. priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." In Rev. xxii, 5, it is said of those who shall see the face of God and have his name on their foreheads, that "they shall reign forever and ever." All these scriptures imply a superior association with Christ in the administration of the affairs of his kingdom. His triumphs are their triumphs, and of all his pos

1 For exposition of these apocalyptic passages, see Biblical Apocalyptics, in loco

sessions they are joint heirs. So also in the visions of Daniel (vii, 18), "the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever." Behind all this symbolism of throne, and reign, and kingdom, we recognize the assurance of unspeakable honor and exaltation in the manifold operations of the eternal Ruler. His enthroned kings and priests participate, so to speak, in his state counsels, and are set in authority over all that he hath (comp. Matt. xxiv, 47; xxv, 21; Luke xix, 17). Some such ideal of heavenly glory and power and dominion is evidently intended in the Lord's promise to his twelve disciples: "When the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix, 28).

8. Glory Through Ages of Ages. Finally, the inconceivable ages of ages through which the heavenly glory evermore intensifies give all other aspects and ideals of it an overwhelming impressiveness. The Hebrew and Greek phrases usually translated forever and ever are strikingly expressive. may be rendered to eternity and beyond; or forever and onward. In Eph. iii, 21, the Greek expression is, literally, "unto all the generations of the age of the ages." In Rev. xxii, 5, and often elsewhere we meet the phrase unto the ages of the ages. Æons, and dispensations, and illimitable sweep and progress of all that is ennobling in the heavens of God are naturally associated in thought with these suggestive indications of inconceivable duration. And we may well believe that every thousand years of the heavenly life will be an "intermediate state" between the preceding and the next following thousand years, so that through all the ages of ages one period of heavenly blessedness will prepare the way for something still more blessed and glorious beyond, and the modes and possibilities of eternal life may vary with the successive millenniums. Such a concept is hospitable toward any theory of the future state which makes for blessedness. It need have no controversy with any rational ideal of being at home with Christ, "forever with the Lord," and beholding him as he is. All the hymns of the Christian ages which celebrate the eternal union of God, and Christ, and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, accord with this illimitable outlook. Now we know only in part; it does not yet appear what we shall be, or what we may become. But the human mind, in our present mortal life, becomes bewildered in its attempts to grasp the possibilities of the life and growth of the ages of ages.

PART SECOND

THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST

SECTION SECOND

THE PERSON OF CHRIST

CHAPTER I

FACTS OF HIS EARTHLY LIFE

1. Born of the House of David. In the opening chapters of the gospels of Matthew and Luke we read that Jesus was born at Bethlehem, in Judæa, whither his parents had gone from their home in Galilee. He was the firstborn son (ỏ пρWτÓTOKOS, Luke ii, 7) of Mary, the wife of Joseph, whose genealogy is recorded in two different ways in Matthew and Luke. Some have inferred from the language of Luke i, 32, that Mary was also a descendant of the house and family of David, and it has been maintained that Matthew has preserved the genealogy of Joseph, and Luke that of Mary. This hypothesis, however, has not commanded general acceptance, for Joseph is expressly named in Luke iii, 23, and there is no mention of Mary in that connection; a fact inexplicable if the writer had intended to make a record of Mary's lineage. It is probably impossible at this day to harmonize these different genealogies,' but the discrepancies in the lists of names are not sufficient to discredit the main fact which the two records attest, namely, that Jesus was an offspring of the house of David. There seems to have been no question, from the times of the earliest apostolic tradition, "that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah" (Heb. vii, 14). Paul speaks of him as "born of the seed of David" (Rom. i, 3; comp. 2 Tim. ii, 8; Acts xiii, 23). Matthew's gospel begins with the title, peculiarly Hebraic, "Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." The descent from the royal house of David is noteworthy as making

1See Biblical Hermeneutics, pp. 411-413.

for him an external claim that fitted current Jewish beliefs concerning the Messiah."

2. Record of the Virgin Birth. The opening chapters of Matthew and Luke also record the fact that this firstborn son of Mary was supernaturally conceived in her virgin womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. The gospel according to John contains no parallel narrative of the miraculous birth of Jesus, but seems clearly to imply it by saying that the Logos, or Word, who was in the beginning with God, and without whom no work of creation was made, "became flesh, and dwelt among us." Three of the gospels thus concur in witnessing this fact of a supernatural incarnation of Jesus as the Son of God, but they differ in their record of details. The prologue of John's gospel is cast in the style of Alexandrian-Greek thought, gives no details of Jesus's birth or childhood, but carries our concept of his origin aloft and afar, "in the bosom of the Father." In Matthew's narrative the special dreams and revelations touching the miraculous conception come to Joseph; but in Luke the revelation is made to Mary by the salutation and direct announcement of the angel Gabriel. Matthew tells us nothing of the earlier residence of Joseph and Mary at Nazareth, but informs us of their going down into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod, and says that, when they returned and heard that Herod's son Archelaus was reigning over Judæa, they were afraid to go thither and withdrew and went to Nazareth in Galilee. This tradition varies from that of Luke, who explains how the birth of Jesus occurred somewhat unexpectedly at Bethlehem, makes no mention of a journey to Egypt, nor of the visit of the wise men from the East, but records the appearance and words of the angels to the shepherds near Bethlehem, and the visit of the shepherds to "the babe lying in the manger," the circumcision and naming of Jesus "when eight days were fulfilled," and his presentation in the temple at Jerusalem, after forty days, as the Levitical law of purification required. Luke's narrative also contains many details of the birth of John the Baptist, the visit of Mary to Elisabeth, and the poetic utterances of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon. However we may account for these differences between Matthew and Luke, they cannot be shown to involve any real inconsistency or contradictions of statement. Rather do they supplement each other, and evince the fullness of the early traditions, of which Luke affirms that "many had taken in hand to draw up a narrative." One may also regard the literary form of a narrative and the insertion of prophetic songs as marks of a later

1 See Matt. ii, 5, 6; John vii, 42; and comp. Mic. v, 2; Jer. xxiii, 5, 6; Isa. ix, 7; xi, 1, 10; 2 Sam. vii, 16; Psa. lxxxix, 3, 4.