XIV.

In accordance with what has been said, the first work of man will be to restore himself, or rather to cease from any reliance on himself, and to look to God, in order that a power greater than himself may do the work which has failed in his own hands. The renovation of himself, which naturally comes first in order, will not fail to be followed by the restoration of humanity in all its forms, particularly by the restoration of the family, and then by the pacification and perfection of society in general. The man, who has his life from God, will endeavor to restore and to perfect everything in its order; -operating in connection with the instrumentalities and arrangements which his heavenly Father has established, such as the Sabbath, the Bible, and the Ministry, and always humbly relying on the suggestions and aids of the Holy Spirit.

XV.

It is thus that men are truly united with God. But it is important to remember that the union, though based upon the consent of the party which is brought into union, is something more than a mere conventional arrangement. It is not enough to say that we belong to God's party, unless we can add, that we belong to his household. Those who are "born again," at least, in that higher sense in which we use the expressions, are not born into the capacity or condition of mere coöperators, or servants, - no matter how faithful their services may be, but into the vastly higher condition of sons and daughters. God is the Father. They are the children. And they are united to God not only by the consent of the will, but by a filial nature, which is gradually originated in the soul by a divine power, just as really and truly as earthly children are united by a filial nature to their earthly parents. (See Part V., Ch. 8.)

PART SECOND.

ON FAITH, AND THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN IN FAITH.

CHAPTER I.

ON FAITH AS AN ELEMENT OF THE DIVINE NATURE.

Explanations of Faith. - Faith a necessary element of the Divine Nature. Reasons for this view. - Reference to the Scriptures.. Operations of the principle of faith in the Divine Mind. Its relation to love. Of the excellency of faith.

GOD exists by the necessities of his nature. Perhaps, however, this is no more than to say that he has always existed. The fact is evident, but the manner of it is inexplicable. It is obvious, nevertheless, that, being what he is, he must have faith in himself as such. Faith, as really as knowledge and power, is an original element of the divine existence.

2. With God there is no time. The present, past, and future, are one. So that God, in possessing the powers or attributes of God from eternity, has had faith in them from eternity. In other words, God's faith is not only commensurate with the nature of his attributes, but is commensurate, also, with their duration. Before all time, and in all time, he has always had faith in himself as existing from eternity, as having all power, all wisdom, all goodness, all truth. Eternity, therefore, is

not more predicable of God's attributes than it is of faith in his attributes. Both, in being infinite, have the same extent, in being eternal, have the same origin.

3. These general views can hardly fail to commend themselves to enlightened reflection and reason. Faith, as an element of the divine nature, is as necessary as the divine existence. If we predicate necessity of the one, we must predicate it of the other. The idea of God without faith in himself as God, would be something inconceivable, a contradiction, a nullity. It is the principle of faith, underlaying and supporting the action of the will, which not only constitutes the foundation of his unity, but renders his various perfections active and available in their appropriate spheres. God without faith would be as destitute of unity of character and energy of action, as man without faith. In human action it is constantly seen that no amount of knowledge will supply the place of confidence. The commander of a vessel, for instance, with all the knowledge and capacity requisite to guide her into port, but having no confidence in his power, and actually made incapable of consistent and right action, by unbelief in his capacity of action, takes a wrong course, and inevitably makes shipwreck. And, in like manner, the attributes of God would not enable him to conduct the affairs of the universe, if he had not faith in them as equal to the emergency. If it were possible for unbelief to enter into his nature, instead of being sustained by them he would be frightened by the extent of his own power, and would tremble in the presence of his own infinite justice. The weight of his attributes, unsustained by the faith they were calculated to inspire, and incapable of any profitable direction, would fall in, if we may so express it,

upon the centre of his being, so that he would present the aspect of an infinite imbecility, a God in ruins.

4. Nor is this faith, which God has in himself, as being what he is, the product of observation, or the result of comparison and deduction; for that would imply that there was a time when he was without it. Nor could it have been communicated from any source exterior to himself. There is no other God who could be the source of such communications. On the contrary, existing without being given, because the idea of its being given implies a time when it did not exist, it is what we have already represented it to be, something coëternal. with the Divine Mind, a part of the Divine Nature.

5. There are passages of Scripture which indicate more or less explicitly God's faith in himself. "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you". -a declaration which, in excluding all uncertainty, and still without assigning any reason for such confidence except the reference to his own existence, obviously implies the fact of faith as an element of the Divine Nature. It was enough for Moses to announce that the I AM, the Divine Existence, had sent him; which, in being the true and original existence or life, could not fail to verify and establish its messages and purposes. The apostle Paul makes express mention of God's faith. Rom. iii. 3: "Shall their unbelief," he says, "make the faith of God without effect?" The faith of God, in this place, is sometimes understood to mean the declaration or promise of God. May it not also imply that confidence in himself which enabled him to make the promise? In the next chapter, the apostle represents God in the exercise of faith, as "calling those things which are not, as though they were." Overleaping the boun

daries of time, and by its mysterious energy converting the possible into the actual, it realizes the future in the present and the non-existence of the fact in the existence of the conception.

6. Again, it is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself." Heb. vi. 13. An oath is an appeal to a higher power. God, therefore, being the highest possible existence, could swear only by himself, which, however, he obviously could not do, if he had not possessed faith in himself. In the same Epistle, xi. 3, we have the following remarkable passage: "Through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

If we understand this passage correctly, the import of it is this:-God, in the exercise of faith, namely, faith in his ability to create worlds, created them by his word, so that things seen or visible were made from things unseen. The context of the passage, when properly examined, seems to require this interpretation of it, although it is, perhaps, different from that which is generally received. The sacred writer, in giving, as it were, the genealogy of faith, begins with God himself; not only as being first among the "elders," but as furnishing, in the fact of creation, the most striking illustration of the definition of faith he had just given.

And undoubtedly it is a great truth, as the passage obviously implies, that God himself could not have orginated creation without faith. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep." The wide-spread and formless chaos lay before him, out of which an universe of form, of relations, and of beauty, was to spring to light. If he had been destitute of faith in his ability to give it birth,