Pentecost and sat in flaming tongues of fire upon the apostles, and Peter, speaking by inspiration of God, stood up and declared in the ears of the thousands of Jews and proselytes, devout men from every nation under heaven, and in their own language, the wonderful works of God in raising up Jesus again from the dead, and when he concluded his remarkable words with this astounding declaration, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ," when Peter announced that most startling fact in the ears of intelligent men, instructed in Moses and the prophets who had come up to Jerusalem to worship God according to the law, it is said that they were. pricked to the heart when they heard this, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles," Men and Brethren, what shall we do?" They, being learned in the law, saw plainly what this amounted to and were ready to do what this new condition of things required (Acts 3: 36-37).

Paul says to the Corinthians that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. That is, unless a man is instructed in what the Holy Spirit has said by the hand of Moses and the prophets on that subject, he cannot understandingly say that Jesus is Lord; he will be ignorant of all that is implied in that term. We can only arrive at the true meaning of this doctrine and understand the position that Jesus has come to occupy as Lord by searching the Old Testament Scriptures, especially the writings of Moses, for Jesus said, "He wrote of me, and if ye believe not his writings, how can ye believe my words?" And Jesus said to his Father, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Again Jesus said no man knoweth who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him" (Luke 10:22).

Jesus said again, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." He adds further,

And they shall be all taught of God" (that is, all they who come to him); "Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." Now how do people hear and learn of the Father, except through what the Father hath revealed by Moses and the Prophets? (John 6:44-45). It is written in the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah (verses 22-23), “Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." These words were spoken by the Father, for Christ, before he was born into the world; Jesus is the saviour spoken of here, for says Peter, "There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12). Interpreting this Scripture Paul says (Rom. 14: 10-11), "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Again he quotes this same Scripture and applies it to Jesus Christ, in his letter to the Philippians, saying, “ He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is

above every name (Jehovah or Lord); That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth (that is, angels in heaven, and men on earth, whether living or dead); And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:8-11). Jesus, therefore, has been highly exalted of God and has been given a name which is above every name, that is, the name Jehovah, as contained in the Old Testament, or Lord, as contained. in the New, for both signify the same thing. To properly understand the position of Jesus as Lord, and the scriptural meaning of that name that is given him, requires that we understand correctly the way of the Lord before Jesus appeared in the world, for that glorious name had a history before it was transferred to Jesus, and before the angels could say to the shepherds, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a saviour which is Christ the Lord."

AN ANGEL, THE FORMER BEARER OF THE NAME

LORD

This name was borne from the beginning by the angel of the Lord, called "the Angel of his presence." And God's mighty works of old were done by his hands, he being invested with almighty power, for we learn from the sacred oracles of God that when he placed his glorious and fearful name Jehovah in the chief of the mighty angels of his presence, that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his words, there also he placed his Spirit, and his creative power, and glory, that he might go forth with power and ability to perform the work that he was sent to do.

Stephen said, "Ye have received the law by the disposition of angels" (Acts 7:53). Paul says that the law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator (Gal. 3: 19). Accordingly, when the Father himself spake to Moses in the Mount Sinai, he said, "Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not, for he will not pardon. your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an adversary unto thine adversaries, and an enemy unto thine enemies" (Exod. 23: 20-23). Now this Scripture is a key to the way of the Lord in the days of old and to the right understanding of the position which Christ occupies and is to occupy in the ages to come, for says Paul, "Unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak" (Heb. 2:5). This by implication. says that unto the angels he had put in subjection the worlds that were past, such as the Mosaic world, established at Mount Sinai, and the world that was before the flood, of which Peter speaks. With reference to what the Father said to Moses in the mount, observe first, the form of his language, "If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak." The Angel's voice, therefore, was God's voice, and the Angel's words, God's words. So it was with Christ; He said, The words that I speak are not mine, but the Father's that sent me "; and the Father himself said (Deut. 18: 18), “I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I command him"; second, "Beware of him, obey his voice, for he will not pardon your

transgressions, for my name is in him." There was no pardon for transgressions under the law, for it was contained therein, "I gave them my statutes and showed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them "; but said the law, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3: 10). Again says Paul, "The word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward" (Heb. 2:2). Observe third, the Father says, My name is in him." And it is important to note here, that he does not say that I have just now put my name in him, simply to empower him to bring up Israel into the land which he had espied for them, but he says as a matter of fact, My name is in him.” Now that his name had been in him (this angel), for a long period, and that he had been his (God's) faithful messenger from the beginning, will appear from other Scrip

tures.

This same Angel appeared to Moses in the bush, as it is said (Exod. 3), "The Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush." Now let it be particularly noted in this place, as a guide in other places, that the person who spake to Moses out of the burning bush is here called by three distinct names: first, "an Angel," second, "Lord," third, "God." Again he said to Moses, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Again (Exod. 6:3) he says to Moses, "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah, was I not known unto them." This therefore was the Lord who called Abraham to go out into a land that he should after receive for an inheritance, that gave him the promises, that said unto him on a starry night, "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be "; that appeared to Abraham when he was ninety and nine years old, and said to him, "I am the Almighty God," and after conversing familiarly with him, and giving all things in commandment that he had to announce to him, ascended from his presence into heaven. Afterwards he appeared to Abraham again with two of His companions, as recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, and accepted of Abraham's hospitality, and dined with him under the tree, and Abraham stood by them, and they did eat. He appeared also to Isaac, and to Jacob; and Jacob in blessing the two sons of Joseph said, "God, before whom my fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, did walk, the God which fed me all my life long . . . the Angel which redeemed me . . . bless the lads' (Gen. 48: 15-16). Thus the God of Israel, who afterwards appeared to Moses, appeared frequently, and openly, to the patriarchs, and talked with them, both face to face without a veil between them, as well as in dreams and visions of the night. Again the Lord said to Moses, "Thou shalt come, thou and the Elders of Israel, unto the King of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews, hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God" (Exod. 3: 18).

But Who Are the Hebrews?

The Hebrews were the descendants of Eber, or Heber, the great grandson of Shem. Noah said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem," and of Shem it is said (Gen. 10:21) that he was the Father of all the children of Heber. Shem was the Father of the Hebrews. Heber was one of the ancestors of Christ, and the way of the Lord was preserved among his posterity, and when Jacob's name was changed to Israel, after that the Lord God of the Hebrews is also called the Lord God of Israel. But he was known as the God of the Hebrews many centuries before he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt by the hand of Moses. The Angel of his presence, the God of Israel, is also called the King of Israel, for David in the Psalms, after speaking of what he did in driving out the heathen before them, says, Thou art my King, O God, Command deliverance for Jacob "; and Samuel said to Israel, "And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king" (I Sam. 12:12); but he was an invisible king, his throne was in the Holy of Holies, first in the Tabernacle, and afterwards in the Temple. The mercy-seat above the ark of the testimony, between the cherubims of glory, called the chariot of the cherubim, was the throne of the Lord, which plainly appears in the ninety-ninth Psalm, where it is said, "The Lord reigneth, he sitteth between the cherubims, let the earth be moved." Again in the visions of Ezekiel, the Lord called to him out of the Temple, and said, "Son of man, the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever" (Ezek. 43:7). But the Lord, the King of Israel, had another throne outside the temple on Mount Zion, on which he placed his agent, a visible king, one who went out and in before his people like the kings of the nations, and so it is written, "Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, as king, instead of David his Father, and all Israel obeyed him." When the Israelites were in trouble, they were, as Solomon said in his prayer, to draw near to the throne of the Lord, in the house which he had built for his name, to pray before the Lord for help. Accordingly when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up to take Jerusalem, and blasphemed the name of the God of Israel, Hezekiah took his insolent letter and went up and spread it before the Lord in the Temple, and prayed, and said, "O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made heaven and earth" (Isa. 37:14-17). Here a wise and good king attributes the creation of heaven and earth to the God of Israel, the bearer of God's name, the Angel of his presence, and says also that he is God alone.

In the Book of Revelation, fourth chapter, in a vision, the heavens were opened to John, and he saw the Father sitting upon a throne, surrounded by the four beasts and twenty-four elders, whom we are afterwards told are the redeemed out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and when the beasts and elders fall down before the throne to worship him who sat on the throne, they say, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are

and were created." Here to the Father is attributed the creation of all things.

John

Paul says

Again Paul and the apostles say of Christ that he created all things. says that he was in the world, and the world was made by him. to the Colossians, "By him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth" (Col. 1:16). To the Hebrews Paul says that the Psalmist testifies of him saying, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thy hands" (Heb. 1: 10). Thus to three persons is attributed the creation of the heavens and earth; to the Father, to the Angel of his presence, in whom he has placed his name, and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how could the work of creation be done by three different persons? This when properly understood is not only grand and beautiful, but simple and easy of comprehension. Paul says of God the Father, that he is "the only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting, amen" (I Tim. 6: 15). It is written in the Revelations (4:8) that the redeemed say of him who sits on the throne, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." The Father is himself the only Potentate, the great first cause and creator of all things, the fountain of power and might, of wisdom, knowledge, goodness and truth, and as a great king with vast dominions sends forth his agents and messengers, whom he clothes with power and authority in his name to carry out his purposes and execute his will, so the great Creator does not always go in person to execute his purposes in all places of his dominions, but sends his angels, which excel in strength, and which do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his words, the messengers of his which do his pleasure, to perform his mighty works for him.

In the first of these chief princes, he placed his name, his power, and majesty, and sent him to do his mighty works. He carried on the Father's purposes in the earth, and when the time came to bring the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, out of bondage in Egypt, to plant them in the land that he had sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them, and to their seed after them, he sent his Angel to perform that great undertaking. He called Moses, a man of whom it is testified that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words, and in deeds, to him the Angel appeared in the bush, and sent him to bring up Israel out of Egypt. "This Moses," said Stephen, "whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler, and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler, and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel, which appeared to him in the bush, he brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea" (Acts 7: 35-37). And in the third month after the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

Did God the Father Descend on Mount Sinai?

Now before proceeding further in this important subject, we consider it necessary to the proper understanding of God's manifestations at Mount