CHAPTER III.

THE PURPOSE OF GOD.

THE purpose of God is SELF-MANIFESTATION. This has been his design from eternity, and it has been carrying on since the creative word was spoken. Indeed, of necessity this always must be his purpose, and that just because He is God. It includes within it other purposes; but it is itself the chief and the ultimate, to which all others are pointing, and in which they shall find their completion. But let me explain what I mean by self-manifestation.

I take that small seed which the winds are sporting with, and I bury it in the ground. I water it, and watch over it, to mark its progress and see what it contains. Ere long it shoots above the soil, putting forth its fresh verdure to the sun. Then, in the progress of time, it strengthens itself and rises upwards, spreading out its branches into a waving tree. In other words, that particle of vital dust which we call seed, has opened itself out, and displayed the amazing

treasures which were lying in it, undeveloped and unknown. This is self-manifestation.

I take that unsightly root which is lying at my feet, and I carefully lodge it in the soil. Soon it springs up and opens out its treasures, disclosing the lily in its fragrance and beauty. Who could have imagined that hues so bright, and fragrance so rich, had all been wrapt up in that shapeless form? Yet it was so; and the lily, in all its loveliness, was but the unfolded root! This is self-manifestation.

These are but poor illustrations of the great truth we set out with announcing. They are objects of a lower scale; unconscious and involuntary in all their processes of self-development: yet still they are sufficiently exact to make our meaning known. For that which all creation is doing according to its creature-laws, for the glory of the Creator, is that very thing which Jehovah is doing in regard to himself, and for his own glory.

God's purpose, then, is self-manifestation, or self-revelation. It is to bear testimony to his own character. Creation in every form, animate or inanimate, is God's witness,-the utterance of His mind and heart. His design is not merely to make known that He is, but what He is; to exhibit Himself, the I AM, the Being of Beings,

in whom all being is wrapped up, and from whom all forms of being spring; to unbosom and reveal himself fully and perfectly,—not partially and in glimpses, but completely and abidingly,-by bringing forth into view and making visible all that is glorious, as well as all that is gracious, in the infinite and invisible Godhead. God does not create a world simply because he can do so, and wishes to put forth his power, but because he desires to bring out to view those riches of his own being and character which had otherwise been hidden. Again; God did not create this earth of ours a fair and happy world at first simply because he loved to see a fair world inhabited by happy creatures, but because, in that beauty and blessedness, his own character was most fully revealed, and his own glory most brightly reflected.

How He did this before man was created we know not, or at least we know but little. It was through the medium of another order of creatures, and in another region than this of ours. Angels were the creatures through whom he manifested himself; and it was in heaven that this manifestation was given. They were the eldest-born of creation, and their abode the very palace of the Eternal One. From that centre the first ray of self-manifestation shot forth, and the Invisible

and Incomprehensible began to make preparations for making himself seen and known.

Whether He may be at this moment manifesting himself through other races inhabiting those orbs that, like the dew-drops of the morning, lie scattered over infinite space, as if to catch and reflect at least the material glory of heaven; whether other processes of self-manifestation may be going on in regions far beyond our vision or thought, we know not. He has given us no intimation that any such process is now in action; nor have we the slightest evidence to prove that as yet there are, in these starry regions, races of intelligent creatures existing, or that as yet there are any races in existence save those of angels and of men. That such will be the ultimate issue; that every atom of creation throughout the universe shall subserve the mighty purpose of Divine self-manifestation, we doubt not; but it would appear that, meanwhile, God is confining his operations to one special region of his dominions, concentrating his thoughts upon one particular process, out of which his one vast, original, all-comprehensive plan of a God-manifesting universe is to be evolved. It is on the soil of this small planet that he is sowing his seed, and raising, as in a nursery, those plants which are yet to clothe a glad universe with their

everlasting verdure. It is out of the mountains of this planet that he is hewing the stones with which he is yet to build for himself a temple in every star of the firmament. It is here that he is constructing the materials, and sketching the design for his palace. It is here that he is weaving and adorning his robes of royal state with materials furnished by this orb. It is of the gold of this earth that he is fashioning a sceptre for the hand, and a crown for the head of Him who is to be Sovereign of the universe. It is from among the lowly dwellers of this narrow region that he is choosing for that King a Bride to share his glory and his love; nay, it is out of this very earth that this King himself is to arise, or rather, we should say, has arisen; for He who is to have dominion here as King of kings and Lord of lords, is an inhabitant of this planet, the native of a Judean village,-Jesus of Nazareth, the woman's seed!

But without entering farther on the question as to the existence of other spheres and other processes of self-manifestation, there can be no doubt that this earth, in the meantime, is the special one. It is here that this process is going on just now, and it is here that preparations are making for larger and brighter scenes of self-manifestation than eye hath yet seen or ear hath heard. God