(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD RELATED TO THE ATONEMENT.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." (Psalms xc:2.)

[Footnote A: Attribute: A characteristic or distinguishing mark, especially an excellent or lofty quality or trait (Cent. Diet.). "By this word 'attribute' is meant something which is immovable and inseparable from the essence of its subject, as that which constitutes it (Descartes). Attribute is considered a word of lofty significance: Thus, for example, it would be felt as indecorous to speak of the 'qualities' of God, and as ridiculous to talk of the 'attributes' of matter."—Hamilton.]

DISCUSSION.

1. The Attributes Ascribed to God: As the attributes of God are necessarily involved in the philosophy of the Atonement, I think it proper here to make brief allusion to them, especially to those more immediately involved in the Atonement. The attributes usually assigned to God, either upon the ground of scripture or the supposed necessity of his nature are: Eternity, Immutability, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Wisdom, Holiness, Truth, Justice, Mercy, Love.

2. Eternity: By "Eternity," spoken of as an attribute of God, is meant God's eternal existence. We may not in rational thought assume a time when God was not—or when He did not exist. God's eternity is sustained by such scripture as David's 90th Psalm, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." Also Paul bears the same witness: "And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail."^[A]

[Footnote A: Heb. i:10-12.]

3. Immutability: God's "Immutability," his unchangeableness, is sustained in such passages of both ancient and modern scriptures as follow: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."^[A] "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."^[B] "For God does not walk in crooked paths, neither does he turn to the right hand nor to the left, or vary from that which he has said; therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round,"^[C] "Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, whose course is one eternal round, the same yesterday, today and forever."^[D]

[Footnote A: James i:17.]

[Footnote B: Malachi iii:6.]

[Footnote C: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 3, v. 2.]

[Footnote D: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 35, v. 1.]

4. Omnipotence: By "Omnipotence" is meant all-powerfulness. This attribute is essential to all rational thinking upon God. We may not think upon God and then think upon him as being overruled by a higher power, and still have him remain to our thought as God. The Scriptures in their whole spirit present this view of the Omnipotence of Deity. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. * * * And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. * * * And God said. Let the waters be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so." In this manner the work proceeds throughout the creation periods.^[A]

[Footnote A: Gen. i-iii.]

Of this attribute David sings: "The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord: * * * for who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the Mighty can be likened unto the Lord? * * * O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves arise thou stillest them. * * * The heavens they are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. * * * Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand."^[A] To the same effect sang Isaiah (Ch. xl:10-15); also Jeremiah (Ch. xxvii:17), and Daniel (Ch. iv:35).

[Footnote A: Psalms lxxxix.]

In the New Testament, the Christ teaches that "with God all things are possible;"^[A] and negatively, "with God nothing shall be impossible."^[B] The Revelation uses the term "omnipotent" direct: "And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and the voice of the mighty thunderings, saying Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."^[C]

[Footnote A: Matt. xix:26.]

[Footnote B: Luke i:37.]

[Footnote C: Rev. xix:6. Also "Lectures on Faith," Doc. & Cov., Lecture III. So, too, in Mosiah iii:17, 18, 21.]

5. Omniscience: By "Omniscience" is meant all-knowing. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world,"^[A] said the Holy Spirit-inspired council of the apostles and elders of the early Christian church. "Remember the former things of old. * * * I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient time the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."^[B] A sparrow falls not to the ground without the Father's notice.^[C] In reasoning with Abraham upon the Intelligences in heaven and the fact that they varied in degree of intelligence, the Lord said that where there were two intelligences and the one was more intelligent than the other, "there shall be another more intelligent than they: I am the Lord, thy God, I am more intelligent than them all."^[D] By which is meant, as I think, not that God is more intelligent than any other one of the Intelligences, but more intelligent than all of them together.

[Footnote A: Acts xv:18.]

[Footnote B: Isaiah xlvi:9, 10.]

[Footnote C: Matt. x:29.]

[Footnote D: Book of Abraham iii:17-19.]

6. Omnipresence: "Omnipresence" means everywhere present; and perhaps the best description of this attribute of God is in David's passage—"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely darkness shall cover me: even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee: but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to these."^[A] "Will God indeed dwell on the earth," asked Solomon, in dedicating the first temple, "Behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded."^[B] And Paul, in teaching the nearness of God to men, said that God had made of one blood all nations of men: and had given to all the privilege of seeking the Lord, if happily they might feel after him, and find him, "though he be not far removed from every one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being."^[C]

[Footnote A: Psalms cxxxix:27.]

[Footnote B: I Kings viii:27.]

[Footnote C: Acts xvii:26-28.]

Under the attribute of "Omnipotence"—all-powerful—I include "Power," which is sometimes, and usually, treated separately as an attribute of God: and under "Omniscience" I include "Knowledge," which is also usually regarded separately as an attribute of Deity; but both these terms—"Power" and "Knowledge"—may very appropriately fall under the larger terms—"Omnipotence" and "Omniscience"—which, respectively, include them.

7. Limitation in the Attributes of God: W. may now consider somewhat the limitations of the attributes so far named. The Eternity of God may be regarded as absolute. "I am that I am," the Eternal One, the Self-existent, admits of no modification as to his Eternity.

His Immutability should be regarded as stability, adherence to principle. What stands among men under the name of "constitutional morality," fixed devotion to law; and working through law to the achievement of his divine purposes, rather than by caprice, or by arbitrary, personal action. But God's immutability should not be so understood as to exclude the idea of advancement or progress of God. Thus, for example: God's kingdom and glory may be enlarged, as more and more redeemed souls are added to his kingdom: as worlds and world-systems are multiplied and redeemed and enrolled with celestial spheres, so God's kingdom is enlarged and his glory increased. So that in this sense there may come change and progress even for God. Hence we could not say of God's immutability as we do of his eternity that it is absolute, since there may come change through progress even for God: but an absolute immutability would require eternal immobility—which would reduce God to a condition eternally static, which, from the nature of things, would bar him from participation in that enlargement of kingdom and increasing glory that comes from redemption and the progress of men. And is it too bold a thought, that with this progress, even for the Mightiest, new thoughts, and new vistas may appear, inviting to new adventures and enterprises that will yield new experiences, advancement, and enlargement even for the Most High?^[A] It ought to be constantly remembered that terms absolute to man may be relative terms to God, so far above our thinking is his thinking; and his ways above our ways.

[Footnote A: On this point Sir Oliver Lodge has a passage at once advanced and bold, and yet for which he claims Christian warrant. It is, however, far removed from modern Christian orthodoxy, though splendidly true: "The universe is not a 'being,' but a 'becoming'—an ancient but light bringing doctrine when realized,—it is in change, in development, in movement upward and downward, that activity consist. A stationary condition, or stagnation, would be to us simple non-existence: the element of progression, of change, of activity, must be as durable as the universe itself. Monotony, in the sense of absolute immobility, is unthinkable, unreal, and cannot anywhere exist: save where things have ceased to be.

"Such ideas, the ideas of development and progress, extend even up to God himself, according to the Christian conception. So we return to that with which we started: The Christian idea of God is not that of a being outside the universe, above its struggles, and taking no part in the process, solely exalted, beneficent, self-determined and complete; no, it is also that of a God who loves, who yearns, who suffers, who keenly laments the rebellious and misguided activity of the free agents brought into being by himself as part of himself, who enters into the storm and conflict, and is subject to condition as the Soul of it all: conditions not artificial and transitory, but inherent in the process of producing free and conscious beings, and essential to the full self-development even of Deity.

"It is a marvelous and bewildering thought, but whatever its value, and whether it be an ultimate revelation or not, it is the revelation of Christ." ("Science and Immortality," p. 292.)]

The attribute "Omnipotence" must needs be thought upon also as somewhat limited. Even God, notwithstanding the ascription to him of all-powerfulness in such scripture phrases as "With God all things are possible," "Nothing shall be impossible with God"—notwithstanding all this, I say, not even God may have two mountain ranges without a valley between. Not even God may place himself beyond the boundary of space: nor on the outside of duration. Nor is it conceivable to human thought that he can create space, or annihilate matter. These are things that limit even God's Omnipotence. What then, is meant by the ascription of the attribute Omnipotence to God? Simply that all that may or can be done by power conditioned by other eternal existences—duration, space, matter, truth, justice—God can do. But even he may not act out of harmony with the other eternal existences which condition or limit even him.

So with the All-knowing attribute, Omniscience: that must be understood somewhat in the same light as the other attributes considered: not that God is Omniscient up to the point that further progress in knowledge is impossible to him; but that all knowledge that is, all that exists, God knows. He is Universal Consciousness, and Mind—he is the All-knowing One, because he knows all that is known.

So the attribute "Omnipresence"—the Everywhere Present attribute. This must be so far limited as to be ascribed to God's Spirit, or Influence, or Power: but not of God as a Person or Individual; for in these latter respects even God is limited by the law that one body cannot occupy two places at one and the same time. But radiating from his presence, as beams of light and warmth radiate from our sun, is God's Spirit, penetrating and permeating space, making space and all worlds in space vibrate with his life and thought and presence: holding all forces—dynamic and static—under control, making them to subserve his will and purposes.

God also uses other agencies to reflect himself, his power or authority: also his Wisdom, Goodness, Justice and Mercy—angels and arch-angels, both in heaven and on earth; and in the earth prophets, apostles, teachers—all that make for up-lift, for righteousness; all that catch some ray of the Divine Spirit in poem, music, painting, sculpture, state-craft or mechanical arts—all these but reflect God and are a means of multiplying and expressing him, the Divine. And in a special way, as witness for God, and under very special conditions, the Holy Ghost, that Being accounted the Third Person of the Godhead—he reflects and stands for God, his Power, and Wisdom; his Justice, Truth and Mercy—for all that can be, or is, called God, or is God. All these means, direct and indirect, convey God into the universe, and keep him everywhere present in all his essentials of Wisdom, Power and Goodness, while his bodily presence remains at the center of it all.