hedged about by troubles that you have no power, in yourself, to surmount or escape. Then, in this hour of your emergency, cry unto God as Moses did, and you will find that the glorious love mysteries of God will not fail in resources sufficient for your salvation. Even though it be another Red Sea that confronts you, he is sufficient for all your need.

"Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life,
Where, in spite of all you can do,

There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way but through?

Then wait on the Lord, with a trust serene,

Till the night of your fear is gone;

He will send the winds, he will heap the floods,
When he says to your soul, "Go on!"

"And his hand shall lead you through, clear through, Ere the watery walls roll down;

No wave can touch you, no foe can smite,

No mightiest sea can drown.

The tossing billows may rear their crests,
Their foam at your feet may break,

But over their bed you shall walk dry-shod
In the path that your Lord shall make.

"In the morning watch, 'neath the lifted cloud,
You shall see but the Lord alone,

When he leads you forth from the place of the sea,
To the land that you have not known;

And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed,
You shall no more be afraid;

You shall sing his praise in a better place,
In a place that his hand hath made."

"Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that Go hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that w might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propit ation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we als ought to love one another."-1 John 4:9-11.

ESUS CHRIST is the most mysterious perso

who has appeared in human history. He ap

peared in the conversations and prophecies o men for thousands of years before his birth i Bethlehem. Every prophet of God who stood hea and shoulders above the level of his own time, wh peered down through the mists of the ages yet t come, saw Jesus looming up in the path of histor like a great mountain of hope and blessing fo humanity.

The birth of Jesus is a mystery. The angel wh appeared to Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to her "Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall b great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High and of his kingdom there shall be no end." And when Mary, awed and perplexed by the mystery of it all, asked how it could be possible, since she was a virgin, the angel messenger answered: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the

THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 81

Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God." And this is a mystery above and beyond our human reasoning.

I

Christ's relation to God, the Father, is a mystery. In John, third chapter and sixteenth verse, Jesus describes himself as the gift of God, saying: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." He describes himself here in the most direct declaration as "the only begotten Son."

Again Matthew records in the seventeenth chapter of his Gospel that on the day of transfiguration “A bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."

And Paul, in the opening of his letter to the Colossians, in a rapturous paragraph of thanksgiving for the blessing of the Christian life because God has taken us out of sin and darkness and "translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love," goes on to give this wonderful description of Jesus: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist."

You will notice here that Paul expressly declares that Jesus is "the firstborn of creation." Let us not fail to grasp this significant statement, "The firstborn Son." Warrall's Greek translation renders it "The primal source of the whole creation." And if you would see that Paul has full guarantee for this amazing statement, you have only to read the words of Jesus himself as recorded in the eighth chapter of John's Gospel: "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was born, I am." And John opens his Gospel with the marvelous declaration that in the very beginning Jesus was "with God" and "was God." Surely, "Great is the mystery of godliness."

that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you."

In this paragraph we have the three persons in the Godhead distinctly marked, The Father, the Comforter or Holy Spirit, and Jesus who is speaking. These three are one in the same sense that Jesus meant when he said the husband and wife are one, a unity between distinct individualities. I do not pretend to understand it all. It is a glorious mystery fraught with salvation and blessed comfort to all who love God through Jesus Christ.

III

The mingled divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus is a mystery. There can be no question that Jesus himself claims to be divine. John records in the fifth chapter this claim in the most straightforward and unequivocal words: "The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself; and he gave him authority to execute judgment."