the first chapter it is thus written: 'I am ¹ the Alpha and the Omega saith the Lord God, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.' The first and last letters of the alphabet are used to denote the beginning and the end, ² and the words 'which is to come' show that this expression is used of Christ, who has promised to return again.³ He who is the first and the last is, of course, God, and cannot be a creature, even the highest angel. Accordingly God says in the book of the prophet Isaiah: 'I, ⁴ the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he.' The expression 'Which is' (ο ων) contains a reference to the passage in the Taurat where God says that His name is 'I ⁵ am'. The incommunicable name of God in Hebrew which is generally rendered LORD (in Arabic ⁶ الربّ = the Greek ο Κυριος) is derived from the Hebrew verb 'to be'. Hence in this passage this most Holy Name is twice given to Christ,⁷ since He is styled both 'The LORD' and 'Which is'. To make the meaning clearer still, in these verses one more title is given Him, and He is called 'The Almighty'.

From a careful consideration of these passages alone, even without examining all those others in which divine attributes and titles are ascribed to

the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be seen that, in accordance with His promise, the Holy Spirit had recalled to ¹ the disciples' remembrance what Christ had taught them, and had thus enabled them to teach ² others what He had commanded them to observe. Anyone who will take the trouble to compare these verses with the sayings of the Lord Jesus Himself, quoted in the first section of this chapter, will see that the Apostles made no claim for Him which He had not previously made for Himself. We notice too that such testimony as that which we have mentioned is borne not by one or two disciples but by all whose writings remain to us. None of them taught any other doctrine. Nor is it possible to say with truth that the doctrine of Christ's Deity was not held by the Apostles themselves until at least long after His ascension, but developed very gradually in later times. Doubtless, as we have seen, they did not fully understand the divine dignity and nature of their Lord and Master until He had ascended into heaven, but they themselves tell us that He Himself had taught them that He was one with God. This doctrine is, therefore, taught alike in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Book of Revelation, as well as in the Epistles of the original disciples of Christ.

The New Testament, however, contains a large number of Epistles of St. Paul, besides the Epistle