the "eternal God" (Deut. 33:27)—the "eternal King" (1 Tim. 1:17). He
see how the belief of them should result in less than an eternal blessing, and the disbelief of them in less than an eternal curse. Whatever these good news can do either for or against us, according as they are welcomed or refused, we cannot conceive of their issues being finite or reversible.
There are frequent words and figures in Scripture, which in many ways and under various aspects bear witness to the truth concerning the eternity of the coming ages of blessing. Faith takes these words in their simple meaning, and refuses to accept such figures as exaggerations. Assuming that the Bible cannot contain the thoughts of God unless it contains his very words; and being quite sure that God would never trust a man, even though he might understand all mysteries and all knowledge, to translate divine thoughts into human words, FAITH receives all Bible words as divine, and therefore most simply and sacredly true.
Amongst those words which it specially delights to think of as real and undeceiving, are those which tell of eternity in its joys and satisfactions.
1. It thinks of the name which God takes to himself.—He calls himself the "eternal God" (Deut. 33:27)—the "eternal King" (1 Tim. 1:17). He is said to be "from everlasting to everlasting" (Ps. 90:2). He is called "the eternity of Israel" (1 Sam. 15:29, margin). We read, "Jehovah shall endure for ever" (Ps. 9:7); and again, "Jehovah is King for ever and ever" (Ps. 10:16). Of the SON we read that he is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever" (Heb. 13:8); and to him the Father speaks, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Heb. 1:8). The SPIRIT is called "the eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14). Such are the names in which God speaks of himself; and there is something in these which makes us feel how abiding and endless those "ages to come" must be, in which this God is "all in all." Faith loves to dwell upon the ETERNITY of the God to whom it has been linked. An eternal God implies an eternity of blessed being to all who are his. Nothing less than this can be included in such wondrous names. It is