lacked unity and was not homogeneous.

In contrast to the fragmentary character of the revelation, the Apostle
speaks of the Son, in the second verse, as the centre of unity. He is
the Heir and the Creator of all things. With the heterogeneous
revelation in the prophets he contrasts, in the third verse, the
revelation that takes its form from the peculiar nature of Christ's
Sonship. He is the effulgence of God's glory, the very image of His
substance; He upholds all things by the word of His power; and, having
made purification of sins, He took His seat on the right hand of the
Majesty on high.

Let us examine a little more closely the double comparison made by the
Apostle between the revelation given to the fathers and that which we
have received.

_First_, the previous revelation was in portions. The Old Testament has
no centre, from which all its wonderful and varied lights radiate, till
we find its unity in the New Testament and read Jesus Christ into it.
God scattered the revelations over many centuries, line upon line,
precept after precept, here a little and there a little. He spread the
knowledge of Himself over the ages of a nation's history, and made the
development of one people the medium whereby to communicate truth. This
of itself, if nothing more had been told us, is a magnificent
conception. A nation's early struggles, bitter failures, ultimate
triumph, the appearance within it of warriors, prophets, poets, saints,
used by the Spirit of God to reveal the invisible! Sometimes revelation
would make but one advance in an age. We might almost imagine that God's
truth from the lips of His prophets was found at times too overpowering.
It was crushing frail humanity. The Revealer must withdraw into silence
behind the thick veil, to give human nature time to breathe and recover
self-possession. The occasional message of prophecy resembles the
suddenness of Elijah's appearances and departures, and forms a strange
contrast to the ceaseless stream of preaching in the Christian Church.

Still more strikingly does it contrast with the New Testament, the
greater book, yea the greatest of all books. Only two classes of men
deny its supremacy. They are those who do not know what real greatness
is, and those who disparage it as a literature that they may be the
better able to seduce foolish and shallow youths to reject it as a
revelation. But honest and profound thinkers, even when they do not
admit that it is the wo