spel: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were
made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been
made."[5] It is also the teaching of St. Paul: "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 in Him all
things consist."[6]

But the Apostle has a further motive in referring to the Son as Upholder
of all things. As Creator and Sustainer He reveals God. He upholds all
things _by the word of His power_. "The invisible things of God are
perceived through the things which are made, even His everlasting power
and Divinity."[7] There is a revelation of God prior even to that given
in the prophets.

4. Having made purification of sins, He took His seat on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. We come now, at last, to the special revelation
of God which forms the subject of the Epistle. The Apostle here states
his central truth on its two sides. The one side is Christ's priestly
offering; the other is His kingly exaltation. We shall see as we proceed
that the entire structure of the Epistle rests on this great
conception,--the Son of God, the eternal Priest-King. By introducing it
at this early stage, the author gives his readers the clue to what will
very soon prove a labyrinth. We must hold the thread firmly, if we wish
not to be lost in the maze. The subject of the treatise is here given
us. It is "The Son as Priest-King the Revealer of God." The revelation
is not in words only, nor in external acts only, but in love, in
redemption, in opening heaven to all believers. It is well termed a
revelation. For the Priest-King has rent the thick veil and opened the
way to men to enter into the true holiest place, so that they know God
by prayer and communion.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rom. x. 6-8.

[2] Newman, _Arians_, p. 182 (ed. 1833).

[3] John xiv. 6, 9.

[4] John v. 26.

[5] John i. 1, 3.

[6] Col. i. 16, 17.

[7] Rom. i. 20.

CHAPTER II.

_THE SON AND THE ANGELS._

HEBREWS i. 4-ii. 18.

The most dangerous and persistent error against which the theologians of
the New Testament had to contend was the doctrine of emanations. The
persistence of this error lay in its affinity with the Christian
conception of mediation between God and men; its danger sprang from i