“I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”-
Malachi 3:6
It has been said by some one that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I
will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper
study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead.
The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy,
which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the
nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God
whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the
mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all
our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in
its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel
a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.”
But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot
sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away
with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s
colt; and with the solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know
nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than
thoughts of God. We shall be obliged to feel-
“Great God, how infinite art thou,
What worthless worms are we!”
But while the subject humbles the mind it also expands it. He who often
thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around
this narrow globe. He may be a naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect
a beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes with
well nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the
megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kinds of extinct animals, he may
imagine that his science, whatever it is, ennobles and enlarges his mind. I
dare say it does, but after all, the most excellent study for expanding the
soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the
Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect,
nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued
investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and
expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in
contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there
is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there
is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your
cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his
immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and
invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the
swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial,
as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject
that I invite you this morning. We shall present you with one view of it,-
that is the immutability of the glorious Jehovah. “I am,” says my text,
“Jehovah,” (for so it should be translated) “I am Jehovah, I change not:
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
There are three things this morning. First of all, an unchanging God;
secondly, the persons who derive benefit from this glorious attribute, “the
sons of Jacob;” and thirdly, the benefit they so derive, they “are not
consumed.’ We address ourselves to these points.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”