August 22

And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest. — Luke 1:76.

IT is obvious to the candid reader of the divine testimony, that in all things Christ has the pre-eminence. The titles given to him were never applied to any creature, however dignified or exalted. Of John the harbinger of Christ it is said. "And thou shalt be called the Prophet of the HIGHEST." Jesus is then truly the HIGHEST: above him there is none. This will apply first to his essential nature. He possesses the very nature of the Godhead; in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He is in the Father, and the Father is in him, and all that constitutes the essentiality of Deity, is truly, eternally, and properly his. He thought it not robbery to be, "equal with God." He is the Highest, as he is invested with all the incommunicable attributes of Deity. Eternity, omniscience, omnipresence, Alnaghty-power, and absolute unchangeableness, are all repeatedly ascribed to him: and to a mere creature, they are never applied. The loftiest spirit that burns before the throne of the Eternal would shrink from the ascription of one of them. Then Jesus is also the Highest as it respects his illustrious works. Creation, in all

2 c its extent, as it includes earth and heaven, men and angels was the result of his Divine operations. Without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3.—Colossians 1:16.) Providence and universal dominion belong to him: all events he controuls, and over all worlds he rules, for he is Lord of all. Redemption emanated in the depths of his unsearchable wisdom, flowed from the ocean of his boundless love and mercy, and was effected by the making bare of his Almighty arm.