Hebrews 1: "The Unity and Progress of Revelation"

Atlanta, 1901

First Presbyterian Church

Rev. J. G. Herndon, pastor of the Presbyterian church of LaGrange, Ga., filled Dr. Bridewell's pulpit yesterday morning and was greeted by a large congregation. Mr. Herndon is a young man of fine bearing and presence and his eloquent and logical sermon received the closest attention.

The text, from the first part of the second verse of Hebrews 1, was as follows:

"God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His son."

"'Jehovah is a man of war' might serve," said the minister, "to express the old idea which some have of the God of the Old Testament; and they dare to speak disparagingly of deeds committed by His order; but a study of the Scriptures shows us that the whole revelation contained in the Bible is from one author, and the words of the text teach plainly the same truth. The text presents to us the theme, "The Unity and Progress of Revelation."

After showing that a revelation from God is necessarily prior to the existence of the church, the speaker dwelt upon the diversity of forms in the revelation.

In the earlier revelation we find history, biography, rites and ceremonies, poetry, lyric, pastoral and didactic, then theophanies and dreams. It was brought out that the angel Jehovah was the second person in the trinity, and that Christ spoke to His people from time to time before He became man, taking unto Himself our nature and becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

Then were the utterances of the prophets, calling man from his wanderings from God and the forgetfulness of the spirituality of worship.

Then came the final revelation of God which God made In His eternal, essential son. The word of God incarnate was dwelt upon; then it was shown that under all the diversity of forms above spoken of there was one theme, the Messiah and that He was revealed with developing fullness and clearness, as is shown by the knowledge of Him which was had by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and John, and in such expressions as "the seed of the woman," "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," "the suffering servant of Jehovah," "the stone cut out of the mountain without hands," and the abounding fullness of the revelation of God made of Christ the Son: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."

Christ's revelation was both in word and deeds. Illustrative of Christ's power the speaker related feelingly the incident of raising Lazarus from the dead, and drew a most beautiful picture of the storm upon Galilee in which our Lord stood upon the prow of the little fish boat as it was tossed by the waves, the wind blowing His hair and the spray dashing round Him, the terror of the sailor and His calmness as He quieted the storm with the command, "Peace, be still!"

His deeds of mercy were referred to. The explanation of His sufferings and death and triumph were given in the Acts of the Apostles after the deeds were performed.

From the theme of the text two conclusions were drawn -- First, concerning the unity of true religion, and of the kingdom of God. Since the author is one and the revelation is one we are brought into harmonious relation to one God the Father by one Son, and are baptized by one spirit into one body. We are all subjects of one Immortal King through whose name alone is our salvation.

"One army of the living God,
One church above, beneath;
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now."

From Abel, who offered unto God a more acceptable service than Cain, to the last syllable of recorded time in which a son of Adam shall turn to God, it has caused joy in the presence of the angels of God. All are members of one kingdom and become members of that great army.

Consequently the inexcusableness and hopelessness of rejecting God's final covenant was impressed upon the hearers and they were urged to accept the true religion and become members of that great army.

--The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, May 27, 1901, page 10.