Some Things Learned from God’s Family Record.—No. 1.
By M. M. Osgood
God’s life had no beginning—it will never end. Ps. 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” He knows all things that are past, that are now transpiring, and that will come to pass during the eternal ages. Isa. 46:9, 10: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.” Ps. 139:1-4: “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” Heb. 4:13: “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” He who created all things, is rightful ruler over all. Ps. 103:19: “The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” Isa. 33:22: “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver [margin, Heb., statute maker], the LORD is our king.” LORD, when printed in small capitals, in the Old Testament, refers to God the Father. God is a merciful, loving, and just ruler. Ex. 34:6, 7: “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Ps. 103:13: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him;” yet, Eccl. 12:14: “God shall bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Jer. 32:18, 19: “The great, the mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name, great in counsel, and mighty in work; for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men; to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Rom. 2:7-9: “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.”