In the great covenant-name Jehovah there is revealed an existence which
reverses all that we know of finite and progressive being, or finite and
mortal being, or finite and variable nature. With us there are mutations
arising from physical nature. The material must needs be subject to laws
of growth and decadence. Our spiritual nature is subject to changes
arising from the advancement in knowledge. Our moral nature is subject
to fluctuations; circumstances play upon us, and 'nothing continueth in
one stay.' Change is the condition of life. It means growth and
happiness; it belongs to the perfection of creatures. But the
unchangeableness of God is the negation of all imperfection, it is the
negation of all dependence on circumstances, it is the negation of all
possibility of decay or exhaustion, it is the negation of all caprice.
It is the assurance that His is an underived, self-dependent being, and
that with Him is the fountain of light; it is the assurance that, raised
above the limits of time and the succession of events, He is in the
eternal present, where all things that were and are, and are to come,
stand naked and open. It is the assurance that the calm might of His
eternal will acts, not in spasms of successive volitions preceded by a
period of indecision and equilibrium between contending motives, but is
one continuous uniform energy, never beginning, never bending, never
ending; that the purpose of His will is 'the eternal purpose which He
hath purposed in Himself.' It is the assurance that the clear vision of
His infinite knowledge, from the heat of which nothing is hid, has no
stages of advancement, and no events lying nebulous in a dim horizon by
reason of distance, or growing in clearness as they draw nearer, but
which pierces the mists of futurity and the veils of the past and the
infinities of the present, and 'from the beginning to the end knoweth
all things.' It is the assurance that the mighty stream of love from the
heart of God is not contingent on the variations of our character and
the fluctuations of our poor hearts, but rises from His deep well, and
flows on for ever, 'the river of God' which 'is full of water.' It is
the assurance that round all the majesty and the mercy which He has
revealed for our adoration and our trust there is the consecration of
permanence, that we might have a rock on which to build and never be
confounded. Is there anywhere in the past an act of His power, a word of
His lip, a revelation of His heart which has been a strength or a joy or
a light to any man? It is valid for me, and is intended for my use. 'He
fainteth not, nor is weary.' The bush burns and is not consumed. 'I will
not alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.' 'By two immutable
things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong
consolation.'