changing_ God, the Creator, Preserver, Alpha
and Omega, the Beginning and End of all things. He is the _First Cause_
of all causes, the _Agent_, original moving Power, and guiding Wisdom,
which set in motion the wheels of universal nature, and guides and
governs them without "variableness or the shadow of turning."

"I AM the first, and I, the last,
Thro endless years the same;
I AM is my memorial still,
And my eternal name."
_Watts' Hymn._

Ask the Jews the meaning of this _neuter verb_ in their language. They
hold it in the most profound and superstitious reverence. After the
captivity of their nation they never dared pronounce the name except
once a year when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, and hence
the true pronunciation of it was lost. Unto this day they dare not
attempt to utter it. In all their writings it remains in characters
untranslated. When their Messiah comes they expect he will restore the
pronunciation, and by it they shall be able to accomplish all
things.[15]

According to Plutarch the Greeks had the letters EI, =thou art=,
engraven on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, which is the second person
of =Eimi=, _I am_.[16]

This motto was doubtless borrowed from the Jews, to whom it was given as
the name of the God of Jacob. The same name you may see engraven on
monuments, on pictures of the bible, on masonic implements, and in
various places, untranslated.

Who can suppose that this word "expresses no action," when the very
person incapable of it can not utter it, and no one else can speak it
for him? It denotes the highest conceivable action applied to Deity or
to man, and it is questionable philosophy which dares contradict this
fact. The action expressed by it, is not changed, because it does not
terminate on a foreign object. It remains the same. It is self-action.

_He is._

This word is constructed from an old verb signifying _to stand forth_,
_to appear_, _to show one's self_, and may be traced, I think, to the
latin _eo_, _to go_, and _exist_, to _exeo_, _to go from_; that is, our
_being_ or _existence_, _came_ or _stood forth_ from God. It is
certainly a contraction from the old english _to exist_. _Ist_ is the
spelling still retained in the german and some other languages. It
denotes self-action. One man does not _exist_ another, but himself. He
_keeps himself_ in existence.

_We are_, _thou are-est_, _arst_, or _art_.