ays: "He is the brightness of the Father's glory,
and the _express image of his person_" (the word "image" is
charakter and signifies an "engraving," the very engraving of God in
the flesh, _the engraving of God in humanity_) and upholding all
things by the word of his power. "Upholding all things!" this earth
in its orbit about the sun; the sun in its orbit about some other
sun; all suns and systems in their orbits of splendor, whirling
onward in ever-widening distances over highways of infinite spaces,
through extensions that are measureless, and where time does not
count. In that unmeasured expansion where the points of the compass
are lost and "dimension" is a meaningless term; in that
incomprehensible and indefinable vastness, filled with the might and
the majesty of form, of weight, of motion and limitless power--all
things--are hanging on his word and obeying his will.

Not only does the New Testament proclaim him God--the Old Testament
does likewise, and with unmistakable speech.

The prophet Isaiah says:

"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, _the mighty God, the everlasting Father_."

Micah, the prophet, glorifies the little town of Bethlehem, least as
it is among the thousands of Judah, and foretells that he who shall
be born there, and is to be ruler in Israel, is he "_whose goings
forth have been from old, from everlasting_." He who has been the
outgoing and the forth-putting of the invisible God; and who is, and
who alone can be, the _visibility of God_.

When we turn to the New Testament once more, we are given a vision
of him, in Patmos, where he appears to that beloved John who had
leaned so heavily on his heart in the days of the earthly
pilgrimage. It is a vision of wonder, of glory, and divine splendor.
He is seen as a man--as one who had _become_ dead, who was now
alive, who had conquered both death and the grave. His face shone
with the light of the noonday sun, his eye glances were as a flame
of fire, and when he spoke, his voice was as the sound of many
waters; and this is what he said for himself:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, _the Almighty_."

This is the climax.

He claimed to be Almighty God while on earth.

He claims it from heaven.

He says I am God--he says that because he declares