For it pleased the Father that in him [Christ Jesus] should all fullness dwell. * * * For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.[A]

[Footnote A: Col. 1:19, 2:9.]

All there is, then, in God, there is in Jesus Christ. All that Jesus Christ is, God is, And Jesus Christ is an immortal man of flesh and bone and spirit, and with his Father and the Holy Spirit will reign eternally in the heavens.

III.
THE CHARACTER OF GOD REVEALED IN THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST.

Having proved from the scriptures that Jesus Christ is God, and the revelation of God to man, I come to another branch of my subject. I now wish to show you that Jesus Christ manifested God also in his life; and although I have been addressing you for some time, I am quite sure you yourselves would not be entirely satisfied with the treatise upon this subject, unless I pointed out how God would act under the variety of circumstances in which it is our privilege to behold him placed.

The Humility of God.

First of all, I call your attention to the deep, the profound humility of God; his great condescension in living among men, as he did, for our instruction; and from that circumstance would draw to your attention the lesson of humility his life teaches. The heights of glory to which Jesus had attained, the power and dignity of his position in the heavenly kingdom, of course, cannot be comprehended by us in our present finite condition, and with our limited knowledge of things. Great and exalted as we might think him to be, you may depend upon it he was exalted infinitely higher than that. Then when you think of one living and moving in the courts of heaven and mingling in the councils of the Gods, consenting to come down to this earth and pass through the conditions that Jesus passed through, do you not marvel at his humility? To be born under such circumstances as would enable wicked man to cast reflection upon his very birth![A] To be born, too, in a stable, and to be cradled in a manger! To grow up a peasant, with a peasant's labor to perform, and a peasant's fare to subsist upon from childhood to manhood—do you not marvel at this great humility, at this great condescension of God? And by his humility, are not men taught humility, as they are taught it by no other circumstance whatsoever!

[Footnote A: St. John 8:41.]

The Obedience of God.

Of his youth, we know but little; but the little we know reveals a shining quality, either for God or man to possess. You must remember, in all our consideration of the life of Messiah, one truth, which comes to us from the scriptures in an incidental way, viz., that "In his humiliation his judgment was taken from him."[A] As the veil is drawn over our minds when our pre-existent spirits come into this world, and we forget the Father and mother of the spirit world, and the positions we occupied there, so, too, with Jesus; in his humiliation his judgment was taken from him; he knew not at first whence he came, nor the dignity of his station in heaven. It was only by degrees that he felt the Spirit working within him and gradually unfolding the sublime idea that he was peculiarly and pre-eminently the Son of God in very deed. When at Jerusalem, about twelve years of age, he began to be conscious of the suggestions of the Spirit within him, and hence allowed the caravan with which he had come from distant Galilee to Judea to start upon the return journey without him, much to the perplexity and sorrow of his supposed father, Joseph, and his mother Mary. They missing him, returned and found him in the temple disputing with the doctors and lawyers. They reprimanded him, as they would reprimand any boy guilty of similar conduct; but when they reproved him, he answered, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business." He began to understand his mission. The spirit promptings were at work in his soul. And while ultimately the spirit was given without measure unto him,[B] it was not so at first, for "He received not of the fullness at the first, but received grace for grace."[C] The child Jesus "grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. * * * And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."[D] But notwithstanding Jesus, at twelve years of age, and earlier, began to experience the operations of the Spirit calling his soul to his mission, still we are told that he returned with his parents to Galilee, "and was subject unto them." He who had given the law, "Honor thy father and thy mother," in this act exemplified the honor that he entertained for that law, in his practice of it.