A description that is like the sun rising upon the chaos that surrounded him in the Egyptian mythology, which at that time was so gross that no object in nature was too mean for a deity. But "in the midst of this darkness that might be felt," God was pleased to reveal himself in the following language, at once sufficiently grave and impressive to afford irrefragable proof of its high origin.
ויעבור יהוה על־פניו ויקרא יהוה יהוה אל רחום וחנון ארך אפים ורב־חסד ואמת׃ נצר חסד לאלפים נשא עון ופשע וחטאה ונקה לא ינקה פקד עון אבות על־בנים ועל־בני בנים על־שלשים ועל־רבעים׃
~Vay'avor Adonai 'al panav vaykra Adonai Adonai El ra[h.]um ve[h.]anun erekh apayim verav [h.]esed veemeth. Notzer [h.]esed laalafim nose 'avon vafesha ve [h.]atah venakeh lo yinakeh poked 'avon avoth 'al banim ve'al bnei vanim 'al shileshim ve'al ribe'im.~
"And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, 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; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."
Or, as these striking appellatives of the Divine Being might be translated, without offering any violation to the Hebrew,—the Jehovah, the strong and mighty God, the merciful One, the gracious One, the long-suffering One, the great and mighty One, the Bountiful Being, the True One, or Truth, the Preserver of Bountifulness, the Redeemer, or Pardoner, the Righteous Judge, and He who visits iniquity.
This is a remarkable description indeed to come from one educated in the midst of Egyptian mythology; and the awful names by which the Supreme Being is designated, can only be accounted for, under such circumstances, on the supposition that Moses received them directly from the Almighty himself.
But to close our article. The Divine Being is nowhere so perfectly, so interestingly described as in the character of Christ. Here love is unbosomed as it could not be by language. Here heaven drops down to earth; and the otherwise invisible beauties of the invisible God, are made tangible even to the eye. The arm of mercy, outstretched to the sinner—the eye of justice softened by the tear of mercy—the heart of love beating intensely with benignity, as well as every perfection of the divine nature; are all laid open to the view of sinful, helpless man, and we become "eye witness of his glorious majesty." Here the tears of mercy may be seen dropping upon its wretched objects of commiseration; and the most secret emotions of the divine mind, we may behold, heaving in the bosom of the immaculate Jesus. Here indeed "God tabernacles and walks with man." And as a confirmation of the glorious truth, at beholding Him, "the sun stood still in his habitation." "The sea saw him, and was afraid." The earth trembled at his presence, and gave back the dead at his voice. Well indeed might one exclaim, to behold such a personage, "My Lord and my God."