CHAPTER I.
JESUS IN CREATION AND PROPHECY.
WHEN we open the Holy Bible, the very first sentence unfolds to us the creation of worlds by the Word and power of Jehovah: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
In the New Testament Jesus is presented as the "Creator of all things." The inspired writer opens the subject in these words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made."
Paul, in one of his epistles, speaks of this same Jesus as the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature: "for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist."
Again, John, in his vision of the future glory of the Church, saw the Eternal Throne, and Jesus the Mighty Conqueror seated upon it; and heard
voices chanting in angelic strains, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."
And four-and-twenty elders, clothed in white robes, with crowns of gold, fell prostrate before him, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
When Adam had ruined himself and his posterity by eating the forbidden fruit, Jehovah, in his infinite love, gave him the promise of a Messiah, in the words addressed to the serpent: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
As we trace along the stream of time, we see this faint promise oft renewed, brightening with every repetition.