Page:The Other Life.djvu/164

 holden" and they do not know Him. They recognize Him in the breaking of bread; and lo! He vanishes from their sight.

The same Divine Being has appeared to patriarchs, prophets and apostles under many different forms: frequently as an angel called "the angel of Jehovah;" as a man wrestling all night with Jacob; as a man standing with a drawn sword before Joshua; even as three men appearing to Abraham; as a human being dying a shameful death upon the cross; as a risen body showing to an unbelieving soul the print of the nails and the mark of the spear; as a dazzling splendor on the mount conversing with Moses and Elias; as a form of light ascending to heaven; as a flaming angel standing in the sun; as "the Ancient of days" seated upon a sapphire throne with "the appearance of fire" round about Him.

God is unchangeable, infinite in form and perfections. These varying manifestations are the records and expressions of varying states of reception in the finite soul of man and the finite Church. God is finited in appearance, whenever his Spirit enters into the perceptive faculties of his finite creatures. All men and angels might thus see God at the same moment of time throughout the entire uni-