[Footnote A: Attribute: A characteristic or distinguishing mark, especially an excellent or lofty quality or trait (Cent. Diet.). "By this word 'attribute' is meant something which is immovable and inseparable from the essence of its subject, as that which constitutes it (Descartes). Attribute is considered a word of lofty significance: Thus, for example, it would be felt as indecorous to speak of the 'qualities' of God, and as ridiculous to talk of the 'attributes' of matter."--Hamilton.] DISCUSSION. _1. The Attributes Ascribed to God:_ As the attributes of God are necessarily involved in the philosophy of the Atonement, I think it proper here to make brief allusion to them, especially to those more immediately involved in the Atonement. The attributes usually assigned to God, either upon the ground of scripture or the supposed necessity of his nature are: Eternity, Immutability, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Wisdom, Holiness, Truth, Justice, Mercy, Love. _2. Eternity:_ By "Eternity," spoken of as an attribute of God, is meant God's eternal existence. We may not in rational thought assume a time when God was not--or when He did not exist. God's eternity is sustained by such scripture as David's 90th Psalm, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." Also Paul bears the same witness: "And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail."[A] [Footnote A: Heb. i:10-12.] _3. Immutability:_ God's "Immutability," his unchangeableness, is sustained in such passages of both ancient and modern scriptures as follow: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."[A] "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."[B] "For God does not walk in crooked paths, neither does he turn to the right hand nor to the left, or vary from that which he has said; therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round,"[C] "Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, whose course is one eternal round, the same yesterday, today and forever."[D] [Footnote A: James i:17.] [Footnote B: Malachi iii:6.] [Footnote C: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 3, v. 2.] [Footnote D: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 35, v. 1.]