In the very opening of this Concordance, I cannot pass over the first letter, which the Hebrews call Aleph, and which they pronounce A. And I do this the rather, because, as the Greeks call their first letter Alpha, and our adorable Redeemer graciously condescended to call himself by that name; so equally applicable is Aleph, to the person of Jesus. Indeed, as if to shew the infinite fulness and comprehensiveness of his nature and character, the Lord Jesus took the names, both of Alpha and Omega: the former, the first; and the latter, the last, in the letters of the Alphabet. There is no letter before Alpha, and none after Omega. Nothing can be more strikingly characteristic of Christ. For as Christ, he was, and is, and ever will be, the first letter in all JEHOVAH'S alphabet; and the last, in all the ultimate design of his glory. (See Revelation 1:8; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:13.) Now the word Aleph is expressive also of a first, a leader, or chief, and sovereign person. So that in this sense, Jesus is Aleph, as well as Alpha. And it is still worthy of farther remark, that as the sound of the Aleph, or A, in Hebrew, is only a soft breathing as it were, and needs nothing more to form it, than the mere motion of the lips; it may be supposed, to have a peculiar reference to Him, who first "breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)