12 - Chapter 12

CHAP. XII. CONCLUSION. The investigations pursued in the preceding chapters have illustrated, by their concurrent results, the truth of the scriptural position, that God is Love. Not that we are to presume, that while we receive with unhesitating submission any truth revealed from God, and then proceed, according to the general encouragements conveyed in His word, to impress it on our minds by examination of circumstances in His works of creation, and in the various dispensations of His Providence confirming that truth, that incidental difficulties, or seeming incongruities in detached instances, may not present themselves. How can limited and feeble reason fathom the depths of Infinite Wisdom ! Such difficulties and seeming incongruities fall within the province of faith. " Rather," exclaims an objector, " within the province of credulity." No. The two provinces are discriminated by accurate boundaries. To mistake or to disregard their respective boundaries is one of the most common errors of scepticism in religion. Faith believes on sufficient evidence; credulity on insufficient. Scepticism is incredulous in the face of the sufficient evidence which is justly satisfactory to faith. The special objects of faith are facts, the reality of which cannot at present be ascertained to us by our own actual knowledge, but is believed on the credit due to the testimony of others. That God is love, we believe on the word of Himself, who is the God of truth, who\cannot Hebrews 1:1-14 If, in a reverent examination of the Divine proceedings, so far as our faculties are competent to the inquiry, we meet, among many clear confirmations of the fact, some insulated points in which we discern not its operation, or even imagine that indications militating against it seem apparent, what conclusion will sober reason suggest ? It will teach us, in the first place, to ask ourselves, " Are you convinced that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God ?" Firmly. " Are the words of Scripture respecting Love as an attribute of God definite and plain ?" Indisputably: God is Love. " Remember, then, the narrow i Titus 1:2. Hebrews 6:18. range, the feeble powers, of the human intellect. Remember that you now see things as through a glass darkly: that the ways of God are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts : that although clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgement are the habitation of His throne."1 Is additional elucidation desired respecting the just authority of faith, and the sound process of reasoning, as each has here been stated ? Behold it in the ordinary transactions of life. Behold it in your own. Consider in how many instances you assent on the testimony of observant and credible men to alleged facts which you have not personal means of verifying, and even though some incidental grounds of hesitation as to their certainty might be perceptible. But let us represent a single case bearing as near a degree of resemblance as may be to our immediate subject. Suppose yourself to have received through life continual and great kindnesses from a particular individual, in whom you have also ^remarked the steady influence of strict principles of veracity. Yet suppose that, in a recent transaction, you think that ’ 1 Corinthians 13:12. Isaiah 50:8-9. Psalms 97:2. some traces are discernible of absence of kindness. He assures you that, although he cannot as yet put you into possession of the explanatory circumstances, you will find your suspicions to have been groundless. You would say, " The experience of the past satisfies me that his affirmation is true, and his kindness undiminished." If such would be the confidence given to the assurance of a human being subject to the frailties and the sinfulness pressing upon every man ; what is the faith due to the word of the Most High ? What is the faith due to God, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning1; to Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever?* A question, most important to us individually, remains: What is to be the practical influence upon ourselves of the conviction that God is

Love ? The answer is included in the declaration of St. John; We love Him, because He first loved us. 3 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the ’ James, 1. 17:2 Hebrews 13:8. s 1 John, 4:10. first and great commandment; a commandment, rightly so placed and so denominated, because it plainly comprehends every other. Its binding force rests on the sovereignty of God; but is farther impressed upon our hearts by the love which He has displayed towards us. Most justly, therefore, are we required, whatsoever we do, to do all to the glory of God.1 Similar reasoning is irresistibly applied by St. Paul as to our duty to our Redeemer. The love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."1

Whosoever, said our Lord, shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven.9 As dedicated to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, can we build up ourselves on our most holy faith, which was once delivered to the saints, — a faith which is to i 1 Corinthians 10:31:2 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. s Matthew 10:33-34. In Mark 8:38 and Luke 9:26 the expressions are, Whosoever shall lie ashamed of me and of my words. work in us by love; can we keep ourselves in the love of God, can we pray in the Holy Ghost, can we look for mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life,J if we are ashamed of Him and of His words ? Our Divine Redeemer descended from heaven, became man, and suffered on the Cross, not solely that He might make atonement for the sins of the world, but also that He might pour out upon men the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit, to rescue the heart of the sinner from the dominion of the powers of darkness, to convert him from the love of evil to the love of holiness ; to accomplish in him progressively a moral transformation, rendering him so different from his former self that he may justly be described in language figurative but not hyperbolical, as born again, created anewt a new creature in Christ Jesus? The change was to be proved by its fruits. He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.* How then are we to i Jude 1:3. Galatians 5:6.

- John 3:3-5. a Cor. 5:17. Ephesians 2:9. Ephesians 4:21.

1 Titus 2:14. know whether we love our Redeemer ? He has set before us a plain criterion. If ye love me, keep my commandments. If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.1 But our Lord Jesus Christ is not only our Lawgiver; He is personally our pattern in all holiness. Having died for all, He commands us to love all men for His sake; and by this proof, among other testimonies, to evince our love for Himself. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.,2 Well might it be termed a new commandment, when renewed by such authority, and enforced by such an example. His apostles frequently repeat the direction. Thus St. Paul addresses the Ephesians: Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.3 The First Epistle of St. John abounds, i John 14:15. John 14:23-24. ’- John 13:34-35. ’’ Ephesians 5:2. particularly in the third and fourth chapters, with similar passages. Encouragements and warnings are frequently united by the sacred writers. St. Paul, while he concludes one of his epistles with a prayer that Grace may be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,1 closes another with announcing the aweful judgements awaiting any man who does not love Him.2 For this cause, he elsewhere adds I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.3

God, then, is Love. His love never faileth. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.* His love is immeasur- i Ephesians 1:1: 2 1 Corinthians 16:22.

’ Ephesians 3:14-19. * Romans 8:28. able in length, in breadth, in depth, in height; in all its dimensions great beyond the extent of our conceptions. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ? Are you faithful servants of the Son of God ? Persevere. Then shall all things be given unto you through Him,— Whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory ; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls?

1 Romans 8:32. * \ Peter, 1. 8, 9. THE END.

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