October 14

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. - 1 John 4:10.

LET us turn aside and behold, First, the grandeur and dearness of the gift. It was not an angel, but the Lord of angels; not a servant, but a Son,-his own Son, his only-begotten Son, “the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.” “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” This gift insures and includes every other; “for he that spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?”

Behold, Secondly, The condition into which he entered. It was not the angelic state: this would have been a mighty condescension; but he descended still lower; “he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham;” “the Word was made flesh.” Though man, absolutely considered, is nothing, yet he is otherwise comparatively and relatively viewed. But our Saviour never appeared in any of the superior forms of our nature. He lived a life of penury, and reproach, and persecution. Peter had a house of his own; John had a house; and “the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

There are few who are destitute of all sympathy and compassion; but, says he, “I looked for some to take pity, and there was none; and for comfort, but I found none.” There are none who are strangers to sorrow of some kind; and he was “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” But who can describe or imagine his inward sufferings when he was in the garden and was “sore amazed and very heavy”? when he said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death”? when “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”? when he exclaimed on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And yet “it pleased the Father to bruise him,” and for our sakes, and for our recovery. We notice,

Thirdly, The unworthiness of the persons for whom he was sent thus to suffer and to die. Paul has been beforehand with us here:-“When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly; God commendeth his love towards us, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us,”

Fourthly, Let us contemplate the beneficial consequences of the dispensation. “In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” And “God,” says our Saviour, “so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Let us notice, finally, The number of the partakers. It is a “multitude which no man can number,” compared in the Scriptures, sometimes to the drops of morning dew, sometimes to the stars of heaven, and sometimes to the sand of the sea-shore. Half mankind die in a state of infancy; and surely, if “of such is the kingdom of heaven,” here is half the human race mercifully disposed of at once. And as to the other half, how many would appear if we knew all! for the Lord has his “hidden ones.” How many have been saved already since the foundation of the world! How many are the subjects of divine grace now passing through this vale of tears! And oh, when we look forward to better times,-when “a nation shall be born in a day,” when “he shall sprinkle many nations,” when “all nations shall fall down before him, and all kings shall serve him,” “and all flesh shall see the salvation of our God.”