You have with an eternal love God hath loved me. a beautiful illustration of this in the answer given by an aged saint when he was asked how old he was. He said, "I am ninety years of age." On astonishment being expressed at this, he said, "I am far older than that. I am as old as the purposes of God-as old as His love, for He has loved me with an everlasting love." Of course it must be so. God's love to us is from all eternity; a love which did not commence at the Cross. The Cross was but the development of a love that was older than the heavens. Did I say the heaWhy the heavens, in comparison of it, are new, and the so-called eternal hills are but of yesterday; but from everlasting to everlasting is the love of God. vens ? But if it found not its beginning at the Cross, still less and this is important did it find its commencement from anything in us. It is a poor Gospel to say that the Shepherd loved the sheep only when the sheep had returned from its wanderings, or that the Father loved the prodigal only when the prodigal, returned, now loved Him. Did the Shepherd, think you, only love the sheep when the sheep was in His fold? or did the Father, think you, only love His child when that child, safe in His arms, first loved Him? We trow not. The Gospel is, that the Shepherd loved the sheep, not only before he wandered, but also all the while he wandered. So it is with God: the Gospel is, that He loved His prodigal whilst he was wandering as well as before he was wandering. Nay, it was the fact that the sheep had wandered from the fold, that led to the special mission of the good Shepherd, among the far mountains, for his recovery; and it was the fact that the son was lost, which manifested the deep sense of love toward him which was in the mind of the Father. Neither the wandering of the sheep, nor the sins of the prodigal, separated from such love! Oh, sinner! that ill-requited, unchanging love! the harvest for the knowing of which, for salvation, will soon for ever have passed. It will be one of the chief stings of that prison-house of woe, that God, notwithstanding sin, had loved us, and had sent the message of that love, but which message, along with the love, had been rejected and despised. : But this love of God is not only eternal, it is according to the fulness of His grace. There was nothing in us to deserve or merit it. Our desert was, that having wandered from Him, God may leave us to our wanderings-that having despised, and even hated Him, He may leave us to perish in our sin. Such seems to have been His manner toward sinning angels. It is not said, God so loved them that He gave His only begotten Son-but God so loved the world. Nothing, it appears, could prove an obstacle to it. But there was nothing in us to merit God's love. What I mean by merit is this it is a thing of right for God to love the beautiful; but man, morally, is deformed. It is right for God to love the sinless; but man is corrupt. And it is right for God to love those who love Him; but the natural man- "The carnal mind is enmity to God"-therefore man has no claim on God's love; he has nothing wherewith to merit it. Oh, it is a bold assertion to make (bold yet true) when I assert, on the authority of God, that there was nothing in man which proved an obstacle to his being the object of the love of God. The lost condition of the sheep did not prevent or hinder the compassion of the Shepherd; and the ingratitude of the prodigal-his forgetfulness of his Father, his crime, and misery-did not alter or bar up from him the long-felt love of his Father. This, we say, in itself is good news to the guilty. It is a Gospel full of solace to such as have been led to a deep sense of what a bitter and dreadful thing sin is. Oh, let me say to you, if there be a sinner here whose foot has trampled into the dust every word of God, that foot is no barrier; or if there be a tongue that has never ceased to blaspheme the God that made it, that tongue is no barrier. This is wondrous grace, which can act savingly through the Cross-grace for the chief of sinners. If there were a man here deeply covered with sin-listen!" Though your sins be as scarlet," what then?—I will destroy? no, indeed-" they shall be as white as snow." Here is where wrong doctrine comes in. One man thinks because he has not so many sins as his neighbour, he has some claim; and another thinks that if he had not so many sins as he has, he would have some claim. God's love is according to grace; not according to the fewness, or otherwise, of our sins. He says, "Though your sins be red like crimson." Oh, my God! speak it Thyself" Though your sins be red like crimson". though thy whole nature were one mass of iniquity— though thy sins were as deeply dyed as crimsonthey shall be as wool." I have told you God's love is according to grace, that we do not merit it, and never can or shall merit it; for who can bring health or life out of corruption? We cannot raise the dead; and that is what we are: and as to making an atonement for our sin, we are helpless, hopeless in ourselves; yet, says God, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Why if I had that murderer here the man who by direct and circumstantial evidence is evidently such-if I had him here, I would say, "Man, thy hand is red, and thy sin is red as blood." But I could tell him what may astonish him, that God, as to the common enmity of our nature, sees no difference between a poor murderer and your preacher. The murderer and myself, God knows but by one name-that of " sinner.” Ah, yes, the Gospel to bring to a perishing world, is-that wherever there is a sinner to be saved, there is not a straw's weight of an obstacle, but what his ignorance or unbelief may place between him and God. Do you understand, beloved ? The love of God is according to grace, and grace means free-a gift. A gift supposes no equivalent, and no equivalent supposes no claim. What a Gospel! The priest at the altar, the murderer in the cell, and the Queen on her throne, with the vilest serf, or the poorest pauper that walks the streets -all, as sinners, are equal before God; all go by the one name, "SINNER;" and all are the subjects of the free, unmerited, unfettered offer of the love of God. Do you understand, beloved, how that this love is free for you, just as you are? But, thirdly, it is a righteous love. It is not only according to grace, but it is according to righteousness. Love, like "grace, reigns through righteousness." It is a glorious thing to be able to show the sinner that God's love is a righteous love. That murderer now on the high seas, tracked by avenging justice, the love which God has to a sinner like him, is not only according to grace, but according to righteousness. What do I mean? Simply this-Justice could not spare the sinner because of his sins, but must have its course. It had its courseChrist was delivered in our stead-died for our sins. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." His love for us was stronger than death. If I so love a person, that when he is condemned to die, I die for him, then is my love stronger than death. God loved the sinner; but, said God, because of his sins he must die. But Christ died in his stead. God must either give up the sinner to die, or give up His own Son. If He give up His Son, He can embrace the sinner. Oh! love unparalleled this!-love divine! "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son;" and Jesus, whose love was strong as death, gave Himself. O sinner! look at the bleeding Cross! and see the dying love of Jesus! "See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down: Or thorns compose so rich a crown ?" Did you ever know of one man dying for another? There is an instance in history of a man dying for his friend; and in the annals of our armies there are recorded instances of soldiers in the day of battle taking the death-blow of the enemy, and so saving the life of a loved officer; but did you ever hear of a man dying for his enemy? love, strong as death, for an enemy ? Nay, but when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son ;" and "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." Death was our due, because of sin-"The wages of sin is death." Christ came and took the death-paid the wages; and now God's love is not only according to grace, having given His Son, but grace reigns over all obstacles to our salvation, through righteousness. But not only is God's love eternal, and free, and righteous, but it is a sovereign love. Am I speaking unadvisedly when I say, that God did not love fallen angels as He loved fallen man; or that He loves unfallen angels as He loves fallen man. "The devils believe and tremble;" we believe and are saved. Why do they tremble? They know that God sent His Son to die for this world; but do they not also know that God never sent His Son to die for them? Hence they believe and tremble; we believe, and are saved. God's love in this is sovereign; and if any complain that God loved this world of sinners, and did not love the world of devils, our reply is ready-" Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" Shall the clay say of the potter, Why hast thou made me thus ? or shall |