“God is Love.” 1 John 4.8

80807 God is Love. I John IV. 8. So judge of God's character by the standard of human season will infallibly lead us into error. There are depths of mystery in that Holy character; which at one time would induce us to look upon him as an arbitrary Governor, who in his dealings with his creatures had no regard to their happiness [??? this creatures] whatever, but was only determined to carry out his own pleasure. This is the view which [A???] Infidels present of the God of the Bible, as he appears to their distorted vision and perverted understanding. Hence acting upon the natural impulse of the feelings they reject the Bible as giving a full representation of the Great Being who made, preserved and governd the world, and erect an imaginary Deity in their creed, formed & constituted according to their own ideas of what God should be. The very reverse of this is the view entertained by another class of persons, who guided by the Light of Reason alone, assume that God is only the perfect personification of Benevolence, Infinite & indiscriminating. That since He is Love & nothing but Love: therefore He wills the happiness of all His creatures and not one of them shall ever perish, because it is utterly inconsistent with the character of a Being who is all Love that he should permit any pain or misery to be inflected upon those dependent upon Him. The same error has misled both, in different ways. The Infidel says that the Bible presents us a God all harshness & severity and the Universalist on the contrary says that He is presented to us in His World as all love & Mercy. Truth is always at a happy medium from the two extremes & thus we find by a careful investigation of the character given of God in Sacred Scriptures, that God is both a "Father in whom compassions flow" and a "just God who will by no means suffer the guilty to escape." That His attributes of Justice & of Truth by no means render it [false] inconsistent that it should be said of Him "He is Love," we think in abundantly manifest. We hope therefore to show that while God must exercise no one Attribute at the expense of another, yet He is preeminently distinguished as a God of Love [*Goodness] & this we show I. by a consideration of our natural constitution as sentient Beings. II. From [the nature of His Holy Law &] God's Providence both General & special. [righteous Government] III. From the plan of Redemption. That the very essence of the Divine character is Love will appear abundantly manifest I. from our physical & moral constitution as rational intelligent Beings. Man is said to be "fearfully and wonderfully made"- "curiously wrought" - his physical frame is compared to "a harp of thousand strings" - so varied so multiplied, so harmonious are the parts of which it is composed. When we, without the assistance of anatomical skill, are led to think of the nerves, the muscles, the sinews, the tendons, the veins, the arteries, the bones & flesh which make up this mortal frame, and see how aptly they are all conjoined and fitted together though widely dissimilar- all designed to answer some valuable and useful end & not one of which can be spared without detriment to our comfort & enjoyment we see visibly displayed the goodness and the Love of God to us, in thus creating us with everything about us adapted to our happiness. Let us dwell for a moment also upon the addition to our enjoyment, with which God has blessed us, in the furnishing us with the external senses. We have the sense of sight the most perfect & delightful of all - the eyes are "the windows of the soul" indeed, through which [she] it looks forth from the tabernacle of flesh in which [she] it is housed, and communicates with the visible material world around. Hence our perceptions of the beautiful the glorious and the sublime in Nature's works around us- from the variegated tints of the rainbows that [the] "based on ocean spans the sky} to the delicate hues of the flower that blooms at our feet - from the azure of heaven's blue spangled with clustering worlds of light all bright & glorious, to the purple glow of the clouds that hang in gorgeous drapery around the setting sun - from the towering mountain whose heavy brow has battled with a thousand storms to the magnificent cataract tumbling & thundering to the abyss below - [from] or the limitless expanse of "old ocean's gray & melancholy waste" - all these beautiful glories & sublime objects, one exhibited to us by the aid of the eye. But the sense of hearing is an additional evidence of God's Love [*Goodness*] to us. Through this medium the sounds that delight and instruct are conveyed to the soul. The melody of Music - warbled by nature's songsters - the music of Nature herself in the thousands of harmonies which Hear around us in strange & unseen choirs - the sound of the human voice which greets us with accents of Love & friendship - or stirs us with emotions of responsive sympathy - or arouses us with the spirit awakening power of Eloquence, or guides us to Heaven in the echo of God's own Holy Ward by his minister, all are conveyed to us by the sense of hearing. Is it not equally manifested in the more sensual faculties of smell & taste and touch - that truly man is richly furnished by a beneficent Creator with every requisite faculty to promise his Comfort & Happiness. If then there were no other evidence of God's Love [*Goodness*] to us - and that the very essence of His Nature is Love - we have it [as] abundantly established in the physical constitution of Man. For, acting as the Deity and with an Omnipotence that could not be stayed or hindered, and a Will that could not be trammelled, how easy would it have been for Him to have changed the whole design & result of the work of man's creation. Had He not been prompted by Love, He might have made every object in Nature, a source of disgust, or of ridicule or of horror or of hatred, or pain! Had not that Love [*Goodness*] which is the very essence of His Nature, guided His Creative Power, {He might have caused every sound that fell upon the ear to be a discord, every odour that was wafted upon the passing breeze to [have] be[en] a stench, every viand offered to the taste to be a nauseating portion, and every object brought to the touch to be invested with a poisoned sting! [*Not exactly a quotation but the idea was borrowed from Paley's mor. Phil. Book II. Ch. 5.*] When therefore instead of this state of things we have senses that show us the beauties, and teach us the harmonies, and communicate to us the excellencies of the objects around. is it not abundantly evident that God is Love? [*the Earth is full of the Goodness of the Lord*] But if our physical frame in its wondrous organization and happy adaptation to our comfort, teach us this precious truth, how much more resplendently does this feature of the Character of the Divine Creator become manifest, as we rise higher in the scale of Being and consider our moral Constitution! Ah! here is the wonderful goodness of God to us as His creatures. In this frail tabernacle thus nicely constituted for man's happiness, dwells an immortal inhabitant. Yes! all gloriously & fearfully wrought as it is, it is but the prison house of the soul. It is not upon this fallen star that now shines with dim & faded lustre - shone of it because by the clouds of sin & corruption that I would call you to gaze for a full manifestation of God's Love. [*Goodness*] But look upon it when first man walked forth from under the creature hand of his maker the image of God with his understanding clear & penetrating - his will unbound & free - his heart pure & holy. In knowledge righteousness & true Holiness the personification of the Deity. Yet much of God's love is to be seen [yet] even although "The gold hath become dim and the most fine gold changed." We have still an immortal spirit capable of wondrous thoughts words & works. How rapidly can it fly to the utter most verge of the Universe or speed back to the most remote period in past time or dart forward to the latest conceivable point of the future and by Faith grasp the glories of the upper world. In these grand attributes of the soul we find the distinctive points of difference between rational & irrational creation - these raise man to an immeasurable height above the beasts that perish and plant [?] upon an eminence but little lower that where Angels stand. As we glance thus hastily at the physical and moral constitution of man the conviction is deeply fixed upon us that "God is Love." [*"The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord"*] But we proceed II to show that God is Love from the nature & operation of His [Law of Government] Providence. The broad theatre of the Universe displays the Providence of God. Hence the distinction of General + special Providence. The doctrine of our Church on this subject is that "God, the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least" It is the same hand that holds [in his hand] the unseen machinery of the Solar System - [that] and orders "the range of Planets Suns and adamantine spheres, wheeling unshaken through the void immense" that also sustains in existence the smallest insect that [crawls] floats upon the air. It is that same eye never slumbering nor sleeping which watches the enduring movements of the worlds of light above us, which also notes the [fall?s] sparrow" - It is the same Infinite mind which while it is employed [upon] in the government and upholding of a Universe, also numbers "the very hairs of your head." It is the same ear that listens to "the Music of the spheres" & the song of angels that hearkens well-pleased to the song of praise from earthly lips - & the humble prayer of the saint. Not a note of rejoicing re-echoes through the Courts of Heaven but he hears it - not a sound of solemn music from worshipping Assemblies upon Earth but it reaches his ear. And thus his infinite omnipresence & omniscence prepare the way for the exercise & display of his Universal & Particular Providence. For should you take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Earth or of the sea - you would find God present to note every moment to hear every word to understand every thought. Never has there been found that peace on the broad surface of the Earth - or the limitless expanse of ocean so perfect a solitude that God was not there. Never has there lived a human Being so elevated as to be above, or one so degraded as to be beneath the notice of his Providence. From the monarch upon his throne surrounded by all the Pomp of earthly Glory on whose nod the destiny of a nation trembling hangs - to the beggar in his hovel, or [upon] with the earth for his bed & the Heaven for his shelter; all are the objects of his watchful care & Providence. Yes! he hears the offering of praise and gratitude from the thankful heart, surrounded with the blessings of Life and he hears & marks the cry of the afflicted and distressed albeit it may be uttered in the midst of Poverty & desertion. It is his Providence that has spread out this goodly world around us for our habitation; garnished it with beauties & glories for our admiration, hung up the glorious Lamp of the Sun to enlighten us by day & the pale & lovely light of the moon by night & all the bright lesson lights which spangle the Heavens & make it a shining frame. And methinks that from the bosom of those shining worlds we may hear in the silence of Nature the precious truth uttered with a kind of voiceless Eloquence that God is Love. [*The Earth is full tc*] It is his Providence that has brought from the bosom of the teeming Earth the fruit & herb that sustains man & beast- that directs the ever changing periods of "seed-time & harvest summer & winter cold & heat," that spreads before us day by day the table of his bounty that keeps us during the shade of Night from "the Pestilence that wacketh in darkness" that overshadows us with the wing of his protection to shield us from "the arrow" of Death "that flieth by Day" and from "the Destruction that wasteth at noonday" while "thousands may fall at our right hand & ten thousand at our [right] left" - it is his Providence that causes "it shall not come nigh us." Not a breath do we draw not a pulse so we strike - not a blessing so we receive but from that Kind watchful Providence which takes care of all from the least to the greatest and who [?] eye so blind as not to read inscribed on every gift - whose ear so dull as not to hear trumpeted in every breath of this atmosphere around us - whose heart so hard as not to feel with responsive gratitude that "God is Love." The rich and the poor the high and the low - are equally the objects of his watchful care - and while he (with 2 his eye) [Wisdom] guides (with 2 his arm) [Power] (sustains (with 2 his Wing) (protects) the Ruler of the mightiest Nation - it is a precious and a cheering truth that the poorest man in his humble hut cannot utter a groan but God hears it - he cannot shed a tear but God notes it - he cannot heave from his labouring breast a sigh but God marks it & he tempers the wind to the shorn lamb; and thus it is in the experience of past Goodness at God's hands the Xtian loves to say & feel with David "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not Want - he leadeth me beside the still waters he maketh me lie down in green pastures - he restoreth my Soul!" How then is it written as with a sunbeam upon every gift of God that he is Love! How doth "day unto Day utter speech" and "night unto night shew knowledge" of his Love in the watchful Guardianship Care & protection of God over us every moment of our lives - Well might an ancient Philosopher exclaim "When God was about to create the World he transformed himself into Love." But if the truth of this annunciation be so manifest in the Creation of Man and God's Providence in relation to him - we have still a higher & more astonishing evidence of the fact in the Redemption. [Herein is Love - not that we love Him but that he loved us and gave himself for us"] Yes! In this was manifested the Love of God to us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is Love - not that we loved Him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." It were indeed signal evidence of God's love to us that he should create us sentient Beings of curious & exquisite mechanism formed for physical and rational enjoyment and that he should have sent us forth into this [lovely] World filled with so much to charm the taste & mind - even were we to end our existence here - even should the grave be the terminating point of our career and were there no other scene of existence on which we were hereafter to enter. But we know that Earth's dark scene shall not be man's only dwelling place - he Knew that the grave is not to be the goal of the race we run - we know it from the Divinity that stirs within us - we cannot be so blind as not to know that those high & far grasping aspirations which flit across our vision like beams of light are the offspring of some noble Principle within - We know that these yearnings of the immortal [??int] for some substantial & sincere enjoyment not of Earth, speak of another & nobler scene of Existence - and we knew too for we have been taught it and we have felt it that the wings of the Dove are trammelled and herr energies are crushed and her brilliances be dimmed and her vision beclouded & her faculties are debased by sin - and thus when we feel the inward conviction of this disheartening truth we know that if there be an Eternity of Existence beyond this vale of tears - it will be an Eternity of sorrow & grief to us. We know that if we launch or vessel forth in search of the happy haven of eternal rest with no better pilot than a deceitful heart- and no better passport than our own righteousness, we shall be wrecked upon the breakers of disappointment and driven from the door with a "Depart ye workers of iniquity! I never knew you!" What then oh what to the soul with its immortal yearnings and its inward deeply wrought convictions of its lost estate - what is this world with all its glories - its wondrous works of Nature & Art - what its comforts & blessings - what the daily sustenance of this perishing mortality - prolonging its wasting existence from day to day - if when this scene of Earthly pageantry is over nought remains but a dark prospect of an unblessed Eternity --- But now upon the midnight glom of the soul beams the radiant lustre of the Star of Bethlehem. Upon the dark bosom of the storm cloud of Jehovah's wrath hangs the bright Rainbow of promise to a dying world -- and wow the soul which like the Dove found no rest in its weary wanderings over the waste of a desolated world, returns with the olive branch of peace & joy & reconciliation gathered from the summit of Calvary! The wondrous love of God that thus has raised us from the depths of despair - that has taken [?] from the rainy clay of despondency and placed them upon the Rock of Ages! that have given us beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the Spirit of Leaviness - that has put a new song into our mouths calm praises unto the Most High!" That Redemption is the strongest evidence of the truth that "God is Love!" will appear manifest if we consider that is entirely gratuitous. God was under no obligation to Redeem Man. Remember how graciously He had dealt with man - he had set before him Life & Death blessing & cursing how he had faithfully warned him of the consequences of Disobedience - Remember that man was furnished with every capacity for obedience & by the exercise of his own will[ful act] perpetrated the act of disobedience which defied the authority of his Gracious Father - commited suicide on his own Soul's happiness and overwhelmed a World of his Posterity in Sin & Misery - Remember too that if possible there was a greater apparent obligation resting on God to destroy Man than to redeem. "In the day thou eatest thereof know shalt surely die." was the threatened penalty "Why was it then that God instead of blasting the rebel from his presence with everlasting destruction, did on the contrary spare him and even on the very day set for his Execution uttered words of encouragement and consolation to the lost & mind? Why was it that even when man might surely expect the execution of the threatened penalty, God condescended to make the first promise of a Redeemer "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head!" Oh! it was because His mercy which is only one of the outlets of the ocean of his Love is over all his works. It is because "God is Love!" He received no addition to his Glory no accession to his essential Happiness - He would not have been on ray less glorious - nor the particle less Happy had he inflicted upon man the threatened penalty - with our volition of His Divine mind He could have brought in to Existence another more beauteous more glorious world than this filed with holier & nobler beings than Man - But He chose to make the display of His essential character of Love more manifest in the salvation of the soul justly doomed to die! But that his Nature is Love will appear from the work of Redemption if we consider the cost of that Redemption. What cost it? "Hear oh Heavens! And be astonished oh Earth!" God so loved the world as to give his only begotten son that [who???] believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life!" Yes! So preserve the Truth of his Law & Justice inviolate Man must die or find a Ransom - Who could magnify the Law & make it honourable who could pay the ransom infinitely valuable required to satisfy the justice of an offended God! None but Jesus the Son of God! And will God then spare man & suffer his own son to die! Oh matchless Love! To save a rebellious world from merited wrath the Judge gives up his own Son to die the innocent for the Guilty the "Just for the unjust-- What a cost is this What a price is this - What a great salvation How "precious the Redemption of the soul" that cost the Life of the Son of God! The temporary laying aside of the glories of Heaven - the assumption of the form of sinful flesh - the poverty shame humiliation persecution, desertion contempt mockery scourging crucifixion & cruel Death upon the accursed tree - what an immense price to pay for the redemption of the soul of Man from merited Death! That God is Love will appear manifest in the work of Redemption if we consider that this is more than was done for Angels. Yes! When Angels rebelled they were hurled headlong from the high battlements of Heaven without the interposition of an Almighty arm to save - plunged into utter blackness of darkness forever - reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great Day!" No promise of a Saviour to restore - no offer of mercy was ever made to them - no message of salvation sent. The Son of God did not say to His Father. Here am I send me to rescue fallen angels & restore those bright angelic beings to their lost Estate - Nor did he say Father "forgive them they Know not what they do" Nor does he present his blood as a peace offering to appease the Wrath of God! No HOpe of Heaven or Happiness is presented to the view of the fallen Angels thro' the suffering merits intercession of a crucified Savior! But darkness & storms of fierce wrath & indignation beat forever in ceaseless torrents upon their immortal souls and [as] the bellowing roar of the tempest as it re-echoes thro' the vaults of those dark regions - the burden of its thunder is "forever & forever No hope! No hope!" But for fallen man - Heaven is moved to stoop to Earth that he might rise- God becomes man that man may become assimilated to God - God must die that Man might live! And now when we think of this astonishing evidence of God's Love to use we need not wonder that we receive the utter manifestations of His love in Creation & Providence but we well understand the language of the Apostle when He says "He that spared not His own Son but freely gave him up for us - how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Sinner! You have been pleaded with by the love you have for your own soul to seek its salvation - you have been warned by the threatenings of God's Holy Law to escape the wrath of God - you have been urged by the consideration of your own imminent danger - the step of Death you have heard - the opening grave you have looked into - the terrors of Hell have as it were, been uttered in your ears & you have remained untouched unscathed insensate! We offer you today the tenderest the strongest the most touching argument that ever was offered to man! Oh we point you it is true to the dark pit before you - we show you the fearful sentence of God's Law hanging over you in terror we speak of the wrath of God which is daily becoming more & more heavy for you - but it is only that we may entrance the value & recommend the precious disinterested Nature of that Love that closes the pit and silences the thunder of the Law & averts the threatening storm & is now awaiting your consent & acceptance to raise you from sin & guilt & misery to Purity & safety & Happiness! Will you love Him who thus manifests his Love to you? or will you "hate him without a cause" still? Say Sinner will you have this Christ or no! He is yours if you will have him! Yours to save - yours to redeem - yours to place in Chimes of everlasting Bliss- But if you reject Remember He will not always be in reach - He will leave you to your choice & Oh the wretchedness & folly & madness of that choice can only be estimated by the intensity of the torments of Hell and its changeable nature will be certified by the duration of Eternity.