THE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD'S LOVE TO MAN. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'-John iii. 16.

"God is love.' Love is an essential attribute of the divine Being. We cannot think or speak truthfully of God, but as love, lovely, and loving. All his works declare him so. Each one, according to its nature and capacity, testifies thus of him. The whole realm of nature is one grand ministry of love. Where the accents of love are not heard, the voice of nature is either muffled, or the listener is dull of hearing. Never has God left himself without witness. This love speaks for its Author in the rays of the glorious, gladdening sun; in the presence of the fair and gentle moon; in the glittering galaxy of the starry sky; in the pleasing, and most necessary, alternations of morn and noon, and eve and night; in the faithful return of the seasons, the hope-reviving spring, the luxuriant summer, the rich and fruitful harvest, and the cold but purifying winter; in the variety and modification of clime and temperature; and in all the immensity of increase which they furnish to the resources of our globe. It speaks for him in all the waters, whether it be the exquisite dew-drop jem, the sparkling, gurgling spring, the foaming cataract, the gushing fountain, the refreshing, purifying rains, the winding, spreading, fructifying river, or the richly treasured lakes, seas, and oceans of our island world. It speaks for him in the vast and multiplied mineral treasures of the earth, its rocks, stones, sands, limes, slates, clays, coals, earths, salts, and metals of many species; in the hundreds of thousands of kinds of herbs, with their multitude of food-supplying roots, grasses, vegetables, and fruits, and their endless profusion of lovely foliage and flowers, shrubbery and trees; and in the millionfold species of living creatures, denizens of water, sky, and earth, forest, wilderness, and city. It speaks for him in all the enjoyments resultant from life; in the organs of sense, including the wonders of vision, the pleasures of sound, and the variety of taste; in the mental constitution, with its delights of knowledge gathered from all the regions of the true, the beautiful, and the sublime; in the moral economy, with the welling fountains of the soul, the aspiring wings of hope, the fellowship of kindred spirits, the ties of friendship and sympathy, and the varied

relations of social being. And it speaks for him in that providence which continuously, and instantly, supplies the wants of every living thing; extends a gracious forbearance to man under his multiplied transgressions and ungenerous forgetfulness, and sends death itself but as the necessary corrective of a gracious parent, to make his children participators in higher joys, to remove those who have become but cumberers of the ground, and to give warning to others who may take the vacated place.

We therefore are the objects of the love of God. God loved the world. So speaks this oracle of oracles. The love of God is love towards man-toward us. There can be no reasonable doubt of this. To doubt or deny this, is to distrust and dishonour the plainest declaration which human language could convey from God to man; and it is to go against all the facts of nature and experience as well. God has illumined the heavens for us. He has made the seasons to revolve, he has varied the climate, he has treasured and distributed the waters for us. He has reared the geologic strata, scooped out the valleys, upheaved the mountains, and filled them all with treasure for us. He has clad the earth with verdure, laden it with fruit, decked it with flowers, and enrobed it in loveliness for us. He has animated earth, sky, and waters with living inhabitants for us. He has given light its wonders, sound its charms, and taste its pleasantness for us. He has given the mind, soul, heart, and spirit their mysterious powers of knowing and enjoyment; he has given society its relations, and these relations their hopes, joys, and pleasures for us. He has given his providence with its ever watchful care, its long-suffering forbearance, and its salutary warnings for us. Who, then, can doubt that we are the objects of the love of God? Who, rather, is not prepared to exclaim in grateful acknowledgment with the psalmist, When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him?'

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But all this is as nothing compared with what God has given to man. He has given his Son, his only Son, his only begotten and beloved Son. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.' It is indeed a glorious thought that we should be able to say, God so loved the world, that he gave the sun, moon, and stars, day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; that he variegated the globe,

and multiplied its resources with zones, cold, temperate, and torrid; that he gave the waters of the sky, river, spring, lake, and ocean to refresh, purify, and gladden the earth; that through centuries of millenniums, he stored it with mineral riches; that he clothed it with living, growing, life sustaining lovely herbage; that he subordinated the manifold millions of animate and inanimate créatures to minister to the will and wants of man; that he bestowed on visible nature her limitless attractions, made her redolent with perfume, and vocal with melody; that he conferred on the human spirit its unspeakable powers of acquisition; fitted the soul of man as a temple for love and joy; that he linked soul to soul in one grand family, and yet gave to each individual his immediate relations and friendships; that he instituted at the first, and maintains till the present, a ceaseless guardian watch, and distributes in perpetual abundant flow the manifold mercies of that providence, and conducts and overrules the whole with this most beneficent of designs, that all this goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering may lead the unthankful to repentance. All this, we say, is a glorious thought; but yet it is as nothing compared with the far excelling glory of the gift of the wellBeloved. Though God had given ten thousand worlds to manifest his regard for man; though he had surrendered the whole material universe, all were as nothing to the gift of Jesus. By him Jehovah made the universe, and though the whole of his stupendous handiwork had been immolated in attestation of the divine compassion for us, that same Jesus had but to speak new worlds into being. But to give Jesus himself to send him forth from the throne of his eternal glory, from the bosom of the Father, and the worship of the angels, to give him that he might divest himself of his divine Majesty to appear on this, his footstool, a poor, wandering, homeless, hungry, wearied outcast, the object of the taunts, revilings, insolence, mockery, and cruelty of man, and all this, even to the enduring, at his instance, of the shameful, excruciating, and accursed death of the cross! O what love! How unutterable! incomparable! incomprehensible! unfathomable! Well may the poet exclaim, –

‘O why hath heaven for man so much regard!'

But the design of this love brings still farther into view the glory of the demonstration. Why such a gift? Such a manifestation of regard? Answer, That man might not perish

but have everlasting life.' Perdition, O sinner, is thy due. 'The wages of sin is death.' Man has sinned, and thereby has wrought for death, he has done work for perdition. Except, then, for this love, the angel of vengeance had long ago received and put into execution the high decree against sin, which would have sealed for ever the doom of man. But this love has stayed the avenger, interposed the present day of salvation, and proffers to man, through the given Son, everlasting life. Here, then, is an object all-worthy of such a gift. How fitting that a sacrifice so stupendous should contemplate an end so unspeakably sublime! Reflect, O unsaved reader, on this wondrous design of your gracious God towards you till it gladden your sin-blighted spirit with the joyous dawnings of that heavenly, divine, and eternal life, which is treasured and gifted in Jesus for our lost and perishing race!

The simple, easy, unencumbered mode whereby the sinner becomes the actual possessor of this eternal life, shews still further the God-like character of that love, which bestowed such a gift, and contemplated through that gift so superlative a design. How often are human schemes of benevolence encumbered with conditions! But here how grandly simple. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' Not he that works for, merits, or tries to merit, but he that needs and accepts. A simpler mode there could not be, and this the simplest, could not be dispensed with. Faith implies the reception of Jesus. This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.' Reader dead in trespasses, receive the Son; and you who have received him, abide in him, and eternal life is certainly yours.

In conclusion, we observe that the unrestrictedness of the terms is the crowning proof of the divine philanthropy. Any one-'whosoever believeth.' No pre-requisite of country, kindred, age, or character. Then, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk, without money and without price.' 'The Spirit and the Bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.'

T. H. M.