April 1930
178
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
God. While some resist the drawing of divine love, let us praise God that many do yield to the powerful, magnetic love of God. After speaking in a religious service in the jail at Madison, Wisconsin, I noticed tha.t one prisoner was deeply convicted under the blessed influence of the Spirit of God. I urged him to yield to God. He said he was so wicked that God would not accept him. I opened my Bible and asked him to read Romans 5 :8. He read: “God, commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This melted his heart. He asked for prayers in his behalf and dropped upon his knees and called upon God for mercy. This love of God is personal because it is universal. U nchang ing L ove ! How fickle is human love! How often are human friendships broken! But God’s love is unchangeable! “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” When Jesus uttered those words He knew that Judas was going to betray Him and that Peter was going out to deny Him. He knew all thisr and yet He loved them unto the end. “I am the Lord, I change not.” Because God is unchangeable, His love knows no change. He still loves, in spite of our wayward ness. God’s love had no birthday. There is no date given for: its commencement. He did not begin to be a God of love when Jesus came into the world as the Babe of Bethlehem, or when He went to the Cross' for the sins of the world. Jesus said to the Father: “Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me, . . . for thou lovedst me before the foun dation of the world.” God’s love has no changing day. He says: “I will never forget thee.” Sometimes we think that God has forgotten us. The heavens seem to be brass above our heads. We cry to God and receive no answer. We are inclined to say: “God has forgotten. He does not hear. He does not love.” In. this we are mistaken. Listen to His words in Isaiah 49:15, 16: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I for get thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” A mother’s love is the strongest illustration we have of the love of God. What is there that a mother would not do for her child? We count upon a mother doing for her child every thing that it is possible for a human being to do. The house rented by a colored family was on fire. The colored “mammy” thought she had rescued all her children, but away up on the top floor, was her little darling, and it suddenly flashed upon her mind that she had left him in the burning building. As soon as her mind took in the situation she started back into the burning building to rescue her child. Neighbors tried to hold her back. She broke away from them and rescued the child at the risk of her own life. What was it that impelled her to rescue that babe at the grave risk of a horrible death? It was maternal love. A mother’s love is strong; God’s love is stronger. Can we imagine a mother forgetting her own child? It is one of the most unlikely things to imagine. Yet there are quite a few cases on record of mothers who through drink or some other cause have lost their natural affection. God says: “The mother may forget her child, yet will not I forget thee.” God’s love has no dying day. Everything about us is dying. Nothing abides. Yes; the love of God abides. It is eternal.
U nend ing L ove ! One of the sweetest verses found in the Bible is Jere miah 31:3. It reads: “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” As we observe nature’s law of change, as friends come and go and loved ones leave us sad at heart, what a comfort it is to know that God’s love is perpetual! When our government was endeavoring to make a treaty with the Indians they put in the word “forever,” An Indian said: “I wish you would put in ‘as long as water runs and grass grows.’ ” That was the Indian’s concep tion of “forever.” God’s love never ceases. I have heard it stated that once upon a time the Niagara River stopped flowing. Because of a great ice dam which gripped the water in its frozen bonds, the roar of that mighty cataract was hushed. I know not whether that statement be cor rect or not. This I do know—God’s love has never ceased. God.’s. love never will cease. We speak of the earth as terra firma, yet the coming of the earthquake tells us 'that we are mistaken. We talk of the “everlasting hills,” yet God’s Word tells us that the hills shall melt. But ijGod’S love is perpetual. When He chastises, it is in love. When sin provokes His judgments, He is still love. God’s unending love is continually winning souls. I heard a Christian man say that he once said to a blear- eyed drunkard in New York, who was on his way to the Hudson to drown himself, but who had been arrested by the singing of the hymn, “O love that wilt not let me go,” “God loves you,” and the love of God immediately broke his stony heart. The love of God saved this man from a drunkard’s grave, cleansed his life, and filled his heart with a burning passion to go out after the lost. A mission worker related in my presence an incident that illustrates the power of this unending, undying love of God. It is the story of a mother and a wayward son. We have already said that this maternal love is the strongest illustration that we can think of to mirror forth the love of God. A man had killed five different persons, and was apprehended. During his trial his mother took in every word that was said against her son, and these words ’ seemed to hurt her more than they hurt the son. Men wondered' how she could love such a man. The jury brought in a verdict of “guilty.” The mother put forth her best efforts to get the son pardoned. She succeeded in getting a number of men to sign a petition asking the gov ernor to pardon that criminal. After this wicked man was hung, the mother begged the governor to let her have her son’s body that she might place it in the old family burial plot. There she would plant flowers upon it and water them with her tears. The governor was obliged to tell this mother that according to the laws of the State the man must be buried in the prison yard. The: hfother then begged that her own body at her death might be buried beside her son. Her love made her willing to have her grave pointed out for all coming time as that of the'mother of a noted criminal. Sometimes a mother’s love does not measure up to the love of this particular mother. God says: “I will love thee with an everlasting love.” In one of my notebooks I have preserved two sentences about this endless, deathless love of God, for which I do not know where to give credit: “Love is a golden chain, one end of which is fixed to God’s throne in eternity past, and the other end to His throne in eternity to come. This love of God is a bond not to be dissolved, a union never to be broken, a depth which cannot be fathomed, a height which can never be scaled, a length which can never be traversed, a breadth which cannot be measured, a science
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