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the sin on every side, injustice, perse cution, heartaches, disappointments. Yet some mefl who reject God’s Son and ridicule the Bible teaching of future punishment for sin, delight to say, “ God is love” .- Were it not for the love of God for sinners as expressed in the cross, man might well wonder if God were not a devil. “ Herein is love”— that He sent His Son.— Sel. Twice be fore in the New Testament we have had great revealing words concerning God. God is Spirit (Jn. 4:24), God is Light (Jn. 1 :5), God is love. They destroy all the vain assertions of a philosophical unbelief, whether it calls itself atheism, agnosticism, or pantheism, for they as sert the personal being, the holiness and the love of God.-—Devo. Com. v. 9. Sent His only begotten Sor Literally “ only born Son” . Christ is the only born Son as distinguished from the many who have BECOME sons.— Camb Bible. Into the world. Otherwise He could not have been our life (v. 9), our propitiation (v. 10), or our Saviour (v. 14). It is the grand proof of God’s love, His having sent His Son.— J. F. & B. v. 10. Herein is love. Was ever a better picture drawn of the love of God and the hatred of men than the death of Jesus upon the cross? The first ser mon of grace was preached to those who had condemned JesuS to death and it broke their hearts, for three thou sand cried out, “ Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?’’•^•Pal mer. Not that we loved God. Love does not begin with our loving God but with God loving us. When we come to know and believe the love that God has for us (v. 16) then we begin to love God.— Torrey. Propitiation for onr sins. The broad theology of the presen day asserts that because God is love He can need no propitiation. John says be cause God is love He provided a pro pitiation. No theory of the atonement can be true that conceals or minimizes either its God-ward aspect, that it was a propitiation offered for human sin by the Son of God, or its man-ward aspect, that this propitiation was the supreme revelation of the love of God to man.-— Barrett. v. 11. If God so loved us. It is only when we have learned something of the infinite price paid to redeem us from sin that we rightly estimate the moral enormity of sin and the strength of the obligation which lies upon us. As
no less than the power to confess the incarnation (2:12, 13), is the gift of the Spirit.— Camb. Bible. Everyone that loveth is bom of God. The posses sion of a mere natural emotion can never be the proof of the possession of a spiritual grace, of being “ begotten of God.” John is thinking not of love in general to all men, but of the love of which he had before been speaking, the “ new commandment” Christ had given HIS OWN disciples. (Ch. 2:7-11.)— Barrett. v. 8. Knoweth not God. To attain by experience to a knowledge of God is a very different thing from knowing something ABOUT Him. The Gnostics knew a good deal about God but they did not know Him, for instead of lov ing the brethren who did not share their intellectual attainments, they had an arrogant contempt for them. Love is not a manufacture, it is a fruit. It is not born of certain works, it springs out of certain relations. When I am related to the Lord Jesus, love is as surely born as beauty and fragrance are born when my garden and the spring time dwell together.— Jowett. God Is love. It does not say as we are being taught, in some modern pan theistic teachings, that “ love is God.” — Sel. Love is the very essence of God’s character. We owe our knowledge of this truth entirely to the Bible. Take away' the Bible and we have no sure proof that God is love.— Torrey. How do men get the idea God is love? Turn to the New Testament. Do the apos tles point to the wonders of creation, to the world, the flowers? They point to the darkest spot on earth, a spot crim son wtih blood and horror— the cross, on which we are to see, feel, hear and know the revelation of infinite love They tell us God Himself in the person of His Son endured the judgment of His own law against sin, seeking a way by which He might be just, yet satisfy the sinner who would believe on Him. (Jn. 3:16; 1 Jn. 4:9, 10, 14, 19; 3:16; Rom. 8:32.)—Haldeman. How would we know God is love except for'the gift of His Son for sinners? Study bacteriol ogy, analyze animal forms and forces of life. Look at the horrible octopus and ask yourself if the being who made such apparently useless horrors has not in himself some impulse of almost impish power. Pace the sorrows and despair of human life. Look at the grave where the body is going to decay. Consider
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