his sinless soul, and the paradise around him was but an emblem-fair, indeed, yet faintof the far lovelier paradise within! But no sooner had that fatal act of disobedience to the Divine command, "which brought sin into the world, and all our woe," dethroned the love of God from the heart of man,—than in one moment all his glory departed from him—all his happiness passed away as a dream; the image of God was effaced from his soul, and that of Satan stamped in its stead: and the earth, cursed for his sake, sending forth thorns and thistles from its blighted soil, became but too appropriate an emblem of the far drearier desert of man's soul, where, under the blighting curse of an angry God, all the sweet flowers of celestial growth, which bloomed so brightly in the morning of man's innocence, withered away, and there suddenly sprang up the thorns and thistles of anguish, remorse, and despair. This being the case, it is manifest that, if the Gospel-scheme be designed to restore man to the happiness from which, by sin, he has fallen, it must be its design, for the accomplishment of this object, to restore to its rightful ascendency over man's affections that princi ple, in which the very essence of man's primeval happiness was concentrated. And is not this palpably the professed design of the Gospelscheme? Is not the great object which it has in view emphatically this-that the love of God may be shed abroad in the heart of man by the Holy Ghost? And does it not employ, for this purpose, means most gloriously adapted for its accomplishment; even such a stupendous revelation of God's love to man, as, when cordially believed through the influence of the Holy Spirit, must overpower the sullen enmity and melt down the icy coldness of man's heart towards God, into the softened tenderness of penitential sorrow-the warm glow of grateful love? What a beautiful compendium of the Gospelscheme has the beloved disciple comprised in the compass of a single verse: "Herein is love! not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." There is something amazingly impressive in these words; they unfold to our view unutterable things of the love of God; they seem to tell us, that all God's love is concentrated in this manifestation; that here all its scattered rays converge into a focus of such surpassing brightness, as altogether eclipses every other exhibition of the love of God. Herein is love! It is as if St. John had saidDoubt as you may the love of God, when you look elsewhere for proofs, yet here, at least, you must feel that you cannot, dare not, indulge a doubt, for you cannot look to the cross, and not be compelled to confess-Herein in love! Nor is there that conceivable ground of distrust of God's love, which the incredulity of man's alienated heart could suggest, which is not anticipated and answered in this precious verse. Are we ready to plead, that ingratitude to the God of all our blessings so stares us in the face, that we feel it would be unwarrantable presumption to cherish the hope, that we can be the objects of His love, whose goodness we have requited with such ungrateful contempt and rebellion, as compel us to despise and loathe ourselves? This apparently most reasonable fear is silenced by the assurance, "Herein is love-not that we loved God." The want of our love to Him, that cursed consequence of the fall which stamps on our apostate spirits the very brand of hell, is stated as being no bar to this display of God's love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us! Yes! with all our ingratitude full before His view, though of its enormous extent and baseness He alone could form any adequate estimate-still He loved us! with a love of compassion, of which we can give no other explanation than thisthat with regard to His love, partaking so fully as it does of the unfathomable mysteriousness of His nature, "His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways." Again, are we ready to indulge the apprehension, which the consciousness of our unworthiness might well seem to warrant, that, though the compassion of our offended God might dispose Him to grant us some trifling boon, some gift of little worth, still we dare not look for any great or precious tokens of His love. Oh! how is this apprehension not merely answered, but overpowered into rapturous wonder, by the amazing declaration, "He so loved us that He gave his Son," His own, His only, His wellbeloved Son! His co-eternal and co-equal Son! One with Himself from everlasting-gave Him -the greatest gift of His love even in His power to bestow. Oh! is not the appeal unanswerable? What could He have done, to convince us of His love, more than He has done ? What could He have given, dearer or more pre |