Love

You can find my text to-night almost anywhere in the Bible. My text is “Love,” the “Love of God.” This fourth chapter of John’s epistle that I have read to-night says, “God is Love,” and I don’t know of any truth that Satan is more anxious to blot out of the Bible than that one thing, that “God is Love.” If I could convince the world that God loves them, I think I would not preach anything else but just the Love of God. I would go up and down this nation and tell it out in towns and cities and villages. The enemy of righteousness is deceiving the world upon this point. Man has a false idea about God. He has an idea that God hates him because he is a sinner; he has an idea that God is angry with him and don’t love him.

I remember a few years ago we put up a church in Chicago — down in the heart of the city, where the churches had been moved away, and left a large class of people. There was a Christian man there that helped j me put the building up, and he was very anxious that people should believe that God was love. He was so afraid that I would not preach it enough that he had it put up back of the pulpit in gas jets, “God is Love.” He thought if I could not preach it into the hearts of the people he would try and burn it in.

I remember one night, while I was preaching, a poor fellow was going by half under the influence of liquor. The door was ajar, and he looked in and saw that text, w God is Love,” and he kept saying,” God is not love.

It is not true. It is a lie.” He went on for a block o* two and came back and took a seat away back by the door, and when I was preaching the poor fellow was weeping. After the sermon was over I went down and talked with him. I found that the spirit of God was working with him, and I tried to find out what part of the sermon had touched him, and he said he did not know a thing I said. u What were you doing here if you did not know a thing I said?” “Ah! sir, that text up there, ‘God is Love,’ melted my heart.” And he got down on his knees with me and made a surrender to the God of Love.

Now, to-night you may ask me, u Why does God love those who are not worthy of His love? Why does He love the unlovely?” Well, I don’t know that I can answer that any better than by saying, Why does the sun shine? Because it can’t help it. Why does God love? Because he can’t help it That is his nature. He is love, and there is not a man on the face of the earth to-night that God don’t love. God hates sin, but he makes a distinction between sin and the sinner. God loves the sinner, but He is at war with sin, because He knows that sin mars our happiness. Because He loves us He wants us to forsake sin and turn from it. I think one reason we are so blind to the word of God is, that we are always measuring God by our rule. We love a man as long as he is worthy of our love, and when he ceases to be worthy of our love we cast him off. Not so with God. We must not measure God with our rule. God’s love if unchangeable.

I will call your attention to the first verse of the thirteenth chapter of John. “Now, before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that he should depart out of the world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world. He loved them unto the end.” Now, that very night they were to forsake Him. That very night Judas was to betray Him for thirty pieces of silver. That very night Peter was to deny Him and swear he never knew Him. Yet we are told that on that memorable night Christ loved them. His love was unchangeable. I believe when Judas stepped up to Him in the garden and betrayed Him with a kiss, and Christ said, “Judas, betrayest thou the Master with a kiss?” that there was such love in the tone of His voice, such love in that look, that it drove Judas to remorse and despair. I believe it isp that that is making hell so terrible to Judas. He trampled upon the love of God. He went down to perdition trampling that love under his feet. I know that is what broke Peter’s heart; He turned and gave Peter one look, and there was so much love in that look he went out and wept bitterly. It took Satan hours to win his love from Christ; it took only one look of Christ to win it back again. Yes, His love is unchangeable. That is the difference between human love and Divine love. Human love is very changeable. Some people who thought a good deal of you and me a few years ago don’t care for us now. Their love has died out. But not so with Him. His love is unchangeable. If there is one here to-night who has wandered away from Jesus Christ and is in a backsliden state, I want to tell you, backslider, that He loves you still, and wants you to return to Him.

But, again, His love is not only unchangeable but unfailing. I want to call your attention to a verse you will find in the forty-ninth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah:” Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, Behold*

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I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

Can a mother forget the little child of her bosom? Do you mothers forget your children? Now, that is perhaps the strongest love we know anything about on earth — a mother’s love. There are a great many things that will separate a man from his wife; a great many things will separate a father from his son, but there is not anything in the wide world that will separate a true mother from her own child. They say that death has borne down everything in this world, but there is one thing stronger than death — that is a mother’s love. Death has never been able to conquer that. Now, the prophet seizes hold of that.

44 Can a mother forget the child of her bosom? Yea, she may forget, but I will never forget thee.”

Now, love always descends. I love my children more than they love me. They very often say they love me the most. They think they do but it is not true. I used to tell my mother I loved her more than she did me. She would tell it was not so; that she loved me the most. Since I have become a parent I find that is true. I love my children more than they can love me. God loves us a thousand times more than we can love Him. The apostle says: “Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us;” so unlovable, so vile, so polluted. That is a love worth talking about — that God has fixed His love upon us, and that he loves us 44 with an everlasting love,” as we read in Jeremiah.

There is no end to that love; it is everlasting. I do not know that we can illustrate God’s love better than by examples of human love. Your mothers know that there is nothing in your power to do that you will not do for your children, that is for their good. There are some things you will withhold from them because you lots, 25

love them too much to grant all their wishes; and they think you don’t love them because you do not grant their wishes. So, sometimes, we think God don’t love us, because He don’t grant all our requests and don’t answer all our prayers just in the time and place that we would have them answered, A mother’s love may be very strong, but it is not to be compared with the love of God.

I remember of reading some time ago of a scene in a court in this country that impressed me very much. A young man had become reckless and had murdered a man. He was arrested and sent to jail. The father, a VTery proud spirited man, refused to have anything to do with that boy — refused to go to the prison to see him, and the other sons took the same course. They said they would not go to see that brother. But that mother went down to that prison cell, and every time she could get into the jail where that boy was she was there. When the time came for his trial she went into court and took her seat as near her boy as she could; and when the spectators came in she was not ashamed to be pointed out as the mother of that reckless young man. That is a mother’s love. She loved him still. Her love was as strong as it ever was, and when the trial came on and the witnesses came and testified against the boy, it seemed to hurt the mother more than it did the boy. When the jury brought in the verdict that he was guilty, the mother, when she got a chance, threw her arms around the boy’s neck there in court and wept over him. She did not give him up. He was sent back to his cell; and every time she could get into that cell she was there. That is a mother’s love. A mother will not go to see her boy executed, but if she can get his body after he is executed she will cover it with her tears, and will go to the grave and plant flowers upon it, and drop tears upon those flowers. That is a mother’s love. It is far strong, er than death. But that love is faint as compared with the love that God has for every soul here to-night. u A mother may forget her child, but I will never forget thee!” His love is unfailing.

I want to say to every man that is without God and without hope, don’t be deceived in this matter; don’t think for a moment that God don’t love you because you are a sinner. It is not true. Christ died for the ungodly. While we were without strength Christ died. God gave His son to the world. The world is at war with Him. We are fighting against Him. The world took His son and put him to death. The world is at enmity against God. While this world was at enmity against God, He gave His son freely for us all.

There was a time when I thought a good deal more of Christ than the father. I thought Christ came in to act as mediator between me and an angry judge, and Christ seemed far nearer to me than the Father, but since I became a father that feeling is all gone. It must have taken more love for God to give up His Son than it did for Christ to come and suffer. It would be far easier for me to die than to see my son put to death before my eyes.

Think of the love God has for this lost world, when He gave Christ freely for us all! Think of the glory and honor He had in that upper world. Of his stooping from that throne, coming down into this world and suffering and dying that you and I might, through His ieath, enter into life eternal. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ not only laid down his life for his friends, but he laid down his life for his enemies.

But I can imagine some of you say,” Well, I believe th Christ loves Christians and those that love Him and

Keep His commandments and statutes; but then I am a poor, miserable, vile sinner. I never loved him. I never recognized Him. I never kept his commandments, and I believe that God hates me. Don’t it say in the Bible that God is angry with the sinner every day.” That is one of the strongest proofs that God loves the sinner. If I have a boy who goes astray I get angry with him. But is that a proof that I do not love him? That is one of the strongest proofs in the Bible that God loves you — because he does not want you to sin and bring ruin and blight upon your life. The strongest proof of God’s love is that He gave Christ to die for our sins. That cross testifies the love of God for this world. That cross on Calvary speaks out nothing but the love God had for this world.

When the Communists took Paris, they took the Roman Catholic Archbishop and threw him into prison, tried him and condemned him to death. In his little cell there was a window, in the shape of a cross. He took his pencil and wrote at the top of it “Heighth,” at the bottom, “Depth,” and at each end of the arm “Length “and Breadth.” Ah, that Roman Catholic had been to Calvary and had surveyed the glory of that cross. He had drank in its truth. That cross tells us of God’s love. Height: it reaches to the very throne of heaven. Depth: it reaches to the bottom of a lost world. Length and Breadth: it reaches to the very corners of the earth. There was something stronger than those iron nails that held Him to that cross; it was the love He had for a perishing world. Paul prayed among those Ephesians that they might know the heighth and the depth and the length and the breadth of God’s love. How are we going to know it if we do not go to Calvary and see how He died, that you and I might live, and hear that pierc-Glorj2 ing cry on the cress, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” There is love for you.

I remember when I was in Dublin, Ireland, in 1867, I met what they called “the Boy Preacher.” I had read in the papers about “the Boy Preacher,” but I did not know this was the one. He introduced himself to me and said he would like to come to Chicago and preach. I looked at him; he was a beardless boy; didn’t hook as if he was more than seventeen, and I said to myself, “He can’t preach.” He wanted me to let him know what boat I was going on, he would like to go on the boat with me. Well, I thought he could not preach and did not let him know. I had not been in Chicago a great many weeks before I got a letter which said he had arrived in this country and that he would come to Chicago and preach for me if I wanted him. Well, I sat down and wrote a very cold letter — “If you come West, call on me.” I thought that would be the last I should hear of him. But I soon got another letter saying that he was still in this country and would come to Chicago and preach for me if I wanted him. I wrote again, if he happened to come West to drop in on me; and in the course of a few days I got a letter stating that next Thursday he would be in Chicago and would preach for me. Then what to do with him I did not know. I had made up my mind he could not preach. I was going to be out of town Thursday and Friday, and I told some of the officers or trustees of the church:” There is a man coming here Thursday and Friday who wants to preach. I don’t know whether he can or not. You had better let him preach, and I will be back Saturday.

They said there was a good deal of interest in the church, and they did not think they had better have him preach then, he was a stranger, and he might do more liOVB* 19

harm than good. “Well,5’ I said, “you had better try him. Let him preach two nights,” and they finally let him preach. When I got back Saturday morning I was anxious to know how he got on. The first thing I said to my wife when I got in the house was, “How is that young Irishman coming on? “I had met him in Dublin and took him to be an Irishman, but he happened to be an Englishman.” How do the people like him?” “They like him very much.” “Did you hear him? “” Yes.” “Well, did you like him? “” Yes, I liked him very much. He has preached two sermons from that text in the third chapter of John: c For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’ and,” she says, “I think you will like him, although he preaches a little different from what you do.” “How is that?” “Well he tells sinners God loves them.” “Well,” said I, “he is wrong.” She said, w I think you will agree with him when you hear him, because he backs up every thing he says with the word of God. You think if a man don’t preach as you do he is wrong.” I went down that night to church and I noticed every cne brought his Bible. “Now,” he said “my friends, if you will turn to the third chapter oi John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text.” He preached a most extraordinary sermon from that sixteenth verse. He did not divide the text into “secondly” and “thirdly” and “fourthly” — he just took the whole text and then went through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to prove that in all ages God loved the world; that He sent prophets and patriarchs and holy men to warn us, and sent His Son, and after they murdered Him He sent the Holy Ghost. I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heai £ of mine began to thaw out, and I could not keep back the tears. It was like news from a far country. I just drank it in. The next night there was a great crowd, for the people like to hear that God loves them. I tell you there is one thing that draws above every thing else in this world and that is love. A man that has no one to love him, no mother, no wife, no children, nc brother, no sister, no one to love him, belongs to that class who commit suicide; he would go down here and jump in the lake.

Well, there was a great crowd Sunday night, and he said, <c My friends, if you will turn in your Bibles to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text,” and he preached another extraordinary sermon from that wonderful verse, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And he went on proving it again from Genesis to Revelation. He could turn to almost any part of the Bible and prove it. Well, I thought that was better than the other one he struck a higher chord than ever, and it was sweet to my soul to hear it. The next night, pretty hard to get out a crowd in Chicago on Monday night, but they came. The women left their washing, or if they had washed they came, and they brought their Bibles, and he said, “My friends, if you will turn to the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of John, you will find my text, and again he followed it out from Genesis to Revelations to prove that God loved us, and he just beat it down into our hearts, and I never have doubted it since. I used to preach that God was behind the sinner with a double edged sword ready to hew him down. I have got done with that, I preach now that God is behind him with love, and he is running away from the God of love.

Tuesday night came, and we thought surely he had exhausted that text and that he would take another, but he said, “If you will turn to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text.” And he preached the sixth sermon from that wonderful text and that night he struck a higher chord than ever. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have” — not going to have when you die, but have it right here, now — “eternal life.” By that time we began to believe it, the whole of us, and we never have doubted it since; and if a man gets up in that pulpit and utters that text there is a smile all over the church to-day. Although twelve years have rolled away; they never have forgotten it.

The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. All were anxious to know what he was going to preach about. He said, “My friends, I have been hunting ail day for a new text, but I cannot find one as good as the old one; so we will go back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse,” and he preached the seventh sermon from that wonderful text. “God so loved the world.” I remember the closing up of that sermon. Said he:” My friends, for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor, stammering tongue.

“If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb up into heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence 02 the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be, ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’”

Since then I have been preaching the love of Godf and I tell you, my friends, God loves you, and He does not want you to perish.

“Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death, of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel!” Drunkard turn! Turn from your cups! Give them up to-night! Say, “By the grace oi God, I will hurl them from me. I will live a sober life.” The God of love, will if need be, send legions of angels to help you to fight your way up into the kingdom of God. God has power enough. What we want is the power of God in our hearts. But we cannot have a God of love, a pure God, a holy God in a heart full of vice and crime and sin. We have got to forsake sin, and God will turn and have mercy upon us. “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”

There is a story told of a man that left England a few years ago and came to thisxountry. He became dissatisfied and went off to Cuba. He had not been in Cuba very long before the Cuban war broke out in 1867, and he was arrested as a spy. He knew nothing about what he was arrested for and could not understand a word oi the Spanish language. They, court-martialed him and ordered him to be shot, and when it was told to him that he was going to be shot as a spy, the man began to wake up and sent off to the American and English consuls and laid the case before them. He wTas perfectly innocent. He could not understand a word of the language. The consuls looked into the case and found ne was perfectly innocent. They went to the Spanish officers and said, “Look here, this man you have ordered to be shot is not guilty, he is perfectly innocent.” But the Spanish officers said, “He has been tried by oui

5aw and found guilty; the law must take its course, and the man must die.” There was no submarine cable then and they could not telegraph to their governments. They had no time to write and get an answer back. The morning came. They brought him out to the place of execution. They had a grave dug and they put his coffin down beside the grave and the man took his seat upon it and they were just pulling the black cap over his head. There stood the Spanish soldiers and In a few minutes they would receive orders to fire, and at that moment who should ride up but the American md English consuls, and jumping from the carriage they <?an and wrapped the Star Spangled Banner and the Jnion Jack around the man, and turning to the Spanish officer said, “Fire on these flags if you dare!” They vfid not dare. There were two great governments behind those flags. Oh, my friends, what are this government and the English government compared with the government of heaven! “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” Let God wrap around you the banner of heaven to-night. Just come under that banner to-night. God loves you. God wants to bless you.

I can imagine some of you say, “Well, if God loves me why does He afflict me so?” He does not chasten willingly. I don’t think we have had the rod unless we have deserved it. I don’t think you mothers punish your childien unless they deserve it. They may not understand it at the time. We may not understand all of God’s dealings, but we will by-and-by. Paul’s platform was a good one, “And we know that all things work together for good to theAi that love God.” So God gives us a* friction now aixi Jien that we may know that this is ncu our abiding pWv. We don’t belong down here. W-* ire pilgrims a;< trangers journeying over the eaiu and our citizenship ought to be up there. If W6 are living for God our hearts will be set upon things above, and not down here. I had a child taken down some time ago with the scarlet fever. I am afraid of that disease, and I went to the very best physician I could find in Chicago, and when he wrote a prescription I went to the best druggist in Chicago. I didn’t go to any of the clerks; I wTent to the head man who was a very careful man, and I watched him. He took down one bottle and then another, and another, and he just poured that medicine out into a bottle and mixed it all up, and it happened to be the very medicine that child needed. Perhaps any one of the ingredients alone might have been rank poison and killed the child, but ail worked together for good. So it is a little affliction here and a little prosperity there, all working together for good to them that love God.

Now, let me say, my friends, if you want that love of God in your hearts, all you have to do is to open the door and let it shine in. It will shine in as the sun shines in a dark room. Let him have full possession of your hearts. Some people have an idea they have something to do to bring about reconciliation. God is already reconciled. There is not anything for you to do but to believe that God is reconciled.

An Englishman was telling me this story of a father that had a wandering son, and you know those only sons are very often spoiled. They are humored and petted. The result is, their wills are not broken, and if their wills are not broken, generally some one’s heart is broken. This young man had grown up a very head-strong, willful boy, and he and his father were constantly getting into trouble. The mother acted as a mediator between them. One day they got into trouble and the father got angry and told the son to leave. The son left and said ae woud fiever come back until his father asked him to come barjr, The mother tried to bring about a reconciliation, She wrote to the boy and plead with him to come hor-.e. But in every letter he wrote he said, “I never, never will come home until father asks me.” She worked r/:ch that father to ask him to come home, but his proud, stubborn heart said, “No; I will never ask him back,” For long years that mother tried to bring that father and son together. It was their only child. But she utterly failed. And when she lay upon her dying bed, and the doctors had given her up to die, that father, standing by the side of the bed, said to the wife, “Is there not anything that I can do for you?” anxious to gratify her last wish. “Yes, there is one thing you can do; you can send for my boy. I would like to see him before I die, and I would like to see you and him reconciled. If you don’t love him after I am gone there will be no one to look after him.” The proud heart revolted. He said, “I can’t send for him.” “Yes, you can if you will.” “I will send in your name.” “You know he will never come for me. If that boy ever comes back you must invite him. You know he will never yield until you yield.” The father could stand it no longer, and at last he went down to the office and sent a despatch in his own name asking that boy to come home. The moment he received it he started for home. As he went into the room the mother was sinking rapidly. The father stood by the bedside. He heard the door open, and saw it was that boy. Instead of going to the door to meet him, and receiving him writh open arms, he turned and went away to another part of the room. The mother took her boy’s hand. O, how she had longed to press it. She kissed him, and kissed him. She then saijd, “Just speak to your father, and it will all be over. You say the first word.” “No,” he said.

“I will never speak to him until he speaks to me,” She urged, but in vain. Then calling her husband to her bedside, she took him in one hand and the boy in the other, and that dying mother spent her last moments in trying to bring about a reconciliation, but she failed. Neither one of them would speak. At last she sank away into the arms of death. The husband looked at the wife and he saw she was gone. The boy looked at the mother and he saw she was gone. At last the father’s eye caught the boy’s eye, and his heart relented. He took that boy to his bosom, and there by that death-bed they were reconciled.

O, sinner, that is not a fair illustration in this respect. God is not angry with you, but he sent Christ into the world, and he died to reconcile the world. With that exception it is as good an illustration of reconciliation as you could have. I bring the body of the Son of God, and I say, Look at Him wounded, Look at Him dying, that you may be reconciled. Wonderful love! Matchless love! The world neversaw love like that. Will you spurn such love? Will you trample it under your feet? I beg of you to-night be ye reconciled to God. Do not sleep until you are reconciled. Let this be the night of your reconciliation. “We beseech you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God*”