if He had never wrought them, we had never learned the lessons which they teach. Let us not be accused of speculation for asserting that it is impossible for man to exist without a divine revelation. Man is himself a revelation of God to himself, for the traces of Deity enter into our existence and are inseparable from our being. Creation and the moral government of the world are, in themselves, and apart from revelation, things without a name,-a language which no creature can read. We must never take the works of God as expositors of His word, but on the contrary we must take His word as the expounder of His works; for the Creator himself can best explain His own creation.

The Creator, from whom all our knowledge of Himself proceeds, has revealed Himself to us as having love for one of His essential attributes. Though all the divine perfections mysteriously harmonize, love seems more prominent and conspicuous than the rest. True God is infinite in might and in skill; true He is everywhere present and inflexibly just. But He is not justice, He is not infinity. When revelation defines the divine character it says, แ God is love." While other attributes are equally essentials of His nature, love mingles with each and is interwoven with all" God is love."

Love is an eternal attribute of God. He can receive no new perfection, He knows no new attributes. There may be, and there are, different forms of manifestation, and different modes of application, but the attribute is unchangeably the same. It is that from which the different forms and modifications proceed, and it is also that into which they may be all ultimately resolved.

Because love is an eternal-unchangeable essential of the divine nature it must once have been without manifestation to any thing create. Far within the bygone

eternity, as far as the positive subsistence of other beings was concerned the Almighty existed alone, filling immensity with His presence and infinite space with His glory. Then the first planet had never revolved upon its axis, then the first star had never shone. Then, no archangel existed to admire the divine glory or chant its praise. Then, no fleet-winged angel fled athwart the universe to execute the divine intentions. But even then, alone in that uncreated solitude, God was, and God was love. As to the mode of the divine existence prior to the existence of creation we know nothing. The doors of this temple of truth are for the present closed against all human investigation, and on the front of the sanctuary we recognize the warning inscription, " man may not enter here while in the present life."

But if there was a point in the past eternity when the love of God had not been objectively manifested, there was also a point when it was first put forth, and oh then creation rose and new-made worlds appeared. Intelligent, reasoning subsistences started into life at His fiat. Herein is love. Surely the possession of a rational existence, to be able to know God, to enjoy His wonderous works, must be the gift of creating love. The first manifestation of divine love was creation, the second manifestation of divine love was redemption. These are the only two manifestations of divine love made known to man. But because they are the only manifestations of divine love with which we are acquainted we have no right to deny the possibility of other manifestations in other forms to other worlds. God may have improved the condition of other creatures rendering their being more glorious and blessed. He may have redeemed worlds from destruction that had sunk into pollution far deeper than our own. So that although we are authorised to say that the manifestation of divine love

in creation and redemption is the only manifestation given to us we are not commissioned to assert that no other manifestation can have been given to other beings.

The love of God always has been and always will be gradually developed. In the beginning of creation it burst forth with unbounded brightness; but it was not exhausted by that first great emanation. There are wonders in nature which as they gradually unfold themselves still sing of love. The gift of Jesus Christ was an overwhelming display of divine love; but great as was the boon the gift did not exhaust its source. It rather opened a broader channel through which the love of God to man might flow more abundantly. If we look back into the past eternity we see no point at which divine love began to be, and if we look onward into the future eternity we see no point at which it will end. Through all eternity will it continue to unfold itself and never will it cease to roll on and increase while God Himself shall keep His throne-" while life and thought and being last or immortality endures."

The text brings before us one of the manifestations of divine love. The subject of the text is redeeming lovethe love of the Father. We must consider the Father's redeeming love not only as the moving cause of redemption, but as entering into and forming a part of the entire system. We shall endeavour to show that there is love in every blessing of redemption, love in all the conditions on which the blessings are suspended, and that there is also love in all its penal regulations.

Let us therefore consider redeeming love, the love of the Father,

1.-IN ITS OBJECT.

II. IN ITS DEVELOPMENT IN THE GIFT OF JESUS CHRIST.
III. IN RELATION TO ITS GREAT PRACTICAL DESIGN.
I. IN RELATION TO ITS OBJECT.

If we would fully comprehend and duly appreciate the love of God to man we must well consider the condition of man when God manifested His love to him. In some sense God always loved the world for it is His own world, created by His power, ruled by His wisdom and adorned by His skill. In the beginning, before man fell-like the polished shield of the warrior emblazoned with the honours of its owner, and glittering in the sunshine, every thing He looked upon was a portraiture of His own perfections and shone resplendent with His glory. "For God saw every thing He had made and behold it was very good." But alas through the subtlety of the serpent and man's unbelief, "sin entered the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned." No sooner was evil introduced, no sooner had it commenced its wasting ravages in the world than God passed His malediction upon it, and all mankind were doomed to toil, to weep, to suffer, and to die. But even then, cursed as was the earth, and fallen as were the beings that peopled it, God so loved the world as to give His own Son for its ransom. His first love to the world was the love of complacency; His second love to the world was the love of compassion. His first love to the world was the love of satisfaction, His second love to the world was the love of pity. By His first love to the world He viewed it with delight, by His second love to the world He sought to wash away its impurities in the blood of His Son.

By sin the world had fallen, and by sin it was reduced to a fearful state. Man, by yielding to an unholy principle, transgressed the law laid down for him by His Creator, and the result of his disobedience was the prostration of his dignity, and the defilement of his nature. When Adam sinned he became guilty and depraved. All things pure and lovely perished, and everything vile and odious sprang

into existence. Depravity took possession of Adam's soul and diffused its poisonous influences throughout his being. His moral malady was all pervading, for it united itself to every affection of the heart, and entwined itself around every faculty of the mind; it marked every action, and defiled every deed. Depravity threw His mantle over all mankind, and every human being was stained with sin. When some destructive plague breaks out among the nations of the earth, though thousands fall the reluctant victims of its deadly power, yet are not all slain; some live despite the pestilence. But the contagion of sin infected every manall are morally and religiously diseased. There is no except case. No man can say behold I am not vile. Numerous and varied as are the differences and distinctions subsisting among mankind, there is one feature of human character in which every man is the exact semblance of his fellow, each is a guilty sinner before God. Wherever there is a human creature, whether on earth, in heaven or in hell, there is either a sinner, or a sinner saved by grace. "For God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

And what is the condition of this redeemed world at the present hour? Go to its battle fields, and ask the question there. Tell us not of the laurels that adorn the victor's brow, for the curse of his race is in the very wreath he wears. Say nothing of the glittering armour gleaming from afar, for it will soon be crimsoned in life's vital stream. Mention not the ravishing airs of martial music, for its animating notes of light and heedless gaiety will soon be drowned in the clash of arms, the shout of battle, the groans of the wounded and the dying. Oh do not mention the pæan of victory, and the fearless heart, for are not these more than neutralized by the wrongs of the oppressed, the