^ For six nights Mr. Moorhouse had preached on this one text.
The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye
was upon him. He said, " Beloved friends, I have been hunting all
day for a new text, but I cannot find anything so good as the old
one, so we will go back to John iii. 16"; and he preached the
seventh sermon from those wonderful words : " God so loved the
world." I remember the end of that sermon : " My friends," he
\. said, "for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much
A God^oves _yoU; but I cannot do it with this poor stammering
) tbnguel If i could borrow Jacob's ladder, and climb up into
Heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the
Almighty, to 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 on him
should not perish, but have eternal life.* " ^
^ At the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910, Dr. Tasaku Harada, President of the Doshisha College, said: " As regards the aspects of the Christian Gospel and Christian life which appeal to the Japanese, in the first place I mention the love of God. Dr. Neesima used to say that he regarded the
» Life of D. L. Moody, 128.
ST. JOHN III. i6 185
16th verse of the third chapter of St. John's Gospel as the Fujiyama of the New Testament — ' God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.' If there are two words which have created the greatest transformation since the introduction of Christianity into Japan they are the words ' God ' and ' love.' " ^
Fuji, it should be said, is not only the sacred mountain of Japan but the ideal of excellence. Its almost perfect cone can be seen from most parts of the main island, and it forms the background of many Japanese landscapes, whether actually visible or not.
3. These words explain to us the relation in which Jesus stands as Son of man, first to God and next to us; and they interpret to our understanding, as well as to our faith and affection, the method by which the Eternal seeks us and finds us, saves us from gurselves and our sins, grants us the quickening sense of pardon, and fills us with the calm and strength of His everlasting life. Selecting the familiar incident from the Hebrew Scriptures in which the^^brazen serpent is lifted up before the dying people, Jesus says, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life " : and then He adds the sublime statement, " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal Hfe."
Now, this revelation is inexhaustible in its significance. It is a gospel within a gospel ; an^ though uttered almost as swiftly as_a jnorning salutation, yet it comprehends the contents of all the Gospels. , It is as when, beginning our study of the universe, we start with a seajbeach^a stone-guarry, or a flower-garden, and then rise from it to the everlasting hills, thence to the infinite splendours of the midnight sky, and afterwards, through telescopes of ever-increasing power, look into the depths of the immeasurable heavens, adding world to world, and system to system, till we are overwhelmed with the marvel and grandeur of the realms of God ; so, beginning with this primal declaration of the only begotten Son who dwelt in the bosom of the Father, and learning some of its contents, we are led on and on in our investigation, charmed by its simplicity, gladdened by its wealth, and awed by its mystery, till, mastered by our effort to comprehend the
* World Missionary Covference, 1910, iv. 305.
i86 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE
breadth and length, depth and height of the message, even St. Paul's language is too poor to express our wonder and our praise : " 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past tracing out! Eor who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor ? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again ? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever."
If The " comfortable words," as they are called, in the Order of Holy Communion (Matt. xi. 28 ; John iii. 16 ; 1 Tim. i. 15 ; 1 John ii. 1, 2), form an element peculiar to the English rite, being found elsewhere only in those liturgies which derive their inheritance through the channel of the English Reformation. They appeared for the first time in the Prayer-Book of 1549, and their insertion was apparently suggested to our Reformers by the recent issue on the Continent of a manual, based on the work of Luther, Bucer, and Melanchthon, which contained numerous hints for reform in liturgical worship, and has left traces of its infiuence in other parts of the Book of Common Prayer. All will agree that the step here taken by our Revisers was a distinct enrichment of our Service, and that they have introduced a most beautiful characteristic of our present liturgy. You remember the place at which the words occur. The congregation is invited to kneel and join in a united confession of sin ; and then, after the absolution has been pronounced, the four words of comfort are recited to the people, assuring them of the reality and meaning of that spiritual exercise in which they have been engaged. At such a moment each speaks with an eloquence which the heart of the faithful worshipper can readily under- stand. No comment is added, because none is required, and any paraphrase would be felt to jar upon the ear. The actual language of Holy Writ has been incorporated into the scheme of our liturgy, and the utterances of our Lord and His Apostles are left to make good by themselves the force of their appeal.^