EPHESIANS III. i6 137
and gleams like a fine opal in the light, or like an ancient glass vessel from Cyprus or Phoenicia, when all the finer harmonies of the solar spectrum are unceasingly at play. And it is true of the Church as well as of the world that the Never-Changing One is to be sought in the Ever-Changing Many. That His wisdom should baffle our knowledge is what we have a right, a 'priori, to expect, and especially when we are contemplating it on the side where it seems to be many and not one.^
\ The God of Hegel is not the Big Man of the nursery imagina- tion, making the Universe with His hands, as the child makes its mud-pies or its sand-castles. *' We cannot suppose God making the world like a mason."
" God is spirit, and the life of spirit is thought. Creation, then, is thought also ; it is the thought of God. God's thought of the Creation is evidently the iprins of the creation ; but with God, to think must be to create, for He can require no wood-carpentry or stone-masonry for this purpose ; or even should we suppose Him to use such, they must represent thought, and be disposed on thought." 2
(3) His Goodness. — We may use the term goodness as a general expression to embrace the mercy, the compassion, the benignity, and the love of God. All the attributes of God culminate in love. God is first and last a God of love. The whole universe and the plan of redemption are summed up in love. It is the want of love, it is selfishness and hatred, that are the curse and woe of the world. God comes to fill up the sorrowful void with His own rich heart.
Pre-eminently in the work of redemption do we see the riches of His goodness. There we behold God not only working and waiting, but making a great sacrifice for the salvation of man. We can never understand what it cost God to save the world. We read that " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life " ; but how little do we know of all that lies in that declaration ! How little do we know of the greatness of that gift and of the depth of that sacrifice ! How little do we know of that mystery of sorrow which seems to enter into the very Godhead !
"Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
1 J. Rendel Harris, The Guiding Hand of God, 17. ^ James Hutchison Stirling, His Life and JVork, 160.
138 POWER IN THE INWARD MAN
and longsuffering ; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."
^ Salvation is not forgiveness of sin : it is not the remission of a penalty : it is not a safety. No, it is the blessed and holy purpose of God's love accomplished in the poor fallen creature's restoration to the Divine image. And to this end is the news of God's love in this great work declared to men, that they hearing it may have confidence in Him who hath thus loved them, and so open their hearts to let in His Spirit. So we have no need now to go out of our nature to meet God, and to get the eternal life, for God is in our own flesh, and the eternal life is in our own flesh, and we have but to know this loving God, and the longings of His heart over us, and to give Him our confidence in order to receive His Spirit into us.^
0 Slain for love of me, canst Thou be cold, Be cold and far away in my distress ? Is Thy love also changed, growing less and less,
That carried me through all the days of old ?
0 Slain for love of me, 0 Love untold,
See how I flag and fail through weariness: I flag, while sleepless foes dog me and press On me : behold, 0 Lord, 0 Love, behold !
1 am sick for home, the home of love indeed —
I am sick for Love, that dearest name for Thee: Thou who hast bled, see how my heart doth bleed: Open thy bleeding Side and let me in: O hide me in Thy Heart from doubt and sin,
0 take me to Thyself and comfort me.^ * Erskine of Linlatlien, * Christina G. Rossetti.
Christ in the Heart.
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Literature.
Brown (C), God and Man, 54.
Burrell (D. J.), ITie Religion of the Future, 13.
Chapin (E. H.), The Church of the Living God, 28.
Dale (R. W.), Lectures on the Ephesians, 242. ^
Heywood (B. 0. F.), in Sermons for the People, New Ser., vi. 1C2.
Holland (H. S.), God's City, 86.
Maclaren (A.), Christ in the Heart, 15.
„ „ Creed and Conduct, 243. Moule (H. C. G.), The Pledges of His Love, 68. Murray (A.), The Full Blessing of Pentecost, 126. Webster (F. S.), In Bememhrance of Me, 49. Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 88 (Gallaway) ; Iviii. 19 (Fairbairn). Church Pulpit Year Book, 1905, p. 249. Churchman's Pulpit : Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, xii. 188 (Jobson),