Before God created heaven and earth with all their inhabitants, the Eternal Love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shone with unseen splendour in the Divine Being. Love exists, not for the sake of the world, but for God's sake ; and when the world came into existence. Love remained unchanged ; and if every creature were to disappear, it would remain just as rich and glorious as ever. Love exists and works in the Eternal Being apart from the creature; and its radiation upon the creature is but a feeble reflection of its being.
Love is not God, but God is love; and He is sufficient to Himself to love absolutely and for ever. He has no need of the creature, and the exercise of His love did not begin with the creature whom He could love, but it flows and springs eternally in the Love-life of the Triune God. God is love ; its perfection. Divine beauty, real dimensions, and holiness are not found in men, not even in the best of God's children, but scintillate only around the Throne of God.i
^ There is a pretty story of St. Augustine, • He had announced to his people that he would explain the dc Jctrin. of the Trinity next Lord's Day. In the week, as he ^ walked by the shore pondering his discourse, he came upon a c|-^ild ^■t pla^. The lad had dug a hole in the sand, and was r' ''inning backTards and forwards with his bucket, bringing water hip^ the sea ana-^Quriug it into the hole which he had dug. " W/hy do you do th>t, my lad ? " said the Saint. " I am trying to e/^pty the sea." "^iHy child," said St. Augustine, "you can nev-er empty the sea yith your little bucket." " As well may I try,'^' said the child, " asyou seek to explain with your finite mind the^^infinite Being of Got/' 2
n. /
Love in CREATich'N.
Love has been active everywhere. J Love built heaven. Lve made earth. Love made hell; and its ■ pains are the measure )f
1 A. Kuyper, The Work of the V^oly Sinrit, 515.
2 C, Hepher, The Revelation of 1 '■'Ove, 38.
I JOHN IV. 8 333
God's love for goodness, its flames are love on fire. He " over- threw Pharaoh and his host in the Eed Sea: for his mercy endureth for ever." And by the kiss or the rod ; by caress or correction ; by " gentle gales from the wings of angels that fan His Mercy-seat," or by hot blasts from the burning marl of hell ; by the blood of Christ, and pleading love, or by fire and brimstone of punitive love, God seeks to overthrow all evil in all men and beings, and will not rest until the Holy Spirit shall say of the New Creation, " It is finished " : for " God is love."
1. Zove created the world. — Why did God create the world for which He had no need ? You might ask the same question as the builder cuts down the tree, the sculptor carves the marble, or the painter daubs the canvas. For answer to your question you must wait till you see the use made of the productions. You will then know the end and will be able to find the reason. The builder sees the mast of a ship in the growing tree, the painter a landscape on the canvas ; in the marble cold the sculptor sees an angel's form. God saw the end before He began ; and we can find the reason of His action only in the use He makes of His crea- tion. The end will give the motive of His action. Nothing that is incidental will answer for His work. If new emotions fill His heart, as one by one His works are done, that is but incidental, and not the object of His toil. The work was not done to create the emotion; neither was the emotion solely on account of the work, but because of its adaptability to the far-off end. The un- born man was in His thought as day by day " God saw that it was good."
^ There are many books in God's world, on every page of which is inscribed, "He is love." The beauty of the land- scape, the wonderful provision for every creature's want, which meets them every moment, the happiness of family life, each man's own little history, the inner fountain of pleasant thoughts that plays in the bosom, the exquisite adjustment of providences, the tenderness and care of an Almighty Father, which we can trace everywhere, the patience of that Father's pity, our bright and happy homesteads, our full cups — they all teach it, but they teach it only to those who have learnt it first in a higher school.i
* James Ya\iglian.
334 GOD
God is love — the heavens tell it
Through their glorious orbs of light,
In that glad and golden language Speaking to us, day and night.
Their great story, God is love, and God is might !
And the teeming earth rejoices
In that message from alDOve ; With ten thousand thousand voices,
Telling back from hill and grove, Her glad story,
God is might, and God is love !