eave an impression of himself on
their minds, which corresponded to the impression of his Master that
he desired to leave, he deviates from his ordinary habit, and makes
his last word a personal word--'_My love_ be with you all in Christ
Jesus.' Rebuke is the sign of love. Sharp condemnation may be the
language of love. Plain warning of possible evils is the simple duty
of love. So Paul folds all whom he has been rebuking in the warm
embrace of his proffered love, which was the very cause of his
rebuke. The healing balm of this closing message was to be applied to
the wounds which his keen edged words had made, and to show that they
were wounds by a surgeon, not by a foe. In effect, this parting smile
of love says, 'I am not become your enemy because I tell you the
truth; I show my love to you by the plainness and roughness of my
words.' Generalise that, free it from its personal reference, and it
just comes to this: There never was a shallower sneer than the sneer
which is cast at Christianity, as if it were harsh, 'ferocious,' or
unloving, when it preaches the terror of the Lord. No! rather,
because the Gospel _is_ a Gospel, it must speak plainly about death
and destruction to the unloving. The danger signal is not to be
blamed for a collision, which it is hoisted to avert; and it is a
strange sign of an unfeeling and unsympathetic, or of a harsh and
gloomy system, that it should tell men where they are driving, in
order that they may never reach the miserable goal. 'Knowing,
therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.' And when people
say to us preachers, 'Is that your Gospel, a Gospel that talks about
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord at the glory of
His coming--is that your Gospel?' We can only answer, 'Yes, it is!
Because, so to talk, may by God's mercy, secure that some who hear
shall never know anything of the wrath, save the hearing of it with
the ear, and may, by the warning of it, be drawn to the Rock of Ages
for safety and shelter from the storm.'

Therefore, dear friends, the upshot of all that I have been feebly
trying to say is just this; let us lay hold with all our hearts, and
by simple faith, of the present grace of the coming, loving Lord and
Judge. You can do it. It is your only hope to do it. _Have_ you
done it? If so, then you may lift up your heads to the throne, and be
glad, as those who know that their Friend and Deliverer will come at
last, to help, to bless, to sav