on unless, unconsciously to
themselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had been coloured and
illuminated by the revelation that they profess they reject. God as
Love is 'our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt,' and the only way
to make absolutely certain of the fact that His heart is full of
mercy to us is to look upon Him as He stands revealed to us, not
merely in the words of Christ, for, precious as they are, these are
the smallest part of His revelation, but in the life and in the death
which open for us the heart of God. Remember what He said Himself,
_not_ 'He who hath listened to Me, doth understand the Father,' but
'He that hath _seen_ Me hath seen the Father.' 'In Him is yea,' and
the hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God are
confirmed by the fact of His life and death. God _establishes_,
not 'commends' as our translation has it, 'His love towards us in
that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us.'

Further, in Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deep
heart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clear
certainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always.
A man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath
the most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way of
looking at things, that there is no need for any definite teaching
about sin and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that man
face to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of a
divine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself and
of the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. I am sure
of this, that no religion will ever go far and last long and work
mightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon human life, which has not a
most plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon. And
I am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative feebleness of
much so-called Christian teaching in this generation is just that the
deepest needs of a man's conscience are not met by it. In a religion
on which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself, there must be a
very plain message about what is to be done with sin. The only
message which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an
alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the
Righteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt
after a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find
it. Here is the di