is not a question of worthiness or unworthiness. It is
a question, in the first place, and mainly, of the truth of Christ's
promise and the sufficiency of Christ's Cross; and in a very subordinate
degree of anything belonging to you.

IV. We have here, finally, the loving and devout gaze upon this
wonderful love. 'Behold,' at the beginning of my text, is not the mere
exclamation which you often find both in the Old and in the New
Testaments, which is simply intended to emphasise the importance of what
follows, but it is a distinct command to do the thing, to look, and ever
to look, and to look again, and live in the habitual and devout
contemplation of that infinite and wondrous love of God.

I have but two remarks to make about that, and the one is this, that
such a habit of devout and thankful meditation upon the love of God, as
manifested in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of
the Divine Spirit, joined with the humble, thankful conviction that I am
a child of God thereby, lies at the foundation of all vigorous and happy
Christian life. How can a thing which you do not touch with your hands
and see with your eyes produce any effect upon you, unless you think
about it? How can a religion which can only influence through thought
and emotion do anything in you, or for you, unless you occupy your
thoughts and your feelings with it? It is sheer nonsense to suppose it
possible. Things which do not appeal to sense are real to us, and indeed
we may say, _are_ at all for us, only as we think about them. If you had
a dear friend in Australia, and never thought about him, he would even
cease to be dear, and it would be all one to you as if he were dead. If
he were really dear to you, you _would_ think about him. We may say
(though, of course, there are other ways of looking at the matter) that,
in a very intelligible sense, the degree in which we think about Christ,
and in Him behold the love of God, is a fairly accurate measure of our
Christianity.

Now will you apply that sharp test to yesterday, and the day before, and
the day before that, and decide how much of your life was pagan, and how
much of it was Christian? You will never make anything of your professed
Christianity, you will never get a drop of happiness or any kind of good
out of it; it will neither be a strength nor a joy nor a defence to you
unless you make it your habitual occupation to 'behold the manner of
love'; and look and look and l