is
laid is the manifestation of that love, and in our text the point mainly
brought out is its essential nature. In the former we read, 'In this was
_manifested_ the love of God,' and in the present verse we read, 'Herein
_is_ love.' In the former verse John fixes on three things as setting
forth the greatness of that manifestation--viz., that the Christ is the
only begotten Son, that the manifestation is for the world, and that its
end is the bestowment of everlasting love. In my text the points which
are fixed on are that that Love in its nature is self-kindled--'not that
we loved God, but that He loved us'--and that it lays hold of, and casts
out of the way that which, unremoved, would be a barrier between God and
us--viz., our sin: 'He hath sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.'

Now it is interesting to notice that these twin verses, like a double
star which reflects the light of a central sun, draw their brightness
from the great word of the Master, 'God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.' Do you not hear the echo of His
voice in the three expressions in the verse before the text--'only
begotten' 'world' 'live'? Here is one more of the innumerable links
which bind together in indissoluble union the Gospel and the Epistle.
So, then, the great thought suggested by the words before us is just
this, that in the Incarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have the
great revelation of the love of God.

I. Now there are three questions that suggest themselves to me, and the
first is this, What, then, does Christ's mission say about God's love?

I do not need to dwell on the previous question whether, apart from that
mission, there is any solid revelation of the fact that there is love in
Heaven, or whether we are left, apart from it, to gropings and
probabilities. I need not refer you to the ambiguous oracles of nature
or to the equally ambiguous oracles of life. I need not, I suppose, do
more than just remind you that even the men whose faith grasps the
thought of the love of God most intensely, know what it is to be brought
to a stand before some of the dreadful problems which the facts of
humanity and the facts of nature press upon us, nor need I remind you
how, as we see around us to-day, in the drift of our English literature
and that of other nations, when men turn their backs upon the Cross,
they loo