to have the most orthodox and clear
conceptions of the relation between the Cross of Christ and the
revelation to men of the love of God; have you made that revelation the
means of bringing into your own personal life the conviction that Jesus
Christ is _your_ Saviour, the propitiation for _your_ sins, the Giver to
_you_ of life eternal? It is faith that does that. Note that, in the
great foundation passage to which I have made frequent reference, there
are two conditions put in between the beginning and the end. Some of us
are disposed to say, 'God so loved the world that every man might have
eternal life.' That is not what Christ said, 'God so loved the world
that'--and here follows the first condition--'He _gave His Son_
that'--and here follows the second--'he that _believeth on Him_ should
not perish, but have everlasting life.' God has done what it is needful
for Him to do. His part of the conditions has been fulfilled. Fulfil
yours--'He that believeth on Him.' And if you can say, not He is the
propitiation for our sin, but for _my_ sin, then you will live and move
and have your being in a heaven of love, and will love Him back again
with an echo and reflection of His own, and nothing shall be able to
separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

THE SERVANT AS HIS LORD

'... As He is, so are we in this world.'--1 John iv. 17.

Large truths may be spoken in little words. Profundity is often supposed
to be obscurity, but the deepest depth is clear. John, in his gospel and
epistles, deals with the deepest realities, and with all things in their
eternal aspects, but his vocabulary is the simplest in the New
Testament. God and the world, life and death, love and hate, light and
darkness, these are the favourite words round which his thoughts
gather. Here are nine little monosyllables. What can be simpler than,
'As He is, so are we in this world?' And what can go beyond the thought
that lies in it, that a Christian is a living likeness of Christ?

But the connection of my text is quite as striking as its substance.
John has been dwelling upon his favourite thought that to abide in love
is to abide in God, and God in us. And then he goes on to say that
'Herein'--that is, in such mutual abiding in love--'is love made perfect
with us'; and the perfection of that love, which is thus communion, is
in order that, at the great solemn day of future trial, men may lift up
their faces and