irst step, and be true to it after you have taken it,
and the last will surely come. He that can say, 'We have known and
believed the love that God hath to us,' will also be able to say, 'We
love Him because He first loved us.' 'And this commandment have we of
God, that he who loves God loves his brother also.'

'THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF THE HAPPY GOD'

'The glorious gospel of the blessed God.'--1 TIM.
i. 11.

Two remarks of an expository character will prepare the way for our
consideration of this text. The first is, that the proper rendering is
that which is given in the Revised Version--'the gospel of the glory,'
not the 'glorious gospel.' The Apostle is not telling us what kind of
thing the Gospel is, but what it is about. He is dealing not with its
quality, but with its contents. It is a Gospel which reveals, has to do
with, is the manifestation of, the glory of God.

Then the other remark is with reference to the meaning of the word
'blessed.' There are two Greek words which are both translated 'blessed'
in the New Testament. One of them, the more common, literally means
'well spoken of,' and points to the action of praise or benediction;
describes what a man is when men speak well of him, or what God is when
men praise and magnify His name. But the other word, which is used here,
and is only applied to God once more in Scripture, has no reference to
the human attribution of blessing and praise to Him, but describes Him
altogether apart from what men say of Him, as what He is in Himself, the
'blessed,' or, as we might almost say, the 'happy' God. If the word
happy seems too trivial, suggesting ideas of levity, of turbulence, of
possible change, then I do not know that we can find any better word
than that which is already employed in my text, if only we remember that
it means the solemn, calm, restful, perpetual gladness that fills the
heart of God.

So much, then, being premised, there are three points that seem to me to
come out of this remarkable expression of my text. First, the revelation
of God in Christ, of which the Gospel is the record, is the glory of
God. Second, that revelation is, in a very profound sense, an element in
the blessedness of God. And, lastly, that revelation is the good news
for men. Let us look at these three points, then, in succession.

I. Take, first, that striking thought that the revelation of God in
Jesus Christ is the glory of God.

The theme