We are pleased to announce a

newconttibutingwriter for The Counsel

oj Chalcedon. He is Rev. Benjamin
,
Morgan Pahner, (1818-1902), one of
the threemostimportant Presbyterian
ministers of the Nineteenth Century,
along with Dr. JameS H. Thomwell
and Dr. Robert L. Dabney. He was
one of the greatest preachers of the
first twenty centuries of the Christian
era. For a third of his life he was the
devoted and dearly beloved pastor of
First Presbyterian
Church of New
Orleans, Louisiana.
Studying his lifeand
his sermons has
been one of the two
or three most
important times in
my life. As one has
written: "His out-
standing work was
that of a preacher-
speaking with an
eloquence that has
been rarely
qualed-. the
glorious gospel of
theblessedGoci" It
will be an honor to
rneethimsome-day
in heaven.
Rev. Paliner's sermons will appear
frequently in the pages of our
magazine, with oIlly minor editing.
Thousands, from all over the nation,
flocked to hear this man preach. The
common man, from all walks of life,
lovedhim. The entire nation mourned
at his death. Because we are not as
literate as his generation, it will take
time and effort to read his sermons;
but it will be well worth it. I earnestly
pray the .Rev. Palmer's life and
preaching will affect you as it has me.
"He being dead yet speaketh: (JCM ill)
Lave For His People
"As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you." John 15:9
There is an amazing depth in the
GospelofJohn, whichrendersitalmost
hopeless of exposition. The other
Evangelists, indeed, present a perfect
portraiture of our Lord-throwing,
with artistic skill, feature after feature
upon the canvas. They record His
miracleswithhistorica1 precision, and
recite His parables and fragmentary
discourses with touching simplicity
and beauty. Yet their representation,
as compared with that of John, is
largely external. They present the
figure of Christ before the eye with
such singular attractiveness, that we
instantly admire and adore. ButJohn
nestles in the Lord's very bosom, and
creeps into the Saviour's heart; whence
his gentle voice breathes as from an
oracle the words of love which are
8 t THE COUNSEL of OtaIcedon " March, 1992
ever found in that Saviour's heart. So
that, reading the New Testament, we
pass through the Gospels of Matthew,
Mark and Luke, very much as the
priest of old passed through the holy
place; until inJohnwe find the holy of
holies of the Bible,itsinnermostshrine.
The transparent clearness ofJohn's
style, to a certain extent, also deceives
us. A superficial reading takes in the
import of the words so that we seem
to understand, until
we begin to reflect;
and the longer we
read, the more the
deeps open before
us-:-until, at length,
thought and reason
are swallowed up in
the vastness of the
revelation of this
rpystic andseer. It is
as though oneshould
stand and look up
into the clearbluesky
above; which parts
before the eye, and
the sight is nowhere
hindered, hutpierces
onwardand upward,
until visionandfancy
are lost in the
immensity of space.
Just so, you and I kneel at the edge of
one of those sublime utterances of
Christ, which are reported by John;
and as we look, we seem to gat e into
the very depths of eternity. To take
up, then, these thoughts, to pass them
throughtheprismofouranalysis,and
then to throw theminto logical forms,
would seem almost profane in its
coldness. Yet it is the hard condition

and to explore; and our only hope is
afterwards to re-cornbine the elements
which we have separated, and to glow
with a warmer devotion than before.
The text is a beautiful illusu'ation of
this: ''As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you." How simple the
statement. and yet how deep the
sentiment! One can never exhaust its
fullness.
Evidently. there are two senses in
which the Father may
mediator; opening the way for us to
see how upon precisely the same
grounds Christ loves His people. ':As
the Father hath love me, so have I loved
you."
1. The Father has infinite delight
in the LordJeslIs Christ, as He is the
representative and type of what
hllman nature in its peifection is.
Lord Christ intervenes, taking upon
Him our nature; and, "beingfound in
fas/lion as a man," He presents Himself
beforetheeyeofHisFather. the perfect
man. His understanding. how clear!
His affections. how pure! His will.
howconstantandfree! Hisconsdence.
how clean! What exact symmetty in
all His powers! How endUring in
suffering! How patient in toil! How
gentle. withoutweakness!
be said to love the Son:
either. as He is the only
begotten in the mystery
of the adorable T tinity;
or else, as the incarnate
Word, achieving here
upon earth the work of
our redemption. The
first entirely surpasses
our conception. Who
can 'JlndouttheAlmighty
unto peifection?" It is as
highasheaven;whatcanst
thoudo? Deeperthanhell;
what canst thou know?
The measure thereof is
longer than the earth, and
broader than the sea."
Gob 11:7-9) Itisjustas
''Jifi, my brethren/ taK..? the thought home
to your own comfort, that Jesus has a
true sympathy with you in your struggfes
How forgiving. without
meanness! And so. as the
typical man. as the true
ideal of the race to which
youandlbelong. Hestood
before His Father and
represented humanity in
its original glory; and the
Father renewed the joy
which He felt at the
creation. when He looked
upon this representative
of Himself and "behold it
was very good."
to be good. 'Everywhere efSe man Jirufs
himself rejecteri despiseri when he comes
with confessions of unworthiness and of
shame. tJ3ut when we !Q1ee[ at the mercy
seat, this typica[ representative of our
race yieUs a sympathy as rea{ with us
In like manner
Christians are dear to
Christ. because they also
represent human nature
. .. "
In our SInS, as In our sorrows.
impossible for the finite to
comprehend the holy commerce of
the three, as it is to penettate the
undivided essence of the one. It
would seem rather to be the other,
which our Lord intends in the text.
For, in the verse immediately
following. He refers to the obedience
which He Himself rendered to the
Father. in the discharge of His
mediatorial functions: "If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my
love; even as I have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in His love."
Under this view, then, my hearers, let
us attempt to consider upon what
grounds the Father loves Christ, the
At the Creation. God sawall His
works that they were good; and He
pronounced this benediction with a
peculiar emphasis after the work of
the sixth day. when He had made man
"in His own image and after His own
likeness." He had created the earth as
an august temple. and placed man
within itas the high priest to conduct
its worship; that. looking all around
upon nature, He might gather her
beauties upon the mirror of his own
soul. and then cast the reflection back
upon God in solemn and holy chants
of praise. Butsin reversed all this. and
man was himself the gloomiest wreck
of the whole. In this emergency the
in its restoration. The life which has
been implanted witllin them by the
power of the Holy Ghost. is
developed-ffi that.frombeingbabes
in Christ. theybecomeatlength perfect
men in Christ Jesus. In all the stages
of theirgrowthingrace. they approach
nearer to their type; continuing.
through all the ages. that whichJesus
Christ began upon the earth-
representing to angels above what
human nature shall be made to be
when that Spirit has completed his
work upon all its powers. Ah. my
brethren; take the thought home to
your own comfort, that Jesus has a
true sympathy with you in your
March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Cha1cedon 9
struggles to be good. Everywhere else rule. As soon however as you, enter
man' finds himself rejected, despised, within the law itself, you discover that
when he comes with confessions of in its interior aspect , it is ] ehovah's
unworthinessandofshame. Butwhen solemn assertion of Himself,
we kneel at the mercy seat, this typical construing His own perfections to
representative of our race yields a human thought Hence, obedience
sympathy as real with us in our sins, must be estimated-not only as the
as in our sorrows. No other being in doing of a right external thing in
all this vast universe is able to put a obedience to an express command-
lovingandahelpfularrnaroundus,in but as being the hearty response of
continually presented in Scripture as
the object of the ' Father's delight.
doth my Father love, mt
becau.se llay down my life, that l might
takeit again- --this commilndment have
I received of my Father: , (John
10:17,18) Throughout His earthly
ministry, he refers the glory of His
rnirac1es,andthegloryofHisdoctrines,
to the Father that sent Him;
the moments when we
sin; and still more, in
the moments of our
penitence when we
confess the shame with
which we are
overwhelmed. The
blessed Redeemer,
because He is the true
typical man, has a
sympathywithyou and
with me in our battle
withsin,inourstruggles
with temptation, in our
resistance of the world
and of Satan; and all the
more, because He sees
what He has Himself
restored, and what is
the continuation upon
earth of thatwhich He,
inHislleshcommenced. "AstheFalher
hath loved me, so have lloved you."
n. TheFatherdelightsintheLord
Jesus Christ, becauseo}His obedience.
I am persuaded that we look at
thelawtoomuchinitsexternalaspect,
as merely mapping out therelationsin
which we stand to society and to God,
and prescribing various classes of
duties. All perfectly true, in so far as
this law becomes the chart of human
conduct: but then we are in this,
standing outside of thelaw, viewingit
only in its power of direction and of
recognizirtg that
subordination, of office
which, in the economy
of redemption, he
sustains to Him.
]ustso, the Lord
Jesus delight in the
obedienceofHispeopl.
True, it is short and
imperfect; and God and
we alone know how
honest and how deep are
theconfessionswhich.we
pour into his ear at the
mercy seat, . over the
imperfe,ction of that
obedience yrhich we
render. Therefore it is,
: , that weare not scorched
and withered by the
our own nature to the perfections of revilings of the world; for when, with
God. Thereis an external aspect to the its serpent tongue, it hisses in our ear
obedience,aswellasan externalaspect its rebuke and scorn, wI we have
to the law which commands the gone down, far deeper than they have
obedience. Theobediencewhichrises ever been able to object against us,
into the majesty of worship, is the into the meanness of our sin. 'Long
obedience which God recognizes as before they brought the indictment,
the echo orHis own voice in the we have spread it'in tears before the
exposition of Himself. As he stamps, eye of our Father in Heaven; untU he
one by one, and aU together, the has sweedy said, "thy sins which are
perfections ofHis nature upon statute many be forgiven thee, go in peace."
and upon sanction, we, in our sphere Thus we stand erect,' even When the
of obedience, respond in our thought world stones us with .. itsbitter
and in our affection to all that we accusations and innuendoes. Short
discover: Upon this ground, the and imperfect as we confe$ it to be, it
obedience of the Lord Jesus is is nevertheless obedience; ' and
10 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon March, 1992
1
obedience generous and free, an
obedience which springs from the
principle of love implanted in the
soul, an obedience which is the true
response of our rectified nat].lre to all
that the law reveals to us of God. Our
divine Lord and Master loves us for
our obedience, precisely on the same
ground thauhe Father loved Him, for
His obedience. And then, Ollr
obedience is a continuation of that
which ChriSt began, and bywhich He
"magnified the law and made it
honorable." Have you forgotten how
the Lord identifies Himself with His
people, making them the
representatives of Himself in His
person, in His work, and in His cause
here upon the earth? The feeblest of
believers inthe feebleness ofhis walk
does yet-in so far as he renders an
obediencewhich is theresponse of his
own soul to the nat].lre of God as
revealed in the law-continue in its
manifestation before the world that
glorious righteousness by which the
law of God was perfectly honored
through Christ Himself.
m. TheFatherlovestheMediator,
for His amazing sacrifice in the
redemption of a lost world.
There is a generosity in self-
sacrifice, which always appeals to the
sensibilities of the good; and in none
ofits forms, however low, as you view
them upon the earth, are you able to
withhold your eulogy. It may be the
self-sacrifice of the mother, who,
through anxiety and toil, by day and
by night, sacrifices her comfort and
her ease for her child. It may be the
self-sacrifice of the father, shown in
the labors which are perpetually
exactinguponhisfeebleframethrough
a long life, just that he may leave an
inheritance for his offspring and
emancipate them from the toil by
which his own body has been racked.
Itmaybetheself-sacrificeofthepatriot,
who willingly surrenders life and
fortune for the redemption and
independence of his country. Or it
may be the self-sacrifice of the
missionary, who, leaving home and
its endearments, and even the sound
of his native tongue, goes to the ends
of the earth, ifhaply he may cause the
desert to bloom as the garden of the
Lord. But wherever you find the spirit
of self-abnegation, you find that upon
which human praise is continually
poured. But, my brethren, where was
there ever self-sacrifice like that of our
Lord; so free, there being no
compulsory necessity upon Him to
offer Hirnselfasubstitute forthe guilty;
so extreme in its condescension, for
"He took not upon Him the nature of
angels, but the seed of Abraham," "made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him thefonn ofaservant, andwasmade
in the likeness of men; andbeingfound in
fashion as a man, He hwnbled Himself,
and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the Cross." (Phil. 2:7,8)
How agonizing too, the sufferings he
endured; sufferings which can never
be measured by human thought, not
expressed in human language, until
you have penetrated the mystery of
that word uttered upon the Cross,
"My God, my God, whyhastthouforsaken
me!" And a sacrifice rendered for
sinners, who had completelyforfeited
every claim upon His forbearance or
Hismercy. Lookattheself-abnegation
of our blessed Lord, when He laid
aside the glory which He had with the
Father before the world was, and not
only came into the world which His
power had built and assumed the
condition of a creature, but actually
went under the law and endured the
curse and shame of sin for us, that we
might be made tile righteousness of
God in Him. And now, shall not the
generosity of this sacrifice of our Lord
for a wretched and doomed world,
appeal with all its force to the
magnanimity of the etemal Father?
How shall the great God fail to regard
hisSon with anything less than infinite
delight, when He contemplates tile
nobleness of that sacrifice which he
offered llP once for all, in the enq. of
the world, to take away sin.
Brethren, shall we not be allowed
to say in the presence of the world
that,just in so far as we are Christians
atall, areweanimated by this principle
of self-abnegation and sacrifice? Why,
your Christian life began with the
solemn consecration of yourself to
Him who bought you with His
precious blood. The language which
burst from you heart in the moment
when you embraced your Lord, was
the language of Paul, "Lord, what wilt
thouhaveme to do." It was tllelanguage
of hitn of old declaring, "other Lords
besides Thee have had dominion over us;
but by Thee onlY will we make mention of
Thy name." (Is. 26:13) "As forme and
my house, wewillserve the Lord. "(Joshua
24: 15) Step by step, as you track your
experience from the beginning to the
close, is it marked by this principle of
self-renunciation in giving to God tile
praise of your salvation. The spiritual
life which is breathed into you, is the
life of Christ which the Holy Spirit
imparts. The strength by which you
perform duty and resist temptation
and secure triumph, is the strength
which the Saviour gives through the
power of the Holy Ghost. And the
glory upon which we enter at the last,
as we rise into the presence of our
March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 11
Lord, is the glory which the Saviour
has gone before and prepared for
them that love Him. The language of
all Christian experience in all the ages,
whether onearth orin heavllIl, Will be,
"not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy
name be the glory.' The Lord, with His
eye of omniscietlce looking into the
depths of the Christianheart, discovers
there this principle of sacrifice. It
imparts a glory even to
this ragged, ravelled
work of ours, over
which we weep tears
of penitence and
shame; and causes the
great Redeemer to hold
it up before His eye,
and give us His
blessing. Imperfect as
the work may be, it is a
work of sacrifice like
His own; perpetuating
upon the earth the
principle of self-
abnegation which the
Lord Himself so
c onsp icu ously
illustrated. Hence,
Paul says in the first
chapter ofhis epistle to
the Colossians; who
now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and
fill up thdtwhich is behindofthe afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake,
which is the Church. (Colossians 1:24)
Nevetdidyou give a cup of coldwater
to a disciple in the name of a disciple,
-never did you practice economy in
your home, or upon your person, that
you might have something to give to
the cause of Jesus,-never did you
sacrifice a feeling of resentment under
the wrongs which you suffer in life,
but the Lord upon His throne looks
upon it as the manifestation of the
sameSpiritwhichmovedhim, "though
He was rich, for our sakes to become
poor, that we through His poverty might
be rich.' (nCor.8:9) Brethren, take
your shame, if God appoints it as your
lot, and bind it upon you for a crown.
Take your sufferings, if God appoints
these to you, and, like Paul of old,
glory in your tribulation. If your
home bemadea chamelhouse, where
you are surrounded more by the
memories of your dead than by living
forms beautiful to the eye, r ~ o i e in
that you are sharers of your Lord's
work in sacrifice; holding it up in
memorial before the eyes of men, and
causingthemtorecognizetheprinciple
for which the Saviour was most loved
by the Father.
N. The Father has
inexpressible delight in the Lord
Jesus, as the Head in who!,! is
restored the unity of the Creation.
Sin, just like a cruel blade, which
cuts between bone and sinew, flesh
12 f mE COUNSEL of Chalcedon f March, 1992
andmarrow, how divisive it-is! What
a fearful sch:i.Sm. has it wrought upon
this earth of ours! It has not only
separated man from God, but it has
put barriers between man and all
God's creatures. The open sch:i.Sm.
between rilan arid the angels; some
have thought to be symbolized in the
Cherubimandflamingsword tUrning
every way, which guarded the tree of
life; lest 'man should
put the climax to his
apostaSy, and dare the
powerofGodineating
of the sacramental tree
after .his fall. It was
most ' certainly
. intimated, when man
vias driven from
paradise; each footfall
of the guilty pair, as
they wandered from
the beautiful Eden,
waking up the echoes
of a vacant world. It is
this schism between
man and the very
,beasts of the earth,
which compels the
fonner tb retain his
jurisdiction over the
latter,onlythroughan
everlasting contest of mental power
with physical force. But in that
exigency, when sin had dislocated
this earth and set all parts of it awry,
the LordJesus came. Behold Him in
HiSswift condescerision. as He passes
through all the grades of intellectual
being, until he finds man down there
at the very bottom oftbescale; plainly
shOwing that in his entire descent
through these intervening gradeS, He
took them all up and folded them
within Himself, and thUs, byvittue of
His very incarnation, becomes the
head of the whole Creation of God. I
cannot go largely into it as a doctrine,
touching it only by a side reference
here; but every intelligent reader of
the Scriptures knows how constantly
this headship of the wrd] esus, which
He has acquired as the Redeemer, is
emphasized. "He raised Himfrom the
dead," says Paul in his Epistle to the
Ephesians, "and set Him at His own
right hand in the heaYen/y places, far
above all prindpalilJ and power, and
might and dominion, and every name
that is named, not only in this world, but
also in that which is to come: and hath
pul all things under His feet, and gave
Him to be the head over
all things to the Church,
which is His body, the
fullnessofHimthatfilleth
all in all." (Ephesians
1:20-23) Again he
writesto the Colossians,
"Ye are complete in Him,
which is the head of all
prindpali/J and power."
(Colossians 2:10) Or,
as Peter puts it: ''who is
gone into Heaven, and is
on the right hand of God;
angelsandauthoritiesand
powers being made
subject unto Him. n (I
Peter 3:22) And is not
Christ a beauty in His
Father's eye, when He recovers the
universe from the divisive influences
of sin, and binds aU in a holy unity
again; presenting Himself before the
Father as the representative of the
whole creation, made one by
redeeming grace, as before it was one
by creative power?
What does fue Church symbolize
in her spiritual unity, but this great
idea which the Lord ] esus has
accomplishedandwhichHemeansto
perpetuate through us? Even the
visible Church with all her
imperfections, with all tile discords
which spring up in her bosom, strives
to realize the same in her visible
unity-mind clashing with mind and
thought separating from thought, yet
all fused together into spiritual and
blessed oneness whenever you gather
around the wrd's table and touch
tllosesacramentalernblems--tlleonly
spot upon the earth where all
controversies are composed, and all
varieties of opinion are reconciled.
For this our Lord prays in the
memorable words: "that they all may
be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I
in Thee, that they also may be one in
Us:-al1d the glory which Thou gaYest
Me, I have given them; that they may be
one, even as We are one." (John
17:21,22) Thus, mybrefuren, does
fue wrd]esus delight in us, even as
the Fafuer delights in Hin1; because
we are exhibiting His glory as the head
overall things to the Churm, wielding
universal aufuority to fue praise of His
Fafuer's name.
V. The Father delights
irifinitely in Christ, as working out
the revelation of His merry,
grace and law.
Perhaps it is true iliat wherever
there is thought, there is speech. The
two seem in all history, as far as we can
trace it, to be strangely coordinated.
Thought is always tending to its
expression. Thought leaps out and
puts ona form,thatitmaygohere and
there and everywhere through nature,
and touch theobjectwhichhas excited
it. Thought must have its eyes wifu
whim it can look upon
other minds, and a
tongue with whicll it
can break the silence
and hold communion
wifuofuersouls. There
is an infinite fitness that
the great God who
thinks, who is the
fountain and origin of
all thought, should
speak. But oh! wifu
what a dialect does He
utter the immortal
thoughts passing
through His mind! He
creates worlds upon
worlds, filling all space
wifu these orbs which
are the objects of our scientific
investigation; and He creates the little
violet which blooms and gives forfu
its perfume beneafu your feet, as you
are about to tread upon it unseen.
These are the silent types, through
which the great] ehovah speaks to tile
universeHisimmortalthoughts. like
fuose pages that are prepared for fue
blind, stars, worlds, mountains,
oceans, seas, animals, plants, minerals,
are the raised type over which the
blind pass the little finger with its
March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 1;3
delicate touch, and putting letter to
letter, read out the thought. Shall you,
shall I, allow a skeptical science to
separate the works of God from Him
who is their author? Or are these
sciences, which constitute the glory of
our day, but the open paths by which
we ascend beyond nature up to
nature's God? We will re-write the
line of England's
pantheistic poet,
when he says "the
proper study of
mankind is man;" and
withourversionof the
truth, say, rather with
the first answer of our
own catechism,
"man's chief end is to
glOrify God and to
enjoy Him forever."
We will wage war
against the divorce,
which men attempt,
between the works of
GodandtheGodwho
made the works.
These are God's
thoughts, expressedin
type which the eye
shall trace and which
the finger shall feel.
Like the immortal
Newton, who, when he had placed
his scaling ladder against the skies in
his astronomical investigations, rose
above them in the heights of scientific
induction, and closed his immortal
demonstration with the scholium
(comment), "there is a God: But, my
brethren, GodmayexpressHispower
in the works of creation; or His
thoughts of goodness and purposes of
will, in the acts of Providence; or He
may utter His truth and His justice in
the law; but that larger opening of the
infinite heart, through which He shall
pour out forever upon the universe
the , treasures of His love, calls for a
personal manifestation. TheSon, who
alone understood the nature of the
Father and could reveal it, Comes
from the bosom of that Father to
declare Him; and because of this
revelation, the Father loves Him.
I should like, if I had time, to dwell
upon another shade of the thought:
that Christ Jesus is far more than a
prophet, simplyutteringwith thelips
to us that God is. merciful and that
God is gracious; but that Hewent into
the working-house and forge of His
own passion, and there amidst the
fires of sacrifice, wrought out the
principle of grace and forever
incorporated it with law as an element
of God's moral government forever
andforever-potentiallyworkingout
themercysothatitshallbeanhistorical
1-4 '" THE COUNSEL of OtaIcedon '" March, 1992
verity, and therefore mote easily
comprehended by us and more
perfectly wrought into our individual
experience. Just as the Father lo.:res
Christ for that, Christ, in His turn,
looks upon His Church and loves her
for the same. That Church stands
before the Redeemer, not only as the
fruit of His sacrifice, but the preciOUS
. memorial of the mercy,
grace and love which
lay at the foundation of
that sacrifice.
Willyou allow me to
hurry to a conclusion
by ' dwelling ,for a
moment upon the
peculiar lmport of the
word "As" in the text? It
is the particle of
comparison: ' . "As ' the
Father hath love me, so
have I loved you. Oh!
how it teaches us the
reality of Christ's love to
His people! For, as the
Father'skivetoHimwas
a real love, of which He, '
the S()n; had an inWard,
conscioUsness, so; it is
our privilege to have an
abiding persuasion of
the Redeemer's love to us. Christ's
love to His Church is as real, as the
love which the Father has to Him.
See again, howitdepicts theIiature
ofthislove. The Father's love to Christ
was a personal love; and Christ's love
to His sheep is equally individual.
This is the sweetness of it:' that when
we were bleating in the cold, alone off
yonder upon the distant mountain;
the Good Shepherd knew His own,
and He called us by name and we
were made to follow. "I am the Good
Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am
known of mine, and they shall hear my
voice." (John 10:14,16)
It is a free love, founded upon no
foresight of goodness in us, for when
we were in our blood He passed by
and said unto us "live." See how the
Apostle puts it: "For if, when we were
enemies, we were recolldled, we shall be
saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)
The Father's love to the Son is an
infinite love, and unchangeable in its
duration. So is the love which Christ
has for His people, a love that is
boundless and without change. It is
sweetly said of Him, that "having loved
His own, He loved them to the end. "
Brethren, where is the end? Look! Let
the clouds part before your eye beyond
the horizon of time, and gaze down the
vistas of what we call eternity, piercing
with your view through the ages as they
heap upon the ages-:..say, when will
you come to the end? As longas eternity
lasts, or the throne abides upon which
He sits, shall this Redeemer, having
begun to love, love to the end. And so
love andheaven are alike secure to us-
conquerors while her, and rejoicing in
the triumph of conquerors there.
. And then the love of the Father to
Christ was the impulsive spring of all
the obedience which He rendered to
His Father's will: And so Christ's love
to us is the fountain and source of all
the obedience which we seek to offer.
Oh! Thismechanicalmorality-taking
the dry shell of a thing, and shutting
up thought and feeling and desire and
will and purpose in that external
mould, and taking the brick after it
has been bumtinthekiln, and holding
it up before the great God and saying
tl13.t this is obedience! Why,nothing
is obedience that does not spring from
the heart,-justas these waters, which
theAlmighty has brewed in thewomb
of the earth, spring [rom tlle fountains
which He has placed on a thousand
hillsides. Obedience is voluntary;
obedience is the homage of the will
spontaneously rendered to God; the
free echo which man's nature gives to
thevoice of God as interpreted to Him
in the law. As the Father's love to the
Son was the spring of all tllat Son's
obedience, so does Christ's loveforus
command our obedience in its tum.
We love Him, because He has loved
us; and all duty is sweet, and toil is
pleasure, when it is sanctified by the
love from which it splings.
Myunconverted friend, it is a great
pleasure, even though the thing be
badly done, to preach God's precious
Gospel to you. I take you to record
tllat my llabit is rather to woo you, if
I nlaY, with its attractive voices, rather
tllan to hold up the glittering sword
and hurl against you the anathelllaS of
the judgment. Would to heaven, I
had persuasion enough in my voice,
today, to bring you to an acceptance
with us of these immense privileges!
Oh, tllat you with us could be made
willing in this, the day of His power,
to hold communion with tlle Father
and witll the Son and with the eternal
Spirit! and to know, as no other can
teach it to you, except the Divine
Spirit Himself, what is that love of
Christ to the believer, which He
compares the Father's love to Himself!.Q
by Joe Morecraft. //I
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March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 15