[Footnote Q: Deut. xxxii: 4.]
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.[R]
[Footnote R: Acts x: 34, 35.]
"He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love: * * * and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."[S] "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life."[T]
[Footnote S: John iv: 8-16.]
[Footnote T: John iii: 16.]
I can think of no greater evidence of God's love than that exhibited in the act of permitting his Son, Jesus Christ, to come to the earth and suffer as he did for the sins of the world, that they might not suffer if they would but conform to his laws and thus accept the terms of salvation. It would seem, too, that the same attribute of love exists in the breast of the Son, for the sacrifice he made for the redemption of the world was a voluntary act. He was not compelled to make the atonement, but of his own free will he volunteered to become our ransom.[U]
[Footnote U: Pearl of Great Price, p. 41]
He himself testified: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."[V]
[Footnote V: John x: 17, 18.]