A new meaning dawns on old words for me. There is nothing new in what he says, but it seems new to me, as if God had spoken it first to-day; and all things seem made new in its light.
God, then, is more earnest for me to be saved than I am to be saved!
"He so loved the world, that he gave his Son."
He loved not saints, not penitents, not the religious, not those who love him; but "the world," secular men, profane men, hardened rebels, hopeless wanderers and sinners!
He gave not a mere promise, not an angel to teach us, not a world to ransom us, but his Son—his Only-begotten!
So much did God love the world, sinners, me! I believe this; I must believe it; I believe in him who says it. How can I then do otherwise than rejoice?
Two glorious visions rise before me and begin to fill the world and all my heart with joy.
I see the Holiest, the Perfect, the Son made the victim, the lamb, the curse, willingly yielding himself up to death on the cross for me.
I see the Father—inflexible in justice yet delighting in mercy—accepting him, the spotless Lamb whom he had given; raising him from the dead; setting him on his right hand. Just, beyond all my terrified conscience could picture him, he justifies me the sinner.
Hating sin as love must abhor selfishness, and life death, and purity corruption, he loves me—the selfish, the corrupt, the dead in sins. He gives his Son, the Only-begotten, for me; he accepts his Son, the spotless Lamb, for me; he forgives me; he acquits me; he will make me pure.