A FATHER once heard one of his little lads say to his brother:
“If you are naughty father won’t love you!”
His father called him and said, “My boy, you must never say that. It is not true.”
“Is it not true, father? Will you love us if we are naughty?”
“Yes,” said his father. “When you are good, I love you with a love which makes me glad; but when you are naughty, I love you; but it is with a love that makes me sorry.”
That is like God’s love. He loves the sinner, but it is a sad love, a love which longs to see the sinner different; and God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. He commends His love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
ML 12/02/1917