"ARE you saved?" I asked an aged woman, who was sitting by her son's bedside, in one of the wards of a workhouse infirmary.
“I am a poor, ignorant woman, sir; I was never educated, and cannot read.”
“But," I replied, "do you love your son?" "Certainly I do," she said, emphatically, and almost indignantly.
“Then you can love, and understand what it is to be loved, and yet you have never been educated? You see, it requires no education to understand love. Now, God's love is the essence of the gospel. Your son's helpless, suffering condition has led you to take a journey to comfort him, and God in His rich grace has shown His love, for
‘When we were helpless and undone,
The Father gave His only Son;’
and by His gift He has proved His matchless love to sinners.
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16); 1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)).
These blessed words have banished doubts and fears from many hearts. May they banish excuses and fears from you, my reader, as you contemplate the wondrous fact that "God is Love.”
H. N.