GOD'S LOVE IN PUNISHMENT.
WHEN the Scriptures speak of God's wrath, they do it after the "manner of men," and as regards its results, not its motive. God's character is that of love, infinite love. All his works are wrought in love; all that he does is done in love; love reigns supreme in every motive; in fact, it combines in itself all moral attributes. Love is not a mere emotion, passion, or feeling, albeit man's degraded sense often comprehends no more than this. The love of God is the perfect blending of infinite mercy, compassion, and tenderness, with infinite justice. It is his nature to pity the poor, the needy, the helpless; it is his disposition to show mercy to the sinner, the rebel, the transgressor of his law of love. Infinite favor, or grace, has been opened to all these characters, and from the throne of the Infinite its healing streams flow everywhere, abundant in blessing. That this might be, the Son of God died. That infinite mercy might be extended to man, and infinite justice satisfied, God gave "the Son of his love." But God's love respects man's individuality. He has given man consciousness and will. There has been placed around every human being a circle sacred to himself, into which even Deity will not enter to control, unless man be willing. God has revealed his righteous will and law; he has said that the doing of it, in the very nature of things, is life; that its transgression is death; that by faith alone can man develop the highest character, the character most unselfish, and the only character which can enjoy unalloyed happiness; and that, therefore, "without faith it is impossible to please God." God has told us all this; but to us has he left the solemn and awful choice, freighted with eternal possibilities. If we choose, we place ourselves, so to speak, en rapport with God; we yield to his righteous will; we give up our way for his way; we accept of his life in Christ for our life; we place ourselves in the channel of his free, abounding grace, and drink in of his healing and life. As long as this submission to him, the choosing of his—the very best—way, is maintained, we are approximating466to his character; his life is in us; he counts us as his; "we are complete in him." But if we will not choose his life, we choose death; and death is the culmination, the climax, of what is spoken of as God’s wrath. Infinite mercy has pleaded with us to turn and live; but we have refused it, chosen our own delusions, and quaffed of the cup of death. If we will not choose life, Infinite Love, instead of prolonging to eternity an existence of sin and misery, lets us die. It is all he can do. Mercy to the wicked, mercy to the unborn thousands who would be blasted by them, demands that they have their choice,—death. When all mercy and grace are rejected, this is all that Infinite Love can do.