p. 4 | THE GOD OF LOVE by Alexander McLaren

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Apr 25, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 17.

THE GOD OF LOVE.

By Alexander McLaren

'Not for your sakes, O house of Israel, . . . but for Mine own name's sake.' The love of God is self-originated. In it, as in all His acts, He is His own motive, as His name, 'I am that I am,' proclaims. It is inseparable from His being, and flows forth before, and independent of, anything in the creature which could draw it out. Men's love is attracted by their perception or their imagination of something lovable in its objects. It is like a well, where there has to be much work of the pump handle before the gush comes. God's love is like an artesian well, or a fountain springing up from unknown depths in obedience to its own impulse. All that we can say is: 'Thou art God. It is Thy nature and property to be merciful.'

'God loved the people.' The bed-rock is the spontaneous, unalterable, inexhaustible, ever-active, fervent love of God, like that with which a mother clasps her child to her maternal breast. The fair flower of this great thought came through Judaism. Let no man say that the God of love is unknown to the Old Testament.—Alex. McLaren, D.D. in Christian Commonwealth.