The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-01-24
THE MOODY MEETINGS.
The EvangeIist's Discourse
Of Sunday Afternoon Last.
"eoD is LOVE" WAS HIS THEME.
He Took for His Text Johns Words,
"Hc That Loveth Not, Knoweth Not
God; for God IL Love "--The Next
Sermon VIII be That Of Tuesday.

Twill read few verses from the first
Epistle OF John, fourth chapter, eighth
verse. "He that loveth not, knoweth not
God; for God is love;" 8-2l verses. In
these few verses you find this SEN
tence recorded three times" God II
love-" / believe there are no
three words in the Bible that Satan ID more
anxious to blot out than that one sem
tence. don't think that he has been so
successful in anything In the last six
thousand years than in making
the world believe that He Is
not q God of love. earnestly
believe that this old world has swung out
in the cold and dark and will never swing
back until this truth dawns upon II, that
God is Love. Mr.. Spurgeon one day took
train from London down into the coun-
try to spend little time with friend,
and he found this friend had weather
vane on HIS barn, and on this weather
sane were the words "God Is Love-"
sWhat do you mean by that? Do you
-pean that Gods love Il as changeable as
the wind?" "No, I believe that God is
love whichever way the wind blows"
Now, it is pretty hard to make saint or
sinner believe that. When things
are running smoothly we believe
that God Is love. but when things 60
wrong we think God does not love us, and
when things are unfortunate and seem to
be against US, then II Is that we
think that Christ has forgotten us
and does not love US. Now IL I could
just get this whole audience to believe
that one sentence, in spite Of your fauings,
in spite OF your sins, your backslidings,
your lukewarmness, / tell you 1t will be
grand day for Providence. Now, three
times John says in these few verses
Love-" but SIS Love-" You ask me
why he loves. don't know,
cannot tell you. II you
should ask me why the sun shines Icould
not tell you. i suppose it shines because
it cannot help it, because it is its nature.
And suppose that Is the reason that God
loves, because il is His nature. You take
man or q woman and make them believe
that there Is no one In the wide world that
loves or cares for them, and they
would rather die than live. 1t is that
class that commits suicide. You wives
know that IL you haven't the love of your
husbands they cannot do anything to
please you, and life becomes weary and
burdensome to you II there is really no
love. The thing we prize above every
thing else In this world is love,
and that Is the thing that
God prizes above everything else. He
wants our hearts and affections. Now
Jesus when He came into this world
taught that the Father was love and all
His teachings went on to show that His
father was God OF love. And not only
did he teach that the Father was love but
that He was love.He loved those that didn't
love Him. That Is the difference between
human and divine love; we love a person
as long ms he Is worthy and then it Is that
we cast him of. He loves you in spite of
what you have done and said and what
you are doing.
Now, ! was going to try to prove that
Christ loves those that are not worthy of
His love. / am going to try before get
IL -ough to prove that God loves every
woman in this audience. II you doubt it,
then believe you doubt Scripture, be-
cause think / can show that He loves
you ali. You remember the last
night He was with His disciples, before
He was betrayed, 1t says: "Having loved
His own which were in the world, He
loved them unto the end" Do you re-
member that was the night that one of
them was going to betray him,
that one of them was going to deny Him
and swear that he never knew Him.
and every one was TO forsake Him?
Yet on that very night, it says: "Having
loved His own which were in the world,
He loved them unto the end.n Now, be-
lieve what makes eternity 30 awful to Ju-
das is that he took away with him this
fact, that Christ loved him to the end.
When he betrayed Him with
kiss, there In the garden, the
Master turned to him and said,
"Betrayest thou the Master with kiss?"
He might have hurled him down into
perdition, but the Mester kindly said, "Be-
trayest thou the Master with kiss 20 It
was that that drove Judas to the grave of n
suicide. believe he heard that ringing In
his ears until 1t drove him clean mad. I
believe that Judas remembers 1t until
today nothing but the love OF Christ. So
his love is Interchangeable.
There are some of you who don't speak
to people whom you knew ten years
ago. Your love is very changeable.
There will be Q falling out between
now and 80. You may get nearly '95, but
you will fall out before the end. You
will say that there are some people
who have betrayed you and have been un-
true to you. Now, that is the difference
between divine and human love. His love
Is uncnangeaDie. ne ioVeu feter Wnen
Peter was denying Him. or course He
hated his sins and He hated Judas's hy-
pocrisy, but He loved them, and
so He loves every hypocrite here
today. He wants to WOO you
back to Himself. Then you go over to the
49th chapter OF the prophecy OF Isaiah, and
you read these words, "Can woman for
get her sucking child, that she should not
have compassion on the son Of her wombf
Yea, they may forget, yet will not forget
thee" Now, the closest tie on earth Is
mothers love for her child. There
are good many things that will separate
man fror.i his wife, but there isn't
thing In the wide wide world that will
separate q true mother from her own
child. / will admit that there are
unnatural mothers, that there are mothers
that have gone out Of their heads,
mothers that are so STEPPED In sin and