Newport weekly independent., 1903-01-30

dren was destroyed, and the world turned to it's own way in seeking it's false loves, while God followed and sought to win it back to Himself. And God found the world in the slave | market of sin. The price of death must be paid to redeem the world, His Son, who, as our text declares, became "sin for us, Who knew no | sin; that we might be made the right eousness of God in Him.
 As century after century has come and gone since sin entered into the world, separating from God, God has patiently and persistently continued His wooing. Do you know what love | unrequited is? 1t means that the one upon whom the hearts affections have been centered has not responded to the flow of love. The heart hunger takes the inspiration out of life. The heart is breaking with it's grief. Hu- man emotions may serve to help us understand the great, infinite love wherewith God has loved us and longed for us. The management of universe could not divert the heart of God from the lost world. In the unseen realms of Heaven He had hosts of angels to do His good pleasure, but all the peace and joy and glory of the Heavenly places could not give His heart rest or satisfy His love. Not even the love of Jesus Christ, His Son.. could satisfy the longing of the Father. And Jesus Christ felt the heart throbs of God for he world, and He so loved God the Father and so loved the lost world that He was willing to leave all the glory in Heaven in order that He might help God in His wooing. The world was separated forever from God because of sin. That barrier had to be swept 9w3y before man could be won back to God. The wages of sin is death. The penalty of sin must be paid as the price of reconciliation. And therefore Jesus, the Sinless One, of fered Himself as mans substitute and became sin for us, that ''we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
 And if we would understand the manner of the woolng of God, we must study the attributes of the Lover Himself. In human love affairs the character and temperament of the lower determines to very large de- gree the methods which he will fol- low in winning the object of his af factions, and it is because of what God is and what He longs for that the wooing of the world back to Him. self is so faithfully and completely ac- complished.
 God is a righteous Lover. and as such He cannot permit or countenance un- righteousness in the object of His af factions. He hates sin with an eter- nal hatred which has planned the ultimate and utter destruction of the devil and his angels in the lake of fire. Fellowship and communion of man with man is dependent upon sim ilarity of tastes and of aspirations. There can be no fellowship and com munion between God the Lover and the world, the object of His affections, while its desires are centered upon the things of time and while it's aspira- tions reach not higher than the hu- man life. God, the righteous Lover, cannot swerve one hairs breadth from the eternal truth of His word. Love with Him does not mean blindness. It is not the weak. devilish human sub- stltute for true love which covers up and condones sin and wrongdoing on the part of the object of the affections. God is the righteous Lover who must punish sin and Who chastens His peo- pie, Who sends upon them pestilence and famine. and cruel captivity when they wander from Him and indulge in sin. God, the righteous Lover. cannot abide in the dwelling piece of sin, and the world cannot come to Him until it is cleansed from all unrghteous- ness, and for this He has marvelously provided by the sacrifice of His Son.
 God is jealous Lover, and jealousy along the line of His righteous will is another kind of jealousy than that which surges in the human heart and so often has its full fruitage in blind passion and black crime Gods ieal- ousy is measured by His intense love and He cannot be satisfied with a di- vided affection in return. Where is the pure-hearted lover who is willing to share the affections of his hearts idol with some one else? He wants all the heart and devotion of the one whom he loves. and her whispered con- fession that there is none whom she loves as she loves him sends the thrill of joy coursing through every nerve in his body. He is not content with just part of her love and devotion. He wants it all. It is his right to ex- pect and demand it. And is God any the less jealous as lover? Would the human heart dare to say that He had less right to claim that degree of love and devotion which human relation ships recognize and demand? God is the jealous Lover because He wants and has right to ask for and expect our best love and because He knows that the life fhot