Milford chronicle., 1904-12-30
God Is n God of Love.

All. yes. Charles Lamb was right. No
man can look upon or study the face
Of Christ without clearly and simply
grasping the great truth that God is
God of love and not a God of hate. As
a famous unbeliever wrote in reference
to Christ: "Where is the man, where is
the sage. who knows how to act, to suf-
fer to die without weakness and with
out display? My friends, men do not
invent like this. and the facts respect
ing Socrates, which no one doubts, are
not so we'll attested as those about
Jesus Christ. If the death of Socrates
be that of a sage, the life and death OF
Jesus are those Of a God" Jean Paul
Richter wrote these words about
Christ: "The holiest among the mighty,
the mightiest among the holy, lifted
with his pierced hands empires off
their hinges and turned the stream of
centuries out of its channel and still
governs the ages" Oh, my friends. can
not, will not you see the truth that the
birth of Jesus Christ has simplifed the
divine truth; that God is a God Of love
and not a God of hate? Can you not
feel through the simple story Of the life
and death of Jesus Christ that we are
able to learn that God loves us even
with a greater love than any human
parent bears his own child? Thank
God today for the message of his love.
y short time after Jesus was born, in
order to satisfy jealous fear, Herod
ordered all the little boys in the region
of Bethlehem to be slain by his sol
diers. Think of a ruler having such
power as that and being able to use it
as he would. But the slaughter of
those baby boys was only small part
of HerOd's infamies. HerOds whole
reign can be tracked with blOOdshed
Herod brutally slew his wfes brother
Joseph and her mother and his wife
He slew every one who dared to lift
voice against him in his kingdom. Then
in order that his death might be q time
of national mourning we learn from JO-
sephus that he gave orders for the chief
men of the Hebrew nation to be gath
cred in the hippodrome and to he there
slain on the night Of his own death. If
the people, as lie knew, would not be-.
vail his death he took measures to in
sure their sorrow for another cause. He
would not have the night of his death
a period of JOY and rejoicing. Such Il
man was the ruler of Judaea in that
day. All, yes, there never was dark
er or a more hopeless time in Jewish
history than when Jesus was born.
Thus we find the Hebrew people long
ingly-oh, so longingly-looking for a
Messiah at this time.
Christ Has Not FOrsaISen Us.
My brother, as Christ came to Jeru-
salem at the darkest time of Hebrew
history. can he not come to you this
Christmas day, even though it may be
in the dark days of your life? Is it
dark for some of you? Is your life sad
with sin, sad with sorrow, sad with
bitter disappointment? Do you need
Saviour now? "The whole thought and
idea of all that is told about Christmas
day." wrote Dean Stanley, suggests
the consOling, cheering thought that,
however gloomy our lot, however dis
tressed our portion, the Almighty God
has not forsaken us" Even in the
darkest hours of our lives Christ will
come to us as he came to Bethlehem
in the darkest hours Of Hebrew his
tory. Are we going to reject Christ as
PLATE and the Jews rejected him?
Having accepted the glad tidings Of