Norwich bulletin., 1912-05-02
woNpRous LOVE OF GOD.
Subject of 21st Shop Talk by Rev. Mir
 Ricketts at MeCrun Howell Plant.


 In the series of shop talks at the McCrum Howell company, Rev c. H. Ricketts of the Greeneville Congrega- tienal church gave his Fist there We'd nesday at noon, interesting large at tendance of men upon the topic The Wondrous Love of God. The musical part of the service. consisting of violin selections by Raymond 5. Eldred was greatly enjoyed.
 Rev. Mir. Ricketts said in part:
 We have been celebrating two great days in the religious calendar-Good Friday and Easter. From the emo tlonal standpoint they are more widely separated than the poles of the earth. The one is the very incarnation of grief and sorrow; the other is the high est possible expression of joy and gladness Yet both have their origin in the same basal thought: the won drous love of God for the human fam fly. Men may turn their backs on the church, they may spurn the call of the pulpit to the higher life, they may sheer at the claims of religion upon them, and yet they cannot read the story of Holy week without feeling that here love reached it's supreme height and glowed with a fervor that has gained the assent of the more en- frightened part of mankind.
 Divine Love Discovers Men. Because man is made in the image of God his love is something like that of his infinite Father, and yet the dis tance between them Is amazing. Both have a discoverable quality, but the divine is far more appreciative be- cause it is deeper and broader and can see farther. The divine love will dis cover lovable qualities in the very men who strike their fellows as perfectly despicable.
 The discoverable love of God finds the very image of the seeking agency in us. That is it finds what is deep est, best. richest and noblest in the human mind. It brings to light those 1 qualities in us that in turn will dis cover what is deepest, best, richest and nOblest in others. Will anyone chal- l lenge this statement, that it Is only the 1 man who has actually seen the face of l God in Christ, who has been with him in the home of palsy and leprosy, who has stood with him in the glow of the | transhguration, who has suffered with | him on Calvary and entered into the newness of life win him in the Easter 1 triumph--is not this the man, and the only man, who can touch the red, beat ing hearts of his fellows and bring out what is richest and best in their lives Human Love is Fitful.
 The pathos of human love is it's fit 1 fitness. Today it is strong; but to- morrow it may be fleeting. To my mind one of the awful things of mod ern society is the frequency of divorce. Men and women pledge themselves in the holy name of Christ that they will love to the end, and then allow the icy wall to grow between them, and then throw their VOWS to the winds. Do you believe that God is going to be | thus easily mocked?
 Love Shown in Sacrifice. Sacrifice is the willingness to suffer | pain and to enduro~an kind of priva- | ton for the benefit of somebody. It's | basis is love, for nothing else will 1 tempt a person to put self into the l background but love. and hence sacri- | flee is the highest and grandest eX- pression of love.
 The face of the moral world has 1 bean changed by sacrificial love. The l life and character of Jesus have so appealed to men that they have ac- cepted him as their portion. In so doing they have grown like him. Sc that much of their living is sacriticial | The mother so loves her little child
 that she will nurse him through scar 1 let fever without one thought of her own danger The father will almost | deny himself the comforts of life that l the boy may have a college education 1 The sacrificial love Of the son of God | has ingraiped itself into every heart l of humanity The reason Is clear, foI l God Himself is love