THE QUIET HOUR.

Mt Benger Mail, 24 October 1934, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR.

THE SACRIFICE OF GOD THE FATHER. (Contributed). Preaching on the subject of the Cross, Dr Ciow has said: “If the visible sacrifice was Christ’s, the invisible sacrifice was God’s. If there was a cross in the place which is called Calvary, there was a cross also in heaven. If a sword pierced the heart of Christ, •i s word pierced the heart of the Father.” That is a tremendous thought. For the more we magnify God — the more we realise the appalling greatness of His universe, and I how insignificant, in comparison therewith, is not merely the individual man or woman, but even this world of ours which to us seems so great—the more we do that, the more difficult does it Ins come to realise that the Eternal God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, delivered up His Son. The sacrifice of Jesus throughout his earthly life and upon the cross was most real. For Ho came to be a Brother to all mankind, and He did not hold back from one iota of all that involved. “in every pang that rends tin heart The Man of Sorrows has a part. ’ ’ Many who occupy the seats of the mighty in the world to-day have never known the deprivations auci anxieties, the toils and weariness, the hunger and thirst and pain that arc still the lot of many. They have always had shelterd lives, and have never felt the icy blast of the storm. But our Lord drank the hitter cup of suffering to its last dark dregs. Vet we cannot understand one tithe of what the sufferings of Jesus Christ meant unless we set them against the dark background of His essential nature and glory. ‘‘Being in the form of God,” says Paul, “Ho counted it not a thing to bo grasped at to he equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation. and took upon Him the form of a servant; and being ftnml in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross. ” Such was Calvary to Jesus Christ our Lord. But what did it mean to the Eternal Father? Paul says, “He spared not His own Sun, hilt delivered him up for us all.” Even in our human relationships we know how close and tenth r at its best, is the tie between child and parent. It is impossible fur us to comprehend in any adequate fashion the depth ami strength and tenderness ol the relationship between the Eternal Father and the Eternal Son. But unr Lord has given us from time to time glimpses of this sacred ami in ]y intimacy. One of the most winderful of these is in the saying: “Thou luvedst Me before the foundation of the world.” Ihe more profoundly we realise the oneness of the Father and the Son in love and purpose, in.fellowship, via, in very b<*ing, the more fully can we understand the significance of the saying “He spared not His own Son.” We have no measuring line that can fathom the depth ol anguish which the eternal Father experienced when Christ died for us, the Just for the unjust, to bring iig unto God. “If a perfect knowledge, an all-discerning undestauding, and an infinite love make the pangs of sympathy intense, what a suffering must God’s have been!” Legions of angels might have sped on their way to deliver the Son tram the agony of the Cross, A word from the infinite Majesty, and all the hosts ol evil had been put to rout. It i- s surely no small part of such a sacrifice that at any moment it might have been arrested, just as Abraham’s gleaming knife was checked one instant before he buried it m Isaac’s heart. “0, ’twas love, ’twas wonderful love, The love of God to me; It brought my Saviour from above To die on Calvary.” It is well that wo should remind ourselves from time to time that il was indeed God who did all this for us. Sometimes the sorrows and troubles of the universe, and of ourselves and our loved ones threaten to engulf us. But the God who gave His Son is the Almighty, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the creator of the ends of the earth and He maintains us all in being. In His hands our breath is, and His aie all our ways. God did not spare His best and dearest for our salvation. Do you think He will have His work half clone? It is the deep conviction of our hearts that He will see it through. ‘For 1 am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall he able to separate ns from tlie love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”