REPOSING ON THE LOVE OF JESUS.

"THE love of Christ, which passeth knowledge!" The love of God manifested in the flesh! That love, which embodies, even as it imparts, "all the fulness of God." Eph. iii. 19. What a mighty theme! What a subject for sinful man to be allowed to consider!

Love, even between man and man, is a mighty deep. Who can dive into the vitals of the soul, and find out the well-spring of love? Who can divine its essence; trace its operations; measure its capacity; control its power; or prescribe limits to its sway? In its depth; its pervading influence; in its joys and its sorrows; in its constancy; or yet in its caprice-love is what none can fathom, or explain. If such is human love, what must the love of God bethe love of the Eternal Trinity! The love of the Father for the Son; the love of the Son for the Father; the mutual love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! The love of one perfect Being, of one eternal and infinite Being, for another

love, that is not hindered in action, or limited in power, on the part of Him who feels it-nor driven back upon itself by any unworthiness in the object, on which it is fixed! Who can enter into the love of God-that love, which has existed between the Persons of the Godhead from all eternity?

The love of Christ; the love of Him, who is both God and man; infinite love, perfect love, divine love, in human nature! Not the love of God apart, and human love apart, acting independently of each other-but all the fulness of divine love, dwelling bodily in a human soul— a human soul swelling with eternity, swelling with infinitude-the infinitude, the eternity of love! Man loving, as God; perfect God loving, as perfect man-in one perfect, undivided being, the Man Christ Jesus!

Can

Christian Reader, in Christ Jesus you have the love of a Brother, the love of a Friend. any brother be so near to you by the ties of blood-any friend so intimate with you in the bond of fellowship, as Jesus-that Friend, who sticketh closer than a brother? The very perfection of His nature brings Him nearer to you, as man, than any other human being. His human nature is more intensely human-its

every property, its every feeling, swelled to the dimensions of infinitude by reason of its union with the Godhead. The Man Christ Jesus loves as God; the Eternal Word loves as man. Here is thy repose-the sweet resting-place of your soul-that the love of Jesus is perfect, infinite, and eternal, and that all that love is fixed upon thee!

The love of Christ is an everlasting love. There never was a time when Jesus did not love His people. Had there ever been a time when He loved them not, the foundations would be destroyed, and what could the righteous do? Psa. xi. 3. For then the Saviour would not be God; for he, that changes, is no God. Believer, if Jesus has any good reason for loving thee, that reason must have existed from everlasting, and been ever present to the divine mind. Our salvation rests wholly on the love of Christ being eternal, and, blessed be God, this is a matter of the clearest proof. He says, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Jer. xxxi. 3. This means that, if He had not loved His own from everlasting, He would not-nay, as God, He could not-have loved them at all. But, because His love rests upon eternal foundations,

therefore His love is manifested, and carried out.

Even as the man Christ Jesus, the Saviour might say, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." In the days of His flesh, He said, "Before Abraham was, I am." Jo. viii. 58. Not that the human nature of Jesus had existed from all eternity. But the manhood, in virtue of its union with the Godhead, stretched backward, and laid hold on the deeds of eternity -just as, when Jesus spake of Himself, as "the Son of Man, which is in heaven," (Jo. iii. 13.) the manhood, partaking of the attributes of Deity, laid claim to the omnipresence of Jehovah. Christian Reader, may you not repose on the love of Jesus, as having existed from everlasting?

ever.

"I have loved thee with everlasting love." This means to all eternity, as well as from all eternity. If Christ loves me at all, He must love me for Would He be God, if He ceased to love? Then He must have found out that He had no cause to love me. Then He must have found Himself mistaken-then He could not be God. Christian Reader, the very Godhead of Jesus is wrapped up in this matter. Would you fully recognise Jesus as God, you must repose on His love, as enduring for ever.

The love of Jesus is an infinite love. It is the love of God, and the love of man, in one Christ. The whole infinitude of the Godhead dwells in the heart of Jesus. His love to His own is that of a brother, swelling out to the boundless extent of a divine attribute. The effect of the Godhead in Jesus is to make the manhood infinite in its love. Believer, may its infinitude in love be your repose.

The love of Jesus is not a blind love. Jesus knows whom He loves. He is ignorant neither of their nature, nor of their actions. He knows that they are sinners. He is acquainted with their infirmities. He remembers that they are dust. From all eternity He knew what they would be. He did not love them under a mistake. He knew beforehand what they would be in thought, word, and deed; all the sins of their unconverted days-all the provocations of their day of grace. The books, that shall be opened in the Judgment-day, will not be a more faithful transcript of sins past, than that which was contained in the mind of Jesus, from all eternity, of the prospective sins of His people. Believer, if Christ loved you with the full knowledge of what you would be, will He cease to love you for what you are? May you not repose on His love?