Infinite Being and Perfection--Grades of Being--Variety--Man's
Limitations--Moral Beings--Hopeless Surroundings--All Are Children of
God--Righting the Wrongs of Time--"The Heart of the Universe is Love"
--Eternal Conscious Torment Incredible--Conquering Power of Love
--Eternal Purpose Will Not Fail--Omnipotence in the Moral Realm--The
Divine Expression of Love--Universal Atonement Involves Universal
Salvation--Final Success of God's Designs--Will Evil Necessarily
Perpetuate itself?--Triumph of Good Over Evil--Few Stripes or Many
--Reformatory Punishment--Bringing Good out of Evil--Possibilities of
Redeeming Grace--The Ransomed of the Lord--Wrath but the Shadow of
Love--Former Eternity of Sinlessness--Wrath no Constituent of the Divine
Character--Pity and Indignation.
There can be no mistake here. The Scripture declares, again and again
that God is Love. Also, the Scripture is clear in regard to His
infinity. In fact our reason would almost carry us so far. For if all
things had a Creator, that Creator must have had no beginning. But we
take it that God will be freely conceded to be infinite in His being,
and in the qualities of His character.
He is infinite then in His love. Being infinite in His being, He could
be no less than infinite in His love. That surely means that He loves
every being that He has made. Will He not therefore do the most and best
that is possible to be done for each one of His creatures? To be sure,
there are grades of being. Some have a larger capacity than others. We
know of no law by which love would impel the Creator to create all
beings alike. No, there is a law of variety which we shall consider
later; and that accounts for beings of different function, capacity,
surroundings, employment, and so on. At the same time, is it not safe to
infer that there is a possible maximum of happiness which every being
has attained, or will attain, under a government of divine love?
Of course there may be limitations. Man has been made a free being. He
may therefore limit his own possibilities. He may deliberately choose to
do wrong. Thus he may impose a limitation on himself. In one sense this
may be considered a great misfortune. But how else could a moral being
be created? We cannot conceive of any other way. If we had not been
created moral beings, we could never rise to anything worth while. God
wanted to make the most and the best of us. But with that possibility of
rising there was also the possibility of falling. Therefore, so far as
that consideration is concerned, our creation, on this human status,
was an expression of infinite love.
But then, the present is a state of discipline. Since sin has come in,
and so marred our perfection and happiness, it has been ordained that
the present life will be a preparation for a better future life.
Therefore our present sinful limitations are not finally disastrous.
They may be even turned to benedictions. Instances are not wanting where
untold suffering has issued in great moral perfection, with a
corresponding high place in the world beyond. Such considerations as
these show clearly that our creation, even though we are fallen, was an
act of infinite love.
Yes, but what about the untold millions who do not turn their present
suffering to good account? Especially what about the uncounted millions
of heathen? Many of them were born into conditions of utter
hopelessness; their surroundings were of the worst; it would be utterly
futile to expect that their present life could be a preparation for
final blessedness.
Now is it to be supposed for a moment that God does not love every
heathen just as He loves every Christian? Surely, they are all His
children, and He loves every one of them with a Father's love. Then what
about the other millions that live in Christian lands who have no idea
of making the present life a preparation for the future? Are they not
all equally dear to Him? Let us rise above all insular, mean, petty love
of our own, and think of the love of God--impartial, free, infinite,
everlasting! Can it be believed that the few favored ones who have lived
in certain surroundings, and who thus have come to hear and heed the
message of salvation, are destined for everlasting bliss; while all
others, naturally no worse than they, are consigned to everlasting woe?
Are these few fleeting years, and circumstances which we had little or
no hand in forming, charged with such eternal possibilities? Yet we
profess to believe that God rules, and that He loves every one of His
creatures with an everlasting love!
Surely every candid mind and every human heart will repel such a
possibility as their final extinction or damnation. And when we realize
that God has all eternity to right the wrongs of time, we begin to
realize that the present is but one epoch of His administration.
I have just read these words of an orthodox divine: "The heart of the
universe is love." Yes, that is the language of the heart in its best
moods, whatever our creed may be. And the heart will sometimes speak its
conviction strongly. It does seem that orthodox divines at times forget
that according to their belief God consigns untold millions of His
creatures to eternal fire. Yet surely He is "the heart of the
universe;" and "the heart of the universe is love." Does it not seem
the blackest of contradictions?
And when we think of His wisdom to arrange, and His power to execute, it
does seem hard to believe that eternal conscious torment will be the
fate of any of His creatures. We may see but a short way into the whole
scheme of the divine administration; but the heart will refuse to
believe in such a paradox.
"Omnia vincet amor"--love conquers all things. We accept that as a
proverb even in this selfish and cruel world. Yes, and despite all
hindrances, we often see love's triumphs. When everything else fails,
love will win. And is it to be conceived that God, Who is Love
Personified, will not win? Yes; if we knew nothing more than the general
principle, we might make a confident forecast that He will not fail. But
how overwhelming is our conviction when we see infinite love joined with
infinite wisdom and infinite power! What will not this triumvirate of
infinites accomplish?
We may be told that sin is an infinite evil, and that even infinite love
cannot conquer it. We refuse to believe it. God is omnipotent in the
moral, as well as in the material realm. Surely His infinite love will
incline Him, His infinite wisdom will show Him how, and His infinite
power will accomplish His desire.
Now again: The advocates of eternal torment will freely grant that God
loves every soul that He has made. They will also concede that He is
omniscient. Very well. Then He must have known that the millions of
beings, now supposed to be in torment, were coming into the world; and
He must have known that there was no possible way for them to avert
their doom. And though He loved each of them with an infinite love, He
made no way of escape, but consigned them to eternal torment. Foreseeing
in His omniscience that all this would happen, He did not intercept
their coming, which He could easily have done; nor did He provide any
means of escape.
Is this the way infinite love, joined with divine foreknowledge, would
act? Do not say that the matter is too high for us to understand. Even
on a human plane we would expect a more beneficent result. How much more
in the case of Him who foresees and arranges all contingencies, and
whose love is from everlasting to everlasting. Do not such
considerations as these absolutely prohibit the idea of endless
suffering? Just take counsel with your own heart and mind.
Again, it is written that "God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son." Now if He loved the world, He loved every individual in
the world. He loves every soul of the human race. Not color, nor
climate, nor civilization, nor any special epoch of the world's
history, can make any restriction.
Now if God loved the world, He expressed His love for the world; and how
did He express it? By giving his Son. Then He must have given His Son
for every soul of man. It would be no expression of His love for me to
give His Son for somebody else. But He loved me personally, and gave His
Son for me personally. Hence Paul could say: "He loved me, and gave
Himself for me." And so everyone of the human race may truly say.