The love of God for his Church.
The love of God for his Church is no doubt something mysterious, inscrutable, as are all the Divine attributes; but it is so pointedly set before us in many places, both of the Old and the New Testaments, that it must certainly be intended we should meditate upon it. We may with reverence consider it
I. IN ITS ORIGIN. God's love for his Church would seem to originate in the fondness with which all intelligent beings regard the work of their own hands; that on which they have spent toil, time, labour, thought, care. God in creating the world had, primarily, his Church in view; he made all material things for the sake of man; and he made mankind with a view to his Church. He was moved to the creation of the world by a desire to have for all eternity a body of pure, good, happy, intelligent worshippers dwelling with him in heaven. He began by making man "in his own image" (Genesis 1:27), with a moral nature, free-will, consciousness, personality, memory. He knew that, with these gifts, man would fall; but he determined from the first that out of fallen humanity he would raise up a certain number—as many as would allow him—save them, purify them, make them his "peculiar people" (Deuteronomy 14:2), his Church. In idea, we may say that God loved his Church before he had created it; for, knowing what it would be, he loved it by anticipation, recognizing in it the best, and so the dearest to him, of all his works. Such was his love for his Church in its origin. We have now to consider it—
II. IN ITS ACTION. As a means of obtaining that Church triumphant in heaven which he desired, God saw good to create a Church militant on earth, which should be its shadow and representative, and to make that Church the peculiar object of his care. For this Church he showed his love by unwearied, ceaseless watchfulness, by supernatural interpositions from time to time, by patient endurance of provocations, by occasional chastisements, by warnings, by providential guidance, by direct teaching from Sinai, by indirect instruction through a long series of inspired prophets and seers. Never forgetting, never forsaking Israel, he delivered them out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, gave them Canaan, subdued the nations before them, saved them from the power of Assyria, brought them forth out of Babylon, sustained and supported them, until, in the fulness of time, he gave the strongest possible evidence of his love by sending forth his Son to die for his Church, and by his death to infuse into it fresh life, and transform it from a national into a world-wide society, from the Church of the Jews into the "holy Catholic Church"—the Church of all nations. And this Church he has built upon a rock; he has promised to be with it always; he has declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This Church he "nourisheth and cherisheth" (Ephesians 5:29), guiding it with his Spirit, sanctifying and cleansing it (Ephesians 5:26), protecting it from its secret foes, delivering it from its avowed enemies. The Church of Christ for nearly nineteen hundred years has triumphed over all attempts to crush it and destroy it, not by its own strength, but through the love and care of the Almighty. The action of God's love for his Church is thus, in the first place, to keep it in being; in the second, to purify and perfect it. It only remains to consider this precious love—
III. IN ITS RESULTS. The present results are:
1. That there is a witness for God in almost every land—a witness which testifies unceasingly to the existence, power, and goodness of the Almighty; to the free offer of redemption through his Son, and to the free gift of sanctification through his Spirit.
2. There is a body which preaches holiness of life, even if it very imperfectly practises it.
3. There is a community which witnesses to the spirituality of man, to free-will, moral responsibility, the absolute and eternal difference of right from wrong, a future life, and judgment to come.
4. There is a body which hands on religion from age to age as a real living thing; a power seen in its fruits; a transforming, energizing power; not a philosophy, but a life. In the future the great result will be—that which the Revelation of St. John indicates—the eternal existence in heaven of a Church triumphant; "a multitude which no man can number," consisting "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," who will "stand before the throne of God, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands," praising him and ready to do his pleasure for ever (Revelation 7:9, Revelation 7:10).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON