He _could_ have done and could do, if He disliked you as you dislike
Him, and say, How can you continue in your enmity? O my brother, "Only
believe!" Believe that "God _is_ love." Believe that "in this is
manifested the love of God, that He gave His Son to be a propitiation
for our sins." Believe that He willeth not that any should
perish,--that He has no pleasure in the death of sinners,--that He
is ready to forgive,--that this is the record, that "God hath given
eternal life." Believe--trust in God for the good, the whole good, the
most perfect good, that of a child's heart and sincere love towards
Him, which He seeks in you--trust God for this through faith in
Christ, and in the mighty power of that Spirit who is love; and
depend upon it, when you _know God_, and see how excellent He is, and
understand His love to you, and what He is willing to make you, and to
give you, and, above all, when you know what _He himself will be to
you_ for ever, you surely cannot choose but Him! and "_there is no
fear in love; because fear hath torment!_"




MOMENTS IN LIFE.


By moments in life, I mean certain periods which occur more or less
frequently in our history,--when the spirit in which we then live, the
step we then take, the word we then utter, or what we at that moment
think, resolve, accept, reject, do, or do not, may give a complexion
to our whole future being both here and hereafter.

Let me notice one or two features which characterise those moments.