The Good News of God | Page 5

very clever man, a very far-sighted man, a very
determined man, a very powerful man, and therefore a very successful
man? A man who can manage everything, and every person whom he
comes across, and turn and use them for his own ends, till he rises to be
great and glorious--a ruler, king, or what you will?
Well--he is a great man: but I know a greater, and nobler, and more
glorious stamp of man; and you do also. Let us try again, and think if
we can find his likeness, and draw it for ourselves. Would he not be
somewhat like this pattern?--A man who was aware that he had vast

power, and yet used that power not for himself but for others; not for
ambition, but for doing good? Surely the man who used his power for
other people would be the greater-souled man, would he not? Let us go
on, then, to find out more of his likeness. Would he be stern, or would
he be tender? Would he be patient, or would he be fretful? Would he be
a man who stands fiercely on his own rights, or would he be very
careful of other men's rights, and very ready to waive his own rights
gracefully and generously? Would he be extreme to mark what was
done amiss against him, or would he be very patient when he was
wronged himself, though indignant enough if he saw others wronged?
Would he be one who easily lost his temper, and lost his head, and
could be thrown off his balance by one foolish man? Surely not. He
would be a man whom no fool, nor all fools together could throw off
his balance; a man who could not lose his temper, could not lose his
self-respect; a man who could bear with those who are peevish, make
allowances for those who are weak and ignorant, forgive those who are
insolent, and conquer those who are ungrateful, not by punishment, but
by fresh kindness, overcoming their evil by his good.--A man, in short,
whom no ill-usage without, and no ill-temper within, could shake out
of his even path of generosity and benevolence. Is not that the truly
magnanimous man; the great and royal soul? Is not that the stamp of
man whom we should admire, if we met him on earth? Should we not
reverence that man; esteem it an honour and a pleasure to work under
that man, to take him for our teacher, our leader, in hopes that, by
copying his example, our souls might become great like his?
Is it so, my friends? Then know this, that in admiring that man, you
admire the likeness of God. In wishing to be like that man, you wish to
be like God.
For this is God's true greatness; this is God's true glory; this is God's
true royalty; the greatness, glory, and royalty of loving, forgiving,
generous power, which pours itself out, untiring and undisgusted, in
help and mercy to all which he has made; the glory of a Father who is
perfect in this, that he causeth his rain to fall on the evil and on the
good, and his sun to shine upon the just and on the unjust, and is good
to the unthankful and the evil; a Father who has not dealt with us after
our sins, or rewarded us after our iniquities: a Father who is not
extreme to mark what is done amiss, but whom it is worth while to fear,

for with him is mercy and plenteous redemption;--all this, and more--a
Father who so loved a world which had forgotten him, a world whose
sins must have been disgusting to him, that he spared not his only
begotten Son, but freely gave him for us, and will with him freely give
us all things; a Father, in one word, whose name and essence is love,
even as it is the name and essence of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
This, my friends, is the glory of God: but this glory never shone out in
its full splendour till it shone upon the cross.
For--that we may go back again, to that great-souled man, of whom I
spoke just now--did we not leave out one thing in his character? or at
least, one thing by which his character might be proved and tried? We
said that he should be generous and forgiving; we said that he should
bear patiently folly, peevishness, ingratitude: but what if we asked of
him, that he should sacrifice himself utterly for the peevish, ungrateful
men for whose good he was toiling? What if we asked him to give up,
for them, not only all which made life worth having, but to give up life
itself? To