Love of God

It lies at the foundation of all intercourse between God and man that God should Himself address us , and permit us to address Him , in expressions suited to our weak capacities and conceptions , rather than dictated by what were suitable to His infinite glory and searchless being . Does it follow that in thus condescending unto the weakness of our nature , He does injustice unto His own , - or misrepresents it ? That does not follow . God can speak of Himself after the manner of man , and what He thus speaks may yet be worthy of God . And when the proof of this is sought , let it be found in the glorious fact , that God made man in His own image ; and in fact , still more glorious , that One who was in the form of God , and thought it not robbery to be equal with God , was found in form and fashion as a man . Did Godhead and humanity in the one person of Emmanuel jostle , disagree , hamper or misrepresent each other ? God forbid . The man Christ Jesus is the brightness of His Father's glory . His tears over Jerusalem , while as God , He had eternally decreed and forseen its destruction were no misrepresentation of the love wherewith the Godhead is affected in even handing over the impenitent into everlasting hell .  The surprise and astonishment and grief with which the man Christ Jesus listened to Peter denying Him - and which He expressed in His ever memorable "look",- were no contradiction to the fact , that the same one person , the eternal Son of God , knew from everlasting that Peter would deny Him . And so , if we would behold the endless and searchless glories that seem to withdraw the eternal God head forever from our knowledge , or be convinced that , in ever blessed perfect harmony with these , there are in the same Divine Being affections of grace , and tenderness , and condescension , admitting us more nearly and profoundly to His love and friendship , than the capacities of any human friend for love and intercourse could ever admit us , let us betake ourselves evermore to Him who is "God manifest ," - God most manifest - "in the flesh . He " showeth us the Father , and it sufficeth us ."  O thou that didst command " the light to shine out of darkness , shine in our hearts , and give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ "!