The Thought of Thoughts by John
McDuff 1864 How precious are your thoughts unto me, O God!
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. John 3.16 Here is what Cyprian
calls an ocean of thought in a drop of language. Who can sound
the depths of this thought of God? It will form the theme and
mystery of eternity. Manifold and glorious are his
thoughts regarding his people, but this is the center and focus
of all, around which all the others cluster. It is the jewel
of which all the others are the setting, the thought of thoughts,
the gift of gifts. We may well say, how precious! There is no measuring that love.
It defies all human computation. Christ himself, in speaking of
it, can only intimate its indescribableness. He puts a plumb line into the
hand, but he does not attempt to gauge or fathom. All he can
say of the precious thought and the precious love is, God so
loved. And his redeemed church in heaven
will forever stoop over the edge of the precipice and exclaim
in the contemplation of the profound abyss, how great is the love
the Father has lavished on us. Your thoughts are very deep.
Think of that love in the past, a love so great as to put into
the lips of the Eternal Father the mysterious summons. Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd and against a man who is my fellow.
Smite the shepherd. The same Almighty Being is represented
elsewhere as looking around, scanning and surveying the needs
of a doomed and dying world. I looked and there was none to
help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore,
my own arm brought salvation unto me. The alternative, condemn
or not condemn, was before the Infinite Mind. But God did not
send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. Think
of that love when it culminated thus in its triumph on the cross,
when God's precious thoughts had their solemn revealing and
interpreter in the precious blood of Christ. Think of that moment
when infinite paternal love laid His Isaac on the altar and the
unsheathed sword descended on the priceless sacrifice. Think
of it, too, as a love evoked by rebels, a love manifested
towards a guilty and undeserving, and hell-deserving. History's
noblest deed and record of love is in the self-devotion of one
generous heathen, Pelades, who forfeited his life to save his
friend. But God commends his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You have not yet seen, says a
great writer and profound thinker, the greatest gift of all, the
heart of God, the love of his heart, the heart of his love. And will he in very deed show
us that? Yes, unveil that cross and see. It was his only mode of showing
us his heart. It is infinite love laboring
to reveal itself, agonizing to utter the fullness of infinite
love. Apart from that act, the boundless
ocean of love would have remained forever shut up and concealed
in the heart of God. But now it has found an ocean
channel. Beyond this he cannot go. Once
and forever the proof has been given. God is love. My thoughts are completely different
from yours, says the Lord, and my ways are far beyond anything
you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts higher than your thoughts. you