Such love cannot be described.
By Joel Headley, Jesus Christ. Christ's love to man was superhuman,
divine. Neglect, abuse, scorn, rejection
of his offered blessings, fiendish thirst for his blood, could not
lessen its gentle force, nor silence its tender appeals. His
whole object is to win hearts, acts of personal kindness in
the relief of suffering, sympathy with the distressed, loving words
to the fearful, cheering promises to the despairing, offers of
peace, pardon and fullness of joy and eternal blessedness to
the believing. Make up his life and form the
substance of his message. He confronts poor, sinful man
with every motive and addresses him with every form of appeal
to enkindle within him love and trust. Whether alone on the mountaintop,
bowed in prayer, or in the presence of corrupt, degraded women, the
same divine purity invests Him. Unchanged by circumstances, unmoved
by danger, and never excited by the temptations, or passions,
or ambitions of men, He, though moving in their midst, is as
completely separate from them as heaven from earth. Love, overwhelming,
inexpressible love, is the only chain that binds him to the world
in which he lives. His character exhibits the most
striking contrasts, and qualities apparently the most opposite
and contradictory, and yet it is a perfect, harmonious whole. With unbounded courage, without
rashness, was joined perfect meekness, without loss of dignity. Of heroic firmness under every
trial, he yet weeps at the grave of his friend. Filling us with
awe as he stands amid the glories of the transfiguration today,
he wins our confidence tomorrow by taking little children in
his arms and blessing them. The creator of man, he yet allows
wicked man to spit upon him, and at last offers up his life
to save him. In love he heals the sick, raises
the dead, and comforts the weary and sorrowful. In love he exclaims
over the city about to crucify him, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
how often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, but you would not. It is His incomprehensible,
infinite love that when life was ebbing fast away could look
on His murderers and say in tones that will thrill the heart to
the end of time, no, through eternity, Father, forgive them. Such love cannot be described.
It can only be felt by a penitent, loving heart.