I say with the very heathen God deals thus. We have plain Scripture for
that. For we have, and thanks be to God that we have, in such times as
these, a missionary sermon preached by St Paul to the heathen at Lystra.
And in that is not one word concerning these terrors of the law. He
says, I preach to you God, whom you ought to have known of yourselves,
because He has not left Himself without witness. And what is this
witness of which the apostle speaks? Wrath and terror and destruction?
Not so, says St Paul. This is His witness, that He has sent you rain and
fruitful seasons, filling your heart with food and gladness. His
goodness, His bounty,--it is the witness of God and of the character of
God. There is wrath and terror enough, says St Paul elsewhere, awaiting
those who go on in sin. But then what does he say is their sin?
Despising the goodness of God, by which He has been trying to win mankind
to love and trust Him, before He threatens and before He punishes at all.
So much for the terrors of the law coming before the good news of the
gospel in God's kingdom of nature.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259