Page:God Manifest.djvu/388

 Psalmist, "is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." This language is most comprehensive: none are excepted from His love, not even the evil. This is still more distinctly affirmed in the Gospels, where it is declared that He is " kind" even "to the unthankful and to the evil." Moreover, from this state of mind He never varies or changes; "I am the Lord: I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed ;" "With whom," says the Apostle, "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." This language is sufficiently clear: God is Love, and never other than Love; He is Good to all, and never otherwise than Good. Then, what can be the meaning of the terms "anger," "fury," and the like, which occur so frequently in the Old Testament, in speaking of Jehovah? How plain to see that these expressions describe, in fact, the state of man in reference to God, rather than of God in relation to man! When men plunge themselves into sin, and so bring themselves into a state of opposition to their good Creator, He becomes darkened before their minds. Through the cloud and mist which their own evil passions call up around them. He appears, in the distance, as frowning and revengeful, and about to pour out His wrath upon them in punishment of their misdeeds—because their own consciences convict them of deserving such, and because there is burning in their own hearts hatred against Him, which they interpret into a like feeling in Him towards them. But, as the sun of nature shines ever calmly and ever the same, though as beheld through the mists and