Then, how do you expect to stand when God is reciting to you all the misdoings of all the midnights of your whole lives before your father, mother, sisters, wife, neighbors and all the world? GOD'S LOVE FOR SINNERS. ROMANS V: 8. "But God commendeth His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." There are many of us who _feel_ that we are _sinners_, who know it, and who do not want any proof of it; but we can't be persuaded to believe that God has any love for us or interest in us. We have gotten to be such wicked sinners that maybe our friends have forsaken us, and we can not believe that God has any feeling of tenderness for us. We are willing to admit that God loves good people, those who are obedient, and that if _we_ were good, He would _then_ love us; but as it is, He can not love us, and there is no reason why He should love us. And then we go back and try to call up all our sins; all the times when we rejected Christ and the truth, and we find plenty of arguments to prove that God does not love us. But stop! You are judging the great God by yourself. You know you would not love one who would have treated you as you have treated God, and so you conclude He does not love you. You find it _exceedingly_ hard to believe in the love of God. This is one of the sad effects of sin. It darkens our hearts and separates us far, far from God, so that when we come to feel our need of Him we have no confidence that He will accept us or help us. Besides, by your long service of sin, you have put yourself in the power of an enemy who makes it as difficult as possible for you to _believe_ in God's love for you. But I come to you to-day with a declaration and assurance from God's own word, that though you have been a sinner all your life, and still feel that you are the greatest of sinners, the great God loves you with a true, deep, warm and yearning love. The great proof of it is the life and death of Jesus Christ, His Son. Have you read about it in the Gospel? Ah, if you had, and had seen Him delighting to be with the poor and the outcast, eating with them, choosing them for His friends, speaking words of heavenly cheer to them, pronouncing their sins forgiven and promising them heaven, then you would be moved and attracted and convinced. And then if you had read the pathetic story of His awful sufferings and death, and had reflected that "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us _all_," then hope would begin to dawn in your breast, and faith in His love would not be so difficult. But you have neglected to read and reflect about it, and so I am come to bring the glad tidings to you where you are, and to beg you to believe it for your own sake.