to all practical intents and purposes the inerrant Word of God. II THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD, OR THE GOD OF THE BIBLE AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE GOD OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE GOD OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY "God is Spirit."—John 4:24. "God is Light."—1 John 1:5. "God is Love."—1 John 4:8, 16. Our subject this morning is "The Christian Conception of God, or The God of the Bible as Distinguished from the God of Christian Science and the God of Modern Philosophy." I have three texts: John 4:24: +"God is Spirit."+ 1 John 1:5: +"God is Light."+ 1 John 4:8, 16: +"God is Love."+ These three texts give three of the most remarkable statements that were ever uttered and set before us in the clearest possible way the Christian conception of God as distinguished from every other conception of God. The Christian Scientists constantly quote one of our texts: +"God is Love."+ In fact they quote it more than almost any other passage in the Bible, but they do not mean at all by +"God is Love"+ what 1 John 4:8 or 1 John 4:16 evidently mean when taken in their connection. By "love" the Christian Scientists do not mean a personal attribute of God, but an impersonal abstraction which is itself God. Mrs. Eddy frankly and flatly denies the personality of God. The Christian Scientists not only say, "God is love," but they also say, "Love is God." They not only say, "God is good," but they also say, "Good is God." To say "Love is God" is an utterly different statement from saying, "God is love." You might just as well say "Spirit is God," because God says, "God is spirit," but all spirit is not God. Or you might as well say, "Light is God," because "God is light," but light is not God and love is not God, though God is love and God is light and God is spirit. What is meant by "love" in the inspired statement, +"God is Love"+? What is meant by the statement, +"God is Love,"+ is shown by the definition or description of love given in the context and in the immediately preceding chapter—1 John 3:13-18. These verses clearly show that by the statement in 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16, +"God is Love"+ is not meant that God is an abstract quality, "love," and that the abstract quality of love is God, but what is meant is that God is a person whose whole being and conduct are dominated by the quality of love, that is, by a desire for and delight in the highest welfare of others. This will be evident to you if I read from the immediately preceding chapter (1 John 3:13-17): +"Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. (14) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. (15) Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (16) Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoso hath the world's goods, and