When I say "God is," that is a very different thing from God Himself saying, "I AM." A different thing? Oh! my friends, here is the root of the whole Gospel, the root of all our hope for this world and for the world to come--for ourselves, for our own future, and the future of all the world. Do you not see how? Then I will try to explain. Many heathen men have known that there was one eternal God, and that _God is_. But they did not know that God Himself had said so; and that made them anxious, puzzled, almost desperate, so that the wiser they were, the unhappier they were. For what use is it merely knowing that "_God is_"? The question for poor human creatures is, "But what sort of a being is God? Is He far off? Millions of miles from this earth? Does He care nothing about us? Does He let the world go its own way right or wrong? Is He proud and careless? A self-glorifying Deity whose mercy is _not_ over all His works, or even over any of them? Or does He care for us? Does He see us? Will He speak to us? Has He ever spoken to any one? Has He ever told any one about Himself?" _There is the question_--the question of all questions. And if a man once begins thinking about his own soul, and this world, and God,--till he gets that question answered, he can have no comfort about himself or the world, or anything--till in fact he knows whether God has ever spoken to men or not. And the glory of the Bible, the power of God revealed in the Bible, is, that it answers the question, and says, "God _does_ care for men, God _does_ see men, God is not far off from any one of us." Ay, God speaks to men--God spoke to Moses and said, not "God is" but "I AM." God in sundry times and in divers manners _spoke_ to our fathers by the Prophets and said "I AM." But more--Moses said, "I AM hath sent me." God does not merely love us, and yet leave us to ourselves. He sends after us. He sends to us. In old times He sent prophets and wise men one after the other to preach repentance and righteousness, and to teach men all that was good for them; and when men would not listen to them, but shut their ears to them and drove them out, killing some and beating some, God was so determined to send to men, so unwearied, so patient, so earnest, so loving still, that He said, "I will send now my own Son, surely they will hear Him."