The doctrine of God our Savior is the gospel. It tells us that God is good and does good (Ps. 119:68). How glad we are that we ever heard it; without it we would have lived without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world; and what would such a life have been to us? And what would we have been?

A walking shadow; a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

So much for a life lived without the knowledge of God. But when such a life is done, what then? “After this the judgment,” when account must be given to God for it all. But the gospel has brought light and substance into our lives; we have something to live for now, and we have a glorious hope for the future. Let us thank God and rejoice that we ever heard the gospel. Now we are called upon to adorn the gospel. Adorn the gospel! How can we do that? Is not the gospel perfect in its beauty? Yes, so we thought it to be when first the light of it dispelled the darkness in which we groped—and we were right. And if it is already perfect, what can we do to adorn it? Truly we cannot add anything to it.

But we can bring out its beauty in lives that have been renewed by it. The world does not see any beauty in it, and we cannot wonder at that, for when He who is the theme of it was here, He was despised and rejected by men; He was without form or comeliness to them; and when they saw Him there was no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. But “to you who believe, He is precious”; He is “chief among ten thousand” and “altogether lovely.” What Jesus was the gospel is.