Some time ago, our astronomers were desirous of making researches into the nature and the structure of the sun; and, for their purpose, they despatched many competent parties to different regions of the globe, in order to take observations of the great luminary, and scrupulously to record the results. Strange to say, the critical opportunity selected by them for gaining insight into the structure of the orb of light was that afforded during the few moments of total eclipse. The brief season of entire obscuration of the sun was found better than any other for attaining their object.
So it is with the Divine love. Would we know the qualities and intensity of that love, we must conduct our enquiries at the place, and at the time when the Father's face was hid from the Son of His love; when, in the deep gloom of Calvary, the Son of God was made a propitiation for our sins, and that cry rang through the darkness, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' It is in the Cross, where our great substitute died for the guilty, where, to use the emphatic language of scripture, Christ 'was made a curse for us,' that we acquire our best acquaintance with the 'great love' of God (Alexander Somerville).
