his throne is not marble but mercy! What if nature and life do but
interpret in the small this divine principle existing in the large in
him who is infinite! [1] What if Calvary is God's eternal heartache,
manifest in time! What if, sore-footed and heavy-hearted, bruised with
many a fall, we should come back to the old home, from which once we
fled away, gay and foolish prodigals! The time was when, as small boys
and girls, with blinding tears, we groped toward the mother's bosom and
sobbed out our bitter pain and sorrow with the full story of our sin.
What if the form on Calvary were like the king of eternity, toiling up
the hill of time, his feet bare, his locks all wet with the dew of
night, while he cries: "Oh, Absalom! my son, my son, Absalom!" What if
we are Absalom, and have hurt God's heart! Reason staggers. Groping,
trusting, hoping, we fall blindly on the stairs that slope through
darkness up to God. But, falling, we fall into the arms of Him who
hath suffered vicariously for man from the foundation of the world.


[1] Eternal Atonement, p. 11.




GENIUS, AND THE DEBT OF STRENGTH.




"Paul says: 'I am a debtor.' But what had he received from the Greeks
that he was bound to pay back? Was he a disciple of their philosophy?
He was not. Had he received from their bounty in the matter of art?