In this is a great mystery; one of which one hardly dares to talk:
but one which one must think over in one's own heart, and say, 'Oh
the depth of the riches and of the knowledge and wisdom of God! How
wonderful are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor? Or
who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him
again?' Who indeed? God is not a tyrant, who must be appeased with
gifts; or a taskmaster, who must be satisfied with the labour of his
slaves. He is a father who loves his children; who gives, and loveth
to give; who gives to all freely, and upbraideth not. He truly
willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn
from his wickedness and live. His will is a good will; and howsoever
much man's sin and folly may resist it, and seem for a time to mar
it, yet he is too great and good to owe any man, even the worst, the
smallest spite or grudge. Patiently, nobly, magnanimously, God
waits; waits for the man who is a fool, to find out his own folly;
waits for the heart which has tried to find pleasure in everything
else, to find out that everything else disappoints, and to come back
to him, the fountain of all wholesome pleasure, the well-spring of
all life fit for a man to live. When the fool finds out his folly;
when the wilful man gives up his wilfulness; when the rebel submits
himself to law; when the son comes back to his father's house--there
is no sternness, no peevishness, no up-braiding, no pride, no
revenge; but the everlasting and boundless love of God wells forth
again as rich as ever. He has condescended to wait for his creature;
because what he wanted was not his creature's fear, but his
creature's love; not his lip-obedience, but his heart; because he
wanted him not to come back as a trembling slave to his master, but
as a son who has found out at last what a father he has left him,