ou are in trouble. I have come
to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your
perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for
the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten
thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then
everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't
take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for
offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You
would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to
fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all
this house who would have any sympathy for that man.

But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual
embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal
defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay
me what thou owest."

We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of
all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here
is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My
red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through
anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't
meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I
want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would
say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he
would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants;
he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of
choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who
understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can
say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and
rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be Anathema Maranatha.'"

I go a step further, and say it is most cruel for a man not to love
Jesus. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to
hurt your feelings. Sharp words sometimes cut like a dagger. An unkind
look will sometimes rive like the lightning. An unkind deed may
overmaster a sensitive spirit, and if you have made up your mind that
you have done wrong to any one, it does not take you two minutes to
make up your mind to go and apologize. Now, Christ is a bundle of
delicacy and sensitiveness. How you have shocked His nerves! How you
have br