s because the ship rides by a cable, and not a cobweb, that, when
sails are rent, and yards are gone, and breakers are foaming on the
reef, she mounts the billows and survives the storm. That we are not
suffering the pains of hell, that we have hopes of heaven and ever
shall be there, we owe not to our good works, but to God's good will;
to that only. Till converted, man does not desire this good will; and
never deserves it. We have no claim to it whatever. It is "not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
God saves us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the
Holy Ghost"--therefore His good will has no root in any good works of
ours. A sacred mystery, we may apply to it the words which Job,
contemplating the grand mysteries of nature, applied to our earth
when, seeing this great globe floating in ethereal space, sustained by
no pillars, nor suspended by any chain that linked it to the skies, he
said, Thou hast hung it upon nothing!

XII.

THE PERSON WHO EXPRESSES "GOOD WILL."

The person is God--He who spake by holy men of old, speaking here by
the lips of angels. Where there is a will, there is a way, is a brave
and admirable proverb. Yet, though comparatively true in most cases,
to some it is altogether inapplicable. Look, for example, at the women
who, when the men had turned cowards, boldly follow our Lord to
Calvary, bewailing and lamenting Him! What tears they shed, what a
wail they raise, when the door opens, and, surrounded by armed guards,
Jesus comes forth from the Judgment Hall, bleeding, bound, crowned
with thorns. When He sank down on the street under the weight of the
cross, and His blessed head lay low in the dust, had there been a
chance of saving Him, how had they rushed to His help; and, giving
their naked breasts to the Roman spears, burst through the circle to
rescue Him; to die with Him rather than desert Him. But they were
helpless. Their good will availed the loved object nothing--beyond
this, that the sympathy flowing in their tears and expressed in their
looks, somewhat soothed the sorrows of His heart, and fell like balm
drops on His smarting wounds.

Again, what good will did David bear to Jonathan! Did Jonathan love
David as his own soul? and under circumstances calculated to dissolve
all common friendships, and work such change on the heart as wine
suffers when it turns into vinegar, did Jonathan's sentiments continue
unchanged, h