have our
hearts overflowed with good will, yet we could only weep with them
that wept--pity sorrows we could not soothe, wants we were powerless
to relieve? Tears we might give, but they could not clothe the naked,
or feed the hungry, or save the dying, or recall the dead, or close
the wounds which death had made. In dying chambers how are we made
painfully, bitterly to feel that man's power is not commensurate with
his will? What good will, what tender affection toward some dear,
beloved object! yet, as we hung over the dying couch, all we could do
was to moisten the speechless lips, to wipe the clammy sweat from
death's cold brow and watch the sinking pulses of life's ebbing tide.
What would we not have done to meet the wishes of the eye that, when
speech was gone, turned on us imploring, never-to-be-forgotten looks!
Alas, our good will availed them nothing!

Such recollections, by the contrast which they present to God's good
will, greatly enhance its preciousness. "His favour is life, his
loving-kindness is better than life." Where God has a will, God always
has a way. At the throne of divine grace, none had ever to shed Esau's
tears, or cry with him, Hast thou but one blessing, O my father? Our
father in heaven is affluent in blessings, plenteous in redemption,
abundant in goodness and in truth. Who ever turned an imploring eye on
God, and brought to prayer the earnestness of him that bends the knee
to yon blind old man, but became in time the happy object of God's
loving, saving mercy. Let men trust in the Lord. In the name of Christ
let them throw themselves on His mercy. What though they cannot see
it? It is around them, like the invisible but ambient air on which the
eagle, with an awful gulf below, throws herself from her rocky nest in
fearless freedom, and with expanded wings. So let men, trusting in
God's faithful word, spread out the wings of faith, and cast them on
His good will. Wrapping the world round in an atmosphere of mercy, it
shall sustain their weight, and bear them aloft, till, ascending into
the calm regions of Christian hope, they bathe their eyes in the beams
of the Sun of Righteousness, and feel their feet firmly planted on the
Rock of Ages.

But let one thing be remembered, this, namely, that God will not save
any against their will. Let us therefore seek, and seek till we
obtain, a change of heart. He draws, not drives--will not force any
into heaven--nor be served by the hands of a slav