feel their need of peace, such store did they set by it, that
many of them sought it at any price. They would buy peace at any cost;
nor did they shrink from giving all their fortune, even the fruit of
their body, for the sin of their souls. For peace with God the Hindoo
walked to his distant temples in sandals that, set with spikes,
pierced his flesh at every step, and marked all the long, slow,
painful journey with a track of blood; for peace with God the Syrian
led his sweet boy up to the fires of Moloch, and, unmoved in purpose
by cries, or curses, or passionate entreaties, cast him shrieking on
the burning pile; for peace with God the Indian mother approached the
river's brink with streaming tears and trembling steps, and, tearing
the suckling from her bursting heart, kissed it, to turn away her
eyes, and fling it into the flood. We pity their ignorance. But how do
they rebuke the indifference of many; their unwillingness to submit to
any sacrifice whatever for the honour of Jesus and the interests of
their souls? These heathens may pity thousands whom they shall rise up
in judgment to condemn. Neglecting the great salvation, preferring the
pleasures of sin, what a contrast do these offer to a poor Hindoo,
who, hearing a missionary tell of the blood of Christ, sprang from the
ground, and, loosing his bloody sandals, flung them away to exclaim,
"Now, now I have found what I want!"

The peace which he found all men want, and shall find in Jesus, if
they seek it honestly, earnestly. God has no pleasure in the death of
the wicked. He never had. We pronounce him an unnatural father, who,
on a breach occurring between him and his child, though he is the
injured and not the injurer, does not long to be reconciled--is not
the first to make advances and overtures of peace. In this feature of
the parental character God has stamped upon our hearts the beautiful
image of His own. Yearning over them as the kind old man over his
wayward prodigal, his exiled child, God was willing to receive back
sinners to His arms; to reinstate them in His family, and restore them
to His favour. But how was this to be done?--done without dishonour to
His holy law, and with due regard to His character as a God of truth.
He had said, "The soul that sinneth shall die;" nor could peace be
restored between Him and man but on such terms as maintained His
truth. A father or mother punishes one child, and allows another,
guilty of the same offence, to