in upon me; _My grace is
sufficient for thee, My grace is sufficient for thee, My grace is
sufficient for thee_, three times together. And oh! methought that every
word was a mighty word unto me; as _My_ and _grace_, and _sufficient_,
and _for thee_; they were then, and sometimes are still, far bigger than
all others. Then, at last, that about Esau finding no place for
repentance began to wax weak and withdraw and vanish, and this about the
sufficiency of grace prevailed with peace and joy.' And so the issue was
reversed; the scale that held the hope overweighed completely the scale
that held the despair.

If it were not that others have passed through an identically similar
experience, we should feel inclined to marvel at Bunyan's reluctance to
cast into the balances the tail of the text: _My grace is
sufficient--for thee!_ It seems strange, I say, that Bunyan should have
grasped with such confidence the _four_ words and then boggled at the
other _two_. And yet it is always easier to believe that there is a
Saviour for the world than to believe that there is a Saviour _for me_.
It is easy to believe that

There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss;

but it is much harder to believe that there is grace and room _for me_.
Martin Luther believed implicitly and preached confidently that Christ
died for all mankind, long before he could persuade himself that Christ
died for Martin Luther. John Wesley crossed the Atlantic that he might
proclaim the forgiveness of sins to the Indians; but it was not until he
was verging upon middle life that he realized the possibility of the
forgiveness of his own.

It is all very illogical, of course, and very absurd. If we can accept
the _four_ words, why not accept all _six_? If we credit the head of the
text, why cavil at the tail? Sometimes the absurdity of such irrational
behavior will break upon a man and set him laughing at his own
stupidity. Mr. Spurgeon had some such experience. 'Gentlemen,' he said,
one Friday afternoon, in an address to his students, 'Gentlemen, there
are many passages of Scripture which you will never understand until
some trying or singular experience shall interpret them to you. The
other evening I was riding home after a heavy day's work; I was very
wearied and sore depressed; and, swiftly and suddenly as a lightning
flash, that text laid hold on me: _My g