e you the power to do so; ay, He
has given you the power already, _if_ you will but claim and use it. But
you must claim and use it, because you are meant not merely to be God's
wilful, ignorant, selfish child, obeying Him from fear of the rod, but to
be His willing, loving, loyal son.

_National Sermons_.

God is not a tyrant who must be appeased with gifts, or a task-master who
must be satisfied with the labour of his slaves. He is a Father, who
loves His children, who gives and loveth to give, who gives to all
freely, and upbraideth not. He truly willeth not the death of a sinner,
but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live. His will is
a good will, and howsoever much men's sin and folly may resist it, and
seem for a time to mar it, yet He is too great and good to owe any man,
even the worst, the smallest spite or grudge. Patiently, nobly,
magnanimously, God waits--waits for the man who is a fool, to find out
his folly; waits for the heart which has tried to find pleasure in
everything else, to find out that everything else disappoints, and to
come back to Him, that fountain of all wholesome pleasure, that
well-spring of all life fit for a man to live. When the fool finds out
his folly; when the wilful man gives up his wilfulness; when the rebel
submits himself to law; when the son comes back to his father's
house--there is no sternness, no upbraiding, no revenge; but the
everlasting and boundless love of God wells forth again as ever. The
Creator has condescended to wait for His creature, because what He wanted
was not His creature's fear, but His creature's love; not his
lip-obedience, but his heart; because He wanted him not to come back as a
trembling slave to his master, but as a son who has found out at last
what a father he has left him, when all beside has played him false. Let
him come back thus, to find all is forgiven; and to hear the Father say,
"This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

_Discipline and other Sermons_.

When the tempest comes; when affliction, fear, anxiety, shame come, then
the Cross of Christ begins to mean something to us. For then in our
misery and confusion we look up to heaven and ask, Is there any One in
heaven who understands all this? Does God understand my trouble? Does
God feel for my trouble? Does God care for my trouble? Does God know
what trouble means? Or must I fight the battle of life alone, without
sympathy or