ht. Where little is given, little will be required. It shall be
better for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for Chorazin and
Bethsaida. There is no ruin without remedy, except that which a man
makes for himself by abusing mercy, and throwing away proffered
opportunity. Thoughts like these rushed through the preacher's mind, as
he stood there looking in the tear-bedewed faces of these men of crime.
A fresh tide of pity rose in his heart, that he felt came from the heart
of the all-pitying One.

"I do not try to disguise from you, or from myself the fact that for
this life your outlook is not bright. But I come to you this day with a
message of hope from God our Father. He hath not appointed you to wrath.
He loves all his children. He sent his Son to die for them. Jesus trod
the paths of pain, and drained the cup of sorrow. He died as a
malefactor, for malefactors. He died for me. He died for each one of
you. If I knew the most broken, the most desolate-hearted, despairing
man before me, who feels that he is scorned of men and forsaken of God,
I would go to where he sits and put my hand on his head, and tell him
that God hath not appointed him to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. I would tell him that his Father in
heaven loves him still, loves him more than the mother that bore him. I
would tell him that all the wrongs and follies of his past life may from
this hour be turned into so much capital of a warning experience, and
that a million of years from today he may be a child of the Heavenly
Father, and an heir of glory, having the freedom of the heavens and the
blessedness of everlasting life. O brothers, God does love you! Nothing
can ruin you but your own despair. No man has any right to despair who
has eternity before him. Eternity? Long, long eternity! Blessed, blessed
eternity! That is yours--all of it. It may be a happy eternity for each
one of you. From this moment you may begin a better life. There is hope
for you, and mercy, and love, and heaven. This is the message I bring
you warm from a brother's heart, and warm from the heart of Jesus, whose
life-blood was poured out for you and me. His loving hand opened the
gate of mercy and hope to every man. The proof is that he died for us. O
Son of God, take us to thy pitying arms, and lift us up into the light
that never, never grows dim--into the love that fills heaven and
eternity!"

As the speaker sunk into his s