to save sinners. "Oh, come, let us worship and bow down," let us
weep before him. His word, calling us to repentance, lifts up its
voice and cries aloud, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." There is, then, a way to be
saved, if we will Death has prevailed and swallowed us up; but be
assured, that God will wipe away every tear from the face of every
penitent. The Lord is faithful in all his words. He does not lie,
when he says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." The great Physician of souls is ready to heal thy disease;
he is the prompt Deliverer, not of thee alone, but of all who are in
bondage to sin. These are his words,--his sweet and life-giving
lips pronounced them,--"They that be whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance." What excuse, then, remains to thee, or to
any one else, when he utters such language as this? The Lord is
willing to heal thy painful wound, and to enlighten thy darkness.
The Good Shepherd leaves the sheep who have not strayed, to seek for
thee. If thou give thyself up to him, he will not delay, he in his
mercy will not disdain to carry thee upon his own shoulders,
rejoicing that he has found his sheep which was lost. The Father
stands waiting thy return from thy wanderings. Only arise and come,
and whilst thou art yet a great way off he will run and fall upon
thy neck; and, purified at once by thy repentance, thou shalt be
enfolded in the embraces of his friendship. He will put the best
robe on thy soul, when it has put off the old man with his deeds; he
will put a ring on thy hands when they have been washed from the
blood of death; he will put shoes on thy feet, when they have turned
from the evil way to the path of the Gospel of peace; and he will
proclaim a day of joy and gladness to the whole family of both
angels and men, and will celebrate thy salvation with every form of
rejoicing. For he himself says, "Verily I say unto you, that joy
shall be in heaven before God over one sinner that repenteth." And
if any of those that stand by should seem to find fault, because
thou art so quickly received, the good Father himself will plead for
thee, saying, "It was meet that we should make merry and be glad;
for this my daughter was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and
is