Letters and Memories.
Be of good cheer. When the wicked man turneth from his wickedness (then,
there and then) he shall save his soul alive—and all his sin and wickedness shall not be mentioned unto him. What your “measure” of guilt (if there can be a measure of the incommensurable spiritual) may be, I know not. But this I know that as long as you keep the sense of guilt alive in your own mind you will remain justified in God’s mind; as long as you set your sins before your face He will set them behind His back.
Letters and Memories.
This is the Gospel, the good news for fallen men, that there is a Man in the midst of the throne of God to whom all power is given in heaven and earth; that the fate of the world and all that is therein, the fate of sun and stars, the fate of kings and nations, the fate of every
publican and harlot, heathen and outcast, the fate of all who are in death and hell, depend alike upon the sacred heart of Jesus; the heart which grieved at the tomb of Lazarus, His friend; the heart which wept over Jerusalem; the heart which said to the blessed Magdalene, the woman that was a sinner, “Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee”; the heart that yearns over every sinful and wandering soul all over the earth of God, crying to all, “Why will ye die? Have I any pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live?” “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
National Sermons.
This is the message of the blessed sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, which tells you that in spite of all your daily sins and failings, you can still look up to God as your Father; to the Lord Jesus as your life; to the Holy Spirit as your guide and your inspirer; that though you be a prodigal son, your Father’s house is still open to you; your Father’s eternal love ready to meet you afar off the moment that you cry from your heart—“Father, I have sinned, and am no more worthy to be called Thy child;” and that you must be converted and turn back to God your Father not merely once for all, but weekly, daily, hourly, as often as you forget and disobey Him. This is the message of the blessed sacrament—that though you cannot come to it trusting
in your own righteousness, you can come trusting in His manifold and great mercies; that though you are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under His table, yet He is the same Lord whose property is ever to have mercy, and He will grant that your souls shall be washed in Christ’s most precious blood, that you may dwell in Him, and He in you, for ever.
National Sermons.