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What!
(Winslow, "The Anxious Sinner Venturing on Christ")
Towards a sinner standing in the righteousness of
his Son, God's heart is love, all love, and nothing
but love. Not an unkind thought lodging there; not
a repulsive feeling dwelling there; all is love, and
love of the most tender character.
The love of God gushes from his heart, and
flows down through the channel of the cross of
Christ, to a poor, repenting, believing sinner.
Yes, we dare affirm, that towards his chosen people,
there never has been, and there never will be one
thought of unkindness, of anger, of rebuke in the
heart of God. From eternity it has been love, through
time it is love, and on through eternity to come it
will be love.
"What! Are not their afflictions, their
chastisements,
the rough and thorny path they tread, proofs of God's
displeasure? What! Is that individual loved
of God,
whom I see yonder bearing that heavy and daily cross;
against whom billow after billow dashes, and to whom
tragic messenger after messenger is sent; whose
gourds are withered in a night, and whose fountains
are all broken in a day; whose body is diseased, whose
domestic comforts are fled; who is poor, feeble, and
destitute; What! Is that individual beloved of God?"
Go and ask that afflicted saint; go and ask that cross
bearing disciple; go and ask that son and daughter of
disease and penury; and they will tell you, their Father's
dealings with them are the most costly proofs of his love;
that instead of unkindness in that cross, there was love;
instead of harshness in that rebuke, there was tenderness;
and that when he withered that gourd,
and broke up that cistern,
and removed that earthly prop,
and blighted that budding hope,
it was but to pour the flood of his own love into
the heart, and satiate the soul with his goodness.
O dear cross!
O sweet affliction!
O precious discipline!
Thus to open the heart of God;
thus to unlock the treasury of his love;
thus to bring God near to the soul, and
the soul near to God.
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