Do not be afraid to bow before Jesus. That cross is the enfranchisement of theology. It stands up against heaven to say, "God, with His infinite power, is not cruel. God is the sufferer, and not one that makes suffering." The Divine nature is not one that oppresses races, as the cluster is pressed, that the wine may flow out into the vintner's cup. The testimony of Christ's life, and the mission of Christ's death, and that everlasting love that streams from the cross of Christ is, "God so loved the world." Loved it? No mother ever loved her child half so much. And yet, what mother is there that did not, in her small, feeble way, symbolize the whole atonement of Christ? What mother is there that did not bring forth her child with pangs, and strong crying and tears? What mother is there that did not take the utter helplessness of the little babe for weeks and months, and give her life for it? How she gives up her sleep; how she gives up her heart's desires; how she foregoes pleasure; how she withdraws herself from society; how she gives the whole royalty of her rich nature to that little child that can neither speak nor think, nor know what helps it! And then, through what sickness does she watch! And with what labour and pain does she develop the child! And how does she bring it finally to intelligence and virtue and manhood, all the way through a living sacrifice of love for the child!
(H. W. Beecher.)
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