The Mercy of God, viewed as saving men from evil thoughts and ways — which is the only true mercy — is simply incredible : so the prophet affirms, so we profess to think and to believe. But do we really believe it ? Do we act as if we did ? Millions . will say to-day : " I believe in the forgiveness of sins " ; but how | many of that vast multitude, do you suppose, will both under- 1 stand and realise what they say ? Many of them hardly believe i that they Jia^e sins which need a great act of Divine forgiveness, i Many more do not know that, in order to forgive, God must > punish their sins.
If One of James Lane Allen's later books has for its title the creed of its hero. The Beign of Law. That was all he could see in the universe : unpitying law ; law irreversible and conscienceless. The world order was to him, and presumably to the author of the book, a heartless procession of events. There was no Face to meet his advances or to frown away his sin. But, as his heart began to break up under the suns and frosts of love ; as the power of a new truth got hold of him, he looked up into heaven to whisper at length : " Ah, Gabrielle, it is love that makes a man believe in a God of love." Not that God is ever capricious, but that His heart can go forth in special overtures to His children ; not that He ever really hides His face, but that it sometimes breaks like the conquering sun through our earth-mists ; not that He ever ceases
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to call, but that sometimes His voice has new resonance and music — this is our Christian faith.
2. But this leads us to the other point in the prophet's word : " He will abundantly pardon." There is nothing of cold, distant harshness in God's mercy-giving. He does not say, " Take thy pardon and go thy way. It is what thou dost not deserve. Thou hast been a wicked rebel ; take care of thyself in time to come." God is ever like Himself. Behold Him in ' creation ; in these myriads of mighty worlds He has hung above us in the heavens. How like the greatness of the Great One is that fulness of immensity. Behold Him in the gifts with which He blesses our earth ; with what a lavish hand He scatters beauties and glories. And here, too, as the God of pardon, God again is like Himself ; He pardons like Himself, with Divine generosity.
{!) It is God's good pleasure to pardon abundantly.
This man, whoever he was, has a claim to speak of God with an authority which few can rival. And this is what he has to say to us of God — that God's mercy is as much higher than our thoughts of it, as much broader, as much more pure and tender, as the heavens are higher and broader and sweeter than the earth ; that it transcends all our conceptions of mercy, that it seems incredible to us only because it is so large and rich and free, that we can hardly even bring ourselves to believe in it. He affirms that even here our great poet's description holds good, that we may lift a reverent eye to the very Throne of Heaven and say : " Mercy is twice blessed," blessing " him that gives," as well as " him that takes," since God delights in mercy, and is — if we may speak of so great a mystery in words so homely — at least as pleased to forgive our sins as we are to have them forgiven.
(2) Its abundance is due to His excellence.
If we doubt whether He means to the full what He says — if we doubt whether He is in earnest in calling such as we are to come to Him, whether He can pardon as abundantly as man has sinned — here is the answer to our unbelief : He does not work by the rules and manners of men. His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. He shows His desire for
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our salvation, and His readiness to accept us, in doing what none could have imagined possible, in sending His Son to take our nature upon Him, and to become man for our sakes. Here is the pledge of His faithfulness. Here is the assurance which none can doubt, that He loves the souls of men with the love with which He loves His only-begotten Son. When we will not come to Him, He comes to us. When we refuse to seek Him, He comes Himself to seek and to save us. He does not send. He does not call merely. He comes down from heaven, and lays aside His glory, and speaks to us face to face, with the words of man, with the fellow-feeling of man, with the affectionate love and tender earnestness of man. He who made the light, and rules beyond the stars, comes and calls on us, and speaks to us with the simple plainness with which a father speaks to his little children, or a little child appeals to grown men.