A STRANGE SIGHT | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 9, 1880

A STRANGE SIGHT.

JOHN BUNYAN, in one of his works, which we can not now recall, uses, in substance, this bold and impressive illustration: To see a prince entreat a beggar to receive bread when he is starving, would be a strange sight. To see a king visit a lonely cell where a traitor is condemned to die, beseeching him to receive a pardon, would be a still stranger sight. But to see the Son of God, standing before a poor, lost, helpless, ruined sinner, with a heart full of pain, with hands full of pardons, and a Heaven full of glory to bestow, is a sight to dazzle the eyes of angels! And yet can this or any other form of illustration bring out the amazing truth in this respect? Realize it, dear reader! The great God says, "Come, now, let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool; and though they be red like crimson, they shall be whiter than snow."

The pure, the holy, the offended Jehovah comes down to reason, to expostulate with sinful, depraved, offending man, as a father bereaved of his children, with all the eloquence of a love that is being defeated in its kind designs. "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" The immaculate Son of God, though often repulsed, grieved, and crossed in his gracious overtures, and though his locks, we may say, are wet with the dew of night, still pursues the wayward prodigal with a compassion which no ingratitude can extinguish. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open unto me, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me!" And then as if to brighten the wonder, the Holy Spirit comes to "help us against our infirmities," to unstop our ears to hear the voice of inviting mercy, and unlock our hearts to receive the divine guest! Oh, matchless grace! The universe may never again see this strange sight!"—Christian Index.