oken His heart!

Did you, my brother, ever measure the meaning of that one passage:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"? It never came to me as it did
this morning while I was thinking on this subject. "Behold, I stand at
the door and knock." Some January day, the thermometer five degrees
below zero, the wind and sleet beating mercilessly against you, you go
up the steps of a house where you have a very important errand. You
knock with one knuckle. No answer. You are very earnest, and you are
freezing. The next time you knock harder. After awhile with your fist
you beat against the door. You must get in, but the inmate is careless
or stubborn, and he does not want you in. Your errand is a failure.
You go away.

The Lord Jesus Christ comes up on the steps of your heart, and with
very sore hand he knocks hard at the door of your soul. He is standing
in the cold blasts of human suffering. He knocks. He says: "Let me in.
I have come a great way. I have come all the way from Nazareth, from
Bethlehem, from Golgotha. Let Me in. I am shivering and blue with the
cold. Let Me in. My feet are bare but for their covering of blood. My
head is uncovered but for a turban of brambles. By all these wounds of
foot, and head, and heart, I beg you to let Me in. Oh, I have been
here a great while, and the night is getting darker. I am faint with
hunger. I am dying to get in. Oh, lift the latch--shove back the
bolt! Won't you let Me in? Won't you? 'Behold, I stand at the door and
knock!'"

But after awhile, my brother, the scene will change. It will be
another door, but Christ will be on the other side of it. He will be
on the inside, and the rejected sinner will be on the outside, and the
sinner will come up and knock at the door, and say: "Let me in, let me
in. I have come a great way. I came all the way from earth. I am sick
and dying. Let me in. The merciless storm beats my unsheltered head.
The wolves of a great night are on my track. Let me in. With both
fists I beat against this door. Oh, let me in. Oh, Christ, let me in.
Oh, Holy Ghost, let me in. Oh, God, let me in. Oh, my glorified
kindred, let me in." No answer save the voice of Christ, who shall
say: "Sinner, when I stood at your door you would not let Me in, and
now you are standing at My door, and I can not let you in. The day of
your grace is past. Officer of the law, seize him." And while the
arrest is going on, all the myriads of heaven rise on gallery and
throne, an