g, with the
great majestic manifestations of Himself, and with all the peaceful
exhibitions of His life, is forever trying, upon His side of the wall,
to break away the great barrier that separates the sinner's life from
Him. Great is the power, great is the courage of the sinner, when
through the thickness of the walls he feels that beating life of God,
when he knows that he is not working alone, when he is sure that God is
wanting him just as truly, far more truly, than he wants God. He bears
himself to a nobler struggle with his enemy and a more determined effort
to break down the resistance that stands between him and the higher
life. Our figure is all imperfect, as all our figures are so imperfect,
because it seems to be the man all by himself, working by himself, until
he shall come forth into the life of God, as if God waited there to
receive him when he came forth the freed man, and as if the working of
the freedom upon the sinner's side had not something also of the purpose
of God within him. God is not merely in the sunshine; God is in the
cavern of the man's sin. God is with the sinner wherever he can be.
There is no soul so black in its sinfulness, so determined in its
defiant obstinacy, that God has abandoned his throne room at the centre
of the sinner's life, and every movement is the God movement and every
effort is the God force, with which man tries to break forth from his
sin and come forth into the full sunlight of a life with God. Do you not
think how full of hope it is? Do you not see that when this great
conception of the universe, which is Christ's conception, which beamed
in every look that He shed upon the world, which was told in every word
that He spoke and which was in every movement of His hand--do you not
see how, when this great conception of the universe takes possession of
a man, then all his struggle with his sin is changed, it becomes a
strong struggle, a glorious struggle. He hears perpetually the voice of
Christ, "Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. You shall overcome
it by the same strength which overcame with Me."

And then another thing. When a man comes forth into the fulness of that
life with God, when at last he has entered God's service and the
obedience to God's will, and the communion with God's life, then there
comes this wonderful thing, there comes the revelation of the man's
past. We dare to tell the man that if he enters into the divine life, if
he makes himsel