" There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." - Psalms 130:4.
This is the gospel. Christ is with God; therefore, there is forgiveness with God. " It is expedient for you that I go away," that I go to heaven. The only question is, "Is Christ there?" Then we shall assuredly find forgiveness there.
A proper understanding of this word " forgiveness" would fill the soul with a bliss, the like of which was never yet experienced upon this earth. It designates two immensities, - that of our sins, and that of the love of God in Christ. To fathom it we must descend to the lowest depth of endless misery; to know its height we must ascend to the throne which the seraphim encompass.
This forgiveness, this smile of God, binds the soul to God with a beautiful fear. Fear to lose one glance of love. Fear to lose one word of kindness. Fear to be carried away from the heaven of his presence, by an insidious current of worldliness. Fear of slumber. Fear of error. Fear of not enough pleasing him.
Our duty, then, is to drink deep of God’s forgiving love. To be filled with it, is to be filled with purity, fervency, and faith. Our sins have to hide their diminished heads, and slink away through crevices, when forgiveness, - when Christ enters the soul.
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