Sinner, I have got good news to tell you. There is one greater than
the governor here to-night, and He wants to pardon every one. He does
not want you to go away condemned. He wants to bring you from under
condemnation; to pardon every soul. Will you have the pardon, or will
you despise the gift of God? Will you despise the mercy of God? Oh,
this night, while God is beseeching you to be reconciled, let me join
with your praying mother, with your praying father, with your godly
minister, with your Sabbath-school teacher, and all your praying
friends; let me join my voice with theirs to plead with you to-night
to be reconciled. Make up your mind now, while I am speaking, that you
will not cross your threshold until you are reconciled, and there will
be joy in heaven to-night over your decision. Oh, may God bring
hundreds to a decision to-night!
An Englishman told me some time ago a little story of reconciliation,
which illustrates this truth. We want to preach the gospel of
reconciliation; the good news that God is reconciled. God does not say
He can do, but that He has done it. You must accept what He has done.
The story is this: There was an Englishman who had an only son; and
only sons are often petted, and humoured, and ruined. This boy became
very headstrong, and very often he and his father had trouble. One day
they had a quarrel, and the father was very angry, and so was the son;
and the father said he wished the boy would leave home and never come
back. The boy said he would go, and would not come into his father's
house again till he sent for him. The father said he would never send
for him. Well, away went the boy. But when a father gives up a boy, a
mother does not. You mothers will understand that, but the fathers may
not. You know there is no love on earth so strong as a mother's love.
A great many things may separate a man and his wife; a great many
things may separate a father from a son; but there is nothing in the
wide world that can ever separate a true mother from her child. To be
sure, there are some mothers that have drunk so much liquor that they
have drunk up all their affection. But I am talking about a true
mother; and she would not cast off her boy.