in his mercy through Christ, as the terms to be complied with on the part of man in order to his restoration to the divine favor. Hence the command: "Repent ye and believe the Gospel."[1] So, whenever a soul is suitably humbled under a sense of his sins, though he may see sufficient grounds for self-reproach for his former ingratitude, his unnatural and long continued rebellion against God, yet he goes to his heavenly Father with the determination to submit to his government, imploring and relying upon his mercy through Christ. We repeat, that he relies upon God's mercy through Christ. For we have no grounds to expect pardoning mercy at the hands of God in any other way than through faith in Jesus Christ. "No man can come to me" says Jesus, "except the Father which hath sent me, draw him."[2] Again he says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."[3] Here we learn that in the
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a sacred nearness
[ser. xi.
