Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!

(Octavius Winslow, "Evening Thoughts")  LISTEN to Audio!  Download Audio

"I tell you the truth, you can go directly to the Father and ask Him—and He will grant your request because you use My name." John 16:23

That God should have erected in this lower world a throne of grace—a mercy-seat, around which may gather, in clustering and welcome multitudes . . .
  the helpless,
  the burdened,
  the friendless,
  the vile,
  the guilty,
  the deeply necessitous
that no poor comer, be . . .
  his poverty ever so great,
  his burden ever so heavy, or
  his case ever so desperate,
should meet with the refusal of a hearing or a welcome—does greatly develop and magnify the riches of . . .
  His grace,
  His wisdom, and
  His love to sinners.

What a God our God must be, thus to have appointed a meeting-place—an audience-chamber, for those upon whom all other doors were closed!

But more than this—that He should have appointed Jesus as the door of approach to that throne—that He should have given His only-begotten and well-belovedSon to be the "new and living way" of access—thus removing all obstruction in the path of the soul's coming, both on the part of Himself, and on the part of the sinner; that the door should be a crucified Savior, the wounds of the Son of God—that through blood, and that blood, the blood of the incarnate Deity, the guilty should approach! Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!

Shall we say even more than this? For there is a yet lower depth in this love and condescension of God—that He should have sent His Spirit into the heart, the Author of prayer . . .
  inditing the petition;
  breathing in the soul;
  implanting the desire;
  convincing of the existing necessity;
  unfolding the character of God;
  working faith in the heart;
  and drawing it up to God through Jesus;
seems the very perfection of His wisdom, benevolence, and grace! 

Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!