But the free pardon of the cross uproots sin, and withers all its branches. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this. The message, God is love, is like the sun bursting through the clouds of a long tempest. The good news through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, is like the opening of the prisoner's dungeon-gate. Bondage departs, and liberty comes.
Suspicion is gone, and the heart is won.
Perfect love has cast out fear. When faith hath bathed a man's heart in the blood of Christ, it is so mollified that it generally dissolves into tears of godly sorrow, so that if Christ but turn and look upon him, oh, then with Peter he goes out and weeps bitterly. Free and warm reception into the divine favour is the strongest of all motives in leading a man to seek conformity to Him who has thus freely forgiven him all trespasses. Revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, come to be the abhorrence of him round whom the holy arms of renewed fatherhood have been so lovingly thrown. Sensuality, luxury, and the gaieties of the flesh have lost their relish to one who has tasted the fruit of the tree of life.