I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: For I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; And I will not come in wrath.
I could not expect a king, whose subjects had revolted against him, who had refused to render to him due honor and submission, who had even insulted his crown, and done despite to his character, to say, "I will leave my palace, and my crown, and my splendor, and all that I have, and I will go and live among these rebels. I will wear their rags, I will fare as they fare, and dwell in their hovels. I know that they will kill me; they will spurn me, and spit upon me, and at last they will fasten me to a cross, and hang me up to die; but with the strong desire that they should be reconciled to me, I am willing to go and to be one with them." Such a thing was never heard of among men; but listen. There is One who is God as well as man, even that blessed Savior who descended from heaven to earth, became a man, shared our poverty, lived in the midst of our sin, and knowing that he would be despitefully entreated, and scorned, and scourged, and nailed to a cross, yet endured all out of an excess of love which overflows to the guiltiest of the guilty even now. This was compassion worthy of a God that the Son of the Highest should leave the perfections of heaven to dwell here amid the infirmities and the sins of earth, as you know he did.  VII. If such wondrous love were possible to any man, here is another thing that I cannot conceive of, that any man should say, "I have been grievously wronged by that person; the injury is a very cruel one, there is no remedy for it, but I WILL MYSELF BEAR THE PENALTY FOR ALL THE WRONG WHICH HAS BEEN DONE. 