But it is far better to hold with Jesus Christ than with such reasoners.  Jesus Christ tells us that a man cannot be wrong if he argues towards God from what he finds best in himself. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children:  how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?  Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? ...  Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

That is a true witness, and strikes Amen out of every chord of our hearts.  The Power, so evident in nature that He needs no proof, the Being so far beyond us in wisdom and in might, must also be our great superior in every quality which is more excellent than might.  With thoughts more sleepless than our thoughts, as the sun is more constant than our lamps; with a heart that steadfastly cares for us, as we fitfully care for one another; more kingly than our noblest king, more fatherly than our fondest fatherhood; of deeper, truer compassion than ever mother poured upon us; whom, when a man feels that he highest thing in life is to be a shepherd, he calls his Shepherd, and knows that, as the shepherd, whose the sheep are, shrinks not to seek one of his lost at risk of limb or life, so his God cannot be less in readiness of love or of self-sacrifice.  Such is the faith of strong and unselfish men all down the ages.  And its strength is this, that it is no mere conclusion of logic, but the inevitable and increasing result of duty done and love kept pure—­of fatherhood and motherhood and friendship fulfilled.  One remembers how Browning has put it in the mouth of David, when the latter has done all he can do for ‘Saul,’ and is helpless: 

Do I find love so full in my nature, God’s ultimate gift, That I doubt His own love can compete with it? ...  Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man; And dare doubt he alone shall not help him, who yet alone can?  Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor to enrich, To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would—­knowing which I know that my service is perfect.  Oh, speak through me now!  Would I suffer for him that I love?  So wouldst thou—­so wilt thou!

Thus have felt and known the unselfish of all ages.  It is not only from their depths, but from their topmost heights—­heaven still how far!—­that men cry out and say, There is a rock higher than I! God is stronger than their strength, more loving than their uttermost love, and in so far as they have loved and sacrificed themselves for others, they have obtained the infallible proof, that God too lives