From Discourses at the Communion on Fridays:
I would make no attempt to dismay men, being myself only too much dismayed; but whosoever thou art, even if thou art, humanly speaking, almost pure and blameless, when this privy preacher preaches before thee in thine inward man, thou also dost feel what others perhaps sense with more dismay–thou also dost find a need to hide thyself, and though it had been told thee a thousand times, and a thousand times again, that it is impossible to find this hiding-place, thou yet art sensible of the need. Oh, would it were possible for me to flee to a desert isle where never any man had come or would come; oh, that there were a place of refuge whither I could flee far away from myself, that there were a hiding-place where I am so thoroughly hid that not even the consciousness of my sin could find me out, that there were a frontier line, which were it never so narrow, would yet be a separation between my sin and me, that on the farther side of the yawning abyss there were a spot so small where I might stand while the consciousness of my sin must remain on the other side, that there were a pardon, a pardon which does not make me increasingly sensible of my sin, but truly takes my sin from me and the consciousness of it as well, would that there were oblivion!
But such is actually the case, for love (Christ’s love) hide the multitude of sins. Behold, all has become new! What in paganism was sought after and sought in vain, what under the dominance of the Law was and is a fruitless effort–that the Gospel made possible. At the altar the Saviour stretches out his arms, precisely for that fugitive who would flee from the consciousness of his sin, flee from that which is worse than pursuit, namely, gnawing remorse; He stretches out His arms, He says, “Come hither,” and the attitude of stretching out His arms is a way of saying, “Come hither,” and of saying at the same time, “Love hides a multitude of sins.” Oh, believe Him! Couldst thou think that He who savingly opens His bosom for thee might be capable of playing upon words, capable of using a meaningless phrase, capable of deceiving thee, and at this precise instant–that He could say, “Come hither,” and the instant thou art come and He holds thee in His embrace it then might be as if thou wert entrapped, for here, just here there could be no forgetting here… with the Holy One! No, this thou couldst not believe, and if thou didst believe it, thou wouldst not come hither–but blessed is he who quite literally believes that love (Christ’s love) hides the multitude of sins… What authority is required to bid the despairing man, the man who in the tortures of repentance cannot and dare not forget, the contrite sinner who cannot and dare not cease to gaze upon his guilt, what authority is requisite to shut his eyes, and what authority to bid him open the eyes of faith so that he can see purity where he saw guilt and sin! This divine authority is possessed only by Him, Jesus Christ, whose love hides the multitude of sins.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkIiaaXUjlE&w=600]
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