God showed His love for us in that He died for us while we were yet enemies. He showed His love for us in that He suffered for our sake. God bears us as sick babes are borne in the arms of nurses through all the years of our life.
And when at last we come to the gate of heaven, we are none of us to enter into the land of the blest because we can say, “Behold I am accordant, symmetric, perfected!” None of us are to go into the heavenly land by reason of the many good deeds we have performed.
Every one of us, entering in, will say, “I am borne by the motherhood and fatherhood of God, who has taken pity on me in my distress; and I am what I am by the wonderous love and care of God.
Open, ye gates, that I may see Him who loved me, and died for me! Open, ye long ranks between me and my God, that I may behold that love and salvation which has by its virtue and power, drawn men upward, as the sun draws flowers from the soil.
I shall go into heaven as one redeemed by the love of God, the atonement of Christ, and the ministrations of the Holy Spirit.—BEECHER.