My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
See Reader! the sovereignty of grace, and behold at the same time the whole source of our mercies. All calls, all entreaties, are lost upon our poor unthinking hearts, until the Lord that calls makes willing also in the day of his power. But until the voice that ere long shall wake the dead, now wakes the sinner, dead in trespasses and sins; no heart will open to him, nor feet move towards him. How blessed to see the Church having her very inside turned towards Christ, when by his Almighty love he had opened her soul. The prophet describes a beautiful instance of this, in the case of Ephraim: Jeremiah 31:13-20. And the Evangelist another, in the case of the Prodigal Luke 15:17-24.