John G. Lake - The Wideness of God's Mercy

Lived from 1870 - 1935 - One of God's servants of boldest faith who was tremendously used of God as a missionary in South Africa, and in the US as a pastor, with thousands of people healed and baptized in the Holy Spirit through his ministry.

As I was reading the writings of some of his sermons and testimonies, I heard the reconciling heart of God in him.  In the following he relates some of a women's testimony:

"One thing stands forth in Mrs. Norton's word - that the touch of Jesus imparted to her a life and power and  healing virtue and saving grace so mighty, so intense that the curse of hell in which she had lived for four years vanished instantly.  Blessed be God.

So the touch of Jesus in the soul of man liberated the nature of man from the bondages of darkness, of sin, doubt, or fear, and lifts the soul of man into the likeness and righteousness of Christ's, translating his very spirit into the kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  There is a kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into which the spirit of man has the privilege to enter.

Our sister tells us that her spirit left her body and went with the Lord into the heavenlies; that He showed her the estate of the really redeemed; that He showed her also what those endure who know not God and are yet in darkness.  And as she told us these things, one thing came to my soul: a prayer to God that by His grace my soul may grow big enough that when my ministry in this world is acomplished, I may yet have the privilege of proclaiming the salvation of the ever-dying Christ wherever such be needed.

I knew one man who once said in my hearing that he prayed that God Almighty would cause him to grow big enough in God and pure enough in heart that he might go even to the damned and preach Jesus Christ and His resurrection and His salvation.  My soul said, "Amen, and it has been saying amen ever since.  Blessed be His name.

So I have become an enthusiast for the Son of God.  His salvation to me is the mightiest conception that ever dawned in the nature of man or God.  And I long and pray and rejoice in the expectation of a day to come when the universal race of man and the angels in heaven and creatures of earth will join in one glad song of holy power and glory to the Son of God, saying as the Scriptures indicate, "Honor and might and glory and blessing be unto Him who liveth forever and ever.  Amen." 

One of his poems:

There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea:
There's a kindness in His Justice,
Which is more than liberty.

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own,
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.

There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior;
There is healing in His blood.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man's mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

If our lives were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.