“In order to form some faint conception of the love of Christ, suppose, my Christian friends that all your toils and sufferings were ended, and you were safely arrived in heaven, the rest which remains for the people of God.Suppose that you were there crowned with glory, and honor, and immortality, listening with unutterable ecstasies, to the song of the redeemed, contemplating the ineffable, unveiled glories of Jehovah, drinking full draughts from those rivers of pleasure which flow forever at his right hand, and tasting those joys which the heart of man hath not conceived. What would tempt you to revisit this vale of tears, commence anew the wearisome journey of life, and encounter all the toils, the temptations, the sufferings, the sorrows which attend it? Must it not be love stronger than death, love such as you cannot conceive of, which would induce you to do this? How infinite, how inconceivable, then, must have been the love which brought down the Son of God from the celestial world to redeem our ruined race! Which led him to exchange the bosom of his Father for a veil of flesh; the adoration of angels for the scoffs and insults of sinners; and the enjoyment of eternal life for an accursed, painful and ignominious death! Nothing but love could have done this. Not all the powers of heaven, earth and hell combined could have dragged him from his celestial throne and wrested the scepter of the universe from his hands. No it was love alone, divine, omnipotent love, which drew him down; it was in the bands of love that he was led a willing captive, through all the toils and sufferings of a laborious life, and it was these bands which bound him at the bar of Pilate, which fettered his arm of everlasting strength, and prevented his blasting his murderers.Unless we could ascend into heaven, and see the glory and happiness which our Redeemer left, unless we could descend into the grave and learn the depths of wretchedness to which he sank, unless we would weigh, as in a balance all the trials, toils and sufferings of his life, never, never can we know the immeasurable extent of His love.”Edward Payson