The following blessed thoughts are from Octavius Winslow's [d. 1878], "The Anxious Sinner Venturing on Christ" --

Towards a sinner standing in the righteousness of his Son, God's heart is love, all love, and nothing but love. Not an unkind thought lodging there; not a repulsive feeling dwelling there; all is love, and love of the most tender character.

The love of God gushes from his heart, and flows down through the channel of the cross of Christ, to a poor, repenting, believing sinner.

Yes, we dare affirm, that towards his chosen people, there never has been, and there never will be one thought of unkindness, of anger, of rebuke in the heart of God. From eternity it has been love, through time it is love, and on through eternity to come it will be love.

"What! Are not their afflictions, their chastisements, the rough and thorny path they tread, proofs of God's displeasure? What! Is that individual loved of God, whom I see yonder bearing that heavy and daily cross; against whom billow after billow dashes, and to whom tragic messenger after messenger is sent; whose gourds are withered in a night, and whose fountains are all broken in a day; whose body is diseased, whose domestic comforts are fled; who is poor, feeble, and destitute; What! Is that individual beloved of God?"

Go and ask that afflicted saint; go and ask that cross bearing disciple; go and ask that son and daughter of disease and penury; and they will tell you, their Father's dealings with them are the most costly proofs of his love; that instead of unkindness in that cross, there was love; instead of harshness in that rebuke, there was tenderness; and that when he withered that gourd, and broke up that cistern, and removed that earthly prop, and blighted that budding hope, it was but to pour the flood of his own love into the heart, and satiate the soul with his goodness.

O dear cross!
O sweet affliction!
O precious discipline!

Thus to open the heart of God; thus to unlock the treasury of his love; thus to bring God near to the soul, and the soul near to God.