The human heart’s “breeding nest of cares and pains”

George MacDonald: “What a breeding nest of cares and pains is the human heart! Surely it needs some refuge! How the world needs a Savior to whom anyone might go, at any moment, without a journey, without letters or commendations or credentials. Surely such a God as would send his own Son into the world, would have him appear among us clothed in the garb of humanity, to take all the consequences of being the Son of obedience among the children of disobedience, engulfing their wrongs in his infinite forgiveness, and winning them back, by slow, unpromising, and tedious renewal to the heart of his Father—surely such a God would not have created men knowing that some of them would commit such horrible sins from which he could not redeem them.” (from Hope of the Gospel as found on p. 38 Discovering the Character of God, Michael R Philips)