CHRIST the JOYFUL SOUL-RESCUER: “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” (Lk 15:6). “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever” (Jude 24-25). Get a man to work at a statue—an artist whose whole soul is in his chisel, who knows there is a bright spirit within that block of marble, and who means to chip off all that hides the lovely image from his sight. See how he works! No man does a thing well who does it sorrowfully. The best work that can be done is done by the happy, joyful workman, and so it is with Christ. He does not save souls of necessity, as though He would rather do something else if He might, but His very heart is in it. He rejoices to do it, and therefore He does it thoroughly, and He communicates His joy to us in the doing of it. —C.H. Spurgeon