Exquisite

ex·qui·site
adj.
1. Characterized by intricate and beautiful design or execution
2. Of such beauty or delicacy as to arouse intense delight
3. Excellent; flawless.



Thus I would describe the following paragraph. It's long, but well worth the read. The context: Suffering in this world--God is holy, God is love. How does all this go together? On John 3:16:



"And in what circumstances was this love displayed? When the world was in a state of rebellion against him,--when the human character had been totally changed from its pristine innocence, and had become the very reverse of his own,--when, instead of being the object of men's supreme reverence and affecti0n, he was the object of their enmity and dread,--when the holy attributes of his nature, and the moral principles of his government, and the righteous precepts of his law were all alike distasteful to their depraved minds,--when his sole prerogative, as the Governor and Judge of the world, had been carelessly forgotten, or daringly denied,--when the sublime temple of nature, at whose altar they should have worshipped the one living and true God, was filled with the shrines of idolatry, where his supremacy was virtually denied, or divided amongst a multitude of false gods,--and when the more sacred temple of the human heart, where God desired to dwell, and to be ministered unto by a train of holy affections, had become a chamber of imagery, filled with a host of wicked passions--a temple, indeed, of spiritual idolatry, where the best of all homage, that of man's affections, was rendered, if not to idols of gold and silver, yet to the wealth, and honours, and pleasures of the world,--when, in one word, God's character was hated by man, and man's character odious to God,--yet, even then, 'GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.' Not surely because he could regard the character of men with complacency--far less because their conduct had deserved his favour, for their character was regarded by him with utter abhorrence, and their conduct had exposed them to his righteous judgment. But while he hated and condemned their sin, no malice mingled with that hatred, no revenge dictated that condemnation; on the contrary, he pitied their case, even while he abhorred their guilt, and, in the exercise of a free, generous, and sovereign love, he resolved 'to seek and to save that which was lost.' "



--Comfort in Affliction, by James Buchanan, 1837



Total bliss.



What language shall I borrow

To thank Thee, dearest Friend;

For this, Thy dying sorrow

Thy pity without end?

O, make me Thine forever,

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

Outlive my love to Thee.



--O Sacred Head Now Wounded



Selah.