The singular season chosen by God for the interposition of His mercy is often when the soul is brought low, when all self-reliance is exhausted and the heart cries out of its depths. You say you cannot do a third time, this very desperation may be the wilderness where the Angel of the Lord finds you, as Hagar was found by the well in the desert. God displays His sovereignty in the conditions of mind in which He finds us when He is pleased to look upon us in mercy. It is when we have no strength, no wisdom, no merit of our own, that mercy delights to draw near. The Lord knows the weight of this trial, the fear of failure, the shrinking from reproach, and yet His mercy goes before. The God of your mercy shall prevent you, He shall go before you. Before the exam is opened, before the questions are read, mercy is there. His rod of mercy is ever in His hands outstretched.
What does the Gospel ask of you in this hour? It asks nothing but what it gives. It does not demand a certain score, a flawless memory, or a calm nerve, those things mercy itself supplies. The first thing God’s mercy will do for you is to turn your face in the opposite direction from a false hope. A sound hope in mercy knows it needs mercy. You must be clean divorced from every confidence except in mercy. Trust not in your preparation, your past attempts, your intellect, these are the broken cisterns. Mercy is gratis. He never sells, He always gives. And the tender mercy of our God has made a provision: Infallible Wisdom united with almighty power to prepare a method by which rebellious, anxious, failing man might be reconciled to his Maker and find help in time of need. Christ is recognized, the uprightness of God is revealed, and then He is gracious unto him. The Messenger of mercy is Christ Himself, He who sought the lost and came into the very leper colony of our fears and weakness.
Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. While you are yet calling, He has heard you. The mercy you seek may come while the petition is yet on your lips, in the very moment of the exam, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. He can make you feel the way of wisdom as well as know it, lead you to a calm recollection, a clarity of thought that is not your own. God will be glorified in your deliverance, for He delights in mercy. Do not postpone your acceptance of it. Do not think you are too unworthy or the case too hopeless. When the gates of society might label you a failure, the gates of Mercy are not shut. The Lord is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. His sword of justice sleeps in its scabbard, held there by His own hand, because He would have compassion. Go forward, then, with this hope, not a hope in a passing grade, but a hope in the mercy of God that gives new hearts and right spirits, that makes dry bottles hold tears, and that can make even a second attempt a throne for His grace.