by working on at the special work which He has given us, trusting to Him to make it of use to His creatures, if He needs us.  Therefore fret not nor be of doubtful mind, but just do the duty which lies nearest.

Letters and Memories.

Yes; this is our comfort, this is our hope; Christ, the Great Healer, the Great Physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us from the remains of our old sins, the consequences of our own follies.  Not, indeed, at once or by miracles, but by slow education.  Better, indeed, for us

perhaps that He should not cure us at once, lest we should fancy that sin was a light thing which we could throw off whenever we chose; and not that it is an inward disease, corroding and corrupting, the wages whereof are death.  And so it is that because Christ loves us He hates our sins, and cannot abide or endure them, but will punish them, and is merciful and loving in punishing as long as a tincture or remnant of sin is left in us.  Therefore let us put ourselves into the hands of Christ, the Great Physician, and ask Him to heal our wounded souls, and purge our corrupted souls, and leave to Him the choice of how He will do it.  Let us be content to be punished and chastised.  Let Him deal with us, if He sees fit, as He dealt

with David of old, when He forgave the sin, and yet punished it by the death of his child.  Let Him do what He will by us, provided He does—what He will do—make us good men.

All Saints-Day Sermons.

My belief is that God will punish (has He not punished already somewhat?) every wrong thing I ever did unless I repent—that is, change my behaviour therein; and that His lightest blow is hard enough to break bone and marrow.  But as for saying of any human being whom I ever saw on earth that there is no hope for them; that if ever, under the bitter smart of just punishment, they opened their eyes to their folly and altered their mind, even then God would not forgive them; as for saying that, I will not for all the world

and the rulers thereof.  I never saw a man in whom there was not some good, and I believe that God sees that good far more clearly, and loves it far more deeply, than I can, because He Himself put it there, and therefore it is reasonable to believe that He will educate and strengthen that good, and chastise the holder of it till he obeys it, and loves it, and gives himself up to it; and that the said holder will find such chastisement terrible enough if he is unruly and stubborn I doubt not, and so much the better for him.  Beyond this I cannot say.

Letters and Memories.

If a man really believed himself to be a son, under a father’s education, he would believe everything which happened to be a part of that education.  And such a

man, I believe, so praying and so working, keeping before him as his lode-star—“Our Father, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;” and asking even for his daily bread for that purpose and no other, would find selfishness and self-seeking die out of him, and active benevolence grow up in him.  He would find past sorrows and falls turned unexpectedly to practical use for his own and other’s good; and discover to his delight, that his Father had been educating him, while he fancied he was educating himself; and he would neither have leisure nor need to torment himself about the motives of his actions, but simply whatever his hand found to do, do it with all his might.

Letters and Memories.

Let us forward.  God leads us; though blind, shall we be afraid to follow?  I do not see my way; I do not care to; but I know that He sees His way, and that I see Him, and I cannot believe that in spite of all one’s sins He will forget His gracious promises.  “They had an eye unto Him, and were lightened.  They that put their trust in Him shall not be ashamed.”

I know the miserable, peevish, lazy, conceited, faithless, prayerless wretch that I am, but I know this too, that One is guiding me, and driving me when I would not be guided, who will make me, and has made me, go His way, and do His work, by fair means or by foul.

Letters and Memories.

Be of good cheer.  When the wicked man turneth from his wickedness (then,

there and then) he shall save his soul alive—and all his sin and wickedness shall not be mentioned unto him.  What your “measure” of guilt (if there can be a measure of the incommensurable spiritual) may be, I know not.  But this I know that as long as you keep the sense of guilt alive in your own mind you will remain justified in God’s mind; as long as you set your sins before your face He will set them behind His back.

Letters and Memories.

This is the Gospel, the good news for fallen men, that there is a Man in the midst of the throne of God to whom all power is given in heaven and earth; that the fate of the world and all that is therein, the fate of sun and stars, the fate of kings and nations, the fate of every

publican and harlot, heathen and outcast, the fate of all who are in death and hell, depend alike upon the sacred heart of Jesus; the heart which grieved at the tomb of Lazarus, His friend; the heart which wept over Jerusalem; the heart which said to the blessed Magdalene, the woman that was a sinner, “Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee”; the heart that yearns over every sinful and wandering soul all over the earth of God, crying to all, “Why will ye die?  Have I any pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live?”  “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

National Sermons.

This is the message of the blessed sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, which tells you that in spite of all your daily sins and failings, you can still look up to God as your Father; to the Lord Jesus as your life; to the Holy Spirit as your guide and your inspirer; that though you be a prodigal son, your Father’s house is still open to you; your Father’s eternal love ready to meet you afar off the moment that you cry from your heart—“Father, I have sinned, and am no more worthy to be called Thy child;” and that you must be converted and turn back to God your Father not merely once for all, but weekly, daily, hourly, as often as you forget and disobey Him.  This is the message of the blessed sacrament—that though you cannot come to it trusting

in your own righteousness, you can come trusting in His manifold and great mercies; that though you are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under His table, yet He is the same Lord whose property is ever to have mercy, and He will grant that your souls shall be washed in Christ’s most precious blood, that you may dwell in Him, and He in you, for ever.

National Sermons.

Members of Christ, children of God, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, heirs of a Hope undying, pure, that will never fade away, you have a right given you by the promise and oath of Almighty God Himself, to