drunken or careless workman
should entangle himself among the wheels. The wheels move on, doing
their duty, spinning cloth for the use of man: but the workman who
should have worked with them, is entangled among them. He is out of
his place; and slowly, but irresistibly, they are grinding him to
powder, as the whole universe is grinding thee. Heart-searching,
indeed, is such a message; for it will come home, not merely to that
very rare character, the absolutely wicked man, the ideal sinner, at
whom the preacher too often aims ideal arrows, which vanish in the
air: not to him merely will it come home, but to ourselves, to us
average human beings, inconsistent, half-formed, struggling lamely
and confusedly between good and evil. Oh let us take home with us
to-day this belief, the only belief in this matter possible in an
age of science, which is daily revealing more and more that God is a
God, not of disorder, but of order. Let us take home, I say, the
awful belief, that every wrong act of ours does of itself sow the
seeds of its own punishment; and that those seeds will assuredly
bear fruit, now, here in this life. Let us believe that God's
judgments, though they will culminate, no doubt, hereafter in one
great day, and "one divine far-off event, to which the whole
creation moves," are yet about our path and about our bed, now,
here, in this life. Let us believe, that if we are to prepare to
meet our God, we must do it now, here in this life, yea and all day
long; for he is not far off from any one of us, seeing that in him
we live, and move, and have our being; and can never go from his
presence, never flee from his spirit. Let us believe that God's
good laws, and God's good order, are in themselves and of
themselves, the curse and punishment of every sin of ours; and that
Ash-Wednesday, returning year after year, whether we be glad or
sorry, good or evil, bears witness to that most awful and yet most
blessed fact.

My friends, this is the preacher's Ash-Wednesday's message: but,
thanks be to God, it is not all. It is written--'If thou, Lord,
wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss: Oh Lord, who may abide
it? For there is mercy with thee; therefore shalt thou be feared.'

It is written--'On whomsoever this stone shall fall, it shall grind
him to powder:' but it is written too--'Whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken;' and again, 'The broken and the contrite
heart, O God, thou shall not