, that they
deserve it. And miserable enough should we all be, if God punished
us every time we were ungrateful to him. If he dealt with us after
our sins, and rewarded us according to our iniquities, where should
we be this day?

But still, I cannot but believe that if we do go on in prosperity,
careless and unthankful, we are running into danger; we are likely
to bring down on ourselves some sorrow or anxiety which will teach
us, which at least is meant to teach us--from whom all good things
come; and to know that the Lord has given, when the Lord has taken
away.

God grant that when that lesson is sent to us we may learn it.
Learn it, perhaps, at once, and in a moment, we cannot. Weak flesh
and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God, and see that he is
ruling us, and all things, in love and justice; and our eyes are, as
it were, dimmed with our tears, so that we cannot see God's
handwriting upon the wall against us. But at length, when the first
burst of sorrow is past, we may learn it; and, like righteous Job,
justify God; saying,--The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,
blessed be the name of the Lord. If we do that, and give God the
glory, it may be with us, after all, as it was with Job, when God
gave him back sevenfold for all that he had taken away, wealth and
prosperity, sons and daughters. For God doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men out of spite. His punishments are
not revenge, but correction; and, as a father, he chastises his
children, not to harm, but to bless them.

And God grant that if that day, too, comes--if after sorrow comes
joy, if after storm comes sunshine--we may not forget God afresh in
our prosperity, nor go our ways like those dull-hearted Jews, after
they were cleansed from their leprosy: but, like the Samaritan,
return, and give glory to God, who gives, and delights in giving;
and only takes away, that he may lift up our souls to him, in whom
we live, and move, and have our being: and so, knowing who we are,
and where we are, may live in God, and by God, and for God, in this
life, and for ever.

SERMON XXIX. PARDON AND PEACE

(Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.)

Psalm xxxii. 1-7. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When
I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day
long. For