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 t