effable goodness, conferred upon us while
yet enemies to him and deserving of the fires of hell--conferred upon
us, I say, not ten dollars, not a hundred thousand dollars even, but
redemption from divine wrath and eternal death, and abundantly
comforted us, granting us safety, a good conscience, peace and
salvation! These are inexpressible blessings, incomprehensible in
this life. And they will continue to occupy our minds in yonder
eternal life. How much more awful the sin of ingratitude for these
blessings, as exemplified in the servant mentioned in the Gospel
passage for today, to whom was forgiven the debt of ten thousand
talents and who yet would not forgive the debt of his fellow-servant
who owed him a hundred pence!

10. Is it not incredible that there are to be found on earth
individuals wicked enough to manifest for the highest and eternal
blessings such unspeakable ingratitude? But alas, we have the
evidence of our own eyes. We know them in their very dwelling-places.
We see how the world abounds with them. Not only are the ingrates to
be found among deliberate rejecters of the acknowledged truth of the
Gospel, concerning God's grace, an assured conscience and the promise
of eternal life, terrible as such malice of the devil is, but they
are present also in our midst, accepting the Gospel and boasting of
it. Such shameful ingratitude prevails among the masses it would not
be strange were God to send upon them the thunders and lightnings of
his wrath, yes, all the Turks and the devils of hell.

There is a generally prevalent ingratitude like that of the wicked
servant who readily forgot the straits he experienced when, being
called to account for what he could not pay, the wrathful sentence
was pronounced against him that he and all he possessed must be sold,
and he be indefinitely imprisoned. Nor have we less readily forgotten
how we were tortured under the Papacy; how we were overwhelmed,
drowned as in a flood, with numberless strange doctrines, when our
anxious consciences longed for salvation. Now that we are, through
the grace of God, liberated from these distresses, our gratitude is
of a character to increasingly heap to ourselves the wrath of God. So
have others before us done, and consequently have endured terrible
chastisement.

11. Only calculate the enormity of our wickedness when, God having
infinitely blessed us in forgiving all our sins and making us lords
over heaven and earth, we so little r