ave done many a thing to make their companions worse!
Then why are they alive still? Why does not God rid Himself of them at
once and let them die, instead of cumbering the ground? I know but one
reason. If they were only God's plants, or His stock, or His servants,
He might rid Himself of them. But they are something far nearer and
dearer to Him than that. They are His children, and therefore He has
mercy on them. They are redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world; and therefore for the
sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, God looks on them with long-suffering and
tender loving-kindness. Man was made in God's likeness at first, and was
the son of God. And therefore howsoever fallen and corrupt man's nature
is now, yet God loves him still, even though he be a heathen or an
infidel. How much more for you, my friends, who know that you are God's
children, who have been declared to be His children by Holy Baptism, and
grafted into Christ's church. You at least are bound to believe that God
preserves you from death, _because He loves you_. He protects you every
day and every hour, as a father takes care of His children, and keeps
them out of dangers which they cannot see or understand.

Yes! this is plain truth--your heavenly Father is keeping you alive! Oh,
do not make that truth an excuse for forgetting and disobeying your
heavenly Father!

Why does He keep you alive? Surely because He expects something of you.
And what does He expect of you? What does any good father expect of his
children? Why does he help and protect them? Not from mere brute
instinct, as beasts take care of their young when they are little, and
then as soon as they are grown up cast them off and forget them. No. He
takes care of his children because he wishes them to grow up like
himself, to be a comfort and a help and a pride to him.

And God takes care of _you_ and keeps you from death, for the very same
reason. God desires that you should grow up like Himself, godly and
pure, leading lives like His Son Jesus Christ. God desires that you
should grow up to the stature of perfect men and women, which is the
likeness of Jesus Christ your Lord.

But if you turn God's grace in keeping you alive into a cloak for
licentiousness and an excuse for sinning--if, when God keeps you alive
that you may lead _good_ lives, you take advantage of His fatherly love
to lead _bad_ lives--if you go