whether it knows
that it is lost or not.

Our hope is, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy; that
because He is man, as well as God, He can be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities; that He knoweth our frame, He remembereth of what we are
made: else the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He has
made. So we can have hope, that, though Christ rebuke us, He will yet
hear us, if our prayers are reasonable, and therefore according to His
will. And surely, surely, surely, if our prayers are for the improvement
of any human being; if we are praying that we, or any human being, may be
made better men and truer Christians at last, and saved from the
temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil--oh then, then shall
we not be heard? The Lord may keep us long waiting, as He kept St Monica
of old, when she wept over St Augustine's youthful sins and follies. But
He may answer us, as He answered her by the good bishop--"Be of good
cheer. It is impossible that the son of so many prayers should perish."
And so, though He may shame us, in our inmost heart, by the
rebuke--"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe"--He will
in the same breath grant our prayer, undeserved though His condescension
be, and say--"Go in peace, thy son liveth."

SERMON XX. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD.

LUKE XIII. 1-5.

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans,
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus
answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were
sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I
tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or
those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them,
think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

This story is often used, it seems to me, for a purpose exactly opposite
to that for which it is told. It is said that because these Galilaeans,
whom Pilate slew, and these eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell,
were no worse than the people round them, that therefore similar
calamities must not be considered judgments and punishments of God; that
it is an offence against Christian charity to say that such sufferers are
the objects of God's anger; that it is an offence against good manners to
introduce the name