eets with a more doleful step--would
you eat your meat with less gladness of heart--would you sleep
less tranquilly at night--if you had _the forgiveness of sins_,
that is, if all your wicked thoughts and deeds--lies, thefts,
and Sabbath-breakings--were all blotted out of God's book of
remembrance? Would this make you less happy, do you think? You
dare not say it would. But would the forgiveness of sins not
make you more happy than you are? Perhaps you will tell me that
you are very happy as you are. I quite believe you. I know that
I was very happy when I was unforgiven. I know that I had great
pleasure in many sins--in Sabbath-breaking, for instance. Many a
delightful walk I have had,--speaking my own words, thinking my
own thoughts, and seeking my own pleasure on God's holy day. I
fancy few boys were ever happier in an unconverted state than I
was. No sorrow clouded my brow--no tears filled my eyes, unless
over some nice story-book; so that I know that you say quite
true, when you say that you are happy as you are. But ah! is not
this just the saddest thing of all, that you should be happy
whilst you are a child of wrath,--that you should smile, and
eat, and drink, and be merry, and sleep sound, when this very
night you may be in _hell_? Happy while unforgiven!--a terrible
happiness. It is like the Hindoo widow who sits upon the funeral
pile with her dead husband, and sings songs of joy when they are
setting fire to the wood with which she is to be burned. Yes,
you may be quite happy in this way, till you die, my boy; but
when you look back from hell, you will say, it was a miserable
kind of happiness. Now, do you think it would not give you more
happiness to be forgiven,--to be able to put on Jesus, and say,
'God's anger is turned away?' Would not you be happier at work,
and happier in the house, and happier in your bed? I can assure
you from all that ever I have felt of it, the pleasures of being
forgiven are as superior to the pleasures of an unforgiven man,
as heaven is higher than hell. The peace of being forgiven
reminds me of the calm, blue sky, which no earthly clamors can
disturb. It lightens all labor, sweetens every morsel of bread,
and makes a sick-bed all soft and downy; yea, it takes away the
scowl of death. Now, forgiveness may be yours _now_. It is not
given to those who are good. It is not g