"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."--JOB xlii. 5, 6

WHEN a man knows that he has a righteous Lord and Judge, who does not plead His omnipotence and His right to punish, but who debates the case with him, who shows him his truth and his error,--the sense of Infinite Wisdom, sustaining and carrying out Infinite Love, abases him rapidly. He perceives that he has been measuring himself and his understanding against that Love, that Wisdom. A feeling of infinite shame grows out of the feeling of undoubting trust. The child sinks in nothingness at his Father's feet, just when He is about to take it to His arms.--Theol. Essays, 2d Edit. p. 62.

"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

THESE words, not by their softness and tenderness, but by their tremendous severity, drive us to some other ground of hope than our own belief or our own feelings. They force us back upon God's Love in Christ as the only refuge from our unbelief, as the only power by which we can be reformed. They force us to say, "Father, we have sinned against our brother, and against Thee; oh, deliver us from our sins--from our distrust, our heartlessness, our hopelessness--in Him, and for His sake, Whom Thou lovest, and Who, because Thy Love was burning Him and consuming Him, gave Himself up for us all, that we might enter into Thy Presence and be partakers of Thy Nature."--Sermons on Sacrifice, pp. 265, 266.

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