I CONFESS, my dear Sisters, that I sometimes feel almost disposed to ask the same question now. You know what we propose to begin next Sunday; never, I hope, as a habit, to leave it off again. You know that daily we shall have the King of kings, and LORD of lords, among us; not indeed as He is, where He shows the honour of His kingdom and the glory of His excellent Majesty to the Blessed; but as really, as truly, as substantially, as if we beheld Him sitting at the right hand of GOD, instead of under the forms of bread and wine. You know that daily we shall offer up that tremendous Sacrifice, not only for ourselves, for our own sins, that they may have pardon, and for our own doings, that they may find acceptance, but for the whole Church of GOD; for the quick and dead, for those who are still running with patience the race that is set before them, and those who, having departed this life with the sign of faith, do now rest in the sleep of peace. So that those words are true of you also--Ye have not passed this way heretofore.

Who is sufficient for these things? We might well come with doubt and trembling,--we might well be like David, when he was afraid of the LORD that day, and said, How shall the Ark of the LORD come unto me? If I look into my own heart, do you think that it is possible thus to invite Him, that is our LORD and GOD, to come among us so often, to dwell with us so constantly, and yet have no fear, and yet have no awe? And so with you. GOD forbid that any of you should not be trying, though it may be with many failures, many shortcomings, many mistakes, to do Him service. But yet, the more you are in earnest, the more you will feel that this beginning of His closer worship ought to be the beginning to all of you of greater efforts. And if it be so, what then?

Then, what I now want to impress upon all of you, as the most necessary thing for you all. Many of your needs may be different; but there is one need you all have. It is not I who say it, it is GOD the HOLY GHOST, That cannot lie, Who declares it. How does Isaiah begin his chief message to GOD'S true servants? Does he say, Exhort My people, or, warn My people, or, rebuke My people?--No: Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your GOD. And why twice over? Thus: Comfort them for their past sins: I, even I, am He that blotteth out your transgressions for My own sake. Comfort them as to future difficulties! Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. Here, then, is GOD'S command: and if He would but enable me to fulfil it! If the HOLY GHOST, Whose Name is the Comforter, would but speak by me now!

For I know well how discouraging a thing the Christian Life is. S. Paul knew it long before. When I would do good, evil is present with me. You all know it for yourselves. And of all discouragements, the greatest is, perhaps, to fall back into besetting sins; to resolve so firmly, and then so miserably to fail. It tempts one so to say--"I am not getting on at all; the more I try, the less I do!" Now this particular thought," I am not getting on at all," is just about one of the most effective of all Satan's temptations. And why? For this reason. It turns, as it were, the work of the HOLY GHOST against Himself: and in this manner. There can be no greater sign that we are really getting on in the Christian life than increasing hatred of sin, and increasing sorrow when we have committed it. So, a true servant of GOD will feel a far less degree of sin at this time as acutely as he would have felt a far greater degree at this time last year. It is the best sign he can have; and yet Satan makes it a temptation. You seem to yourself, he says, to have made no progress; yet you know you have been doing your best. What, then, is the use of trying any more? You have tried; you have not succeeded. You have pushed onward; you have not advanced an inch. Better let things take their own course; better do as the rest of the world does; better be content with less effort and less trouble. And those words are true of you also--Ye have not passed this way heretofore.

Who is sufficient for these things? We might well come with doubt and trembling,--we might well be like David, when he was afraid of the LORD that day, and said, How shall the Ark of the LORD come unto me? If I look into my own heart, do you think that it is possible thus to invite Him, that is our LORD and GOD, to come among us so often, to dwell with us so constantly, and yet have no fear, and yet have no awe? And so with you. GOD forbid that any of you should not be trying, though it may be with many failures, many shortcomings, many mistakes, to do Him service. But yet, the more you are in earnest, the more you will feel that this beginning of His closer worship ought to be the beginning to all of you of greater efforts. And if it be so, what then?

Then, what I now want to impress upon all of you, as the most necessary thing for you all. Many of your needs may be different; but there is one need you all have. It is not I who say it, it is GOD the HOLY GHOST, That cannot lie, Who declares it. How does Isaiah begin his chief message to GOD'S true servants? Does he say, Exhort My people, or, warn My people, or, rebuke My people?--No: Comfort ye, comfort ye My -people, saith your GOD. And why twice over? Thus: Comfort them for their past sins: I, even I, am He that blotteth out your transgressions for My own sake. Comfort them as to future difficulties! Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. Here, then, is GOD'S command: and if He would but enable me to fulfil it! If the HOLY GHOST, Whose Name is the Comforter, would but speak by me now!

For I know well how discouraging a thing the Christian Life is. S. Paul knew it long before. When I would do good, evil is present with me. You all know it for yourselves. And of all discouragements, the greatest is, perhaps, to fall back into besetting sins; to resolve so firmly, and then so miserably to fail. It tempts one so to say--" I am not getting on at all; the more I try, the less I do!" Now this particular thought,"I am not getting on at all," is just about one of the most effective of all Satan's temptations. And why? For this reason. It turns, as it were, the work of the HOLY GHOST against Himself: and in this manner. There can be no greater sign that we are really getting on in the Christian life than increasing hatred of sin, and increasing sorrow when we have committed it. So, a true servant of GOD will feel a far less degree of sin at this time as acutely as he would have felt a far greater degree at this time last year. It is the best sign he can have; and yet Satan makes it a temptation. You seem to yourself, he says, to have made no progress; yet you know you have been doing your best. What, then, is the use of trying any more? You have tried; you have not succeeded. You have pushed onward; you have not advanced an inch. Better let things take their own course; better do as the rest of the world does; better be content with less effort and less trouble. And here is one great use and great blessing of Confession; perhaps also one great reason why the Devil abhors it as he does. He may deceive you, by leading you to believe that the very thing which is a sign of progress--greater hatred of sin--is a sign of no progress; but he cannot so deceive a bystander. It only requires us not to be ignorant of his devices in this respect, and how he tries to fulfil the text: Let the things which should have been for their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling.

Why do I say this now? For this reason,--and I say it more especially to you, my dear Sisters,--because, putting you out of the question, this kind of discouragement has been, more particularly, a woman's temptation from the beginning. You may think that you are not the better for other means of grace; you know that here is a new means offered to you; and you may be tempted to doubt whether you will be the better for that either. But we may get good out of all evil. It is most true, that if you are only going to be present at daily Communion, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? But then, why should it not be so? You have set yourselves aside, have you not, for that very end? You profess, do you not, that you wish to take up, more especially, our dear LORD'S Cross? You look, do you not, not for comfort and pleasure and ease in this world, but to make sure of that inheritance, incorruptible and un-defiled, and that fadeth not away, which (God grant I may say it!) is reserved in heaven for you?

Then, you must remember this also: This, to all of you, is more or less a new life. With a new life, you must expect new temptations; it is in the natural course of things; and your wisdom will be to find out, as soon as possible, what they are. Not to be frightened at them; not to be discouraged by them. No, not to be frightened nor discouraged though you had fallen again and again beneath them. All these are not cunningly devised fables. There is strength in Holy Communion; there is strength in Absolution; yes, and there is strength in the resolution of serving GOD which you have taken up, and which, except by His grace, you never could have taken up.

As soon as I have left off speaking to you, you will all have a time of quiet and prayer. And now I ask you all, as earnestly as I might ask each one of you, were I speaking to her by herself, to pray with your whole heart and strength that these Holy Communions may be for your eternal blessing, and not to your hurt. You all know (perhaps I know also) what your besetting temptations are. Now then, here is a kind of marked place, whence you may resolve to start afresh. Here we are coming afresh, as it were, to the foot of the Cross. Offer up those sins, whatever they may be, there. Let me have the joy and comfort of thinking, when I leave you here, that you are all resolving, with your whole power, to fulfil, to the utmost, your name of Sisters,--to count all things but loss for the prize set before you,--to live, whatever may be the changes and chances of this mortal life, as those should do who desire to devote themselves, soul and body, to CHRIST.

And if you will each of you, from your own wants and your own fears, spare one prayer for me, that, after I have preached to others, I may not myself be a castaway,--that I may not, if I may see you all received to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, be myself shut out from it,--GOD will reward you, as He rewards all prayers of intercession.

Who is sufficient for these things? And you must all answer: I will go forth in the strength of the LORD GOD, and will make mention of His righteousness only. Thus much, at all events, you may all resolve; thus much, at all events, I may tell you all together. In the strength of the Lord God. What strength,--except that Body which is Meat indeed,--that Blood, which is Drink indeed,--that support and nourishment which has enabled those who had no greater strength than you may have, to do such things, to suffer such things, for the Name of CHRIST? It is my pleasure and comfort for you (I hope it is your own comfort and pleasure too), that you so often have that Name, which is exalted above every name, on your lips, and, as I trust, in your hearts. I rejoice for you, as that holy man of old, Thomas à Kempis, rejoiced for the Sisters of his time, that you do hear it more than all other names, that you take it on your lips oftener than all other names, that you cling to it above all other names. But then, remember what another great Saint tells us--

"Alone who hath thee in his heart,
Knows, Love of JESUS, what thou art!"

These litanies, these Communions, these prayers, these psalms, you will not, my dearest Sisters, let them be to your eternal condemnation at the Last Day? You will not force me, when we stand together before that great White Throne, to bear witness against you (witness equally fearful on whichever side I were myself found), that you were warned, that you were persuaded, that you were entreated? No! GOD grant that then, however unworthy I am, however many difficulties we all may, and we all shall, have to go through, that I may be able to say, Behold I and the children which Thou hast given me:--Of them which Thou gavest me, have I lost NONE.

And now, if you have given any attention to what I have been saying, this is my one request: turn it into your own prayer, and GOD, of His great mercy, hear you, and hear us all!

And now, etc.

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