at it rightly, David’s being punished was the very sign that God had forgiven him.  Oh, believe that, my friends; face it; thank God for it.  I at least do, when I look back upon my past life, and see that for every wrong I have ever done, I have been punished:  not punished a tenth part as much as I deserve; but still punished, more or less, and made to smart for my own folly, and to learn, by hard unmistakable experience, that it will not pay me, or any man, to break the least of God’s laws; and I thank God for it.  I tell you to thank God also, whensoever you are punished for your sins.  It is a sign that God cares for you, that God loves you, that God is training and educating you, that God is your Father, and He is dealing with you as with His sons.  For what son is there whom His Father does not chastise?  It is a bitter lesson, no doubt; but we have deserved it:  then let us bear it like men.  No doubt it is bitter:  but there is a blessing in it.  No chastisement at first seems pleasant, says the Apostle, but rather grievous:  yet afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby.  Be exercised by it, then.  Let God teach you in His own way, even if it seem a harsh and painful way.  We have had earthly fathers, says the Apostle, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence.  Shall we not much rather be in subjection to God, the Father of Spirits, and live?  For suffering and punishment is the way to Eternal Life—­to that true Eternal Life which is knowing God and God’s love, and becoming like God.  As the Apostle says, God chastens us only for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  And as king Hezekiah says of affliction, ’Lord, by these things,’ by sorrow and chastisement, ’men live; and in all these things is the life of the spirit.’

May God give to you, and me, and all mankind, as often as we do wrong, honest and good hearts to confess our sins thoroughly, and take our punishment meekly, and trust in God’s boundless mercy, in order that if we humble ourselves under His rod, and learn His lessons faithfully in this life, we may not need a worse punishment in the life to come, but be accepted in the last great Day for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour.

SERMON XX.  THE TRUE GENTLEMAN

1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii. 1.  Covet earnestly the best gifts:  and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

My friends, let me say a few plain words this morning to young and old, rich and poor, upon this text.