But if these be our bodily blessings, what are our spiritual blessings?  Has not God given us his only-begotten son Jesus Christ?  Has he not baptised us into his Church?  Has he not forgiven our sins?  Has he not revealed to us that he is our Father, and we his children?  Has he not given us the absolutely inestimable blessing of his commandments?  Of knowing what the right thing to be done is, that we may do it and live for ever; that treasure of which not only Solomon, but the wise men of old held, that to know what was right was a more precious possession than rubies and fine gold, and all the wealth of Ind?  Has he not given us the hope of a joyful immortality, of everlasting life after death, not only with those whom we have loved and lost, but with God himself?

And how many of us give God the glory, and Christ the thanks?  Do we not copy those nine lepers, and just shew ourselves to the priest?—­ Come to church on the Sunday, because it is the custom; people expect it of us; and God, we understand, expects it too:  but where is the gratitude?  Where is the giving of glory to God for all his goodness?  Which are we most like?  Children of God, looking up to our Father in heaven, and saying, at every fresh blessing, Father, I thank thee.  Truly thou knowest my necessities before I ask, and my ignorance in asking?—­Or, like the stalled ox, which eats, and eats, and eats, and never thanks the hand which feeds him?

We are too comfortable, I think, at times.  We are so much accustomed to be blest by God, that we take his blessings as matters of course, and feel them no more than we do the air we breathe.

The wise man says—­

Our torments may by length of time become
Our elements;

and I am sure our blessings may.  They say that people who endure continual pain and misery, get at length hardly to feel it.  And so, on the other hand, people who have continual prosperity get at length hardly to feel that.  God forgive us!  My friends, when I say this to you, I say it to myself.  If I blame you, I blame myself.  If I warn you, I warn myself.  We most of us need warning in these comfortable times; for I believe that it is this very unrighteousness of ours which brings many of our losses and troubles on us.  If we are so dull that we will not know the value of a thing when we have got it, then God teaches us the value of it by taking it from us.  He teaches us the value of health by making us feel sickness; he teaches us the value of wealth by making us feel poverty.  I do not say it is always so.  God forbid.  There are those who suffer bitter afflictions, not because they have sinned, but that, like the poor blind man, the glory of God may be made manifest in them.  There are those too who suffer no sorrow at all, even though they feel, in their thoughtful moments, that they deserve it.  And miserable enough should we all be, if God punished us every time we were ungrateful to him.  If he dealt with us after our sins, and rewarded us according to our iniquities, where should we be this day?