This psalm may speak of some really great sin which he had committed.  But that makes all the more strongly for us.  For if he got forgiveness for a great sin, by merely confessing it, how much more may we hope to be forgiven, for the comparatively little sins of which I am now speaking?  Surely there is forgiveness for them.  Surely we, Christians, are not worse off than the old Jews.  God forbid!  What does the Bible tell us?  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  And again, if we walk in the light; that is, if we look honestly at our own hearts, and confess honestly to God what we see wrong there; then we have fellowship one with another; all our frettings and grudgings against our fellow-men pass away; and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.  God forbid again!  For what is the message of the Absolution, whether general in the church, or private by the sick-bed, but this—­ that there is continual forgiveness for those who really confess and repent?  God forbid again!  For what is the message of the Holy Communion, but that we really are forgiven, really helped by God not to do the like again; that the stains and scars of our daily misdoings are truly healed by God’s grace; and power given us to lead a healthier life, the longer we persevere in the struggle after God.

Therefore, instead of proudly laying the blame of our unhappiness on our fellow-men, much less on God and his providence, let us cast ourselves, in every hour of shame or of sadness, on the boundless love of him who hateth nothing that he hath made; who so loved the world that he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.  How shall he not with him freely give us all things?  Let us open our weary hearts to him who watches with tender interest, as of a father watching the growth of his child, over every struggle of ours from worse to better; and so we shall have our reward.  The more we trust to the love of God, the more shall we feel his love—­ feel that we are pardoned—­feel that we are at peace.  We may not grow more cheerful as we grow older; but we shall grow more peaceful.  Sadder men, it may be; but wiser men also; caring less and less for pleasure; caring even less and less for mere happiness:  but finding a lasting comfort in the knowledge that we are doing our life’s work not altogether ill, under the smile of Almighty God; aware more and more of our own weakness, and of our own failings:  but trusting that God will take the will for the deed, and forgive us what we have left undone, and accept what we have done, for the sake of Christ, in whom, and not in our own poor paltry selves, he looks upon us as his adopted children.