God afflicts you, the enemies He raised up against you, the disgraces and losses with which He tries you—­do you receive them all as you ought, with humble submission to His will?  Or, rather, far from finding in them occasions of penitence, do you not turn them into the objects of new crimes?  It is the duty of an innocent soul to receive with submission the chastisements of the Almighty; to discharge with courage the painful duties of the station allotted to him, and to be faithful to the laws of the gospel.  But do sinners owe nothing beyond this?  And yet they pretend to salvation!  Upon what claim?  To say that you are innocent before God, your own consciences will witness against you.  To endeavor to persuade yourselves that you are penitent, you dare not; and you would condemn yourselves by your own mouths.  Upon what then dost thou depend, O man! who thus livest so tranquil?

These, my brethren, as I have already told you, are not merely advices and pious arts; they are the most essential of our obligations.  But, alas! who fulfils them?  Who even knows them?  Ah! my brethren, did you know how far the title you bear, of Christian, engages you; could you comprehend the sanctity of your state, the hatred of the world, of yourself, and of everything which is not of God that it enjoys, that gospel life, that constant watching, that guard over the passions, in a word, that conformity with Jesus Christ crucified, which it exacts of you—­could you comprehend it, could you remember that you ought to love God with all your heart, and all your strength, so that a single desire that has not connection with Him defiles you—­you would appear a monster in your own sight.  How! you would exclaim.  Duties so holy, and morals so profane!  A vigilance so continual, and a life so careless and dissipated!  A love of God so pure, so complete, so universal, and a heart the continual prey of a thousand impulses, either foreign or criminal!  If thus it is, who, O my God! will be entitled to salvation?  Few indeed, I fear, my dear hearers!  At least it will not be you (unless a change takes place) nor those who resemble you; it will not be the multitude!

Who shall be saved?  Those who work out their salvation with fear and trembling; who live in the world without indulging in its vices.  Who shall be saved?  That Christian woman who, shut up in the circle of her domestic duties, rears up her children in faith and in piety; divides her heart only between her Savior and her husband; is adorned with delicacy and modesty; sits not down in the assemblies of vanity; makes not a law of the ridiculous customs of the world, but regulates those customs by the law of God; and makes virtue appear more amiable by her rank and her example.  Who shall be saved?  That believer who, in the relaxation of modern times, imitates the manners of the first Christian—­whose hands are clean and his heart pure—­who is watchful—­who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, but who, in