If, then, that is true, that all have come short of the requirement, then there should follow a universal sense of guilt, for there is the universal fact of guilt, whether there be the sense of it or not.  There must follow, too, consequences resulting from the failure of each of us to comply with these divine requirements, consequences very alarming, very fatal; and there must follow a darkening of the thought of God.  ’I knew thee that thou wert an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou didst not straw.’  That is the God of all the people who take my text as the last word of their religion—­God ’requires of me.  The blessed sun in the heavens becomes a lurid ball of fire when it is seen through the mist of such a conception of the divine character, and its relation to men.  There is nothing that so drapes the sky in darkness, and hides out the great light of God, as the thought of His requirements as the last thought we cherish concerning Him.

There follows, too, upon this conception, and the failure that results to fulfil the requirements, a hopelessness as to ever accomplishing that which is demanded of us.  Who amongst us is there that, looking back upon his past in so far as it has been shaped by his own effort and his own unaided strength, can look forward to a future with any hope that it will mend the past?  Brethren! experience teaches us that we have not fulfilled, and cannot fulfil, what remains our plain duty, notwithstanding our inability to discharge it—­viz., ’To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.’  To think of God’s requirements, and of my own failure, is the sure way to paralyse all activity; just as that man in the parable who said, ’Thou art an austere man,’ went away and hid his talent in the earth.  To think of God’s requirements and my own failures, if heaven has nothing more to say to me than this stern ‘Thou shalt,’ is the short way to despair.  And that is why most of us prefer to be immersed in the trivialities of daily life rather than to think of God, and of what He asks from us.  For the only way by which some of us can keep our equanimity and our cheerfulness is by ignoring Him and forgetting what He demands, and never taking stock of our own lives.

III.  Lastly, my text leads us to think of God’s gift.

I said it is a half-truth, for it only tells us of what He desires us to be, and does not tell us of how we may be it.  It is meant, like the law of which it is a condensation, to be the pedagogue, to lead the child to Jesus Christ, the true Master, and the true Gift of God.

God ‘requires.’  Yes, and He requires, in order that we should say to Him, ’Lord, Thou hast a right to ask this, and it is my blessedness to give it, but I cannot.  Do Thou give me what Thou dost require, and then I can.’