It stands to reason, my friends, that it should be so.  If a man loses his way, and finds it again, he is so much the less forward on his way, surely, by all the time he has spent in getting back into the road.  If a child has a violent illness, it stops growing, because the life and nourishment which ought to have gone towards its growth, are spent in curing its disease.  And so, if a man has indulged in bad habits in his youth, he is but too likely (let him do what he will) to be a less good man for it to his life’s end, because the Spirit of God, which ought to have been making him grow in grace, freely and healthily, to the stature of a perfect man, to the fulness of the measure of Christ, is striving to conquer old bad habits, and cure old diseases of character; and the man, even though he does enter into life, enters into it halt and maimed; and the wages of his sin have been, as they always will be, death to some powers, some faculties of his soul.

Think over these things, my friends; and believe that the wages of sin are death, and that there is no escaping from God’s just and everlasting laws.  But meanwhile, let us judge no man.  This is a great and a solemn reason for observing, with fear and trembling, our Lord’s command, for it is nothing less, ’Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not and ye shall not be condemned.’

For we never can know how much of any man’s misconduct is to be set down to original, and how much to actual, sin;—­how much disease of mind and heart he has inherited from his parents, how much he has brought upon himself

Therefore judge no man, but yourselves.  Search your own hearts, to see what manner of men you really wish to be; judge yourselves, lest God should judge you.

Do you wish to go on as you like here on earth, right or wrong, in the hope that, somehow or other, the punishment of your sins will be forgiven you at the last day?

Then know that that is impossible.  As a man sows, so shall he reap; and if you sow to the flesh, of the flesh you will reap—­corruption.  The wages of sin are death.  Those wages will be paid you, and you must take them whether you like or not.

But do you wish to be Good?  Do you see (I trust in God that many of you do) that goodness is the only wise, safe, prudent life for you because it is the only path the end of which is not death?

Do you see that goodness is the only right and honourable life for you, because it is the only path by which you can do your duty to man or to God; the only method by which you can show your gratitude to God for all His goodness to you, and can please Him, in return for all that He has done by His grace and free love to bless you?

Do you, in a word, repent you truly of your former sins, and purpose to lead a new life?  Then know, that all beyond is the free grace, the free gift of God.  You have to earn nothing, to buy nothing.  The will is all God asks.  Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.