What, again, does the apostle mean, in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
when he tells us how God scourges every son whom he receives, and
talks of His chastisements, whereof all are partakers. Why do we
need chastising if we have nothing which needs mending? And though
the innocent MAY sometimes be afflicted to make them strong as well
as innocent, and the holy chastened to make them humble as well as
holy, yet if the good cannot escape their share of affliction, how
will the bad get off? "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where
will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" But what use in arguing
when you know that my words are true? You KNOW that your sins will
find you out. Look boldly and honestly into your own hearts. Look
through the history of your past lives, and confess to God, at
least, that the far greater number of your sorrows have been your
own fault; that there is hardly a day's misery which you ever
endured in your life of which you might not say, 'If I had listened
to the voice of God in my conscience--if I had earnestly considered
what my DUTY was--if I had prayed to God to determine my judgment
right, I should have been spared this sorrow now?' Am I not right?
Those who know most of God and their own souls will agree most with
me; those who know little about God and their own souls will agree
but hardly with me, for they provoke God's chastisements, and writhe
under them for the time, and then go and do the same wrong again, as
the wild beast will turn and bite the stone thrown at him without
having the sense to see why it was thrown.

Think, again, of your past lives, and answer in God's sight, how
many wrong things have you ever done which have SUCCEEDED, that is,
how many sins which you would not be right glad were undone if you
could but put back the wheels of Time? They may have succeeded