No winking at _our_ ignorance, no long-suffering with _our_ sin. Enlightened and enabled, we are responsible, and immediately made to answer, for all that is wrong; and, specially endeared to Him, we are immediately rewarded for all that He approves. And this judgment is visible, if we will but look for it even in our temporal circumstances. I do not say that the righteous are always what the world calls prosperous, and the wicked always what the world calls unfortunate, though that is not seldom the case, much more often than, in our rash judgment, we suppose; besides, any kinds of temporal circumstances may be made, and often are made, the sources of temporal reward or punishment; but temporal things are not the best or the worst that GOD can give. They are chiefly used by Him as means; and could I describe to you the blessings which poverty and bereavement and disappointment and affliction have produced, and the curses which have accompanied riches and success, and immunity from loss and trial, you would see what effectual means they are, and would readily exclaim, “_Here_ is the GOD of Judgment!” But there is a better and a worse judgment. You know how GOD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, because it was not softened; how He made Saul’s perversity his punishment; how He stiffened Jeroboam’s arm that he could not draw it in from the deed of sin; what a sinful security He brought upon David for transgression; how Abraham grew rich by forsaking his home; how Job resigned much and therefore received more; how Joseph, fleeing from Potiphar’s wife, was made to prosper in all he did. These things are types of great realities—specimens of constant judgments. GOD stands over every man to watch what he does, and as soon as it is done, He judges and rewards it. Ah! let the wicked tremble at this, and let the righteous rejoice at it. A harassed or a calmed conscience may or may not be an accompaniment of the judgment, but a judgment there will surely be. Do you want an illustration? Why, then, should the man who commits a trivial sin to-day fall into a greater sin to-morrow? Why should a little resistance qualify for a great one? You say it is natural. If you mean by that that is _spiritual_, that it is the acting influence of GOD’S providence, I agree with you; but not otherwise. Man is not his own destroyer, nor his own saviour. It no more follows naturally that a man should fall into a great sin after a little one, or should conquer a strong temptation after overcoming a weak one, than that he should soil his garments or his flesh much to-day, because he soiled them a little yesterday, or that he should float in a flood because he has turned aside from a pool! It is a judgment that makes him sin again, and a judgment that enables him to resist again. In the one case, it is the angry withdrawal of grace, and the giving up to a reprobate mind, and the delivery to Satan; in the other it is the approving increase of