For instance, take the following:—“Ungrateful sinner, let me speak to thee in the name of Jesus crucified—‘Why!’ says He to thee, ‘who filled thee with such rage against Me? _What iniquity have your fathers found in Me?_ (Jer. ii. 5.) Of what sin canst thou charge Me, that thou ragest so furiously against Me? _Many good things have I showed you_; I have displayed abundant charity, I have poured forth many benefits; _for which of those works do ye stone Me?_ (John x. 32.) Art thou enraged against Me because I brought thee into existence out of nothing? Art thou vexed because I have watchfully preserved thee? because I have brought thee to a saving faith? Dost thou count it an injury that I gave up life and honour, blood and all, upon the cross for thee?… Come now, answer thou Me, wherefore art thou enraged against Me?’ O Jesu, best beloved! cease to inquire! I own that there is no cause, I acknowledge my audacity, and I bewail it! Flow, my tears, flow, and streaming over my cheeks, testify to my sorrow! Break, O heart, break, through excess of love! I acknowledge, I own, I see clearly my condition. What have I done! I have returned Thee evil for good, and hatred for Thy good will. Which was it, love or enmity, which crucified Thee? O Lord! it was love, and it was enmity. Thine the love, mine the enmity.” The following abstract is a good specimen of the Bishop’s quaintness. The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon III. God is to be loved with the whole heart, and even light sins are to be avoided. Matt. xxii. 37. _Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart._ The unhappy Ishbosheth, son of Saul, was slain in his own house, after the destruction of his father’s army. How, think you? Was the door open for the foe to enter? It was open: for he had been winnowing wheat; and they _came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon. And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him._ (2 Sam. iv. 5, 6.) Here was neglect of ordinary watchfulness, a little heedlessness, a little drowsiness, a little care for the wheat, leading to loss of life. St. Eucher says truly, “When man loses the solicitude of discretion, he leaves the door open for the ingress of evil spirits to the slaying of his soul.” Truly, many an ill has come to us through this indifference to our danger, through carelessness for our spiritual peril. Oh, what precious swords are rusted, because they are not drawn from their scabbards! Oh, what noble horses become sluggish in their stalls, because they are not exercised! Oh, what crystalline pools nourish reptiles, because they are not stirred! Oh, what great souls, living in honour and purity, have fallen into an abyss of sin, because they have been negligent! “For,” says Lessius, “he who serves God negligently, deserves in return that God should not exert Himself to care so greatly for him.”