because he wishes to make sinners uneasy, while they wish to make them
easy. Philosophers, falsely so-called, will dislike that man, because he
talks of the kingdom of God, the providence of God, and they are busy--at
least, just now--in telling men that there is no providence and no God--
at least, no living God. The covetous and worldly will dislike that man,
for they believe that the world is governed, not by God, but by money.
Politicians will dislike that man, because they think that not God, but
they, govern the world, by those very politics and knavish tricks, which
we pray God to confound, whenever we sing "God save the Queen." And the
common people--the masses--who ought to hear such a man gladly, for his
words are to them, if they would understand them, a gospel, and good news
of divine hope and deliverance from sin and ignorance, oppression and
misery--the masses, I say, will dislike that man, because he tells them
that God's will is law, and must be obeyed at all risks: and the poor
fools have got into their heads just now that not God's will, but the
will of the people, is law, and that not the eternal likeness of God, but
whatever they happen to decide by the majority of the moment, is right.

And so such a preacher will not be popular with the many. They will
dismiss him, at best, as they might a public singer or lecturer, with
compliments and thanks, and so excuse themselves from doing what he tells
them. And he must look for his sincere hearers in the hearts of those--
and there are such, I verily believe, in this congregation--who have a
true love and a true fear of Christ, their incarnate God--who believe,
indeed, that Christ is their King, and the King of all the earth; who
think that to please Him is the most blessed, as well as the most
profitable, thing which man can do; to displease Him the most horrible,
as well as the most dangerous, thing which man can do; and who,
therefore, try to please Him by becoming like Him, by really renouncing
the world and all its mean and false and selfish ways, and putting on His