Let us ask who is to blame for that, and where the blame lies.

Let us go to the bottom of matters with ourselves, and compel ourselves to say just what it is that is the cause of God's controversy with us.

What vow, what solemn promise, made when trouble was upon us, have we completely cast behind our back?
What about secret prayer?
At what times, for what things, and for what people do we in secret pray?
What about secret sin?
What is its name, and what does it deserve, and what fruit are we already reaping out of it?
What is our besetting sin, and what steps do we take, as God knows, to crucify it?
Do we love money too much?
Do we love praise too much?
Do we love eating and drinking too much?
Does envy make our heart a very hell?
Let us name the man we envy, and let us keep our Communion eye upon him.

Let us mix his name with all the psalms and prayers and sermons of this Communion season.

Or is it diabolical ill-will?
Or is it a wicked tongue against an unsuspecting friend?
Let us examine ourselves as Paul did, as Prywell did, and as God would have us do it, and we shall discover things in ourselves so bad that if I were to put words on them to-night, you would stop your ears in horror and flee out of the church.
Let a man see himself at least as others see him; and then he will be led on from that to see himself as God sees him; and then he will judge himself so severely as that he shall not need to be judged at the Judgment Day, and will condemn himself so sufficiently as that he shall not be condemned with a condemned world at the last..