The sermon is not for the building-up of faithful ones, but
for the rousing and stirring up of those whose baptismal vow has been
terribly and shamefully broken, His words are clashed out as he brings
men face to face with their sin.
And then comes the preaching of the true penance. "Let us do what is
needful, bow to the right, and in somewise forsake the wrong, and mend
where we have broken." And the preacher's voice now takes the tender
tone of entreaty. "Let us creep to Christ and with trembling heart often
call upon Him, and deserve His mercy; and let us love God, and obey His
laws, and fulfil what we promised when we received baptism; or what
those promised who were our sponsors at baptism. And let us rightly
order word and work, and earnestly cleanse the thoughts of our hearts,
and carefully keep oath and pledge and have honesty among us without
weakness, and let us often understand the great judgement which we all
must meet, and earnestly protect ourselves against the burning fire of
the punishment of hell, and earn for ourselves the glories and the joys
which God has prepared for them that do His will in the world.
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