interest what they have received, what return can we make to God, when we have nothing to offer Him but what we have received from His infinite goodness? What, therefore, must we think of those who not only make no return to their Creator, but use His benefits to offend Him? Aristotle tells us that man can never make adequate return to his parents or to the gods for the favors received from them. How, then, can we make a suitable return to the great God, the Father of us all, for the innumerable blessings bestowed upon us? If disobedience to parents be so grievous a crime, how heinous must it not be to rebel against this gracious God! He Himself complains of this ingratitude by the mouth of His prophet: "The son honoreth the father, and the servant his master: if, then, I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear?" [1] Another servant of God, filled with indignation at like ingratitude, exclaims: "Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?" [2] This reproach is addressed to those who never raise their eyes to heaven to consider what God is, who never look upon themselves in order to know themselves. Knowing nothing, therefore, of their origin or the end for which they are created, they live as though they themselves were the authors of their being. This was the crime of the unfortunate king of Egypt to whom God said: "Be-
