the contrast is not merely between two opposite courses of action, but between the consequences of each. No one who covers his sins will prosper; it is he who confesses them who will find mercy. What is at stake, we are told, is our spiritual prosperity, whether we receive or forfeit the mercy of God. Many of us are not prospering in our Christian lives. We are making little or no progress. We have got stuck and do not appear to be enjoying the mercy of God. Is the reason partly or wholly that we