[RLacey]

we can hardly expect God to wirthdraw His chastisement unless we correct the sins for which He chastised us, and therefore unless we find out what particular sins have brought the evil on us. For it is mere cant and hypocrisy, my friends, to tell God, in a general way, that we believe He is punishing us for our sins, and then to avoid carefully confessing any particular sin, and to get angry with any one who tells us boldly which sin God is punishing us for. But so goes the world. Every one is ready to say "Oh! yes, we are all great sinners, miserably sinners!" and then if you charge them with any particuar sin, they bridle up and deny that sin fiercely enough, and all sins one by one, confessing themselves great sinners, and yet saying that they don't know what sins they have committed.

- Charles Kingsley, First Sermon on the Cholera (1849)