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Beware of the Hard Heart, June 3
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the
sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the
wilderness.
Psalm 95:7, 8
.
No man can even once devote his God-given powers to the service
of worldliness or pride without placing himself on the enemy’s ground....
Every repetition of the sin weakens his power of resistance, blinds his
eyes, and stifles conviction....
The Lord sends us warning, counsel, and reproof, that we may have
opportunity to correct our errors before they become second nature. But
if we refuse to be corrected, God does not interfere to counteract the
tendencies of our own course of action. He works no miracle that the seed
sown may not spring up and bear fruit. That man who manifests an infidel
hardihood or a stolid indifference to divine truth, is but reaping the harvest
which he has himself sown. Such has been the experience of many. They
listen with stoical indifference to the truths which once stirred their very
souls. They sowed neglect, indifference, and resistance to the truth; and
such is the harvest which they reap. The coldness of ice, the hardness
of iron, the impenetrable, unimpressible nature of rock—all these find a
counterpart in the character of many a professed Christian. It was thus
that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. God spoke to the Egyptian
king by the mouth of Moses, giving him the most striking evidences of
divine power; but the monarch stubbornly refused the light which would
have brought him to repentance. God did not send a supernatural power
to harden the heart of the rebellious king, but as Pharaoh resisted the
truth, the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, and he was left to the darkness
and unbelief which he had chosen. By persistent rejection of the Spirit’s
influence, men cut themselves off from God. He has in reserve no more
potent agency to enlighten their minds. No revelation of His will can
reach them in their unbelief.
Unbending principle will mark the course of those who sit at the feet
of Jesus and learn of Him.
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