The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 632

LOVE

592 For He

saith to Moses, I will

So then

compassion.

God

runneth, but of

it is

have compassion on

whom

I

will

have

not of him that willeth, nor of him that

For the Scripture saith

that showeth mercy.

unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee" (Rom. ix. 14-17). Altho Pharaoh is the most conspicuous figure in this respect, yet the hardening

is

not confined to him alone.

feared despot of Hesbon,

and made

ened his spirit

him of

is

it

written

" :

Of Sihon, the

The Lord thy God

his heart obstinate, that

He might

hard-

deliver

Of the allied kings king of Hazor, declared war under Jabin,

into thine hand, as appeareth this day."

North Palestine, who

"For it was of the Lord to harden come against Israel in battle " (Joshua that they should

against Joshua, their hearts,

it

is

written:

xi. 20).

Satan said that he tempted David to number the people (i Chron. xxi. i) but, from 2 Sam. xxiv. i, it is evident that he did not ;

act without divine direction and obeyed only reluctantly.

The prophet mournfully

asks:

"

O

Lord,

why

hast

Thou made Thy fear?"

us to err from

Thy ways and hardened

(Isa. Ixiii. 17)

a touching complaint which echoes the awful proph-

;

ecy of his installation:

"Go and

our hearts from

tell this

people,

Hear ye indeed

but understand not, and see ye indeed but perceive not. heart of this people fat and

make

their heart heavy,

Make

and shut

the

their

eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and

understand with their hearts, and convert and be healed "

(Isa. vi.

9, 10).

To

the objection that this

such harshness

is

is

Old-Testament theology, but that

foreign to the Christian Church in which Christ

has instituted the reign of Love,

we

reply that that Church

is

as

same divine SpeakIn er, and that Christ and His apostles reveal the same hardening. Matt. xiii. 14, Mark iv. 12, 14, Luke viii. 10, Christ largely dwells upon the fact, and states it, even for the direction of conduct, in the old as Paradise, that in both covenants

it is

the

very words of Isaiah's inauguration prophecy, that sometimes God causes the Word to come to a man in such a way that hearing he hears not, but hardens his heart. And St. Paul addressed the same

We

have already noto the Romans (Acts xxviii. 26; x. 8). ticed his words, " To give over to a reprobate mind," and to the

words

darkening of heart, which have the same effect as the hardening. It is

remarkable that the

New

Testament especially presents

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