The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 634

—

XXXIV. Temporary Hardening. **

Lord,

why hast Thou hardened

heart?"

That

there

is

a hardening of heart

most

we must

take account of

it

fearful instruments of the divine wrath.

When ;

for

oof

Ixiii. 17.

which culminates

against the Holy Spirit can not be denied. spiritual things

ha.

it

in the sin

dealing with

one of the

is

we say

For, whether

that Satan or David or the

Lord tempted the king, it amounts to the same thing. The cause is always in man's sin; and in each of these three cases the destructive fatality whereby sin poisons and destroys the soul can not be severed from the government of God. However, in studying this matter, we should remember for our

own comfort

that the hardening

absolute and irreparable.

We

rary and a permanent hardening.

passes

away and

is

not essentially and invariably

should distinguish between a tempo-

The

latter is absolute

;

the former

dissolves into saving faith.

Crying, "Lord, represents persons

why hast Thou hardened our heart?" Isaiah who are now in glory before the throne more;

and the longing after God of which it speaks, suffice to assure us that Isaiah was no Pharaoh. That Israel is exhorted, " Harden not your hearts as in the provocation " (Psalm xcv. 8), proves that the hardening spoken of had not been intended forever. And the hardening that, according to St. Paul, had come " in part" to Israel was not absolute, as appears from the words " in part." The temporal and the pertnanent hardening should not be confounded. This would drive the guilty sinner into spiritual despair, and raise the Cain-thought in his heart a danger that requires the most earnest and watchful care. Satan, the enemy of souls, thoroughly understands all the weaknesses of the human heart. In this respect he knows more than the best informed among men. He knows whether to attack a man in the front or from behind, to ruin him with threats or with flattery, to frighten him with despair or over, the question itself, the sorrow expressed,

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