The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 625

THE LOVE WHICH WITHERS the

'

imprecatory Psalms

simply close

my

'

and the

eyes and hold

my

*

hardening of heart,

tongue,"

is

585 '

then

no position at

I

all,

but mere self-contradiction.

And

yet

it

should be remembered that the vast majority of

Christians lose themselves in this unfortunate half-heartedness.

The Arminian-tinted do this consciously wilfully they erect their Dagon of the free will as often as the testimony of the Ark of the Covenant has cast him down. They are a singular people. When a doubter refuses to believe the Godhead of Christ, they are imme;

diately ready with their Bible to prove from this text, that passage, and these recorded facts that Christ must be the Son of God and But when, with reference to the doctrine therefore God Himself. of salvation, one proves to them from the same Bible, with similar texts, passages, and facts, that there is indeed a hardening of heart wrought at times by God Himself, then there is no end to their contradiction and they refuse to submit themselves to the Word. They do not seem to notice the unreasonableness and dishonesty It only shows that, when people propose to decide of this course. arbitrarily which portion of the Scripture is true and which is spurious, they betray inward disloyalty and a culpable lack of conviction.

For

it is

decide.

the Scripture, then

concerning the Godhead of the heart.

sume

to

what is true, or I must accept its statements the Lord Jesus and of the hardening of

either the Scripture which decides

If it is

But

if I

decide according to

make myself a judge

nature of the case,

testimony

I

its

fails to affect

my own

ideas, then I pre-

of the Scripture, and, in the very

authority as being a divine and absolute

me.

We

do not stop to consider those who deny the hardening ivilfully. They have departed from the Scripture and from the divine But we notice those who practically deny this doctrine, truth. partly by ignoring it, partly by refusing to acknowledge it as part of their confession relating to the divine Being.

Scriptural statements regarding this

They rehearse

the

doctrine faithfully and cor-

need be, they are ready to defend, rather than for the On the contrary, their sensitiveness to deny it. orthodoxy even on this point is above reproach. What the Scripture teaches they teach, the doctrine of the hardening included. rectly

;

sake of

if

human

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