“HOW hard I have become!” was the thought that suddenly seemed to dart into the mind of a Sheffield butcher as he was preparing to leave his shop and slaughter-house for the night. The longer that thought remained in his heart―for, no doubt, the Spirit of God had placed it there―the more alarmed did that godless, drinking butcher become. It was, as he told thy writer, his very hardness that alarmed him.
He thought of his long years of recklessness and sin, for he was past middle age at the time; he thought of God, and of the awful state of hardness which he had reached. Hard indeed he must have become to be able to continue in such a course so utterly unconcerned!
Thank God, his eyes were now opened, and his soul graciously reached by power divine. Later on his conscience was set at rest through the precious blood, while his heart found a satisfying object in a living, glorified. Christ. For a few years he was allowed the privilege of serving Him below: now he has the higher privilege of resting with Him above.
Reader, have you never been alarmed by your hardness? Have you never paused to inquire the stage you have actually reached?
Carefully consider the steps down. Do any of them describe your condition?
A careless mind,
A rebellious will,
A hardened heart,
A seared conscience,
(And just one step more)
A SOUL LOST FOREVER.
Thank God, your soul is not damned forever. But be assured, there is nothing you need fear more than a hardened heart and a seared conscience. They are certainly next door to damnation. On which step do you stand this moment?
At first the devil supports a man in his rebellious position by the apparent bright offers of self-gratification in the pleasures of sin. “Do as you like” is his gospel. “Take your happiness into your own hand. Enjoy life; forget death.” Like the wooden frame, set under an arch to support it in its position during construction, the devil at first props up the soul with the offer of worldly pleasures and fleshly lusts; then when the soul has become hard enough he can actually afford to remove the pleasures of sin, and give his victim a taste of the bitterness of sin, and this without any fear of losing him. It was thus he propped up Judas by the prospect of money, and just mark what followed. When the ill-gotten gain had been thrown down, when its possessor despaired of finding the smallest satisfaction in it, the “old serpent” still held his victim in his cruel grip. Judas went and hanged himself, and was numbered with the lost.
But what is it that subdues a man’s will, softens his heart, changes his mind, purges his conscience, saves his soul? It is the knowledge of Christ. Read in Acts. 16. of the jailer’s conversion, and then refer still further back to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (ch. 9); and you will see, that whether it is by a light direct from heaven, and Christ personally presented to a religious Pharisee, or by a midnight earthquake and Christ preached to a heathen jailer, it is the same gracious interference of the blessed God, bringing about a personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ, that alone accounts for such a marvelous change.
May God grant that such a change may be realized by every reader of these pages, for His own name’s sake.