HERE is a little fellow who looks as if he was in quite a rage. His sisters, with their arms extended, and their faces full of sympathy, are running toward him to help him if they can. But the manner in which he is flinging himself about, speaks of passion and would forbid sympathy. For ugliness and naughtiness are not to be met with tender words of sympathy and love.
The one who is sorry for his sins, and goes to God with confession, is the one who finds mercy and forgiveness.
And so with you, dear children; it is not when you are feeling naughty and ugly that you get forgiveness, or that you even want it. It is when your heart is softened, and you feel the wrong you have done, that you want your parents to forgive you, and ask them for it.
Do not harden yourself in your wrong ways, for great sorrow will come upon you if you do.
Ephraim hardened himself in idolatrous and wicked ways, and God had to say, “Let him alone.” That is, God gave him up to his wickedness; though the time is coming when God, in very much mercy, will soften the heart of Ephraim’s descendants, and draw them back to Himself.
Pharaoh refused to own the Lord, and over and over again hardened himself until, at last, God gave him up to hardness of heart. And the result for him was that he, and his great host of warriors, sank like lead in the mighty waters of the Red Sea; they sank not to rise again until that awful day when they shall come forth from their watery graves and stand before the great white throne, there to be judged according to what they have done.
You will see from this, dear children, what a dreadful thing it is for one to harden himself. Do not allow yourself to get into a passion or a “pet;” and do not allow your heart to be set on anything that would draw you from the Lord. Own your wrong, and turn from it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
ML 10/19/1902