What is a clergyman sent into
the world for at all, but to say to you what I am saying now? What
should I be but a hypocrite and a traitor to the blessed Lord who
died for me, and saved me from my sins, and ordained me to preach to
sinners, that they too may be saved from their sins,--what should I
be but a traitor to Him, if I did not say to you, whenever I see you
going wrong:
"O come, let us worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord our
Maker.
"For He is the Lord our God; and we are the people of His pasture,
and the sheep of His hand.
"To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,
"Lest He sware in His wrath that you shall not enter into His rest!"
And now, my friends, I will tell you what will happen to you. You
see that I know something, without having been told of what has been
going on in your hearts. I beseech you, believe me when I tell you
what will go on in them. God will chastise you for your sins. He
will; just because He loves you, and does not hate you; just because
you are His children, and not dumb animals born to perish. Troubles
will come upon you as you grow older. Of what sort they will be I
cannot tell; but that they will come, I can tell full well. And when
the Lord sends trouble to you, shall it harden your hearts or soften
them? It depends on you, altogether on you, whether the Lord hardens
your hearts by sending those sorrows, or whether He softens and turns
them and brings them back to the only right place for them--home to
Him.
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