But your trouble may only harden your heart all the more. The
sorrows and sore judgments which the Lord sent Pharaoh only hardened
his heart. It all depends upon the way in which you take these
troubles, my friends. And that not so much when they come as after
they come. Almost all, let their hearts be right with God or not,
seem to take sorrow as they ought, while the sorrow is on them.
Pharaoh did so too. He said to Moses and Aaron: "I have sinned this
time. The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
Entreat the Lord that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail;
and I will let you go." What could be more right or better spoken?
Was not Pharaoh in a proper state of mind then? Was not his heart
humbled, and his will resigned to God? Moses thought not. For while
he promised Pharaoh to pray that the storm might pass over, yet he
warned him: "But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will
not yet fear the Lord your God." And so it happened; for, "when
Pharaoh saw that the rain, and hail, and thunder had ceased, he
sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Neither would he let the children of Israel go." . . . And so, alas!
it happens to many a man and woman nowadays.
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