Oh think, then, what
your sin has been in putting aside those good thoughts and longings!
You were turning your back, you were shutting your doors to the Lord
God Himself, very God of very God begotten, by whom all things were
made. The Creator came to visit His creature, and His creature shut
Him out. The Almighty God pleaded with mortal man, and mortal man
bade God go, and come back at a more convenient season! A voice in
your heart seemed to say: "Oh, if I could but be a better man! How
I wish that I could but give up these bad habits, and mend! I hate
and despise myself for being so bad." And then you fancied that that
voice was your own voice, that those good thoughts were your own
thoughts. If you had really known whose they were; if you had really
known, as the Bible tells you, that they were the Word of the Lord,
the only-begotten Son of the Father, speaking to your heart, I hardly
think that you would have been so ready to say yourself: "Well,
then, I will mend; but not just now: some day or other; somehow or
other, I hope, I shall be a better man. It will be time enough to
make my peace with God when I am growing old." You would not have
dared to thrust away the good thoughts, and keep them waiting, while
you took your pleasure in a few more years' sin; if you had guessed
WHOM you were thrusting away; if you had guessed whom you were
keeping waiting.
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