Ver. 9.-The hardened heart. "They repented not t.o give him glory." This impenitence is told of in eh. ix. 20, and in this chapter again at vers. 11 and 21. This repeated reference is designed to. as it well may, impress our minds with a fact at once so sinful, so solemn, and so sad. For such impenitence i11- L A VERY CERTAIN FACT. The late Mr. Kingsley, iu hi" book,• The Roman and the Teuton,' draws out at length the evidence both of the horrible sufferings and the yet more horrible impenitence of the Roman people in the days of their empire's fall. He refers to these very verses as accurately describing the condition of things in those awful days, when the people of Rome" gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphenled.,• etc. (ver. 11). And it is to Rome and her fall that St. John is here alluding. There can hardly be doubt of that. But the sinners at Rome.were not the only ones who, in 1pite of the judgments of God resting upon them, have,, nevertheless, hardened their hearts. Who has not known of such things? IL AND VERY WONDERFUL. We say a burnt child dreads the fire, but it ie evident that they who have been "scorched with great heat" (ver. 9) by the righteous wrath of God are yet not afraid t.o incur tba.t wrath again. Nothing strikes us more than: the persistent way in which, in the "day of provocation in the wilderne911," the l<1raelitcs went on sinning, notwit.bstaoding all tbat it brought upon them ia the way of punish- ment. There was every reason and motive for them to obey God, and yet they dia acarce anything but provoke hlm. And it is so still. IIL AND VERY AWFOL. "Ephraim is joined t-0 idols: let him alone." "Why should ye be stricken any more?"-no good comes of it, punishment does not make an7 diiference. Such are the despairing words of the prophet,i of God. There are few 1un,r aigns of perdition than when a man is hardened in sin and more aeL, in enmity against God by reason of his righteous judgments. What can even God do then? If what ls designed to lead us to repentance only drive us into more sin, what hope is there? See those told of here; what a desc:ription of unspeakable distrese--" gnawing their ronguei, for pain," bat blaspheming God the while and repenting net I " l!'rom hardneu of heart, • . . good Lord, deliver us." IV. Ilo'l' YET NOT INEXPLIOABLB. For: L Timu of ruclt iistren as are told of hen 408. THE REVELATION. OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. [cu. xv1. 1-21.
are Jun the most tmfa?I01Wable time, of all others for that seriowi_ earnest thought which would lead to repentance. Distress distracts the mind, drags it hither and thither, BO tha.t it cannot stay itself upon God. To trust to the hour of aeath to turn unto God ill, indeed, to build upon the sand. 2. Resentment agaimt their ill treatmfflt holds their mind more than aught else. Thrice are we told how the men who •• gnawed their tongues for pain" blasphemed God. Burning rage against him enwrapped their aoula, AB if he were to blame, and not they I They explain that difficult verse in the :ninetieth psalm, "Who lo'egardeth the power of thy wrath? even according to thy fear, so isthy'wrath." It is only they who have a holy fear of God who will regard his wrath; aooordtng to the measure of that fear will be the measuri, of right regard of the wrath of God. Where that fear is not, God's wrath will exasperate, enrage, and harden, but there will be no repentance. 3. TJ,ey attribut6 their sujferings to every came but the true oM. How easy it is to do this I how commonly it is done I How men snatch ai evecy suggestion that will help them to lay the blame upon other men or things I It ia part of " the deceitfulness of sin" to make men do this. But until a man is led to ccy, with Mm of old, "God be merciful to me, the sinner I " (Luke xvi ii. 13), he may ·groan in agony of body or mind, but he will never turn in heart to God. 4. Sin has tNCh hold on them that they cannot giue iJ,. up, Yes, deeper than the dread of its punish- ment is the love of the sin. Once it might have been broken th10ugh as easily as the cobweb that stretches across the garden path; but, indulged and indulged, it has become a cable that holds .the man in spite of all the storm of God's jndgments and the tempest of his wrath. Cries aud tears, protestations and prayers, may be extorted from the man through his terror and pain; but they are but surface-sounds, and touch not the depth or reality of the man's soul. 5. "Because sentence against an evil work ia not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccles. viii. 11). The interval between the senterrce and its being carried out ill given for repentance; but men have made it-a means of greater sin. Such a.re some of the reasons that explain the aeemingly wonderful fact we are considering. V. Aim IT 1s FULL OF WARNING, Even torture does not turn a man, nor suffering eave. 'l"hat old and awful puritauic cry to sinners, "Turn or burn l "-a cry which, we believe, never yet turned one heart to God, for it is not the nature of terror to do that- has a yet more dread sequel; that if a man will not now, in" the day of salvation," turn to God, he may bum and yet not turn. Such is the teaching, not of our text alone, but. of all experience too. 0 God, fill our hearts with the fear anJ. love of thee !-S. C.