The Danger of Continuing in Sin
THE danger of continuing in sin or constant backsliding is not that God's mercy will fail, but that the sinner will so harden his heart and weaken his moral perceptions that no genuine repentance is possible. Continuance in sin against light benumbs the conscience and unables it to distinguish between right and wrong. A few selfish, sentimental tears are looked upon as an evidence of true repentance, and the sinner is satisfied. The work goes no deeper; sin is not exceeding sinful in his sight. He thinks God will excuse these little things, not realizing that a love of "little sins," as man may call them, is just as much an indication of the love of sin as are great sins. "He that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much." By and by God in his mercy administers strong reproof to the sin-blinded man, and his hardened heart rises in open rebellion against it. All means are exhausted which would bring him to repentance. He has resisted the pleadings of God's Spirit; the warnings and admonitions of the word are unheeded; and now strong reproof is given from some servant of God, and he willfully rejects the best means by which God can restore him, and God forever rejects him. "He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Prov. 29:1. Better, far better, to say with the psalmist: "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon my head; let not my head refuse it." Ps. 141:5 (R. V.).