p. 63 | Quench not the Spirit

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 25, 1857

Quench not the Spirit

LEST he cease to move upon your heart, and you become hardened. And O, think what it is to be HARDENED. It is to have all the moral and religious sensibilities of the soul deadened. It is to become reckless and unconcerned. It is to be habitually in such a frame of mind that there are no compunctions for the past, no apprehensions for the future. Deaf to all the calls of mercy; stupid under all the means of grace. It is to be habitually in such a frame of mind that all promises and threatenings are alike disregarded, and all motives ard all appeals equally unavailing. As the dead man feels not the burning of the coal lodged in his bosom, nor the flinty rock the softening influences of the showers of heaven, even so is it with him whose heart is hardened. He may be in the sanctuary, but the most pungent discourses make no impression. He may witness sacramental scenes, but they inspire no solemnity. Even funeral rites and the burying of the dead affect him not. Spread before him the glories of heaven, and he is not allured.

Point him to the torments of the damned, and he is not alarmed. Lead him to Calvary, and talk to him about the love of Jesus and his dying agonies, and still he is insensible as steel! Friends may entreat, but he heeds it not; ministers may warn, but he repents not; others around him may feel, but he feels not; others around him may weep, but he weeps not, he is hard as rock. The rock may be rived, but it is not melted; it is rock still. It may be broken into a thousand fragments, but there is no softening yet. And so it is with the sinner.