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What will you say?

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 30, 1862

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 20, No. 18.

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What will you say?

“WHAT wilt thou say when he shall punish thee?”—Jer. iii. 21.
God has assured us in his own word that sin shall not go unpunished. Were it otherwise, law could not be vindicated, and heaven could not stand. And they who think differently have either too low a conception of the character of God, or no true conception of their own sinfulness. And now, this being the case, “what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee?”
1. Will you say you thought God too good to punish you? That would be simply to say that God is too good to be just. If he is not too good to punish in this world, what assurance have you that he will not hereafter? We have more reason to conclude that he is too good to look upon sin with any degree of allowance.
2. Will you say you were without conviction? That is to say you never felt it wrong to sin; that it was right to disregard the claims of God. If the best men have been convinced of sin, where are you to be found? And will you say you were never convinced that you were a sinner sufficient to feel the need of a Saviour?
3. Will you say you could not repent? That would be to tell God how well you loved sin, or that you were so wicked as to have no desire to become better. It would be to tell him how set is the heart against God.
4. Will you say you could not come to Jesus? How will this sound in the ear of him who all your lifetime has been saying, “Come unto me!” and, “He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out?”
5. Will you say you did not know the way?—and that, when the Bible and Christian experiences, and churches, and Sabbaths, have brought the kingdom of God nigh unto you, and all of your complaints will be resolved into this, “ye would not come to me that you might have life?”
What will you say? If unrepentant and unforgiven you will say, “Rocks and mountains, fall on us, to hide us from the presence of the Lord.” Let me inquire rather, What will you say to mercy's call? Say, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” and be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, our adorable Mediator.—Sel.