Gold Nugget 190 - His Seal on Your Choice

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      Picture a young girl introduced to society, in whose gaieties she henceforth finds herself entangled.  Simple of heart as she is fair of face, she is insidiously injured by the unwholesome excitement, the late hours, the inane and profitless chit-chat of such an existence.  Too tired to pray, too flattered to conquer self, she forgets those solemn realities to which the present life is only a vestibule, until in the scales of Eternal Justice she is “weighed in the balances and found wanting.”  Slowly but surely her early sensibility decreases; and she whose heart was once easily touched, whose conscience was keenly sensitive, becomes the hardened, scheming woman of the world.  She is joined to idols:  let her alone. …

      The halls of entertainment in which the lust of the flesh and of the eye are pandered to are thronged nightly by lads whose incipient manliness becomes deteriorated.  There, and elsewhere, drink exercises a fatal influence.  Short of intoxication, the will is weakened, the memory obscured, the imagination so excited as to find pleasure where otherwise there would be none; and so the first step to ruin is often taken half consciously.  Little by little the power of drink asserts itself, till self-control is gone, and its victim cannot live without it; and so joined to idols is he that God says, “Let him alone.” …

      A minister preaches, and many under the influence of the truth are moved to thought and penitence.  One hears as others do, but, unlike them, is hard and callous.  Often has he said to himself, “I wish I could go to a place of worship without feeling uneasy;” and at last God says, “You shall.  Ministers, let him alone!”

      Friends spoke faithfully to another, urging him to prayer, pleading with him, even with tears … Sometimes he laughed at their anxiety, sometimes he was angry at their interference, heartily wishing that they would interfere with him no more.  Now they do not.  One friend has removed to a distance, the voice of another is stilled by death, and another has given up further effort in utter despair of success.  God has said, “Let him alone.”

      Solemn events once stirred to thought, but now their influence is gone.  The voice within which warned and entreated is sensibly weaker and less frequently heard.  To the conscience God has said, “Let him alone,” and now it is sleeping. …

      If the faint desire to return to God yet lingers, if the fear of being forsaken of God makes you tremble, the curse has not yet fallen.  The Lord, who is very pitiful and of tender mercy, still says, “Come now, and let us reason together,” …

      Two brothers crossing a pass, (are) overtaken by a snow-storm.  One longs to sleep.  He is dragged on for a time by physical force, is pleaded with earnestly, but at last is of necessity left.  He sinks to rest; the snow-flakes fall silently and swiftly, and in the depths he finds his grave, and sleeps the sleep of death.  You may say to all good influences, “Let me alone,” until God puts his seal on your choice, and says to all that might save you, “Let him alone.”

The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 121-122, Hosea 4:17, (A. Rowland)

Gold Nugget 190

His Seal on Your Choice

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