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The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart.

A SERMON

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

UNITOITT AT L£WI3BUBG,

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With Compliments of the Author.

The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart.

A SERMON

DELIVERED BEFORE THK

UlNIVERSITY AT LEWISBURG

Day of Prayer for Colleges, February 22d, 1883.

By GEORGE DANA BOARDIvlAN,
Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Phili/defa

PHILADELPHIA:
Allen*, Lane & Scott's Printing House,
Nos. 229-231 South Fifth Street.
1883.

CORRESPONDENCE.

univeesity at lewisburg,
Febeuaey 24th, 1883.
Rev. Oeorge Dana Boardman, D. D.,
My Dear Sir and Beother: — At their meeting this morning the
Faculty of the University by a unanimous vote directed me to express
to you their gratitude for the memorable discourse delivered by you
before the University on the Day of Prayer for Colleges, and they
desire to join with the President of the Board of Trustees, Mr. William
Bucknell, who has thoughtfully and generously offered to have the
sermon printed, in requesting that you kindly consent to its publica
tion and at your convenience furnish a copy of the discourse for the
printer. Trusting that it may be your pleasure to comply with this request,
I am Very sincerely yours, DAVID J. HILL.

Philadelphia, February 27th, 1883.
My Dear Mr. President : — Your courteous favor of the 24th instant,
informing me that the Faculty have formally requested me to give to
the public the sermon delivered before the University at Lewisburg on
the Day of Prayer for Colleges, and also that the President of the Board
of Trustees, Mr. "William Bucknell, has generously offered to defray the
expenses of publication, is at hand.
Deferring to your judgment as wiser than my own, I accede to the
request with which you honor me.
May the God of our fathers make the publication a blessing to the
youths of our land.
Assuring you ahd your colleagues of my warm personal esteem, I
remain, my dear sir, Faithfully yours,
GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN.
President David J. Hill.

The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart.

" I will harden his heart." Exodus, IV, 21.

It is God's solemn declaration concern
ing Pharaoh. Nor does this fearful saying
stand alone. We read : " I will harden
Pharaoh's heart;" again: "The Lord har
dened Pharaoh's heart ;" again : " The Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart ;" again : " I
have hardened his heart ;" again : " The
Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart ; " again :
"The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart;"
again: "The Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart ;" once more : " The Scripture saith
unto Pharaoh : ' For this very purpose did
I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and
that my name might be published abroad in all the earth ; '
so then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will
he hardeneth." And here a serious moral difficulty
arises : How shall we reconcile God's har
dening of Pharaoh's heart with God's infinitely perfect

A Frequent
Scripture. Exodus vii. 3.
Exodus ix. 12.
Exodus x. i.
Exodus x. 20.
Exodus x. 27.
Exodus xi. 10.
Exodus xiv. 8.
Romans ix. 17, 18.
Exodus ix. 16.

A Grave Problem.

THE HARDENING OP PHARAOH S HEART.

character ? It is really a very grave problem. If it is lit
erally true that God did actually, by force of his own will,
harden Pharaoh's heart, deliberately causing him to be
come more and more sinful, then I must say, and will say,
that God did a wicked thing, and my conscience is absolved
from the duty of allegiance to him. For I am under no
moral obligation to worship what my moral sense tells me is
an unrighteous Deity. Indeed, it would be simply impos
sible ; for I can not really adore what is not in itself in
herently adorable. In other words, if God is not absolutely
perfect, then he is not GOD ; he is only a god, like partial
Jove, or vengeful Thor, or sleepy Brahm, or any other
heathen deity. How then shall we reconcile the Scriptural
assertion that God hardened Pharaoh's heart with the Scrip
tural representations of God as being infinitely perfect ? It
is, let me repeat, an exceedingly grave problem, not to be
disposed of, on the one hand, by summary dismissal, nor, on
the other hand, by oracular deliverances. It demands from
us a reverent attempt at solution. May the Spirit of all grace
then especially help us as I proceed, first of all, to remind
you of a few general principles which I trust will serve as
hints toward the solution.
Man is Morally And, first, man is morally free. I enter
Pree" into no discussion of the theological ques-

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOHS HEART.

tion concerning "man's natural and moral ability or in
ability." That is a metaphysical subtlety, good enough it
may be for mental gymnastics, but useless, and worse than
useless, as a contribution to the moral life. Enough for me
that I know that man, practically speaking, has the power
of moral choice. If he has not, cease appealing to motives,
close the avenues to academic honors, abolish the peniten
tiaries. Deny man's capacity of moral choice, and you
deny man's personal accountability, and annihilate man
hood itself. Fallen as man is, he can, if he chooses, do
right. He can choose between following
I. Kings xviii. 21. ° °
Jehovah and following Baal. I know, in
deed, that it is God alone " from whom all holy de
sires, all good counsels, and all just works, do proceed."
Nevertheless, Divine grace, practically speaking, is really
operant only as human choice is co-operant with it. While
it is true that it is God who worketh in us
Phil. ii. 12, 13. both to will and to work for his good pleas
ure, it is also true that we are to work out our own salvation
with fear and trembling. In other words God, almighty
though he is, can never compel me to do right against my
own consent. Could he do that, my doing right would be the
iron servility of a thrall, not the glad loyalty of a freeman.
My righteousness — if I may use so high a word in so low a

0 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH S HEART.
sense — would be as mechanical and soulless as the neces
sary rise of a vapor or the necessary fall of a hailstone.
Although the infinitely patient Saviour
Eev. iii. 20. ° ' J r
will stand and knock all day and all night
at the door of my heart, he will never force his entrance ; if
he ever enters, it is because I heard his knocking, and my
self drew the bolt, and, opening the door, gave him welcome.
This, then, is our first point: Man is morally free.
Yet Man is also Nevertheless, secondly, man is at the same-
under Law. ^me un<jer \aw Believe me, young friends.
this is as true of man's moral nature as it confessedly is true
of man's bodily nature. And it is a part of man's freedom to*
adjust himself spirit-wise to moral law, just as it is a part
of man's freedom to adjust himself body-wise to physical
law. For example : The spiritual law of love no more-
conflicts with man's moral freedom than does the physical
law of gravitation conflict with man's bodily freedom ; in
fact, the moral law of love drawing to the eternal centre is
the complement of the physical law of gravitation. Both
nature and morals find their gravitating centre in God.
And moral law is as inexorable as is physical law. True, we
talk about " breaking the laws of God ;" but the language
is manifestly loose. Instead of our being able to break
God's laws, it is God's laws which, if we do not obey them.

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

will most assuredly break us. In other words, there is no
more possibility of chance or instability in the realm of
moral law than there is in the realm of natural law. This,
then, is our second point : Man is under law.
Man is under the Thirdly, man is under the law of moral
Law of Heredity. geueal0gyj or, to use the modern philo
sophical phrase, the law of heredity. Nor is this law of
heredity a modern, discovery. It was distinctly enunciated
nearly two thousand years ago at a memorable night-con
ference between a Judean rabbi and a Galilean carpenter : —
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
John iii. 6. and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit." That is to say : Like begets like, and can beget no
otherwise. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and can
never by any possibility become anything but flesh ; that
which is born of the spirit is spirit, and can never by
any possibility become anything but spirit. Evolution of
species, along the axis of an archetypal idea, is doubtless
true in the material world. But between matter and spirit
there is an unbridgeable, infinite chasm, and therefore ma
terial flesh can never develop into material spirit. Accord-
ingly, let me remark in passing, Christ's doctrine of the new
birth is profoundly philosophical. Just because the law of
heredity is absolutely without exception — that which is

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOHS HEART.

born of the flesh being inevitably flesh, and that which is
born of the spirit being inevitably spirit — we ought not to
marvel at the Lord's application of the law of heredity to
the moral world, saying to you and me, as he did to Nico-
demus : — " That which is born of the flesh is
John iii. 6-7. flesh ; that which is born of the spirit is
spirit ; marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again, anew, from above." You do not marvel at the law
of bodily inheritance ; indeed, it is one of the accepted
basal stones of the modern doctrine of environment, and
also of the modern sociology. Why then marvel at the
Galilean philosopher's application of the law of heredity to
the moral realm ? Were it in this realm ever otherwise,
were there ever among all the untold myriads of humanity
past, present, future, one single exception to the Lord's de
claration — " Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
John iii. 3. Except a man be born anew, from above, he
can not see the kingdom of God " — that exception would be
indeed a marvel, a monstrous anomaly : for it would be a
contradiction of the law of heredity, a reversal and up-
, heaval of the very system of human nature as now consti
tuted. Ah, the world's true hope is not development, but
re-generation; not evolution, but re-volution. The announce
ment then, " Ye must be born again," is not a new and

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH S HEART.

special edict by the founder of Christianity ; it is written in
the very constitution of humanity. If any one ought to
accept unquestioningly Christ's doctrine of the New Birth,
it is the scientist. The law of heredity settles the point.
Physical science holds us to inevitable orthodoxy here. — But
to recur to the point immediately in hand : The law of
heredity, surveyed in its moral bearing, means the law of
moral self-reproduction. That is to say : Man is not only
heir to his environment, inheriting, for example, the cir
cumstances of parents, birthplace, nursing, early training,
and the like ; he is also heir to himself, inheriting his own
character. He repeats himself in himself. And each repe
tition is intenser than the preceding ; each bad act becomes
the sire of many bad acts, even as, thank God-, each good act
becomes the sire of many good acts. In other words, he
illustrates in himself the law of the harvest:
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap." The law holds absolutely in the vegetable world. If a
man sows wheat, he will reap from that wheat, not tares, but
wheat. If he sows tares, he will reap from those tares, not
wheat, but tares. The law holds with equal absoluteness
in the spiritual world. If a man sows righteousness, he will
reap from that righteousness, not sinfulness, but righteous
ness. If he sows sinfulness, he will reap from that sinful-

10 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.
ness, not righteousness, but sinfulness. You can not repeal
the law of heredity ; that which is born of the flesh is flesh ,
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. You can not
annul the law of harvest; whatsoever a man sows, that shall
he also reap. And, as in the vegetable world, so in the spirit
ual ; the crop is ever larger than the seed. For example : A
man sows the love of money — accordingly, he reaps what
he sows, namely, the love of money ; and, as the growth is
ever larger than the germ, he grows fonder and fonder of
money, reaping an ever intensifying love of money, the
habit of miserliness ever becoming more and more con
firmed. This is but a sample. What is true of avarice is also
true of intemperance, indolence, obstinacy, skepticism,
moral obtuseness, and so on. And the crop is ever larger
than the seed. He that sows wind shall reap
Hosea viii. 7. whirlwind. That is to say : Every man, in
sheer virtue of the law of heredity, is evermore intensifying
his own moral character ; or, to borrow an expression from
zoology, he is evermore duplicating himself, as do the
polyps, by a process of gemmation. And so it comes to
pass that bad men are ever growing worse and worse, even
as, thank God, good men are ever growing better and better.
And this leads me to speak for a moment of the merciful side
of this law of heredity or harvest ; for, while that which is

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 11
born of the flesh is flesh, and can never be anything but
flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit, and can
never be anything but spirit. While he that soweth unto
his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption
Gal. vi. 8. r r
(moral dissolution and decomposition, which
is the second death), he that soweth unto the Spirit shall
of the Spirit reap eternal life (the blissful life that is im
mortally cumulative). The Christian life is a process of
celestial crystallization ; gracious impulses becoming trans
figured into gracious habits. This is the ideal estate as
conceived by the disciple whom Jesus loved ; " Who
soever is begotten of God doeth no sin, be-
I John iii. 9 °
cause his seed abideth in him ; and he can
not sin because he is begotten of God." And so shall be
realized the happy formula of the saintly Augustine —
¦beata necessitas boni, the blessed necessity of being good. Yea,
he that overcometh I will make him a pil-
Eev. iii. 12. r
lar in the temple of my God, and he shall
go out thence no more. This, then, is our third point : Man
is under the law of heredity.

And now, fourthly, God is the author of
God is the Author
of this Law of He- this law of heredity. You all admit, for
it is one of the deliverances of modern

12 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

science, that the law of heredity holds in the natural world.
And the natural world is the complement of the spiritual.
Beware, young friends, of falling into polytheism, worship
ing, as do the heathen, various deities, adoring the God of
Nature as though he were a different Deity from the God
of Morals. No, there is but one God. For though there are
that are called gods many and lords many,
I. Cor. viii. 5, 6. b J J >
whether in heaven or on earth, yet to us
there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and
we unto him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom
are all things, and we through him. Hear
Deut. vi. 3. then, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one
Lord. And so the one Lord our God is the author of this
law of heredity alike in the natural world and in the spir
itual world. And now, observe, you do not question God's
righteousness in respect to the law of heredity for the physi
cal world. In fact, it is a great clew for human guidance.
Take that sample of the law of heredity — reaping precisely
what we sow — why, it is the farmer's very inspiration. Just
because he knows that if he sows corn, he will reap from
what he has sown corn, and not thorns, he will go forth in
the approaching spring-days, and, no matter how forbid
ding the skies, he will sow his corn in supremest confidence.
You do not blame God for this law of sequence, or rather con-

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 13

sequence, or the law of heredity, in the natural world. Why,
then, do you blame God for the same law in the spiritual
world ? Would you have two Gods, a God of law in the
material world, and a God of whim in the spiritual world ?
This, then, is our fourth point: God is the author of the law
of heredity. And now we begin to see how it was that
The Divine Hard
ening the Result of God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Let me re
capitulate the points : first, man is morally
free ; secondly, man is under law ; thirdly, man is under the
law of heredity ; fourthly, God is the author of this law of he
redity. And so, fifthly, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Not
that he hardened it directly — perish the thought ! Let no
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted
James i. 13. of God; for God can not be tempted with
evil, and he himself tempteth no man. But he hard
ened Pharaoh's heart indirectly. That is to say : He treated
Pharaoh as a free man, declining to interfere with his own
divine law of heredity, but allowing it to take its natural
course. In fact, we are repeatedly told that Pharaoh hard
ened his own heart. For example : " When
Exodus viii. 15. , , • i l t
Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hard
ened his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord

14 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

had said ;" again : " But Pharaoh hardened
Exodus viii. 32. his heart at this time also, neither would
he let the people go;" once more: "When Pharaoh saw
the rain and the hail and the thunders were
Exodus ix. 34. ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his
heart." Thus the phrase, " The Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart " is used interchangeably with the phrase, " Pharaoh
hardened his own heart." It was a striking instance of the
apostle's pedigree of sin : " Let no man saj*-
James i. 13-16. when he is tempted, I am tempted of God :
for God is untried in evil, and he himself tempteth no man :
but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own
lust, and enticed : then the lust, when it hath conceived, bear-
eth sin : and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth
death : be not deceived, my beloved brethren." We see, then,
how God hardened Pharaoh's heart ; He hardened it, not be
cause he willed to harden it, but because he willed to treat
Pharaoh according to stable law. I take my stand here on
the platform of scientific philosophy itself ; vindicating God
on the basis of that very " nature " which you are so fond
of saying is " inexorable." Would you, let me ask again,
have a God of caprice ? No, young man, be not deceived ;
. God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man
Oal. vi. 7. soweth, that shall he also reap.

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 15

Pharaoh's Case Alas, Pharaoh's case is a daily phenom
enon. True, his obstinacy was a factor in
the divine plan. For so God himself announced to
Pharaoh : " For this cause have I upheld
Exodus ix. 16. t
thee, for to show in thee my power, and
that my name may be declared throughout all the earth."
When we remember that it was the defiant and sacrilegious
obstinacy of Pharaoh which proved the occasion of the stu
pendous plagues of Egypt, and the triumphant exodus of
Israel through the Red sea, and the subsequent countless
acknowledgments of Jehovah's absolute supremacy from the
day Moses chanted his triumphal ode in Arabia to this day
when I am speaking to you from a pulpit in this Western
hemisphere, we are forced to confess with St. Paul that it
was for this very purpose that God raised
JBom. ix. 17. Pharaoh up, that he might show in him
his power, and that his name might be published abroad
in all the earth. Verily,
The wrath of man praiseth thee ;
Psalm ixxvi. io. rpne remain(ier of wrath thou girdest on (as a sword).
Nevertheless Pharoah acted throughout just as he pleased.
He was cruel and proud and stubborn ; and he acted out his
own nature. And just because he acted freely, he acted

16 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

guiltily. He chose to sow pride ; and he reaped what he
sowed, namely, pride. He chose to sow obstinacy ; and he
reaped what he sowed, namely, obstinacy. And the harvest
of pride and obstinacy was, of course, larger than the ori
ginal seed. Pharaoh's case was unique only because of the
attendant and subsequent marvelous events. His guilt
radically surveyed, is a daily guilt ; and therefore his fate
— namely, a hardened heart — is a daily fate. How many
persons there are all around you who, observant it may be
of all the amenities of life, are nevertheless callous to all
distinctly sacred influences, proof alike against the promises
of God's grace and the menaces of God's law. And observe
how they became thus callous. In youthful years, carried
away by life's gaieties, they sowed procrastination, or neglect
of the Saviour's gracious invitation : and now, in mature
years, when choice has hardened into habit, and this in
sheer virtue of the law of the harvest, (which is really
a law of heredity), they are reaping from that compara
tively little and carelessly sown seed an enormous and
dreadful crop of moral paralysis or soul-coma. That is to
say : God has hardened their hearts by allowing them, in
accordance with the law of heredity, to harden their own
hearts. Here is the key to the awful paradox of the Parable-
speaker : —

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH's HEART. 17
"Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he
Matt. xiii. 12-15. shall have abundance ; but whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken away even that which he hath. Therefore speak I
to them in parables : because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the pro
phecy of Isaiah, which saith :—
By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise un-
Isaiah vi. 9-10. derstand,
And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive :
For this people's heart is waxed gross,
And their ears are dull of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed ;
Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And should turn again,
And I should heal them.
That is to say : Whoever is susceptible to truth, to him
shall truth be given, and he shall have abundance ; with
the increase of susceptibility shall come an increase of
truth, and with the increase of truth shall come an in
crease of susceptibility. But whoever is not susceptible to
truth, from him shall be taken away even what he hath ;
not only his opportunity of hearing truth, but also his ca
pacity for moral susceptibility itself.
Note. — Compare Juvenal's bitter saying : —
'Tis true, poor Codrus nothing had to boast ;
And yet poor Codrus all that nothing lost.

18 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

And, therefore, in these hardened hearers of the gospel is
fulfilled Isaiah's mornful saying : —
Go and say to this people :
Hear ye on still, but understand not;
And see you on still, but perceive not :
Make the heart of this people gross,
And make their ears dull,
And smear their eyes ;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And turn, and be healed.
It recalls a kindred saying in the parable of the in
trusted talents : " Take away the talent
from him." For, as there is a talent for
trade, or architecture, for music, for oratory, so there is a
talent for Godliness. And the talent for Godliness, even
though it be the only talent intrusted to me, is the greatest
of talents, for it enables me to become Godlike. But the
talent for Godliness, if laid up in a napkin or buried in the
earth — no matter how carefully — is a forfeited talent. For,
as Horace Bushnell has powerfully shown, " The capacity for
religion is extirpated by disuse."

Note. — Sermons for the New Life ; pages 165-185.

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 19*
That is to say : If a man does not use, or put out to in
terest, his talent for religion, the day will come, and this in
simple virtue of the law of heredity, when the talent itself
will be taken away from him, and his very capacity for be
coming a Christian will be forever lost. There is a disease
called ossification, as, for example, when an artery is
changed into bone: There is such a thing as the possibility,
and, alas, frequency, of moral ossification, or spiritual pet
rifaction. Have you never read of a conscience seared
with a hot iron? Yes, there is such a
I Tim. iv. 2. thing as a cauterized moral sense, hence
forth forever insensitive. It is the nearest approach to the
unforgivable sin — the sin against the Holy Ghost, or all
gracious influences — a sin which, in the
Matt. xii. 31-32. °
very nature of the case, in sheer virtue of
the law of heredity — can never be forgiven, neither in
this world, nor in that which is to come. God forbid that
any of us should know by woeful experience the unspeak
able misery of having committed the unpardonable sin!
Rather let us listen to the Holy Ghost as
Heb. iii. 7-11. J
he saith : —
To-day, if ye will hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
Like as in the day of trial in the wilderness,

20 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

When your fathers tempted me by proving me,
And saw my works forty years.
Wherefore I was displeased with the generation ;
And I said : They are a people who do always err in heart.
And they do not know my ways :
Wherefore, I have sworn in my wrath : —
They shall not enter into my rest.
Let me conclude with three thoughts.
Each Man Re- First, each man is responsible for his own
own character. character. For each man has the liberty of
sowing whatever habit he pleases ; and the harvest he reaps
is the aggregate of his habits, that is to say, his character.
Accordingly, it is for each man himself to say whether his
character shall be good or bad ; whether it shall grow better
or grow worse. Almighty God is unchangeable, and there
fore he will not change his law of heredity. But Almighty
God is also gracious, and therefore he offers you grace to
take advantage of the law of heredity ; for it is one of the
blessed boons of this law that he who soweth
Gal. vi. 3. , .
unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
eternal life. Recall the parable of the
Matt. xiii. 3-9, 18-23. Sower: While there was but one kind
of seed — even the seed of the kingdom, which is the
word of God — there were various kinds of soil : — the trod-

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 21

den wayside, the rocky ground, the thorny ground, the
good ground. And each hearer of the gospel is directly re
sponsible for the condition of the soil of his own heart.
The preacher is not the only person who assumes a tremen
dous responsibility when public worship begins ; every one
of his listeners shares an equal responsibility. The preacher
is responsible for the kind of seed he sows, and for the man
ner of his sowing it ; his hearers are responsible for the
treatment they give to the seed. There are some things
which the preacher can do. He can sow the truth as it is
in Jesus, and he can sow it everywhere, over all kinds of
soil ; that is, he can sow faithfully. But there is one
thing which the preacher can not do. He can not make the
soil of the heart morally genial, heartily receptive of the
truth. Paul could not do it. Gabriel can not do it. Even
the Divine Son of God can not do it, unless, indeed, he first
demolish personal responsibility and the very foundations of
moral order and government throughout his empire. It is
a constituent part of God's method of moral administration
that each man must decide for himself as to whether truth
in Jesus shall impress him or not. In other words, the final
responsibility here is not with the seed, not with the sower,
not with the divine owner of the field. The final responsi
bility is with the soil itself. And for the condition of the

22 THE HARDENING OP PHARAOH'S HEART.

soil each hearer of the glad tidings is directly and solemnly
accountable. Behold, then, the goodness
Rom. xi. 22. and severity of God : toward them that
fell, severity ; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou con
tinue in his goodness : otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
The same sun which melts the ice and quickens the wheat
hardens the clay and quickens the tare. The same She-
chinah which was a pillar of light to the
Exodus xiv. 20. .
Israelite was a pillar of night to the Egyp
tian. The same child which is set for the
Luke ii. 34. rising of many in Israel is also set for the
falling of many. The same gospel which is a savor from
life unto life to them that are being saved
I. Cot. ii. 15, 16. &
is a savor from death unto death to them
that are perishing. The same Jesus, who is a living corner
stone to the believer, is a stone of stum
bling and a rock of offense to the disbeliever.
The same law of heredity accounts for Abel the accepted and
Cain the rejected, for Moses the emancipator and Pharaoh
the oppressor, for John the beloved and Judas the repro
bate, for Baxter the saint and Paine the atheist. There is
fatalism here : but it is the fatalism of the law of heredity
or harvest : Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. God is responsible for this law of the harvest, and

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 23

in this sense he hardens men's hearts. Man is responsible
for the soil, and in this sense he hardens his own heart.
„ ,_ Secondly, each man is responsible for his
Each Man Re- r
sponsible for his own destiny ; and this just because he is
own Destiny. responsible for his own character. A pro
found truth lies in the adage of Sallust ; " Every man is
the architect of his own fortune." Daily character is
shaping future destiny.For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled ;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build. — Longfellow.
And so it comes to pass that the future state is strictly a
state of retribution, re-tributing, paying back again in the
same coinage, and this at the momentous rate of com
pound interest : that is to say : This world is the sowing time,
and the next world is the reaping time, and the harvest
will be of the same kind as the seed, only vastly larger.
Give heed, then, to the solemn prophecy of the Angel of the
Apocalypse. " He that is unrighteous, let
him do unrighteousness still, (yet more) :
and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still, (yet more) :
and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still, (yet

24 THE HARDENING .OF PHARAOH'S. HEART.

more) : and he that is holy, let- him be made holy still, (yet
.more)." Take heed then how you live. " Sow an act, reap a
habit ; sow a habit, reap a character ; sow a character, reap
¦a destiny."
An Appeal to the Lastly, let me, make a special appeal to
Young' those of you who are young. Our topic is
peculiarly suited to your case, for you ; are now in a plastic
state, forming your own character, and so electrotyping
your own eternal destiny. Yes, young man, during these
blithesome college days, you are in all probability deter
mining unalterably the character of your manhood, and so
the character of your eternity. Believe me, it is much
easier for you to become a Christian to-day than it will
be ten years hence, even as it is much harder for you
to become a Christian to-day than it was ten years ago.
The nearer the cradle, fhe nearer to Jesus.
Heaven lies about us in our infancy. — Wordsworth.
Yes, the blessed Father loves theni that
Prov. viii. 17. love him, and those that seek him early
shall find him. Remember then thy Creator
Eccl. xii. i. and thy Redeemer now in the days of thy
youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh,
when thy moral nature, no longer plastic and formative
shall be confirmed in the habit of sin, forever petrified into

THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART. 25

the adamant of moral insensibility. For
Gen. vl. 3. J
God's spirit will not always strive with
man. The day of salvation, just because it is a day of
definite hours, and not an indefinite stem, will end
in evening and eternal night. Alas, how many, hav
ing delayed to accept the Saviour's gracious invitation,
and so having entered into the eternal night, will
bitterly realize in their own experience the Nazarene's awful
saying to his obdurate countrymen : —
John vii. 34. " Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me,
and where I am, ye can not come." Beware of the fearful
retribution of a self-hardened heart.
• 04.Q1 Because I have called, and ye have refused ;
I have stretched out my hand, and no one regarded ;
And ye have set at nought all my counsel,
And would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh in your calamity,
I will mock when your fear cometh ;
When your fear cometh like a tempest,
And your calamity cometh like a whirlwind ;
When distress and anguish come upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer ;
They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.
Because they hated knowledge,
And chose not the fear of Jehovah ;
They consented not to my counsel,
They despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
And be filled with their own devices.

26 THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH'S HEART.

That is to say : They have reaped what they sowed ; they
did not take advantage of the prerogative of moral freedom
on its heavenward side, and, therefore, according to the law
of heredity, they consigned themselves to hardness of heart,
and so to eternal petrifaction. Oh, be true, then, young
man, to your present capacity for becoming a son of God,
and so an heir to the blissful immortality. To-day are
golden moments, golden because flitting. Cherish, above
rubies and diamonds, every heavenward aspiration, how
ever momentary. Quench not the Spirit,
I. Thess. v. 19. that blessed force which, even now, I trust,
is quickening your better instincts. On this day of prayer
for colleges, fall into line with the prayers of saintly par
ents, and conscientious teachers, and your own better im
pulses. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
Psalm i. 12. . ' . 6 ¦"
And ye perish in the way ;
For quickly will his anger kindle.
Blessed are all who put their trust in him.
May God this very day take away from
every one of us the heart of stone, and give
to every one of us a heart of flesh.
From hardness of heart, and contempt
From the Litany. x
of thy word and commandment, good
Lord, deliver us !

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