And if any one of you answers in his heart--these are good words, and all
very well: but they come too late. I am too far gone. I ate the sour
grapes in my youth, and my teeth must be on edge for ever and ever. I
have been a bad man, or I have been a foolish woman too many years to
mend now. I am down, and down I must be. I have made my bed, and I must
lie on it, and die on it too. Oh my dear brother or sister in Christ,
whoever you are who says that, unsay it again for it is not true.
Ezekiel tells you that it is not true, and one greater than Ezekiel,
Jesus Christ, your Saviour, your Lord, your God, tells you it is not
true.
For what happens, by God's eternal and unchangeable laws of retribution,
to a whole nation, or a whole family, may happen to you--to each
individual man. They fall by sin; they rise again by repentance and
amendment. They may rise punished by their sins, and punished for a long
time, heavily weighted by the consequences of their own folly, and
heavily weighted for a long time. But they rise--they enter into their
new life weak and wounded, from their own fault.
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