He never says that a
meal is to his taste or a seat set so as to shelter and repose him. The
obstinate man makes his house a very prison and treadmill to himself and
to all those who are condemned to suffer with him. And all the time it
is not that he does not love and honour his household; but by an evil law
of the obstinate heart its worst obstinacy and mulishness comes out among
those it loves best.
But, my brethren, worse than all that, we have all what good Bishop Hall
calls 'a stone of obstination' in our hearts against God. With all his
own depth and clearness and plain-spokenness, Paul tells us that our
hearts are by nature enmity against God. Were we proud and obstinate and
malicious against men only it would be bad enough, and it would be
difficult enough to cure, but our case is dreadful beyond all description
or belief when our obstinacy strikes out against God. We know as well as
we know anything, that in doing this and in not doing that we are going
every day right in the teeth both of God's law and God's grace; and yet
in the sheer obstinacy and perversity of our heart we still go on in what
we know quite well to be the suicide of our souls.
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