There is on their part a settling down to a fatal hardness of heart, a confirmed resistance of the Spirit's pleading.
Should death overtake them as they are now, the dreadful words would be spoken, "Weighed in the balance, and found wanting." (Daniel 5:27).
It is possible for men to offer the Savior outward homage, to be Christians in profession, to have a form of godliness, while the heart whose loyalty he prizes above all else, is estranged from him.
As they are separated from the loyal ones,
Christ looks upon them with deep sorrow.
Inflated with self-sufficiency, they hope that it will be well with their souls. But at the last great day the mirror of detection reveals to them
--the evil that their hearts have practiced,
--and shows to them at the same time the impossibility of reform.
Every effort was made to bring them to repentance. But they refused to humble their hearts. Now the bitter lamentation is heard, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jeremiah 8:20)."
E.G.W.
