Paul says. Repentance is open to all men, and forgiveness
for those who repent. But from that day, if he chooses wrongly,
true repentance will grow harder and harder to him--perhaps
impossible at last. He has made his bed, and he must lie on it. He
has chosen the evil, and refused the good; and now the evil must go
on getting more and more power over him. He has sold his soul, and
now he must pay the price. Again, I say, he may be saved at last.
Who am I, to say that God's mercy is not boundless, when the Bible
says it is? But one may well say of that man, 'God help him,' for
he will not be able to help himself henceforth.
It is an awful thing, my friends, to think that we may fix our own
fate in this world, perhaps in the world to come, by one act of
wilful folly or sin: but so it is. Just as a man may do one tricky
thing about money, which will force him to do another to hide it,
and another after that, till he becomes a confirmed rogue in spite
of himself. Just as a man may run into debt once, so that he never
gets out of debt again; just as a man may take to drink once, and
the bad habit grow on him till he is a confirmed drunkard to his
dying day. Just as a man may mix in bad company once, and so become
entangled as in a net, till he cannot escape his evil companions,
and lowers himself to their level day by day, till he becomes as bad
as they.
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