tells
him, all atremble, "I have sinned this time. I will let the people
go." But when the storm ceases and the sun shines out he is quite
ashamed of his weakness. He is so ashamed that he forgets altogether
the promise that he made when the fear of death was upon him.

This is a side of human nature that is a bit disgusting, yet we dare
not shut our eyes to it. There are scores listening to me at this very
moment who have acted for all the world as Pharaoh acted. And you have
done so with all the light that he had and far more. I do not know of
a man that is in greater danger of being ultimately lost than that man
who never cares for religion except when he is scared. Because the
truth of the matter is that a man of that kind does not care for
goodness or for God at all. Not even in his moments of most abject
terror does he want to be truly saved. He simply wants to escape the
results of his sin. He does not want to pay the penalty for wrong
doing. He wants to defeat the ends of justice. He is not interested
in being good and pure and true. He is simply interested in keeping
out of hell.

How patient God was with Pharaoh. We are amazed at it till we think
how infinitely patient He has been with ourselves. By storm, by black
night, by adversity after adversity, God is doing His best to fight
Pharaoh back from the Bed Sea. He is doing all He can to turn him away
from committing suicide in body and suicide in soul. But Pharaoh, as
some of ourselves, seemed absolutely greedy for damnation. He seemed
completely bent on working out his own utter destruction.

After the king had broken one vow after another and lied and lied and
lied again, God brought the last dark providence into his life. He
made one final effort to save him from his ruin. Pharaoh was called to
kneel by the coffin of his first born. And his hard heart seemed
softened at last. By the grave of the Crown Prince he made a solemn
vow that he would obey God. And he set about putting the vow into
execution at once. And the children of Israel were not only allowed to
go, but they were hurried out of Egypt.

At last, at last, we say, with what infinite expense the man is brought
to obey. But would you believe it the grass had not yet grown green
upon the grave of his boy till he forgot his vow and turned back to the
old life again. Oh, what a grip sin gets on us. Oh, how blind we
become if we persistently refuse to follow the light.