Morning journal and courier., 1890-03-10
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS.

An interesting and notably humane sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth at Center church yesterday morning. He chose his text from Hebrews, iii, 7-S: "Wherefore the Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.'"
 Harden not your hearts. But how can we help ita The little child whose tears start at the first sad story soon learns to listen to tragic tales. A certain roughness of sensi- bility seems to become necessity of self preservation in this struggle of human exists ence. Experience soon cools youths ardent pulses; enthusiasm congeals into habit; sen- timents ytallizs into settled rules of conduct. Amid the hard necessities of things men soon become inured to ways of life whichwould have bruised their feet to tread at an earlier stage. Harden not your hearts-but how can we help growing less sensitive to evil and pain in such a world as ours! It is not easy for a man to hold himself long above the average monotony of his trade. Human opinions and beliefs seek the general level. Reform era must always contend against the law of human averages. This tendency of human nature to lose sensibility and life, to become dry and worthless has been historically dem- onstrated. Civilizations have sprung up and aourished for season, withered in their branches and become dry and hollow at heart. A few centuries before Christ the world was by no means hardened; man was still being of childlike sensibilities, capable of art, poetry and song. The race which blossomed in Homer and bore ripe fruits in Plato was not yet dried and withered stock. But what was the Pagan world few centuries after Christi What was 1t when Julian en- deavored to revive its ancient faithsi A Can Matthew Arnold's revived Hellenism succeed better in the nineteenth cen tury than Julisn's did in the fourthi A noble spirit becomes hard and cold against life and death Is the last word of Christless humanity. If we should lose faith in the son of man we should find it difficult, with our best sndeavors, to keep out of the same fatal cycle.
 Harden not your hearts; but experience dissipates fine sentiment as age does per- fumes.
 If our feelings are only SO much moral per- fumery, if there be no reality and worth in them, then could they hardly last in the ex- posture of the world and keep the heart of old sge as fresh as a little child's. All the finer are not the ever new quickening and response of the immortal soul within us to the spirit of the eternal around us.
 Harden not your hearts, but one can see enough in this world oi wrongs and shames to make heart grow numb, If there be no faith hidden within 1t to keep it warm and living. Without some strong and vital faith hardness of heart would seem to be almost necessity of life to us.
 You remember, for example, that boy who used to sit on the same bench perhaps with you at school. You saw him again the other day, and ss you looked at the set face with its hard lines you wonder how that happy boy ever became the father of that hard, coarae man.
 But you know the secret of his loss of soul; he yielded to his temptations. It is impos- sible, it is altogether contrary to the nature S y in M .sonp ea9 o%ns HGt lose sS with everything which is afioat in it.; either 1t will carry 1t along with it, or it will throw 1t out. It must press hard against its banks and leave to rot and waste away that which does not float with it's current. The stream of righteousness can do no less. The exhortstion harden not your hearts is word to which protesting Christians as we'll as others need to give heed. For in order that we may escape the hardening process of nature 1t is necessary not only once to have been converted, but also to keep ourselves continually in the process and expansion of divine grace. Souls may shrink from mere neglect; or they may fall thoughtlessly into belittling habits of life; or they may lose
 Vitality and power of enlargement in an atmosphere of worldliness. If Christian keeps himself in coulse of life surcharged with worldliness, the laws of moral chemist ry leave no doubt as to the results. One may preserve the external forms of Christ- ianity and yet become hard as iron. The true church of Christ is not Q place of ex. hibiting of relics, however sacred, it ia rather like sunny valley in the spring time in which much may be tender and immature, but where everything is sure to be growing. And let us look we'll to 1t that while we may be growing larger and finer of heart, on the whole we are not becoming hardened at some particular points. If any duty presses upon us, as the duty of helping, or givipg,or coming out and confessipg our faith, and we put 1t off time and again and press it back from us, then at that point where we do not yield to known duty or truth the mind may be gradually blunted and the heart become obdurate. Harden not your hearts. This exhortation is not one to be applied to others; there is not one of us who may not make some personal application of it. And it presents serious and solemn question to any who are strug- glipg with religious convictions Resistance is hardening process. Gritve not the holy spirit. To-day if you would hear his voice harden not your hearts,