How lightly a sinner esteems the efforts of God and God's people to save him, and how the rich provisions of mercy and grace and the invitation of God to accept them may at first seem even a nuisance to him is well illustrated in the case of Israel's deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. Their own admission was, later, that they had met God's offer of deliverance with the request to be let alone. "Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians." (Ex. 14:12.) This is lack of appreciation; but not only that: it shows hopelessness, paralysis of will, degradation. It is the tendency answering to that of physical bodies to continue in the same line, once they are set in motion. It is the conservative tendency, the power of habit, the fear of change, the disinclination to get out of the rut. "Wouldest thou be made whole?" asked Jesus of the invalid who had lain helpless thirty-eight years; and he seemed hardly to know whether he would or not. A convict set free after many years' imprisonment, came back to the prison and piteously begged to be readmitted. He was old, he said, and did not know what to do with himself, and the responsibility of freedom, making a living, finding his place among men, was too much for him; and, anyhow, he was homesick for his cell. This is an extreme [251] case, but not out of reason by any means. "Let us alone"--let us remain the slaves of Egypt--don't trouble us, we are doing well enough. Let us live in peace, and do our daily drudgery and get our daily rations as heretofore. We prefer the troubles we have to others we know not of. Thus spoke the dispirited nation. It sounds familiar. Most sinners want to be let alone. The new life offered by Christ is like a steep mountain, too difficult of ascent--a fellow might even try and never reach the summit. What is the use? It is too much effort and too great a change. It cuts into my comfort to even think about it. It is like getting out of a warm bed on an icy morning--and that, too, when there is no special need or pressure, or particular reason why it should be done just exactly now. Some other time I may consider it, but not now. Let me alone. "Let me alone," says the man who is freezing to death, who is sinking into that uncontrollable slumber from which there is no awakening. "Let me alone," says the morphine-poisoned child, when all the family are in anxious distress seeking to maintain the spark of life. So spoke Israel in Egypt; but, praise God, he did not leave them alone. So neither were we left alone when we would rather have gone to sleep in our sins. Neither has he let you alone, my sinner friend. See you refuse him no longer. "Today, if thou shalt hear his voice, harden not your heart." To be at last let alone of God is the most terrible doom that can befall a man.

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