Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way.
God’s method of punishment
It is to let us punish ourselves. In this way man is led by bitter experience to see his own folly and God’s wisdom. When we will not be guided by God He grants all our wishes and desires to show us how foolish and miserable they are. When a man is “cursed with every granted prayer” he learns by bitter experience that it is possible to be his own worst enemy. His long-indulged desires become tyrannical tormentors. The promises of God are conditional. He will give us good things if we will do our part; but not if we neglect it, or do the contrary to it. God has given us the dignity of freedom, which involves the terrible possibility of disobeying His commands. It is the best thing for the thoughtless and careless to be let alone of God. Those who look back over their lives can trace most of their errors to the fact that they have tried to take themselves, so to speak, away from the guidance of God. Within the man who delights in sin, and loves darkness rather than light, there is a hell of his own making, from which he cannot depart any more than from himself. Only those who are beyond reformation, and who have altogether decided for the devil, God in this way leaves alone to be creatures of their own appetites and the prey of their sins. On others God inflicts sharp discipline in order to make them like Himself. (E. J. Hardy.)
Vain regrets
Aman in South Africa bought a piece of land for the purpose of farming it, but, after a short trial, finding it unsuitable for that purpose, and hearing that gold was found in the neighbourhood, set to work to seeif he could find any, but failed. Disgusted with his purchase, he sold it for what itwould fetch, getting what we would call “a mere song” for it. The man who bought it, having also heard that there was a likelihood of gold being found, lost no time in making a vigorous search, and was rewarded in finding both gold and diamonds, which made him rich beyond his wildest dreams. Some years after- wards the former owner, who had left the country, heard from an old friend that gold by the ton and diamonds by hundreds were being taken from his bit of land, and it is said that he gnashed his teeth with rage and chagrin, as, with his hands clenched until the nails entered the palms, he exclaimed, “Oh, what have I lost! what have I lost! “You who have not accepted Christ, take care that some day when salvation is no longer yours to take or refuse, you in the bitterness of anguish can only say, “Oh, what have I lost! what have I lost!”
