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Des Tombés

XXI.

Ces événements, croyez-le bien, ne sont pas arrivés à l’insu de Dieu ou sans sa permission. L’Ecriture nous dit: Qui a livré Jacob au pillage et Israël entre les mains des ravisseurs? N’est-ce pas le Dieu qu’ils ont offensé? Ils n’ont voulu ni marcher à sa suite ni entendre sa loi, et il les a frappés dans sa colère (Is., XLII.). Nous lisons encore : Est-ce que la main de Dieu ne peut nous sauver? Est-ce que son oreille ne peut nous entendre? Mais vos péchés mettent une séparation entre Dieu et vous, et il détourne sa face pour ne pas être touché par la pitié (Is., LIX). Rappelons-nous nos fautes, examinons nos actes, sondons les secrets de notre âme et reconnaissons que le châtiment n’était que trop mérité. Nous n’avons jamais voulu marcher dans les voies du Seigneur, nous avons repoussé sa loi, ses préceptes, ses avertissements.

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On the Lapsed

21.

Unless, perchance, these things have been done without God's knowledge, or all these things have happened without His permission; although Holy Scripture teaches the indocile, and admonishes the unmindful, where it speaks, saying, "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to those who made a booty of him? Did not the Lord against whom they sinned, and would not walk in His ways, neither were obedient unto His law? And He has poured upon them the fury of His anger." ¹ And elsewhere it testifies and says, "Is the Lord's hand shortened, that it cannot save; or His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? But your iniquities separate between you and your God; and because of your sins He hath hid His face from you, that He may not have mercy." ² Let us rather consider our offences, revolving our doings and the secrets of our mind; let us weigh the deserts of our conscience; let it come back upon our heart that we have not walked in the Lord's ways, and have cast away God's law, and have never been willing to keep His precepts and saving counsels.