But what if a man will not hear that voice? What if a man rebels proudly against the good thoughts that rise in his mind, and tries to forget them, and grows angry with them, angry with the preacher, the Church Service, the Bible itself, because they _will_ go on reminding him of what he knows in his heart to be right? What if those good thoughts only make him the more stubborn and determined to do his own pleasure, and follow his own interests, and do his own will? Do you not see that to that man God’s kingdom over his heart is a savour of death unto death—that his finding out that God is his Lord only makes him more rebellious—that God’s Spirit striving with his heart to bring it right, only stirs up his stubbornness and self-will, and makes him go the more obstinately wrong? Oh, my friends, this is a fearful thought! That man can become worse by God’s loving desire to make him better! But so it is. So it was with Pharaoh of old. All God’s pleading with him by the message of Moses and Aaron, by the mighty plagues which God sent on Egypt, only hardened Pharaoh’s heart. The Lord God spoke to him, and his message only lashed Pharaoh’s proud and wicked will into greater fury and rebellion, as a vicious horse becomes the more unmanageable the more you punish it. Therefore, it is said plainly in scripture, that _The Lord_ hardened Pharaoh’s heart; not as some fancy, that the Lord’s will was to make Pharaoh hard-hearted and wicked. God forbid. The Lord is the fountain of good only, and not He, but we and the devil, make evil. But the more the Lord pleaded with Pharaoh, and tried to bend his will, the more self-willed he became. The more the Lord showed Pharaoh that the Lord was King, the more he hated the kingdom and will of God, the more he determined to be king himself, and to obey no law but his own wicked fancies and pleasures, and asked: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”