rd chapter of
Matthew and the thirty-seventh to the thirty-ninth verse, inclusive, we
hear him saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth,
till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

From that day on his special ministry was to the Gentiles, and he has
been seeking in every possible way to bring us to an appreciation of
what it means to know him and to be filled with all his fullness. We
have but to stop for a moment and consider to realize that by many his
overtures have been declined, his Spirit grieved and his Son rejected.
Men have lived as if they had no responsibility towards him at all and
in many instances they have put him entirely out of their
consideration. If we compare present day indifference and sin with the
condition of things at the time of the flood, and then again compare
them with the position of Israel when Jesus turned away from them with
tears, it would seem almost as if the world of the present day had made
progress both in the matter of indifference and rejection; and
therefore it is not strange that such an Old Testament text as this
would be applicable to people living about us. It is a solemn text.
"_My Spirit shall not always strive with men_." It is along the line
of those solemn words of Dr. Alexander:

"There is a time, we know not when;
A place, we know not where,
That seals the destiny of man
For glory or despair."

Again we read, "Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am
there ye cannot come." That also is the spirit of the text. God tells
us, "To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart," which
simply means that if we neglect to hear the heart will become hardened,
the will stubborn, and we shall be unsaved and hopeless. Again he
tells us, "Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation."
So for men to act as if they might come at any time and choose their
own way of salvation is to sin against him, and to all such he speaks
the text--"My Spirit shall not always strive with men."

It is assumed that the spirit of God does strive with men. If he will
not strive always, then he does strive at some particular time,