The hardening
The hardening … is absolute and complete insensitivity to wrongdoing. Sin tends to do that. Every compulsion and lust will make at least some progress towards it. Those of you who were tender, who melted under the word and under trials, will grow “sermon-proof and nausea-proof.” Those of you who trembled at the presence of God, at thoughts of death and your appearance before him, will have such brazenness in your spirit that you will no longer be moved by these things. Your soul and your sin will be spoken about, and you will not care, hear, or notice. You will be able to pass over your Christian duties like praying, hearing, and reading and your heart will not be affected in the least. Sin will become easy for you. You will ignore it as nothing. This is what it will grow to be. ~ John Owen
