'Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of
Hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?'--MALACHI iii. 7
(R.V.).
In previous sermons we have considered God's indictment of man's sin met
by man's plea of 'not guilty,' and God's threatenings brushed aside by
man's question. Here we have the climax of self-revealing and patient
love in God's wooing voice to draw the wanderer back, met by man's
refusing answer. These three divine utterances taken together cover the
whole ground of His speech to us; and, alas! these three human
utterances but too truly represent for the most part our answers to Him.