effects will a realisation of this thought have upon you? 1. It will check that vanity by which the strength of the young man and the beauty of the young woman are often so pitifully marred (1 Cor. iv. 7). 2. It will cause you to reverence yourselves. Those who think that no one cares for them, are apt not to care for themselves; but consciousness that we are observed leads us to circumspection and self-control. If the observation be friendly and approving, it is a stimulus to endeavour to merit it. Respect kindles self-respect. Remembering how God looks upon you, you will shrink from doing anything that will lessen His " "joy in you; you will not voluntarily permit faults or vices to mar the nobleness and beauty that call it forth, any more than the roses, if they had power of self-defence, would give a lodgment to those insects which blight the beauty that causes. beholders to joy in them. 3. Kindly, loving feelings towards God will spring up in you. Friendliness and love tend to call forth friendship and love; just as the sunshine and rain that in early summer descend from the natural heavens cause flowers to spring forth from the earth. Consider what joy God must have had in the young man Jesus of Nazareth, and why He had it, and resolve that the same causes for this Divine joy shall exist in you. II. God's feelings toward orphans and widows. "Mercy on their fatherless and widows." A more familiar thought, but let us not therefore over look its preciousness. How frequent and how emphatic are the declarations of God's pity for orphans and widows (Exod. xxii. 22; Deut. x. 18; Ps. x. 14, 18; lxviii. 5; lxxxii. 3; cxlvi. 9; Jer. xlix. 11, &c.) Yea, we are taught that at least one-half of religion consists in being like God in this respect (Jas. i. 27). God's pity is practical; let those to whom it is promised trust in it confidently (8). And let God's people make it their business-put themselves to pain and trouble-to be like Him in this respect: this is the way to secure His favour for themselves. (a) The world is God's journal, wherein He writes His thoughts and traces His tastes. The world overflows with beauty. Beauty should no more be called trivial, since it is the thought of God.-Beecher. (8) There are no such promises to those who are free from sorrow and trial as are full and abundant to the afflicted. A good country physician in New England went to a neighbour's house to tell a wife and mother of the sudden death of her absent husband. She was more than ordinarily frail and dependent. She had a large family. Her husband had acquired no property. The fresh blow was indeed terrible to her. When the first wild burst of sorrow was over, she looked up through her tears to her sympathising friend, and said in agony, "But, Doctor, what shall I do?" "My dear woman, I don't know," said the kind-hearted physician. "All I can say is, I only wish I had as many promises of God to take right home to myself as you have just now. The Bible is full of promises to those who are in your case." And the stricken woman lived to realise the truth and preciousness of the richest of those promises. Trumbull. DIVINE ANGER. ix. 17. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. I. Anger in God is a calm and just sense of displeasure against sin (a). II. Has its expression in the judgments executed upon men in this life. III. These under an administration of mercy are designed to be corrective. IV. Čannot in the case of failure satisfy the purposes of the Divine anger. V. Hence in all cases of impenitence God's anger is not turned away, &c.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury. Part I. p. 15. (a) The anger which God feels and displays is always anger against sin. It is never against sinners as offenders against Himself person. ally, but as violaters of the eternal laws of righteousness and love. It is not possible for the most daring transgressor to injure God in the slightest degree, and therefore He can never feel anything approaching to that per sonal vindictiveness which we feel against those who have wronged us. There are some passages which at first sight convey a different impression, as when it is said, "Know therefore that the Lord thy God. repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slack to him that hateth Him; He will repay him to his face" (Deut. vii. 10); and again, "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance upon His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies" (Nahum i. 2). But terrible as such passages are, they admit of a ready explanation. In them God manifestly speaks as "the Judge of all the earth," as the Representative and Administrator of righteousness. Some years ago, proclamations denouncing the severest penalties against Fenianism were issued in the name of our beloved Queen; but no one imagined that she cherished any personal hostility against those offenders against her authority. Every month it is her melancholy duty to sign documents that consign convicted murderers to the scaffold, but no one regards these death-warrants as any proof that she delights in the sufferings of those whose sentence she confirms. Nor will any thoughtful person interpret such passages as setting forth anything else than God's resolve to be faithful to His duties as the supreme administrator of justice, notwithstanding that in being so He must perform many things that are revolting to His infinite tenderness and compassion. His expostulations with sinners to repent and turn from their transgressions are a sufficient confirmation of this interpretation (Ezek. xviii. 31, 32, &c.) His anger against sin and sinners is no passion of personal vindictiveness, but is the natural revulsion of purity from impurity, of honesty from frand, of truthfulness for falsehood; the instinctive abhorrence of generosity for meanness, of benevolence for malice, of kindness for cruelty. If God did not feel and manifest this anger against sin, it would be impossible to respect and love Him. If He could look down on the mean and dastardly things that are done every day, and yet remain cold and emotionless as an iceberg, as indifferent to the sufferings of His creatures as some Oriental despots have been to the miseries of their wretched subjects, our whole soul would rise up in righteous condemnation of Him.-R. A. B. See outlines: GOD OPPRESSED, pp. 28-82; A TERRIBLE RESOLVE, pp. 61, 62; THE PUBPOSE OF PUNISHMENT, pp. 63, 64. THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF SIN. ix. 18-19. For wickedness burneth as the fire, da One of the grandest and most fearful scenes in nature is a forest on fire. This is the figure Isaiah employs to describe the destruction that was coming upon sinful and stubborn Israel (a). That destruction would be all-comprehending and irresistible. Even the poorest would not be spared, and the wealthiest could not escape. And all this woe, at which it behoved the people to tremble, is attributed to the wickedness in which they delighted. "Wickedness burneth as the fire "—a comprehensive statement eternally true. I. Consider how true it is in regard to individuals. The forest-fire-what a trivial thing it may seem in its commencement! It was but a little heap of dried leaves and sticks which a thoughtless traveller kindled, that by means of the little fire thus produced he might cook his evening meal. had no conception how that fire would spread. So the wickedness that ultimately consumes and utterly destroys, often commences in what seems a little transgression, e.g., the few glasses of He - wine taken at a wedding-breakfast by one who has been a total abstainer; the little act of dishonesty that is undetected, &c. (James iii. 5). Many of the passions by which millions are consumed avarice, lust, intemperance, &c.-seem little things in their commencement (H. E. I. 4497, 4498, 4513-4518). 2. It makes progress ac cording to its own laws, utterly regardless of the desires of the onlookers. It will not stop at any line which they may prescribe. No man can accomplish a desire to burn down just one acre of a forest. If he kindles a fire in the forest at all, it will advance as far and as long as there is fuel for it. So no man can determine beforehand the measure of the power which permitted wickedness shall acquire over him; the fire which a man kindles ir the forest of his own passions will go burning on long after he may wish it to stop. 3. Its power grows continually. It acquires a marvellous intensity and fervour as it proceeds (H. E. I. 409, 4500, 4501, 4534-4537). 4. Conse quently it proceeds with ever-accelerating rapidity. Here again the moral analogy is frightfully accurate. 5. Consequently, too, its range continually widens. That which began as a little point becomes a vast circle constantly expanding. Things that seemed so far off as to be absolutely safe are speedily included in the ring of flame. So the fire of ungodliness which was kindled in one passion hastens through the whole nature, and destroys every vestige of virtue and nobility; it seizes every faculty of mind and heart (8). 6. It is remorselessly undistinguishing in its effects. The fair flowers and the poisonous weeds, the stately cedars and the misshapen brambles, it consumes alike. So again with the sinner: the wickedness that consumes him spares nothing. In workhouses, lunatic asylums, prisons, how many most terrible proofs there are of the truth of this declaration! Once the owners of many choice possessions, and with prospects as fair as those of any of us, they are now like the forest region after the fire-blackened and desolate. II. Consider how true this is of nations. Wickedness consumes the nation's prosperity, happiness, strength, and ultimately its existence (7). From all this there are many lessons to be learned. 1. He is a fool who makes a sport of sin (Prov. x. 23). He is infinitely more foolish than the child who plays with fire. 2. He is a fool who does not stamp out the fires of unholy passion the instant that he perceives them beginning to kindle upon him. In dealing with sin, or in dealing with fire, our only safety lies in the promptest and most energetic action (8; H. E. I. 4733, 4734). 3. Those nations are guilty of suicidal folly who legalise vice in any form. 4. Those who pander to a nation's vices are traitors of the worst kind (ε).R. A. B. In this message the prophet affirms that there are resemblances between a fire and sin. It is not a common fire to which he refers, such as is employed for domestic or public purposes. It is a great conflagration which burns the humble shrubbery, the gigantic forest, extends over the land, and sends a mighty column of smoke and flame up to heaven. By attending to this comparison some of the characteristics of sin will vividly appear. I. The origin of a great fire. Recently we read an account of a great fire, and the paragraph closed with these words: "The origin of the fire is unknown." Suppositions were made, conjectures were offered, still a deep mystery which may never be unravelled. The same with the origin of sin. We know it had a beginning, for God only is from everlasting. We know it had a beginning before Eve and Adam felt its power, since they were tempted. We know it began with him who is called Satan and the father of lies. Still, there are three questions about it which we cannot answer. (1) Where did it begin? (2) When did it begin? (3) How did it begin. These questions might have been answered; they have not, because such information is not required by us in this stage of our unending history. II. The progress of a great fire. Place one spark amid combustible material in London. Let it alone. What will be the result? It will leap from point to point, house to house, street to street, until the whole city is in flames. Sin has spread in an exactly similar way. One sin, to the individual; one wrong action, to the family; one immoral look, to thousands; one crime, to a kingdom. The sin of one woman away in the East, some sixty centuries ago, has spread itself amongst the whole race; and there is not one who has not felt, to some extent, its scorching power. III The transforming power of a great fire. Wood, coal, &c., it transforms into its own essence, because it makes fire of these. It is even so with sin. It turns everything, over which it gains the slightest control, into its own nature—that is, into a curse. The desire to possess, sin has turned it in a different direction, and made it an autocratic passion. Take the principle of ambition in the same way. Take commerce in the same way. Thus the A. M'Auslane, D.D. richest blessings, yea, all the blessings Apply at once to the same source.— which God has given to us, sin can so transform that they shall become curses. IV. The destructive energy of a great fire. Who can calculate the amount of property in London alone which has been destroyed by fire? But the destruction which sin has caused in London is infinitely greater and more momentous. Some have bodies, once beautiful, now bloated and withered by sin. Some have feelings, once tender, now petrified by sin. Some whose intellectual powers were once strong, now feeble by sin. Some, who were once full of hope, now hopeless by sin. The destruction which sin has caused is awful. And this it must ever do to all who touch it. Avoid it, therefore, more than anything else. Herein only is safety. V. The termination of a great fire. It terminates when all the material is consumed and reduced to ashes. Can the fire of sin ever be put out in this way? The body in the grave is scorched by it no more; but what of the soul Look at the rich man. is tormented, in pain, not by a literal flame, but by the fire of sin. He will be so for ever, because the soul is immortal. He A great fire has been terminated by a superior quenching power. There is also an element which can completely remove sin from the soul. What is it? Nothing can be more important than the true answer to this question. Health must depart, trade must be left, money not required. Our souls must live for ever. With sin, no heaven, but hell. How delivered? Ask those in heaven, and those on earth, who have been saved. They all say that the fires of unholy passion have been quenched in them, and their guilt removed, by the blood of the Lamb. (a.) Civil war and foreign invasion shall rage through this reprobate people like the fire with which the husbandman clears the ground of briers and thorns. The wickedness of the land becomes its own punishment, and burns with a fury which is indeed the wrath of God, while its fuel is the people themselves.-Strachey. Wickedness, i.e., the constant thirst of evil. is a fire which a man kindles in himself. And when the grace of God which damps and restrains this fire is all over, it is sure to burst forth. . . . The fire, into which this wickedness bursts forth, seizes individuals first of all; and then, like a forest fire, it seizes upon the nation at large in all its ranks and members, who roll up in the form of ascending smoke. In its historical manifestation, this judgment consisted in the most inhuman self-destruction during an anarchial civil war. -Delitzsch. ... The picture of guilt grows darker still. It is like destroying fire in the jungle of a forest. The confusion and misery thus caused are like the volumes of smoke that mount up in whirling eddies from such a conflagration. -Birks. (8.) Oftentimes a ruling sin will have power little by little to colour the whole life with its own tints; to assimilate everything there to itself, as in ever-widening circles to absorb all into its own vortex, being as it were a gulf, a maelstrom, into which all that was better and nobler in the man is irresistibly attracted and drawn, and is there swallowed up, and for ever disappears.- Trench. See also the Outline: THE TOW AND THE SPARK, pp. 69-71. (7.) See Outline: Iniquity ▲ Burden, p. 13. (8.) When the heart begins once to be kindled, it is easy to smother the smoke of passion, which else will fume up into the head and gather into so thick a cloud that we shall lose the very sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done.-Sibbes. When a fire is first broken out in a chimney, it may with much less labour be quenched than when it has seized the timber of the house. What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered stately palaces, and turned famous cities into ruinous heaps!Swinnock. (c.) See Outline: Iniquity a Burden, p. 13. LEGALISED INJUSTICE. x. 1-4. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, &c. I. An indictment against wicked magistrates. II. A challenge. III. A sentence. I. Magistrates and rulers are answerable to God. II. Their decisions will be revised. III. Will in many instances be reversed. IV. The consequences of their injustice will return back upon themselves (a).-J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletic Treasury, Part I. p. 16 (a). See Outlines: OPPRESSION OF THE POOR, pp. 94, 95; and THE PLEADER AND THE JUDGE, pp. 95-97. THE DAY OF VISITATION. x. 3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation, &c. These questions were addressed to men who were living lives of ungodliness, and who were rich and strong in the results of their iniquity. To such men I put the same questions. Do not resent them; answer them, at least to yourselves. All the warnings of the Bible are warnings of true and intelligent friendship, all its threatenings "are but the hoarse voice of God's love, crying, Do thyself no harm!" (H. E. I., 604, 605). Let self-love, which has been your governing motive all through life, move you to consider, before it is too late, what you will do in "the day of visitation." It will not always be with you as it is to-day. 1. There will probably come to you a "day of visitation" in the shape of AFFLICTION. You have known little of it, but, if life be prolonged, it will certainly come to you (Job v. 7; H. E. I., 47). In how many forms it may come upon you! Broken health -blasted reputation - poverty-bereavement: these things may come upon you singly, or in various combinations, or all together. Men quite as strong as you have been overtaken and overthrown by them (H. E. I., 3991, 4403-4406, 4975-4989). What will you do in the day of visitation and desolation? To whom will you flee for help? To man? You will then find what worldly friendship is worth (H. E. I., 2106-2112, 21312137). To God? But will He then hear you? He does not necessarily listen to men merely because they are in trouble (Judg. x. 14; Jer. vii. 16; Prov. i. 26-31). It is the penitent's suppliant only that God will hear and answer, and your very pain and terror may incapacitate you for the exercise of genuine repentance; that consists, not in dread of the consequences of sin, but in disgust of sin itself. As your friend I counsel you (Job. xxii. 21-28). It is a mean and miserable thing to have recourse to God only when in trouble (H. E. I., 3877-3879). II. But if your lot be different from that of all other men, and no day of sorrow ever dawns upon you, there will come to you a "day of visitation " in the shape of DEATH. That is certain! What will you do then? To whom and to what will you flee for help? Friends, wealth-what will be their power or value then? And "to whom will you leave your glory?” For you will have to leave it (Ps. xlix. 16, 17; Eccles. v. 15; 1 Tim. vi. 7). And when you have left it, what will become of you! Prepare for that which is at once so inevitable and so momentous (H. E. I., 1562-1566). III. But that is not all. Beyond, there is a supreme "day of visitation," the DAY OF JUDGMENT (H. E. I. 3054, 3055, 3061; P. D. 2100, 2103, 2106, 2107). You will be in that countless multitude which will stand before the "great white throne." And you will not be overlooked or forgotten then; you will be judged according to the records in "the books" that will then be opened (Rom. xiv. 12). Help-who can then render it to you? Your “glory ”—it will have disappeared, or it may reappear as your shame. None of the things which secure for your consideration now will have a shadow of importance then. Do I speak to you as à foe or as a friend when I urge you to prepare for this inevitable meeting with God? (H. E. I., 3062-3066). The time to prepare is now. to prepare, you know; put into practice that which you have been taught. Then all these days of visitation will be transformed and stripped of their terrors. In the day of sorrow you will have a Friend who will know how The way |