2. If you return to God, you will find him ever ready to receive you [As, on the one hand, no one ever found mercy without repentance, so neither, on the other hand, was any true penitent ever rejected. Search the Scriptures; not a syllable wil be found to discourage a sinner's return to God. Nations have always found mercy when they sought it earnestly; and of individuals, not one was ever rejected who turned unto God in sincerity and truth. What greater encouragement then can any man desire? There is the word, yea the oath, of Jehovah pledged, that none shall seek his face in vain. Beloved brethren, only seek him with your whole hearts, and he will assuredly be found of you.] 3. Inconceivable will be the difference between those who are prepared to meet their God, and those who meet him unprepared [Think of an impenitent sinner, when summoned into the presence of his God: how glad would he be that the rocks should fall upon him, and the hills should cover him from his sight! But this cannot be. He must appear; he must answer for himself; he must receive his doom; he must take his portion "in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." View, on the contrary, the true penitent, the humble believer: behold him coming forth with joy to meet his reconciled God and Saviour: he stands before his tribunal with unshaken confidence: "he knows in whom he has believed." While the other anticipates in the frowns of his Judge the miseries of hell, he receives in Emmanuel's smiles an earnest and foretaste of the heavenly felicity. This alone is sufficient to shew the importance of being prepared. We need not follow them to their different abodes: their comparative happiness at the first meeting of their God is abundantly sufficient to enforce this exhortation upon all, "Return unto the Lord, from whom ye have deeply revolted!"] MCXC. GOD'S CONDESCENSION AND GRACE. Amos v. 8, 9. The Lord is his name; that strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. IN our public addresses, we feel peculiar satisfaction in entering upon subjects which admit of no dispute, and on which all considerate persons are agreed, That we ought to seek after God, is universally admitted and as that is the one duty inculcated in the passage before us, the whole scope of our present discourse will be to recommend the performance of it. In the preceding context, Jehovah, speaking to the whole house of Israel says, "Seek ye me, and ye shall live." Immediately afterwards, the prophet himself enforces the exhortation, and adds, " Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it. . . . . Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion ..... the Lord of Hosts is his name; that strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress:" that is, 'Seek Him, who, being the Creator and Governor of all things, possesseth all power to avenge himself upon you for your neglect of him, or to give success to your feeble endeavours.' To enforce yet further the prophet's admonition, I will set before you, I. The character of Jehovah, as here portrayed- 1. His condescension [There is no person so low or so despised among men, but God will condescend to look upon him with tender compassion. Human beings can scarcely be conceived in a more degraded situation than the Hebrews in Egypt were: yet of them God says, "I have seen their affliction; I have heard their cry; I know their sorrows." And at a subsequent period, when they were reduced to the utmost distress by the Ammonites, we are told, "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." The same compassion does he exercise towards his oppressed people in every age. So "afflicted is he in all their afflictions," that "the touching of them is like touching the apple of his eyed; and he will interpose for them, however low they be: "he will raise up the poor out of the dust, and lift up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit a throne of glory." Notwithstanding "he is the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity," and "humbleth himself when he beholds the things that are in heaven;" yet will he "look upon him that is poor a Exod. iii. 7. b Judg. x. 16. e 1 Sam. ii. 8. c Isai. lxiii. 9. and of a contrite spirit," yea, and "dwell with him too, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite." But that which we are more particularly to notice, is,] 2. His power [As he is Almighty in himself, so is he "the strength of his people;" even "the saving strength of his anointed"." "He is a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the walli:" nor does he ever interpose for his people with greater pleasure than when he sees them reduced to the lowest possible state of want and misery. Perhaps the particular occurrence referred to by the prophet may be that of the victories granted to Joash over the triumphant and oppressive Syrians. Hazael, king of Syria had so reduced the power of Israel, that "he had left to king Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen." To Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, God promised deliverance from Syria: and if Joash had expressed that zeal in his country's cause, and that confidence in God, which became him, his victories over Syria would have been complete. As it was, we are told that "he took out of the hand of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, the cities which. Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz by war; that three times did he beat Benhadad, and recovered the cities of Israel1." To this event, I say, the prophet is supposed more particularly to allude. But, in the history of Israel, such instances were without number. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the destruction of Jericho by the sound of rams' horns, and of Midian by the lamps and pitchers of Gideon, clearly shew, that God can save equally by many or by few, and that those who trust in him shall never be confounded. If, on the other hand, we suppose this exercise of God's power to be mentioned with a view to awe the Israelites into submission, it may well be interpreted in that view. The whole nation, both of Israel and Judah, placed an undue reliance on their relation to God, and could not conceive that their enemies should ever be suffered finally to prevail against them. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the days of Zedekiah, king of Judah. The Chaldeans besieged him in Jerusalem but, on Pharaoh's coming from Egypt to succour him, the Chaldeans raised the siege. This departure of the h Ps. xxviii. 8. f Gen. xvii. 1. i Isai. xxv. 4. 8 Ps. xxix. 11. 1 2 Kings xiii. 7, 17—19, 25. Chaldean army raised the confidence of Zedekiah, that he had no just ground for fear. But Jeremiah was commanded to tell him, that the Egyptian army should soon return to their own land; that the Chaldeans should immediately resume the siege; and that, "though he had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans, so that there remained none but wounded men amongst them, yet should they, the wounded soldiers, rise up every man in his tent, and burn Jerusalem with firem." This latter interpretation of the words seems countenanced by the menace which has been before mentioned; where the prophet says, "Seek ye the Lord, lest he break forth like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el."] According to this twofold view of the character of Jehovah, we must state, II. The ends for which it is adduced And, 1. As a warning to those who seek him not [To every creature under heaven must we declare, that "God is very greatly to be feared:" "Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord: thou art great, and thy name is great in might: who would not fear thee, O God of nations"?" If he is able to save, he is able also to destroy." In whatever fortresses any be entrenched, "their refuges of lies shall be swept away, and the flood of Divine vengeanee shall overflow their hiding-place"." They may in their own conceit "make a covenant with death and hell;" but "their covenant with death shall be disannulled, and their agreement with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, they shall be trodden down by itp." What is said in relation to Moab may be spoken in reference to all who cast off the fear of God; "they shall be trodden down by him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill: and he shall spread forth his hands, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and he shall bring down their pride, together with the spoils of their hands: and the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.' To those, then, who are living without God in the world, I would suggest this awful consideration: God is "of great m Jer. xxxvii. 5-10. 。 Isai. xxviii. 15, 17. n Jer. x. 6, 7. P Isai. xxviii. 18. The image of a swimmer advancing himself, whilst with his hands he irresistibly sweeps away the waters, beautifully illustrates God's & Ivancing his own glory in the destruction of all his enemies. ་ power and of terrible majesty ;" and when he riseth up, who then can resist him? or who can stand in his sight when he is angry? Verily, "He is a consuming firet." Who then would set briers and thorns against him in battle? He would go through them, and burn them up together. "Seek ye, then, his face:" seek him as he is revealed to you in the Gospel of his Son seek him as reconciled to you by the blood of the cross: seek him also speedily, and with your whole hearts: for I must declare to you, that "there is no escape to those who neglect his great salvation";" and that," though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished."] 2. As an encouragement to those who desire his favour [Many are ready to despond on account of their own weakness, and of the power of their enemies. But if God be our strength and our salvation, whom need we fear? "If he be for us, who, with any prospect of success, can be against us?" Hear how he chides the indulgence of a desponding thought: "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding? He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Let not any one then shrink back from the contest, how weak soever he himself may be, or however potent his enemies. Aided by God, a worm shall thresh the mountains:" and the weakest creature in the universe may say with Paul," I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." In truth, a sense of weakness, so far from being any ground of discouragement, is rather a ground of hope; because "God will perfect his own strength in our weakness.' We are told that God bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust." But whom does he employ in this work? The strong and mighty? No: it is added, "The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy b." Whoever then ye be, r Job xxxi. 14. u Heb. ii. 3. z Isa. xli. 14, 15. 66 s Deut. iv. 24. t Ps. lxxvi. 7. |