In no respect lias he been subject to the law of Gocl, or regu- lated himself according to the divine commands. From open and flagrant sins he may be free: but he has lived as without God in the world, making his own will the one rule of his conduct, and his own pleasure the only end of his existence
Does not such a life as this call for deep humiliation,
and require to be mourned over with floods of tears ?
Nor is this contrition less called for by his sins of daily in- cursion. Let any man compare the frame of his mind with that which his circumstances, and God's dealings with him, demand : how faint his gratitude for mercies received ! how superficial his sorrow for sins committed ! how cold his devo- tions at the throne of grace ! how feeble his efforts to glorify his God ! Verily, in the retrospect of every succeeding day, he may well sit down and weep bitterly, yea, and mourn before God in dust and ashes.
In truth, this is, in a measure, the habit of the Christian's mind ; he is bowed down under a sense of his own manifold infirmities ; and he walks softly before God, under a conscious- ness of his own extreme unworthiness. If David could say, in reference to the sins of others, " Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law," how much more may every man say it, in reference to his own sins ! In the days to which we are looking forward, when the remnant of Israel shall return to the Lord their God, it is precisely in this way that they will come up to Zion : " They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them : I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble : for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born a."]
From this seed, however, shall spring a harvest of -joy"-
[In the natural world we expect to reap the very seed which we have sown : but it is not so in the spiritual world. If we sow tears, shall we reap tears ? No, never, never, never. Far different shall be the fruit arising from that seed ! even joy, yea, " joy unspeakable and glorified." Look at the very remnant of whom we have just spoken ; and see the issue of their humiliation: " They shall come," says the prophet, " and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd : and their souls shall be as a watered garden ; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourn- ing into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice
a Jer. xxxi. 9.