flesh." Thrice he cried to the Lord to remove it: and by his repeated entreaties he obtained this answer ; " My grace is sufficient for thee : for my strength is made perfect in weak- ness." And what was the effect ? His fears are dissipated ; his sorrows are dispelled ; and instantly he bursts forth into these triumphant exclamations : " Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me : for when I am weak, then am I strong y." Here is the great truth which I would impress upon your minds; " When I am weak, then am I strong." It is not possible to have too deep a sense of your own weakness." Perhaps in the whole world there does not exist another passage comparable to that in the Prophet Isaiah, where he represents whole mountains of difficulty to be encountered, and Israel, as a mere insignificant worm, groaning under them : " Fear not, thou worm Jacob : I will make thee a new sharp threshing instru- ment, having teeth : thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff: thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them : and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel2." Endeavour to realize this idea. Place mountains before your eyes : then look down upon a poor helpless worm ; and then see, through his exer- tions, the whole mountains beaten to dust and scattered as by a mighty whirlwind ; and then you will have some faint con- ception of the truth inculcated in my text ; sins, that reach unto the heavens, scattered to the winds ; and judgments, deep as hell, removed for ever from your sight. Bring every threat- ening which the word of God contains : and to every one in succession I will say, " Respecting this the Lord hath repented: and this shall not be ;" " neither shall that be."]
Let me now, in my application of this subject, ad- dress, 1. Those who despise the judgments of the Lord —
[Many there are who look upon the threatenings of God with as little concern as if there were no truth in them ; and who, like Amaziah in the chapter before us, condemn the preachers as exciting groundless fears ; and say to them, " Pro- phesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Israel a." But to all such persons I must say, that the word of God shall stand, and not one jot or tittle of it shall ever fall to the ground. Look back, and see, " Did not God's word take hold of" the disobedient Jewsb? Go to Assyria, and see ; or go to Babylon, and see ; or look upon them in their
y 2 Cor. xii. 7 — 10. z Isai. xli. 14 — 16.
a ver. 10, 16. b Zech. i. 6.