I must add, too, that your humiliation must resemble theirs —
[In a season of affliction fasting is highly proper. We see all the most eminent saints in Scripture having recourse to this under the pressure of any heavy calamity : and, in the history before us, we behold the king, and his nobles, together with all the inhabitants of a populous city, approaching the Divine Majesty with this expression of their grief and penitence. This is a fit pattern for us at this time.
But with fasting we must engage in fervent prayer. Luke- warm petitions will never find acceptance with God. We must " cry mightily unto the Lord, even with strong crying and tears," if we would obtain from him the deliverance which we so greatly need.
And, to prove the sincerity of our hearts, we must turn, every one of us, from our besetting sins to newness of life. No fasting will be of any avail without this ; no, nor will prayer be heard without it. If our humiliation be not accompanied with this, God will say to us, as to his people of old, "Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? a day for a man to afflict his soul ? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord ? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickednessd?" Search out then the peculiar evils which you are most accustomed to commit, and cast them off even though they be dear to you as a right hand or a right eye : and then may we hope that God will be gracious to us at the voice of our cry, and turn away from his fierce anger wherewith he has visited our guilty land.]
If you will not thus turn unto the Lord, your guilt will be greatly aggravated —
[Who were the people to whom this warning was de- livered ? Heathens. By whom were they addressed ? A perfect stranger. What hope zoas held out to them of averting the threatened judgments ? None at all. Not so much as a constructive promise was given them by any exhortation to repent. All the encouragement they felt was derived from a mere surmise: " Who can tell, tuhether God will turn from his fierce anger, that we perish not?'''' On the mere presump- tion that the exercise of mercy towards them was possible, they, at the very first announcement of God's displeasure, turned to him, as it were, with their whole hearts ; and thus obtained mercy. But you, brethren, are the professed servants of God, and followers of Christ. And you have been warned
d Isai. lviii. 5, 6.