April 3
SENSITIVE TO WARNING
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself
before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place,
and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a
desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me;
I also have heard thee, saith the Lord" II Kings 22:19
Many despise warning, and perish. Happy is he who trembles at the
word of the Lord. Josiah did so, and he was spared the sight of the
evil which the Lord determined to send upon Judah because of her great
sins. Have you this tenderness? Do you practice this self-humiliation?
Then you also shall be spared in the evil day. God sets a mark upon
the men that sigh and cry because of the sin of the times. The
destroying angel is commanded to keep his sword in its sheath till the
elect of God are sheltered: these are best known by their godly fear,
and their trembling at the Word of the Lord. Are the times
threatening? Do Popery and Infidelity advance with great strides, and
do you dread national chastisement upon this polluted nation? Well you
may. Yet rest in this promise, "Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave
in peace: and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring
upon this place." Better still, the Lord Himself may come, and then
the days of our mourning shall be ended.