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. (2 Kings 22:19)
Many despise warning and perish. Happy is he who trembles
at the Word of God. 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? Does 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.
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