HE HATH SHEWED THEE, O MAN, WHAT IS GOOD; AND WHAT DOTH THE LORD REQUIRE OF THEE, BUT TO DO JUSTLY, AND ΤΟ LOVE MERCY, AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH THY GOD? MICAH VI. 8. COME HITHER, AND HEAR THE WORDS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD.-[Joshua iii. 9.] THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS ILLUSTRATED. Affliction. I. THOU hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. [Psalm cxix. 65-72.] II. BLESSED is the man whom thou chasten est, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity. For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it. [Psalm xciv. 12-15.] THE III. HE LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. IV. [Psalm cxviii. 14-18.] THE joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. [Lamentations v. 15-18.] V. AWAKE, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken. the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over. [Isaiah li. 17-23.] |