At the Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road
“Forasmuch as this people refuses the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son.” Isaiah 8:6
HERE is a scripture that must be understood partly in a figurative sense and partly in the literal sense; for the waters here spoken of, of Shiloah, must certainly be understood in the figurative sense. I may just observe, before I enter upon the infinitely important subject before us, that the place here referred to, Shiloah, a pool, was on the eastern side of Jerusalem, about midway between the temple and the valley of Hinnom, and in connection, as we shall see this morning as we go along, with these springs of water were of old the king's gardens, to which there are in the holy Scriptures some very beautiful allusions, which we perhaps shall meet with as we go on with our subject. I need not remind you that the Rezin here spoken of was the king of Syria, and that Remaliah's son means the king of Israel, and that these two were confederate against Judah. Hence, if you just go to the 6th verse of the preceding chapter, you find that verse opens up to us the spirit and character of these two kings in whom the people rejoiced. The people seemed to rejoice in them chiefly because they were confederate against the truth and the people of God. Hence those two kings said, “Let us go up against Judah and vex it.” Nothing pleases Satan more than to vex the saints. Whatever agents Satan can find by which he can vex the people of God, and especially the ministers of God, because, if he can get at them, he can, through them, perhaps, some way or another get at the people, whatever agents Satan can thus find he will employ. “And let us make a breach therein for us”, this was their object, “and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal.” Now observe, here was their confederacy, to thus go up against the people of God, to make a breach and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal. The last word is a key to that scripture; the word Tabeal signifies “good god.” Now then, by that word Tabeal just look at it. “Let us set a king in the midst of it, even the son of the good god.” It is an awful truth that nothing has ever appeared so evil in the eyes of men as God s own order of eternal mercy. Any god appears to the natural mind a good god except the true God. Hence Satan, when the fall took place, when he brought his plan, why, Adam and Eve said “Well, that is better; now then we have a good god that does not prohibit us from any tree.” And just so in all the ages; people have ever been inventing something to improve things, and they think that the God of sovereignty is not a good God; they think the God of eternal election is not a good God; they think the God whose mercy infallibly endures forever is not a good God; they think that the God who has entered into a sworn covenant to save a people in himself with an everlasting salvation, that they shall not be ashamed or confounded, world without end, the world thinks that such a God is not a good God.
Therefore, we will set up one that shall represent a good God, shall represent God better than these people represent him. Why, I might stand here and speak for an hour to illustrate, for the Scriptures are clear upon it, this solemn truth then, that just where we now, through mercy, know the Lord's goodness is, and just that order of things which alone can save us, is that order of things that appears evil in the eyes of the world; because it is evil in the eyes of Satan, and therefore he makes it evil in the eyes of men; and so as they said of the Savior, “Away with him,” so they say of the truth now. Thus, then, the people rejoiced in those that should set aside God's order of things, and set up a king of their own choosing, a king of their own making, a religion of their own devising. However painful the experience may be, what a mercy it is to be brought really and truly into the dust before God, and to be made to know our need of that salvation by which alone we can be saved.
But I hasten to our text, as there are four things that ought to be attended to. I shall first, then, make use of the word Shiloah, for it comes from the word Shiloh, and the reigning idea of the word is that of peace; it has other meanings, but that is the reigning idea of the word, the first use I shall make of this word, I shall do by this word as you would do by a man if you were to travel into the East, into the land of Judea; you would then take a man to be your guide, to guide you to what are called the holy places; and so I shall make use of this word Shiloah this morning to guide me to three or four holy places of scripture. That is the first use I shall make of the word. The second use I shall make of the word will be to make it the means of bringing out what the meaning is of these spiritual waters. And then, third, the principles from which men refuse these spiritual, these gospel waters of everlasting life. Another, fourthly, if time should permit, the contrastive consequences to those, on the one hand, who drink of these pure waters, and to those, on the other hand, who live and die ignorant of them, and in enmity against them.
First, then, I will use this word to guide me to a few holy places. Now in the word Shiloah, I say, the reigning idea is that of peace, and there are four holy places to which this word seems to lead one. In the first holy place where it stands, it stands and embodies in itself and represents all the prosperity that God can give. In the second place I find it in connection with solemn discrimination of character. Third, in association with the sweetest fellowship that man while on earth can have with God. Fourth, that of consecration to God. Now, first, then, in the word Shiloah, the reigning idea is that of peace. And what a beautiful representation is that of the gospel, in the book of Genesis, where you get this same word, varied in different parts in pronunciation, but the reigning meaning of the word is the same. We have in the blessing of Judah, in the first place, the preeminence of Judah: that his brethren should praise him, and his father's children should bow down before him, when we can see that he is on our side. And then we have in the next place presented, all carrying out the idea of peace with God, the victory wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, indicated by Judah being a lion, and entering into rest, and that none can rouse him up. So, the Lord Jesus Christ has entirely conquered sin, he has entirely conquered Satan, death, the world, all adversity, and all terror; so that here, by Jesus Christ, we have complete victory. Here we have, therefore, peace with God. Perhaps I am hardly clear in what I have said, but I just then partly repeat it, and say, if we would live where sin cannot have dominion over us, it must be in Christ; if we would, live where Satan cannot have dominion over us, it must be in Christ; if would live where the world cannot have dominion over us, it must be in Christ; and where death can have no dominion over us, it must be in Christ Jesus the Lord. Is it not surprising what a wonderful Person this is? We go on from Sunday to Sunday, simply preaching Jesus Christ and see in what a vast variety of aspects he appears to instruct us; for it by him that we are instructed into everything that is to be known, possessed, and enjoyed. Now the scepter should not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from among his descendants until Shiloh came. I understand the Judah there to be the people of God that lived in the Old Testament age; I understand the scepter there to mean the scepter of Jesus Christ, that he was king over them, that he reigned over them, that they knew him, and that the great truths by which the Lord appeared to Abraham commanded this spiritual Judah until Shiloh came, until the Peaceful One should come. And unto him should the gathering of the people be and how true it was, and so it is now; our gathering from time to time is unto him. I have watched the feeling of my own mind in this, and I have always found that I can have peace, and life, and happiness and confidence, only as I am gathered together to the Lord Jesus Christ; when I can lose sight of everything else and see this one truth, or rather, I may say, two truths, namely that God is just as much on our side by Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ was on God's side. Now you will not doubt this for one moment, will you? You will not doubt for one moment that the Savior did in perfection in his life, and in his death, and in his resurrection, and that he does in his intercession, side entirely with God. If there had been any want of decision in Christ for God, then there might have been some want of decision in God for us; but just as Jesus Christ was decided for God, so God is decided for us. And that is the reason these scriptures are put in such a pleasing form. Hence the poetic language of that scripture concerning this peaceful one, language of which we can see the meaning better, perhaps, then we can express it. “Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grape; his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk:” all of this figurative language, to denote the peacefulness and the plentifulness, and the happiness of that sate of things that shall be brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ. See, then, how significant the word is. Now in these waters, our text says, go softly, expressive of the peaceful, tranquil character of the gospel, so let a soul be brought into this sweet fellowship with God by Jesus Christ there is the peace, and there is the plenty, there is the rejoicing, and there is all we can need. I then go to the I4th chapter of the first book of Kings, and I find the word Shiloh there: it was the place where Ahijah resided; and in looking there I see there is something worth noticing. In the first holy place, then, we have victory, and peace, and plenty; in the next holy place we have solemn decision, and something exceedingly encouraging to the little ones in the household of faith. You are aware of the circumstance of Jeroboam's wife going concerning her child, as to whether it should live or die, to Shiloh, to the prophet Ahijah. And there is something so instructive there. The word seemed to lead me to the place, and I thought, if it is worthwhile for people that dwell in the East to go and see the Holy places, which are now worse than desolate, it was worth my while to be led by this word Shiloh to the various parts of scripture which present to us those things that are so encouraging to us. Now what was the message of the Lord to Jeroboam by Ahijah the prophet? First, discrimination; and, secondly, to show how the Lord takes care of his own. Now, first, the Lord said to Jeroboam, “You have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments.” There is not an instance in all David's life of his ever once giving way to human tradition; he kept God s truth. Hence in his old age he said, “I have stuck unto your testimonies.” He kept God's commandments: he would not be moved by the commandments of men, but he abode by the testimonies of the blessed God. “And who followed me with all his heart;” just as you do. God appears in the eternity of his love; what do you say to that? Why, say you, with all my heart. God appears in his electing grace; and David says, “He chose the tribe of Judah, and the tribe of Judah he chose my fathers house, and of my fathers house he chose me;” and he followed electing grace with all his heart. And David saw the eternity of Christ's priesthood in the great Melchizedek of whom he testifies; “The Lord has sworn and will not repent; you are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” “David followed me with all his heart.” David was established, as you may see, both in the Psalms and in his dying hour, in God's everlasting covenant, and he followed God in that covenant with all his heart. No wonder of such a man that he should die full of days, and not nights; riches, not poverty; honor, not dis-honor; for that covenant which he believed, that God that he followed with all his heart, had taken away his nights, and taken away his poverty and taken away his dishonor, and he had nothing left but light, even the light of heaven, honor, riches, and that forever. “Who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes.” Ah, this may not fit very well perhaps the Pharisee, but it does the child of God; “to do that only which was right in my eyes.” David had his faults, but he never committed the fault of setting that only gospel aside that could be a remedy for his sin and woe; he never committed that fault. Jeroboam did commit that fault, and every false professor commits the essential fault of setting aside the only gospel that can be a remedy. That David never did; and therefore, with all his faults, he did in the gospel sense only that that was pleasing in God's sight. If David met with a false god, with a false doctrine, he could knock it on the head at once, break its neck at once, thrust it out at once, send it to the place from whence it came at once; he was determined to have the true God or no God. But, Jeroboam, “you have done evil above all that were before you.” What has Jeroboam done? “You have gone and made you other gods;” there it is “and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back.” Shiloh, then, here is peace for those that love the truth. If there is one thing a real Christian more despises than another, it is another gospel. “And molten images.” They are dancing about our land now. I see such specimens of Puseyism, and its monkey antics, it is enough to disgust common sense. It is an outrage upon common sense, these infamous inventions; but they will be rewarded according to their works. So, as Jeroboam had cast God's truth behind his back, Jeroboam and all his house must be destroyed. But suppose there should be a jewel in that dunghill; suppose there should be an angel in that hell; suppose there should be a grain of faith in that mountain of idolatry and abomination; if there be, the piercing eye of the blessed God shall see it; and he did, too. “The child shall die; and he only of all the house of Jeroboam shall come to the grave.” He shall not die as a judgment; he shall die out of the way; the judgment shall not reach him; “he shall come to his grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.” See how the Lord takes care of the little ones! Because the whole world must be destroyed, will he say, “Noah and those with him are so few they are not worth saving?” No. Because the cities of the plain must be destroyed, does the Lord say, “Lot is a solitary person almost, and hardly worth saving?” Oh, no. So, believer, wherever you are placed, whoever you are surrounded with, if you have a grain of faith in your heart, the walls may fall very close to you, but where Rahab is, she has faith in her heart, the walls shall not fall, and she shall not perish.
Now then, after noticing the prosperity and the discrimination, showing the blessedness of abiding by the truth, and the awfulness of not abiding by it, the next holy place is that of the highest fellowship with God you can have on earth. 3rd of Nehemiah; Shallum built the wall of Siloah. You see I am taking this guide with me; I am guided by the guide, so you must not find fault with where I go this morning, for it is the word that leads me, and I must not know better than my guide. Shallum built “the wall of the pool,” or spring, “of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.” So, it appears, then, that as David lived on Mount Zion, there was a kind of a secret staircase that went from the city down into the king's garden. I never could understand that scripture in Solomon's Song, not thoroughly, only for that. It is astonishing what a quiet corner the key is found in sometimes; you may hunt all over the house before you find the key; it has been to me for many years the key to that part of Solomon's Song. I have imagined the king in the gardens; I have imagined the bride in the city just drawing near to these secret stairs, but afraid as yet to go out into the garden, doubting and fearing. Presently she looks through these secret stairs, and sees some one leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, and appearing in the gardens, looking through the lattice; and she hears his voice, and, sheep-like, knows the voice. “Why, it is the voice of my beloved; I shall listen to him. My beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past;” gone forever; “the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come; and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;” here is everything paradisiacal. Now do notice, there is no evil mentioned; everything inviting to the bride as she stood in these secret stairs, I suppose none other allowed to go that way but her and the king. Who do you make that secret stair to be? Jesus Christ, I suppose. Yes, I should like to do so; he is everything; he is both the door and the shepherd; he is the salvation and the Savior, the Priest and the sacrifice, he is everything. “O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock”, steps cut out of the rock, “in the secret place of the stairs, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is comely.” Now here, then, is the highest fellowship with God we can have. If you are thus a believer in Jesus Christ, you have to meet God in this paradisiacal way, where he has nothing against you, and where he speaks of you and to you in the fondest terms that almighty and everlasting love itself can invent; not terms of passing passion, but terms of permanent love, always the same. “O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock, let me hear your voice.” I am ashamed to speak, Lord; I have so many sins to confess. Well, never mind, let me hear your voice. I am such a poor loathsome creature, Lord. Never mind, let me hear your voice. I am so unworthy of the least of your mercies, Lord. Never mind, let me hear your voice; I have nothing against you, I have everything for you; I am greater to save than your sins are to destroy, and my worthiness is greater than your unworthiness. And then the church is woken up, and looks round, and sees some crafty parsons. “Take us, the foxes, the little foxes,” that are just come out of college, “that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.” These little foxes, they come down upon little faith, and say, “Ah, you must not go on believing; you must leave believing and go on working; you must not rest upon God, you must rest upon yourself; you must begin doing, you must not go on that easy life.” But the church desires these little foxes to be taken out of the way, “that spoil the vines,” and they do to. If I could believe one of their lies, if I could believe one free will doctrine, or one duty faith doctrine, I should be spoilt directly; but all the time I can hold fast mediatorial perfection, and divine immutability, and promissory infallibility, there I stand firm. And what did this fellowship with God do? Why brought them into sweet assurance that they belonged to the Lord. “My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feeds among the lilies, until the daybreak, and the shadows flee away; turn my beloved, and be you like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” That means Jesus Christ's activity, and it means the activity, shall I say, of the blessed God. What shall I say to this, of our God? Oh, his attention to your soul, to your body, to every hair of your head, to every circumstance. I believe if we had eyes more clearly to see his hand, we should be more struck than we are. I am sure I can truly say in my life in a thousand little circumstances, comparatively little, I have trembled at this, and trembled at the other; a divine hand has rolled the stone away made crooked things straight, passed the tempestuous cloud off, thrown the reign of mercy in, astonished me; I have called myself ten thousand fools for my doubts and my fears. “Be you like a roe or a young hart” expressive of the loving, active care of the great God, his eyes and his heart perpetually upon us; “until the daybreak.” I take the day there to mean four things. First, the ceremonial law shall pass away, and the gospel day be established. Second, the resurrection of Christ; then will eternal day break in upon his dear person when he gets to the end of our sorrows and our sins, rises from the dead, the day shall break. Third, I take the day to mean, the breaking of day to mean, when light divine breaks in upon the souls of God's elect and brings them out of darkness into light. Fourth, I take the break of day to mean the resurrection at the last great day, when every cloud, the cloud of death and mortality itself, shall pass away. God be unto us everlasting light; the days of our mourning shall be ended. “Upon the mountains of Bether.” The mountains of division; Bether means division. God will maintain the division; he has put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel, and that difference he will maintain. Now I have brought out in these remarks already in a great measure the meaning of these spiritual waiters, “that go softly.” What is that holy place in the 49th of Genesis, to which I have referred, but like a stream of gospel flowing softly along? What is the testimony of God concerning David, and concerning Jeroboam's son, in whom there was some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel, but the same stream of mercy flowing gently along, inviting sinners to drink and live? What is the holy place of Solomon's song, the high fellowship there, but, as it were, this stream of gospel that makes glad the city of our God? There is yet another place that I may just refer to, but make no remarks upon, and that is the 9th of John. It was to the man you read of there a place of consecration. There his eyes were opened to see the best thing that ever was seen, namely, Jesus Christ. Why, he could see everything; he said, “Whereas I was blind, now I see.” So, you, if you can honestly say, with the apostle Paul and those with him, in the 2nd chapter of Hebrews, “We see Jesus,” then you see everything. Ah, to see him in the dignity of his person, the work he has performed, the characters he bears, the glory he holds in sure possession to bring us into, there is no sight to equal that. Seeing him, you see the everlasting God. “He that has seen me, has seen the Father.” It was a holy place then.
But second, I will now make use of the word more particularly to bring out the properties of these waters, or their chief character. Shiloah, I am aware, conveys three different meanings; but they all apply to the gospel and to Jesus Christ: for instance, it means sent. So, Jesus Christ was sent, and answered the end for which he was sent. And so, the gospel is sent. Men and brethren, whosoever among you fear God, unto you is the word of this salvation sent.” So, it is a sent gospel, and shall accomplish that for which it is sent. Then, as we have said, it means quiet, peace or quiet. Then it means plenty. But I will go to the kindred scriptures now, “go softly,” it means quietly, in contrast to the noisy systems of the world. There are many scriptures upon this subject of the quietness of the gospel. 23rd Psalm, “He leads me beside the still waters:” the margin reads it “quiet waters,” everything quiet. The Christian is very fond of quietness. I like a good noise, though. What good noise do you like? Why, I like a good sermon noise, and I like a good singing noise, but I do not like the noise of the world, they are quite welcome to it all for my part. I think the Christians consolations are of a secret, quiet character; they are in solemn, secret fellowship with the blessed God. There is not much, very much, perhaps, speaking out; there is a great deal more speaking inwardly. It is a great thing to be able to say, “Let the meditations of my heart and the word of my mouth be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Well now, how softly this gospel comes sometimes into our souls in the public worship of God. The word comes so gently and so quietly. You go into the house of God perhaps full of rebellion and unbelief, and in as great a rage as Naaman of old. Some word shall come, “Peace, be still,” soothes you down quiet. Oh dear, I came dreaming and dreaming. How can I get over this? How shall I get through that? and how shall I bear that? and how shall I meet that? Now, that is all self, you see. I had forgotten the Lord; I did not say, How will the Lord meet it, and how will the Lord manage it? I had forgotten that he had said, “Even to your old age I am he, and even to hoar hairs will I carry you; I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” How peacefully it comes and hushes us into quietude. Hence the promises of the Lord, they are promises of this quietness. The Lord says, “The work of righteousness”, Christ's work, that is the work of righteousness, “shall be quietness and assurance forever; and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation,” and that is, in Christ, “and in sure dwellings,” that is, the promises of the gospel, “and in quiet resting places,” when we are raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And upon this subject of quietude again, the Lord says, “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.” Here it is again, you see, gentle, paradisiacal, pleasing; the waters stand in contrast, first, to fire; secondly, they stand in contrast to desolation; third, in contrast to famine, destitution; in a word, they stand to represent everything that is good, in contrast to everything that is evil. It is true, there are enemies; but what of them? the Lord will conquer them. “Wherein shall go no galley with oars;” no slave-ship there; “the Lord himself is our judge, our lawgiver, our king, and he will save us;” that is, he will save us as a judge, by giving judgment in our favor; he will save us as a lawgiver, by giving unto us the law of faith, the law of liberty; and he will save us as a king, by reigning over all our enemies. Yes, quiet, peaceful. And I am persuaded the more we go on here at the Surrey Tabernacle simply with the gospel, the mysteries, these plain blessed truths, the more we shall prosper; I am sure of it. I have read this week a great deal about the doings of Popery; and when I had done reading it, I thought, Now, what good does all this do? A Roman Catholic might just as well employ his time in pointing out what the Protestants are doing in England; what a number of chapels and churches they are building. But the Catholic knows better. He says his prayers; learns them all; sticks to his movements, evolutions, and minds his own business. You may depend upon it, if we occupy two-thirds of our time in talking of what error and what erroneous systems do, we shall rob our own souls, and do no good. If the Roman Catholics would like to hear James Wells give them a sermon, I should be happy to do so in the kindest way possible, and contrast Roman Catholicism with Protestantism by the word, of God, in the hope of doing good. But we have no Catholics here; there may be one or two, they tell me a priest sometimes looks in. I don't suppose he stops long; and I think our better way will be to go on preaching the plain truths of the gospel. I hope you do not expect anything else from me. I hope to be the means of bringing you beside these still waters, into these resting-places. I pray that the Lord would enable you to live in him, to rejoice in him, to glory in him, and to leave things you cannot manage; for vain is the help of man if the Lord is not with him. We must testify against error; I am aware of that; but at the same time, I generally find that the peaceful preaching of the gospel does the most good. For really, after all, living a Christian's life is hard work, and we want some good bread, and some good wine, and some good things to strengthen us by the way, and to enable us to go peacefully on, minding our own business, and praying God to give us wisdom to deal with that which shall profit us, and let that alone, in the general sense of the word, that cannot do us good. “But there the glorious God will be unto us a place of broad rivers.” You can understand that, can you not? Do you not see that the consolations of this world are narrow rivers, and shallow rivers, and very soon run dry? Youth is a narrow, shallow, short river; soon runs dry. The consolations of this world are narrow, shallow, short rivers; they soon run dry. See the poor man that died the other day, worth nearly three million pounds. Why, you say, that was a vast sum of money. Yet it could not afford him the slightest consolation. It looked like a broad river; but it was in reality very narrow. All the wealth this world contains is but a shallow, very shallow river, that soon runs dry. “But the Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers;” aye, and deep too, yet clear; gentle, yet not dull; strong without rage, without overflowing full. A river that shall never run dry, but that is full forever and ever. “A place of broad rivers and streams,” where there shall be no adversary nor evil occurrent; “and the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick;” for “the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” If, therefore, we would live a happy life, it must be by what the Lord is unto us; a place of broad rivers, that will never, no, never run dry.
But what are the principles upon which men refuse these spiritual waters? Two principles; I merely name them. The first principle from which men refuse these gospel waters, these truths, is that of blindness. Men do not know their need; and, therefore, not knowing their need of Jesus, their language is, “Crucify him, crucify him;” not knowing their need of the truth, they say, “Away with it.” That is one principle. And the other is that Satan hates the truth with all his heart; it is natural to him to hate the truth, for Satan is naturally a liar, and therefore, the truth is naturally offensive to him. He, therefore, reigns over the minds of men, leads them captive at his will, and keeps them ignorant of, and enmity against, the gospel. But when God rends the veil, opens the sinner's eyes, slays the enmity, breaks the bow of opposition, cuts the spear of enmity in two, burns the chariot of his false religion, and the sinner is made to go on foot, and to feel that he has a sin-avenging God to meet; when his eyes are thus opened his enmity is slain, then he will long for that very grace and that very gospel against which he once thought to do many things.
Now the last point is a most awful point on the one side, most glorious on the other. I will tell you what I have prayed for: I have prayed that the Lord would enable me, and yet, silly me, I never expect the prayer to be answered, and yet I have prayed for it, I have prayed that the Lord would help me to appreciate the consequences of dying in a graceless state as clearly as he has set forth the consequences in his word. He has set forth the awfulness of his judgments to come, but I cannot appreciate them so clearly as he has set them forth. I pray God for grace to make my mind as solemn as possible by his testimonies. On the other hand, I pray earnestly that I may more and more appreciate, and would pray that I may appreciate his mercy.