April 3
Charles Spurgeon · Faith's Checkbook
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.