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SERMON IX.

THE FAST DAY.

ISAIAH XXVI. 9.—" When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness."

THE occasion of our solemn meeting this day, my brethren, in the courts of the Lord's house, is one with which you are all well acquainted; it is to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, in order that we may obtain the pardon of our sins, and the return of His favour, at a crisis of great calamity; it is to pray for the removal of those heavy judgments which our manifold sins and provocations have most justly deserved, and with which Almighty God is pleased to visit the iniquities of this land by a grievous scarcity and dearth of divers articles of sustenance and necessaries of life.

Such is the purpose for which we are assembled

together; and as far as attention to the letter of what has been appointed goes, that purpose has been fulfilled; we have (those of us that are here present) humbled ourselves before our God; we have bowed down on our knees, and confessed with our lips, "that we are vile earth and miserable sinners;" that "by our strifes, and divisions, and misuse of God's gifts, and forgetfulness of His mercies, we have justly deserved punishment;" we have cast ourselves upon His compassion, and entreated Him to succour us; entreated Him by the name that appeals to His covenanted promises; entreated Him, as "the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort," to look down from heaven, to behold, visit, and relieve our country, in this day of our affliction.

Indeed, the whole language of the service, in which we have been engaged, has been that of penitence, resignation, and good resolves, and cannot, we may hope and trust, fail to be acceptable before God, if it has been offered in a humble and reverential spirit; whether that has been the case, can be known only to Him who seeth the heart; He only can judge whether we have been sincere or insincere, in what we have uttered before Him this day; whether we have lifted up our hearts, with our hands, to Him in the heavens. He only can tell whether our fast is a mere form, or such a fast

as He hath chosen, viz. the devout humiliation of our whole soul; the rending of our hearts in sorrow for our past offences, with an unfeigned desire henceforth to approve ourselves more faithful, and more obedient, to His holy laws. Be this as it may, one thing is clear, and this is, that the object and intention for which this fast has been appointed will not have been rightly met, unless such has been its effect upon our hearts; that intention is, to obtain relief from God by a national repentance; by a general humiliation of the whole land, on account of our secret sins, as well as for the open wickedness, carelessness, and ungodliness which abounds on all sides; and therefore in proportion as we fail in the performance of this duty, in bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, in that proportion do we thwart the pious design of our rulers, and (if we may say it without irreverence) in that proportion do we stand in the way of the succour that we so much need, and which can come from God only.

Having said thus much of the temper of mind that best befits the solemnity of this day, I will proceed to a few remarks on the general character of God's judgments, and the purpose for which they are designed, as may be gathered out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; which purpose is well expressed in the words I have taken for my

text; "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."

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For this cause, let me call to your minds the lesson appointed for the Morning Service, the eighth chapter of the first Book of Kings. It is selected out of that most beautiful prayer which Solomon composed at the dedication of the magnificent temple which he had built for the worship of Jehovah, verses 35-40. When heaven is shut up. and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee; if they pray towards this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for ar inheritance." And again," If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust; or if there be caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house; then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose

heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men ;) that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest up to our fathers."

It is clear from these verses what was the view in which the wise monarch of Israel regarded those grievous afflictions of drought, pestilence, mildew, plague, sickness, and famine, that from time to time fall upon the inhabitants of the earth; and which we are too apt to account for from natural causes, and to seek to alleviate exclusively by remedies of our own devising. It is clear, I say, that Solomon looked on such things in a very different light: he regarded them as (what they really are) visitations, judgments from God; judgments inflicted as a punishment for sin and as he regarded them in their true light, so does he give the best directions as to the course to be pursued for their removal; that course is prayer, confession of sin, and repentance; "What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house; then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest."

Nor is Solomon the only authority we have to consult on this matter; but generally all the pro

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