Isaiah x. 3.
“WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE DAY OF VISITATION AND IN THE DESOLATION WHICH SHALL COME FROM FAR? TO WHOM WILL YE FLEE FOR HELP?”
The aspect of the times, upon a careful survey, presents, to the thoughtful mind, cause of anxiety for the safety and welfare of the empire; and, to the religious mind, ground for apprehension, lest the Almighty should be about to visit, for the sins of the nations, by “pouring upon them the vials of His wrath.” [3a] In the emphatic language of our Lord’s prediction of the latter days; there is, throughout Europe, “distress of nations with perplexity; men’s hearts failing them for fear; and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth.” [3b] In this country, to an alarming state of popular excitement, there has supervened a new cause of dread, so great, as almost to absorb, for the present, all subjects of merely temporal interest. A fearful and most fatal pestilence, which had extended far and wide in Asia, has been gradually spreading throughout Europe, and steadily advancing towards our shores: there exists a difference of opinion as to whether or not it has reached them; but thus much is certain; an epidemic, similar in character, and hardly less malignant and fatal, has broken out in one of the seaports of the kingdom, and extended to some of the neighbouring towns and villages; thus appearing to establish its identity with the Continental disease.
Under circumstances so calculated to produce general apprehension, and so full of danger to the community at large, it becomes a matter of vital importance to enquire, What is the course a Christian people should adopt? To such an enquiry, the sincere Christian,—who is satisfied, that the safety of nations and of individuals is, at all times, in the protection of the Almighty; and who believes, that the sword, the famine, the earthquake, the tempest, and the pestilence, are but instruments in the hand of God to execute His sovereign and gracious will,—may justly reply in the words of a prophet of old, speaking in the name of the Most High: “Therefore, also, now saith the lord, turn ye even to me, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the lord your god: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” [5a] And how is a whole nation to be called upon to humble themselves before God in the day of their visitation? Let the same Prophet return the answer; “Blow the trumpet in zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children. Let the priests, the ministers of the lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, spare thy people, o lord.” [5b]
As the Almighty, “with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning,” [5c] is “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;” [5d] as “whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope:” [5e] let the people of this kingdom, strong in faith, raise, on an appointed day, their united voice in prayer; and in the language of sorrow, humiliation, and repentance, cry, O Lord, “we have sinned with our fathers, we have done amiss and dealt wickedly;” [5f] but “Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them who call upon Thee!” [5g] Alas! because we see not the “outstretched arm” of Omnipotence, which governeth the nations; because we hear not the “mighty voice” which universal Nature obeys; we too often forget that “the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear:” [6a] we too often forget that it is “God that ruleth in Jacob, and unto the ends of the world.” [6b]
But is it sufficient to call upon a people, suffering under the apprehension or infliction of Divine judgments, to assemble in the courts of the Lord’s house, to acknowledge the justice of their punishment, and to humble themselves before their God? Let the volume of inspiration again reply, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord?” [6c]—“Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” [6d] “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” [6e]
Much has been effected when a nation has been brought to prostrate itself before God, and, through a deep sense of its guilt, weakness, and misery, to flee unto Him, who alone is mighty to save; but incalculably more has been accomplished, when to the prayer for mercy has been added one for grace; and it has been truly, not less the language of the heart than of the lips, “Sanctify to us this thy fatherly correction, that the sense of our weakness may add strength to our faith, and seriousness to our repentance.” [7a] May God, of His great mercy, vouchsafe to the people of this land, “to know the time of their visitation;” [7b] to humble themselves before Him, who “in faithfulness has caused them to be troubled;” [7c] to “seek the Lord while He may be found, and to call upon Him while He is near;” [7d] and to “repent and turn themselves from all their transgressions: so iniquity shall not be their ruin.” [7e] Oh that the practical infidelity, which exists to such a fearful extent in the present day, may not withhold from a suffering people the deliverance and blessing which God alone can bestow! A neglect and distrust, if not a denial of God’s Providence, in the preservation and government of nations and individuals, is one of the most crying sins of the day. Because the natural eye does not perceive the visible workings of a Divine economy in the course of events, it practically ascribes all to human means, and relies on human aid. But, as if “the finger of God” was to be revealed as pointing in wrath to this great truth of natural and revealed religion—a Divine providence—one of the most remarkable and terrible features of this fatal pestilence, through which so many millions of human beings have been swept away, is, that whilst human prudence has been completely baffled in its plans of prevention, human science has failed in its attempts at cure. What a salutary lesson does this teach, in a day when earthly is often elevated above heavenly wisdom in the estimation of men, and when the arm of flesh appears more confided in than the arm of Omnipotence, for the accomplishment of events!
May the great Disposer of events, who, in the dispensations of His Providence, is graciously pleased to educe real good from seeming evil, make this awful visitation productive of religious advantage to this and other nations. May earthly sovereigns learn that the Lord, by whom “kings reign, and princes decree justice,” [8a] is their defence, and “the Holy One of Israel, their King:” [8b] may the rulers of the people remember, that “except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” [8c]
For although God’s providence governs all things in heaven and in earth, still the great Sovereign of the universe, “the King of kings, and Lord of lords,” “waiteth to be gracious,” nor suffers His truth to fail. He shuts not up His loving-kindness in displeasure, but listens to the prayers of the meanest of His servants; and in answer to them, He often suspends, and sometimes averts his just judgments. The guilty cities of the Plain would have been spared for the sake of ten righteous, if that number of the servants of the true God could have been found amongst the inhabitants. [9a] Nor is the prayer of humble and contrite guilt disregarded. The judgments impending over Nineveh were suspended, when that mighty capital, at the preaching of a prophet, acknowledged its sin, and humbled itself before the Lord. [9b]
Let, then, the prayer of repentance, faith, and submission, arise to the throne of Divine grace, from the united people of the land; and, soon as the merciful object of this visitation is answered, we may humbly trust the command, as of old, will be addressed to the destroying angel, “It is enough, now stay thine hand.” [9c] For the Almighty has himself declared, “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation, against whom i have pronounced, turn from their evil, i will repent of the evil that i thought to do unto them.” [9d]
May, then, this nation receive grace, in this their day of trial, to “turn from their evil,” before the Lord “allow His full displeasure to arise.” May they learn and acknowledge, that their only hope of safety is in the mercy and long-suffering of God, who alone can preserve them from “the pestilence which walketh in darkness, and from the sickness which destroyeth in the noon-day.” May they “offer faithfully,” and the Lord “receive acceptably,” their prayer for deliverance: “Have pity, O Lord, have pity upon Thy people, both here and abroad; withdraw Thy heavy hand from those who are suffering under Thy judgments; and remove from us that grievous calamity, against which, our only security is in Thy compassion!” [10a] And may our gracious and long-suffering Lord be pleased to arrest in its course the pestilence, now confined to few places, and to permit it not to spread dismay and death through the towns and villages of the kingdom.