without mercy, under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord: and again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

II. The second point to be noticed is, that DIVINE JUDGMENTS ARE MINGLED WITH MERCY: "our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve."

Israel had been carried away captive into a strange land, and kept in bondage for seventy years. This was their mournful plaint: "by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land!" But the Almighty neither utterly destroyed them all, nor suffered them to remain in captivity for ever. Deliverance was wrought for them, chiefly through Ezra, "according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him," and they were restored to the land of their fathers, and to their dearly loved Zion, where they could in peace resume their harps and sing the Lord's song. And when Ezra viewed this deliverance in connection with

the subsequent backslidings of his infatuated countrymen, he could not but recognise an aggravation of their sins, and an amplification of God's mercy, and he could not but express his deep sense of the divine forbearance and compassion.

This acknowledgment was also made by Nehemiah, who, after recounting all God's dealings with his people, and their repeated apostacies, says, "nevertheless for thy great mercy's sake, thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God." In the same spirit of grateful humility Jeremiah says, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" The Psalmist sings in a similar strain: "I will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." "He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." "Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies."

In no case can a living man justly complain, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." Were we to be punished according to the full measure of our deservings, we should be "brought into desolation in a moment, and utterly consumed with terrors." "Every

sin deserveth the wrath and curse of God, both in this life and that which is to come:""and who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell in everlasting burnings?" Sinners live under a respite they drink not now of the unmingled cup of astonishment and wrath; their punishment is intended to alarm, not to crush them. In the time of trouble, when the hand of God lies heavy upon them, men are apt to cry out, as if there was no sorrow like unto their sorrow. But if you will only look around, you will discover others who have been more severely dealt with; and if you will only reflect, you will find that there were many ingredients in the cup which was given you that tended to allay its bitterness. While there is life there is hope; and while there is hope there is mercy. You may have lost a part of your worldly possessions; but your bread has been given you, and your water has been sure. You may have been sorely bowed down by disease; but "the silver cord has not been loosed, your dust has not returned to the earth as it was, nor your spirit unto God who gave it." You may have lost some members of your family, and the "desire of your eyes may have been taken away from you with a stroke;" but others, who are near and dear to you, are left. Repress, then, every rising emotion of discontent and repining. You "suffer justly, for you receive the due reward of your deeds" mourn therefore for them, but murmur not that you are reminded how evil and bitter your sins are, by the hand of punishment. Nothing was ever so bad that might not have been worse. It is only

when sinners shall "lift up their eyes, being in torments," and perceive the blessed in their mansions of glory, with the impassable gulf betwixt them, that they shall experience "judgment without mercy."

III. The third point to which we would direct attention is, THE DANGER OF DISREGARDING DIVINE JUDGMENTS: "should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?"

He divided

In the day

The history of the Jews is a dark narrative of mercies and ingratitude; exhortations and disobedience; warnings and neglect; judgments and impenitence; judicial blindness and total rejection. Their God "did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. the sea, and caused them to pass through. time he led them with a cloud; and all the night with a light of fire. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink. And they sinned yet more against him, by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble."

In later times God "sent unto them all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, O, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their

wickedness." How fiery is the threatening by Ezekiel ! "Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it, it shall come to pass, and I will do it, I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent," How tender the lamentation of Jeremiah over the desolations that had come upon his people in his own day! "The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us that we have sinned!" And how inexpressibly pathetic are the meltings of compassion poured forth from the heart of the blessed Jesus! "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate." And now the Jews are an astonishment, and a hissing, a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse, in all places whether they have been driven.

You know, my brethren, that God's dealings with Israel were typical of his dealings with the Church at large, and with its individual members. Religious privileges are sometimes long continued to a Church; but when it proves unfruitful, then is fulfilled the saying, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."