---

I. THE HUMILIATING POSITION in which the Church is supposed to be standing towards its enemies. Think of the damnable heresies and apostasies from truth, which the abused name of religion is employed to cover, and the consummate wickedness with which the profession of Christianity has been converted by iniquitous laws into a tyranny and a trade. Look at every aspect of society, examine every walk of life, and what do you behold, but impiety triumphant in the very capital of Christianity? Take the most favourable estimate that Christian charity will allow, and yet how feeble in influence and numbers is the Church of Christ compared with its enemies! And if, after two thousand years, such be our position, how solemnly does it behove us to ask in what way this humiliating state of things is to be accounted for.

II. THE SINFUL CAUSE to which its humiliation is ascribed.

1. God has commanded His ministers to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; .and, in order that they might do so, His people are enjoined to send them forth, for "how," says the apostle, "can they preach except they be sent?" And when the Church, in the warmth of her first love, responded to her Lord's commands, consecrating her energies arid her treasures freely to His service, city after city, kingdom after kingdom, and one system of error after another, fell vanquished at her feet. But, corrupted by covetousness and love of the world, His people grew weary of hearkening unto Him, and to walk in His ways, and consequently soon lost the conquests that apostles won.

2. But, besides sending forth ministers to preach the Word, God has commanded His people, individually, to labour for the spread of truth. But the individual responsibility of Christians has been almost forgotten; while a few are making personal exertions in God's service, how many hearers and even professors of the Gospel are no more concerned by any personal effort to extinguish the rebellion against God, than so many statues on a building wrapt in flames!

3. Again; as it is impossible by error to destroy error, and as the only antidote to darkness is light, Jesus Christ has commanded His followers to preserve the faith of the Gospel inviolably pore; warning them in admonitions of awful solemnity against adding to, or taking away, a tittle from His Word. And from how many sinful practices, how many debasing sentiments, how many idle ceremonies, how many bitter controversies and persecutions would the Church have been saved, had Israel walked in His ways, had His people hearkened to His voice. But, preferring the wisdom of man to that which cometh down from above, they have altered the constitution of the Church, perverted its ordinances, and corrupted its doctrines, suffering foreign mixtures, careless omissions, and presumptuous additions, to deface the beauty and destroy the simplicity of the truth.

4. Could the Christian Church, however, when she threw away the unity of faith, have preserved the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, she might, possibly, soon have recovered what she had lost; but converting every difference of creed into an occasion of division and strife, she advanced further in disobedience, and, consequently, further and further in weakness and disgrace.

5. Moreover, as the world is less likely to be subdued by precept than example, Christ has said to His disciples, "Let your light shine before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven." And had the Church paid a becoming regard to His repeated injunctions upon this subject, she would have appeared in every conflict as bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.

6. And along with a far higher degree of holiness, would there not have been among the people of God, had they hearkened to His voice, an infinitely larger amount of fervent and effectual prayer?

III. THE AFFECTING MANNER IN WHICH BOTH THE CAUSE AND THE CONSEQUENCES ARE BY GOD HIMSELF DEPLORED.

1. From all that God has spoken or accomplished, it is evident that His love for His Church is infinite and unchangeable. It is His husbandry and His vineyard, the garden He delights to water, His inheritance, and the place of His rest, the wife of His bosom, His peculiar treasure, His crown, His portion, and His joy. Next to His own glory, nothing, therefore, is so near to His heart, as the prosperity of His people; and while upon the warlike enterprises which historians and poets delight to celebrate, He looks with comparative indifference, the minutest victories of His Church have an everlasting record in heaven, and are celebrated by the angels of God in songs of ecstatic praise.

2. Nor must we exclude from our interpretation of this language the idea of infinite pity H a perishing world. In secular contests the triumph of one party is the disgrace, misery, or destruction of the other; and most justly and humanely has it been said by a great living warrior, nothing is so calamitous as a victory excepting a defeat. But to extend the conquests of the Church is to push forward the boundary of life and happiness into the realms of darkness and death; to subdue her enemies, to bring the haters of the Lord to submission is to save them with an everlasting salvation; to leave them unsubdued is to destroy them for ever.

(J. E. Giles.)

---

---

KJV: Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

WEB: Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!