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I. VALLEYS MUST BE LEVELED UP.

1. Inattention.

(1) If we attend not to the Gospel message we can neither realise its importance nor secure its benefits.

(2) Those who absent themselves from the house of God are indifferently prepared for the coming of the Lord.

(3) So those who while there allow their minds to wander upon their merchandise, pleasures, etc., are ill prepared for the coming of the King.

2. Apathy.

(1) Thousands of professors of religion put forth little effort in the cause of God.

(2) Begin with yourself. Make a stir among your neighbours. Begin now.

3. Despondency.

(1) There are those who are so affected with a sense of their sinfulness that they fear to trust in Christ for salvation.

(2) Some professors take a morbid, gloomy view of the work of God.

II. EMINENCES MUST BE LEVELLED DOWN.

1. The mountain of pride must be reduced.

(1) The pride that will not make full confession of sin.

(2) The pride that will not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child.

(3) The pride of reason that will not accept salvation until its mysteries are comprehended.

(4) The progress of Christ is also hindered by the worldly pride of professors.

2. The mountain of presumption must be depressed.

(1) Sinners are presumptuous when, without forsaking their sins, they attempt to believe for salvation.

(2) Professors are presumptuous when they expect the work of God to revive in the Church without exerting themselves to promote a revival.

(3) While we work as though everything depended upon working, we must trust as though everything depended upon trusting.

3. The hills of ingratitude must be brought low.

(1) Some are ostensibly so zealous for the conversion of sinners that they forget to thank God for the good He is bestowing.

(2) There are others who will not rejoice when they hear good tidings of the work of God, because they are not themselves the subjects of that work.

III. THE CROOKED PLACES MUST BE STRAIGHTENED.

1. Prejudice.

(1) Some object to the movements of the blessed Jesus because He comes too loudly.

(2) Others complain because He comes too silently.

(3) Some dislike them because "publicans and harlots" are getting converted.

(4) Others find fault because the work of grace takes hold upon the better classes.

(5) And there are those who disparage the work of God among the children because they are too young. Nothing pleases crooked prejudice.

2. Jealousy.

(1) It hears that sinners are converted, but is not pleased because the converts have joined other churches.

(2) We may be anxious for the prosperity of God's work for party purposes.

(3) How admirable was the spirit of Paul, who rejoiced that Christ was preached, no matter by whom!

3. Censoriousness.

(1) None of us are so perfect that we can afford to be severely scrutinised. We should therefore endeavour to put the best construction upon each other's conduct.

(2) We should be especially careful not to impeach good men with want of zeal for God because they differ from us in judgment as to the best way to promote His work.

4. Covetousness.

(1) The acquisition of property is the one end for which some persons appear to exist. It is to no purpose to remind such persons that the world is perishing, and that the Church missions are languishing for want of funds(2) Can the God of benevolence bless a covetous Church?

(3) The cure for covetousness is giving.

IV. THE ROUGH PLACES MUST BE SMOOTHED.

1. That ugly rock of Sabbath desecration must be removed.

(1) God did not institute His day for our amusement.

(2) It was not instituted to encourage idleness. It is separated from the toil of secular business.

2. That rut of drunkenness must be filled up.

3. Those sinks of immorality must be filled. Lying, cheating, oppression, uncleanness.

4. The rough places of instability must be smoothed.

(1) Like the chameleon, which takes the colour of every object on which it rests, there are those who never remain the same person for four-and-twenty hours. Treating Church membership as a coat that might be put on or off at pleasure.

(2) At one moment they are all in a flame, the next moment they are cold as ice. Sometimes they appear like the oak, at other times like the reed that is shaken with the wind.

(3) In the Church they are one thing, in the world another. Yet are they the noisiest fault-finders against the quiet, steady, unostentatious workers.

(F. W. Macdonald, M. A.)

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KJV: The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

WEB: The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.