2 Kings 22:18-20

How delightful are personal mercies, when the Lord separates between the precious and the vile; when the word of the gospel comes with distinguishing direction like a letter, to you is the word of this salvation sent. Josiah must have felt peculiar pleasure in this, to allay the grief, of his mind, in the prospect of the general evil coming upon his people. Reader! do not forget this one thing. As religion is a personal thing, until we have a conscious sense of a personal interest in it, and a personal enjoyment of it, the clearest views of divine things will bring no comfort. Balaam could, and did say concerning Christ, I shall see him; but then he adds that dreadful close to it, but not nigh. Oh! look to it that the word be an ingrafted word, for this alone will prove the salvation of the soul in Jesus. James 1:21.