Zephaniah 2:15

REFLECTIONS

READER! behold the different aspect this scripture holds forth us, and pause in the view! May we not ask, and ask with trembling, on hearing those awful judgments of God; if the righteous scarcely are saved; if they cannot be saved but in a better righteousness than their own; where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? I have often thought what a mystery it is, that men of no religion can live so secure, and die so quiet, with such trembling judgments over their heads. They have no promise to flee to; no earthly comfort secure to them; and yet live on regardless. The Lord's anger; the alarms of their own consciences; the prospect of death; the alarms of eternity; these are always as specters in their view when troubles come, and haunt them night and day. How is it that they live in such a state? How is it that they die in such a state?

Look on the other hand at God's people; the Lord's may be's support and carry them through all. Afflictions may come; afflictions will come; but Jesus comes with them and in them; and the consciousness of an interest in Him, and redemption in his blood, softens every evil, and takes out the sting of sorrow, yea, death itself. Reader! see to it, that we have this interest in Jesus, and we are then prepared for every event. Though Gaza be forsaken, and Askelon become a desolation, though the earth be moved, and mountains cast into the sea, Christ is our hope, and strength, a very present help in trouble.