Many despise warning and perish. Happy is he who trembles at the Word of God. Josiah did so, and he was spared the sight of the evil which the Lord determined to send upon Judah because of her great sins.

Have you this tenderness? Do you practice this self-humiliation? Then you also shall be spared in the evil day. God sets a mark upon the men that sigh and cry because of the sin of the times.

The destroying angel is commanded to keep his sword in its sheath till the elect of God are sheltered: these are best known by their godly fear and their trembling at the Word of the Lord.

Are the times threatening? Does infidelity advance with great strides, and do you dread national chastisement upon this polluted nation? Well you may.

Yet rest in this promise: "Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace: and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."

Better still, the Lord Himself may come, and then the days of our mourning shall be ended.

Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.—The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord , . . . and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord .—To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.—The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.