It bids fair for prosperity in earthly things. Here, in peace with God, pardon of sin, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and hereafter in eternal salvation. Holiness of life.This improvement will make happy souls here and hereafter. This improvement consists in two things -ΔΆ. A RIGHT IMPROVEMENT OF THE MERCY OF THE WORD WILL MAKE A HAPPY PEOPLE. The mere having the Word will aggravate the condemnation of those that have it and walk not answerably to it. Outward privileges make no man a happy man. The people may have it, and yet get no saving benefit from it. THE MERE HAVING THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO MAKE A PEOPLE HAPPY. ![]() The people perish - die for lack of instruction are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The people are idle - they give over their work. The people are drawn away: from their God and from their duty. They leave their first love, their first ways in religion they fall into a spiritual decay and apostasy. Where there is no vision the people go backward. Hence they are exposed in a special manner to the subtlety and violence of their spiritual enemies, without the ordinary means of help. They are stripped of the means of their defence. They are stripped of their armour, left naked in the midst of danger. They are stripped of their ornaments, to their shame. What makes the case so deplorable? The original word means, the people are naked, they are left in a bare condition ( Exodus 22:25). DEPLORABLE IS THE CASE OF THOSE WHO ARE DEPRIVED OF THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD. Doctrine: Though the want of the ministry of the Word makes a people very unhappy, yet it is not the having of it, but the right improving of it that makes them happy. By prophecy is meant the preaching, expounding, and applying the Word of God. Boston, D D.What makes a people very unhappy with respect to the concerns of their souls? The want of vision puts a people in very unhappy circumstances. As man falls by pride, he recovers by humility." And the more God honours men, the more they should humble themselves. "He that would build lastingly must lay his foundation low. So near are extremes in life: the moment we are highest in our own imagination we are really lowest in power, in position, in prospect. 22, 23.) (For the first, see Proverbs 15:18 Proverbs 28:25.) Wrath is the very hot bed of transgression and every "evil work." And self-esteem is a neighbour vice. WANT OF SELF-CONTROL AND OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE. But human nature will only respond to just and true treatment and injurious kindness will reap a thorny crop of ingratitude. ![]() Men are stung by the ingratitude or contumacy of those whom they had weakly petted, and whose faults they had nourished by their smiles. 21.) The exegesis of the verse certainly points to this meaning. Thus rash enterprises are begun, hostilities break out without warning, a lifelong alienation or the misery of a generation may spring from the passion or the pique of the moment. 20.) Whether in private or in public life, this too may he a ruinous defect. And the lawless must understand that what ought to be shall be. The laws of nature are no mere abstract statements of truth they are stern and solemn facts, which cannot be defied with impunity. 19.) There always will be a class more or less of "slaves," who must be governed, not by mere rhetoric or the appeal to feeling, but by the knowledge that words will be backed by deeds. Woe to the nation if the supply of preachers ceases! if, sunk in material interests, they are allowed to forget that the "Word of the Lord" lives and endures, and obedience to it must be the foundation of all private blessing, all public prosperity! The Christian preacher has succeeded to the office of the Jewish prophet. They declared Jehovah's living oracles they made clear the eternal principles of the moral law they forecast what must be the future under moral conditions. The great prophets of Israel were the great instructors of the people. THE WANT OF COMMANDING RELIGIOUS TEACHING.
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