Too justly does the language of Isaiah, addressed to the rebellious and guilty house of Judah, apply to our own times: “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone backward.” {12a} May He, “who alone can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men,” and convert them from the evil of their ways, “pour upon all flesh the spirit of grace and supplication;” {12b} that individual may extend, until it become national repentance, and the whole nation worship before Him. Then will the scourge of His wrath prove the harbinger of His mercy, and we shall become a chosen people, a holy nation unto the Lord. Then may our gracious and long-suffering God allow us, without presumption, to draw comfort from those words of favour and forgiveness, spoken to His people when humbled and contrite: “Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant; I have formed thee, thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me: I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.” {13a} I. The Christian’s duty of personal reformation under Divine judgments. It is from the volume of inspiration—whence he derives all the light which he enjoys, as to the providence, beneficence, and love of God; whence he draws all the knowledge he possesses as to the nature of his own being, the object of his present existence, and the place of his final destination;—man must learn his duty under the Divine dispensations. The Holy Scriptures are to the true Christian “a lamp unto his feet, and a light unto his paths.” {13b} When pursuing his heavenward journey through this vale of tears, the prospect often appears uninviting and gloomy, the sky dark and troubled, and the way, always narrow, becomes sometimes a thorny and tangled path. Dangers also, more or less near and alarming, keep the pilgrim often under apprehension, and always on his guard. Still, he pursues a straight-forward course, from which he deviates little—for he possesses a guide more unerring than the compass of the mariner, and that guide is the infallible Word of God. When darkness obscures, difficulties perplex, and dangers environ his road, in his unfailing “lamp” he finds light, guidance, and safety.