considered when the cry was heard: the rich man considered too late; the wicked will consider in the great day of Christ's wrath, when they cry to the rocks and hills, &c. The consideration of the lost in eternity will be in vain--will be bitter beyond description--will be everlasting, and as horrible as it is durable. Therefore, consider _now,_ while consideration may yet profit you.--_Jabez Burns, D.D., Pulpit Cyclopædia,_ vol. ii. pp. 37-39. FOOTNOTES: [1] Make up your spiritual accounts daily; see how matters stand between God and your souls (Ps. lxxvii. 6). Often reckonings keep God and conscience friends. Do with your heart as you do with your watch--wind it up every morning by prayer, and at night examine whether it has gone true all that day, whether the wheels of your affections have moved swiftly toward heaven. Oh call yourself often to account; keep your reckonings even, and that is the way to keep your peace.--_Waters,_ 1696. [2] The end of all arts and sciences is the practice of them. And as this is to be confessed in all other arts, so it cannot be denied in divinity and religion, the practice whereof doth in excellency surmount the knowledge and theory, as being the main end whereunto it tends. For to what purpose do men spend their spirits and tire their wits in discerning the light of truth, if they do not use the benefit of it to direct them in all their ways? (Ps. cxix. 59.)--_Downame,_ 1642. INIQUITY A BURDEN. i. 4. _A people laden with iniquity._ _A very surprising description:_ "A people laden with _iniquity._" On account of their punctilious and costly observance of the Mosaic ritual (see vers. 11-15), the Jews imagined that they deserved the commendation of Heaven; but God pronounced them to be "a people laden with iniquity." _Men_ often form very different estimates of the same thing; _e.g.,_ buyer and seller (Prov. xx. 14). There is often as marked a difference between the divine and human estimates of character (Luke xviii. 11; Rev. iii. 17). This is so because God and men judge by different standards; men take into account only their occasional good actions; God judges by that feature of their character which is predominant.[1] So judging, He condemned these most "religious" Jews. What is His estimate of _us?_ _A very instructive description:_ "A people _laden_ with iniquity." The conception is that of a nation that has gone on adding sin to sin, as a man gathering sticks in the forest adds fagot to fagot, until he staggers beneath the load; that which was eagerly sought after becomes an oppressive burden. How true this is! There are many national burdens; despotism, an incapable government, excessive taxation, &c., but the worst and most oppressive of all is a nation's iniquities.