Daniel 12:8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? I. CONTEMPLATE SOME OF THESE WONDERS — THE CALAMITIES OF THE CHURCH. 1. It is a wonder that the Church of God should be exposed to calamity. 2. That they should sometimes be so great and overwhelming. 3. That they have come visibly from the hand of God, and are accompanied with evident tokens of His displeasure. 4. The duration of the calamity is often another wonder. 5. And it is a wonder that the Church's calamities produce so little effect. Now proceed to specify some particulars in our present situation which furnish ground for anxious wonder. (1) It is a dark and portentous spot in our sky that the progress of knowledge should be accompanied with so much infidelity and irreligion. (2) Another ominous cloud is the engrossing attention to politics, and the indifference or aversion shown to religious privileges amidst the struggle for those of a civil nature. (3) Another is that those who had so long pleaded for a national reformation of religion should have abandoned that plea at the very time when Providence seemed to present the opportunity of prosecuting it with some measure of success. (4) Another, that a spirit of determined hostility against the religious establishments of the country should have displayed itself at the very time when a revival of evangelical religion began to make its appearance in them, and internal exertions were making to reform their abuses. (5) Another, that the late revival of evangelical doctrine should have been followed and checked by enthusiastical extremes. II. THE EXERCISE AND CONDUCT BECOMING TO US IN CONTEMPLATING AND ENQUIRING INTO THESE WONDERS. 1. Such enquiries should be conducted with holy adoration of the doings of God. 2. With deep humility. 3. In the exercise of fervent prayer. 4. With firm faith in the preservation of the interests of religion, and the deliverance of the Church. (T. M'Crie D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?WEB: I heard, but I didn't understand: then I said, my lord, what shall be the issue of these things? |
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