Duty in View of the Day of the Lord.
JOEL ii, 1, 12--18, 27, 32. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning : and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them; wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else; and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." Thus the Lord calls upon his ministers, and upon his children, in view of the coming of the Lord : and how are his admonitions regarded? Do the priests, the ministers of the Lord, thus weep between the porch and the altar, and cry to the Lord to spare his people? or are they, on the contrary, ridiculing the idea of expecting the Lord immediately to appear? Although the Lord has said, [Joel ii, 30, 31,] "I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke : the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come," and those signs have been seen, yet they know it not. And instead of using their exertions to call the attention of their fellow-men to the indications the Lord has thus hung out in the heavens, their efforts are too often to persuade those who stand on the4verge of the judgment that all is well, and that nothing betokens the approach of the day of the Lord. They heed not the injunction of the Apostle, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, but exhort one another daily, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching."