Heralds of the Morning
257
these, the day of the Lord is “darkness, and not light, even very dark,
and no brightness in it.” [
Amos 5:20
.] “It shall come to pass at that
time,” saith the Lord, “that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and
punish the men that are settled on their lees; that say in their heart, The
Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” [
Zephaniah 1:12
.] “I
will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity;
and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low
the haughtiness of the terrible.” [
Isaiah 13:11
.] “Neither their silver
nor their gold shall be able to deliver them;” “their goods shall become
a booty, and their houses a desolation.” [
Zephaniah 1:18, 13
.]
The prophet Jeremiah, looking forward to this fearful time, ex-
claimed: “I am pained at my very heart.” “I cannot hold my peace,
because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the
alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried.” [
Jeremiah 4:19,
20
.]
“That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of
wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm.” [
Zephaniah
1:15, 16
.] “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, ... to lay the land
desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” [
Isaiah
13:9
.]
In view of that great day the Word of God, in the most solemn
and impressive language, calls upon his people to arouse from their
spiritual lethargy, and to seek his face with repentance and humiliation:
“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.” “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.
Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,
gather the children.... Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and
the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,
[311]
weep between the porch and the altar.” “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.” [
Joel 2:1, 15-18, 12, 13
.]
To prepare a people to stand in the day of God, a great work of
reform was to be accomplished. God saw that many of his professed
people were not building for eternity, and in his mercy he was about