317 SERMON XVII. Amos iv. 12. PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD." FELLOW sinners! I could not select, perhaps, from the whole Bible, words of more brief, but of more awfully expressive import, than those in which I this hour, by the authority of my sacred office, solemnly charge and exhort you all to be ready for eternity to you and to myself I address the summons. May the Holy Spirit send it home to our hearts. 66 Prepare to meet thy God!" To MEET God-what is that? What is it for a poor, blind, naked, miserable, fallen creature to meet his God?-to meet him, to face him, to confront him? It is an awful thing to meet an angel-it is an awful thing to meet a disembodied spirit of any kind-to meet the spirit even of the dearest relative departed; like Job's friend, when a spirit passed before his face, "a fear and trembling would come, making all the bones to shake, and the hair of the flesh to stand up." How appalling, then, to meet God, the Father of spirits! When Jacob met the Lord in a dream only, he said, "How dreadful is this place." It is a fearful thing to meet an earthly enemy-to meet one that cometh against us with ten thousand banded confederates-what must it be to meet the Almighty with thousand thousands cherubim and seraphim, and an "unnumbered company of angels!"-" the great and dreadful God," who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell"before whom the heavens are not clean" "who chargeth his angels with folly," and "in whose sight no flesh living can be justi fied!" Who, then, can "stand in the battle in the day of the Lord ?" to meet HIM? Is there any man or woman now present who deems it a light matter to meet such a Being ?" Are you stronger than he?" "Have you an arm like him ?” or “ Can you thunder with a voice like him?" Remember, he is the God that wonderfully and fearfully made you, numbered all your bones, yea, the very hairs of your head; and though your bones be severed and scattered through distant lands, left bleaching to the winds of Who, then, is able . heaven, or waste away in the rocky depths of ocean-though your dust be indistinctly mingled with its kindred earth, yet can he bring together again the minutest particles on "his great and terrible day," when there shall be "multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision!" Suppose God met you this instant-suppose you heard the voice of the Lord God, like Adam, in the cool of the day-or suppose you saw the hand-writing on that wall, though it were even a message of mercy, and not of judgment, would not your heart quail with terror, and your trembling knees smite together? It is true, in your alarm, you might seek to hide yourself; but where could you hide? whither could you go or flee from his presence who fills heaven and earth? The terrific words that startled Adam-though but a still small voice-" Where art thou ?" would burst through the central caverns of the greatest mountain, and snatch you out before the angry face of Him, whose eyes are as a flame of consuming fire. Oh, how then is that God to be met! Tell me, if you can, any question so important as this? You may ask, what shall I eat to-day-what shall I drink or wherewithal shall I be clothed? How shall I buy and sell, and get gain to-morrow? How or where shall I lay my head? What shall be my next pleasure and amusement? Oh! what are these to the questions, How shall I meet my God? WHERE shall I meet my God? WHEN Shall I meet my God? How? Through Christ alone, by faith in the merits of his blood and righteousness, without one single work of ours-all the works in the world could not even help us they may "follow us ;" but we never could meet God with them. Where? In eternity. When? In the twinkling of an eye after death. Oh, that we were all so prepared for that awful "meeting," that we might have boldness in the day of judgment-that "When He shall appear, we might have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming!" Oh, that we were all accustomed, by communion, to be alone with God in time; as the hour may come, when on the bed of death, some of us may tremble at the dreadful apprehension of being ALONE with the living God in eternity! Now, I fear there may be some in this congregation, who consider such a charge premature and unseasonable. What (they may say within themselves) have we to do with the preparation for such a meeting, who are here to-day in the full enjoyment of health and strength, and with every human prospect of |