National Ruin

How urgently does the alternative of impending ruin , as well as the hope of national preservation , call upon us to labour efficiently , and to pray earnestly , while it is yet day . The time may come , when the voice of the intercession will be hushed by the stern command , "Pray not for this people for their good ;" when the exertions of Christian zeal will be arrested by the solemn message , "Come , my people , enter thou into thy chambers , and shut the doors about thee ; hide thyself , as it were , for a little moment , until the indignation be overpast ;"when there will be presented to the church the dreary spectacle of the nation shut up in hopeless impenitence to its inevitable doom . How melancholy will be the contemplation , if the guilt of this impenitence is wholly chargeable upon the nation !  But how agonizing the reflection , if it be chargeable equally upon the nation and the church!!!!          Rev. James Lumsden  1844.

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