England’s ills and sorrows

“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” Jeremiah 9:1

Suggested Further Reading: Luke 19:37-44

As ye stand on any of the hills around, and behold this monstrous city lying in the valley, say, “O London, London! how great thy guilt. Oh! that the Master would gather thee under his wing, and make thee his city, the joy of the whole earth! O London, London! Full of privileges, and full of sin; exalted to heaven by the gospel, thou shalt be cast down to hell by thy rejection of it!” And then, when ye have wept over London, go and weep over the street in which you live, as you see the sabbath broken, and God’s laws trampled upon, and men’s bodies profaned—go and weep! Weep, for the court in which you live in your humble property; weep for the square in which you live in your magnificent wealth; weep for your neighbours and your friends, lest any of them, having lived godless, may die godless! Then go to your house, weep for your family, for your servants, for your husband, for your wife, for your children. Weep, weep; cease not weeping, till God has renewed them by his Spirit. And if you have any friends with whom you sinned in your past life, be earnest for their salvation. George Whitefield said there were many young men with whom he played at cards, and spent hours wasting his time when he should have been about other business. When he was converted, his first thought was, “I must by God’s grace have these converted too.” And he never rested, till he could say, that he did not know of one of them, a companion of his guilt, who was not now a companion with him in the tribulation of the gospel. Oh, let it be so with you!

For meditation: “Jesus wept” for others; “How he loved” (John 11:35,36). What message do your tears or lack of tears convey about you?

Sermon no. 150
6 September (1857)