The Arkansas advocate., 1830-04-21


 |' He that being oflea reprosed hardenefh h5s aeek, shaR De suddenly destroyed, aud dRGt toabout remedy. PRoV. %. ;
 This solemn denunciation of tod IS threat. ened against all such as neglect to learn wisdom, and continue careless and unbe- heviag under the nluitiform dispensations of Divine Providence
 Various are the ways by which God works on the hearts of the children of men. Some times repeated blessings exhibited under health, prosperity, and an abundance of this worlds goods, are daily showered down on us, to see if peradventure the goodness of the Lord will lead us to repen- tance-at other times God takes away our friends, our children, our companions, strips HIS of the bounties of his providence, affordIng us bare subsistence, to see if these privations will subdue our stubbora wills and produce such reflections as will compel US to acknowledge our dependence on him, and produce submission to his will and beliefin his word.
 The Lord ofttimes visits us with sickness bringing us nigh unto death, and again res- tores us to health, to see if chastisements viii humble us under his mighty hand = These affective dispensations are often, in great mercy repeated, thereby showing the forbearance and long suffering of c cd !, who thus often and often reproves us, in- stead of cutting us down as cumberers of the ground. But there will be an end of these reproofs. God will be constrained to declare, since neither goodness nor re- proofs have any effect, let them be cut of, there shall be no more remedy for them.
 Every affiiction which we are called to experience, should be viewed as a solemn voice from on high, saying unto us ( Pre- pare to meet thy God ,"-and solemnly re- mlnding us, that we must shortly die.
 Sin is the cause of disease-sin is the cause death-and the more light God has given to us, the more aggravated IS our guilt, If we shut our eyes against the light of God's word and suffer the world, the flesh or the devil, to obscure the clear re. velation which God has given to us in his word. The curse of God is pronounced a. galnst all such, as either add to, or take from the word of revealed truth how careful then should we be to search the scriptures for ourselves, that we may be- heve Tn nothing, that is not there made manifest If we will not read, that we may scticvc what God has declared. but Will suffer the opinions of vain, fallible man to have more weight on our minds than the word of God-er if we will suffer the sua- gestions of proud man, who is prone to De wise above what IS written in Gods yvay,, to darken our minds on any subject taught and revealed by the spirit of God, we have awful reason to consider ourselves in dam ger of the curses contained in the 18th and 18th verses of the last chapter of ReYela- tions.
 For such sinful conduct, we must expect the avenging hand of God, and when affiic- ncns cofiis 1iPoii us, they should produce a serious examination to ascertain if possi- Die the immediate cause of Gods displea- sure, ever bearing in mind, that z He that being often reproved, harde his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed. and that with. out remedy" Reader! may God give you repentance unto eternal life.
 A LAY PREACHER.