The Worlds Great Sermons, Volume 3 | Page 6

who of us would not use every effort, by tears, supplication, and
sincere repentance, to avert the misfortune?
Are we in our senses, my dear hearers? Perhaps among all who listen to me now, ten
righteous ones would not be found. It may be fewer still. What do I perceive, O my God!
I dare not, with a fixt eye, regard the depths of Thy judgments and justice! Not more than
one, perhaps, would be found among us all! And this danger affects you not, my dear
hearer! You persuade yourself that in this great number who shall perish, you will be the
happy individual! You, you have less reason, perhaps, than any other to believe it! You,

upon whom alone the sentence of death should fall, were only one of all who hear me to
suffer! Great God! how little are the terrors of Thy law known to the world? In all ages
the just have shuddered with dread in reflecting on the severity and extent of Thy
judgments, touching the destinies of men! Alas! what are they laying up in store for the
sons of men!
But what are we to conclude from these awful truths? That all must despair of salvation?
God forbid! The impious alone, to quiet his own feelings in his debaucheries, endeavors
to persuade himself that all men shall perish as well as he. This idea ought not to be the
fruit of the present discourse. It is intended to undeceive you with regard to the general
error, that any one may do whatever is done by others. To convince you that, in order to
merit salvation, you must distinguish yourself from the rest; that in the midst of the world
you are to live for God's glory, and not follow after the multitude.
When the Jews were led in captivity from Judea to Babylon, a little before they quitted
their own country, the prophet Jeremiah, whom the Lord had forbidden to leave
Jerusalem, spoke thus to them: "Children of Israel, when you shall arrive at Babylon, you
will behold the inhabitants of that country, who carry upon their shoulders gods of silver
and gold. All the people will prostrate themselves and adore them. But you, far from
allowing yourselves, by these examples, to be led to impiety, say to yourselves in secret,
It is Thou, O Lord! whom we ought to adore."
Let me now finish by addressing to you the same words.
At your departure from this temple, you go to enter into another Babylon. You go to see
the idols of gold and silver, before which all men prostrate themselves. You go to regain
the vain objects of human passions, wealth, glory, and pleasure, which are the gods of
this world and which almost all men adore. You will see those abuses which all the world
permits, those errors which custom authorizes, and those debaucheries, which an
infamous fashion has almost constituted as laws. Then, my dear hearer, if you wish to be
of the small number of true Israelites, say, in the secrecy of your heart, "It is Thou alone,
O my God! whom we ought to adore. I wish not to have connection with a people which
know Thee not; I will have no other law than Thy holy law; the gods which this foolish
multitude adore are not gods; they are the work of the hands of men; they will perish with
them; Thou alone, O my God! art immortal; and Thou alone deservest to be adored. The
customs of Babylon have no connection with the holy laws of Jerusalem. I will continue
to worship Thee, with that small number of the children of Abraham which still, in the
midst of an infidel nation, composes Thy people; with them I will turn all my desires
toward the holy Zion. The singularity of my manners will be regarded as a weakness; but
blest weakness, O my God! which will give me strength to resist the torrent of customs,
and the seduction of example. Thou wilt be my God in the midst of Babylon, as Thou
wilt one day be in Jerusalem above!"
Ah! the time of the captivity will at last expire. Thou wilt call to Thy remembrance
Abraham and David. Thou wilt deliver Thy people. Thou wilt transport us to the holy city.
Then wilt Thou alone reign over Israel, and over the nations which at present know Thee
not. All being destroyed, all the empires of the earth, all the monuments of human pride
annihilated, and Thou alone remaining eternal, we then shall know that Thou art the Lord
of hosts, and the only God to be adored.
Behold the fruit which you ought to reap from this discourse! Live apart. Think, without
ceasing, that the great number