Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/134

130 "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow." The point upon which their happiness or misery depended is thus stated. "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." This threatening was signally executed upon the Jewish nation in the terrible slaughter which took place when their proud city was besieged by the Roman army under Titus. And it awfully exemplified the inspired declaration: "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." With regard to the impenitent, as individuals, though in this world they find by experience that "the way of transgressors is hard" yet the full measure of