When the directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway resolved to run trains on the Lord’s Day, William Burns announced his intention of holding open-air services at the Haymarket (the Edinburgh terminus in those days), at the hours of departure and arrival of the trains.
Of the Prophet Isaiah, we are told by himself that he prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. By referring, therefore, to the history of these reigns, as they are recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles, we may form a correct estimate of the character of the age in which he lived, and of the state of religion among the people whom he addressed;
“Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”– Judges 5:23. In these deeply solemn words two things claim our attention – the sin of the inhabitants of Meroz, and the judgment of the Lord against them because of it. Let me rapidly touch on this sentence; on the judgment; with one or two practical lessons arising out of both.
God is sovereign over every detail of this world. This the Scripture asserts plainly throughout its pages. Recent times have challenged the church to maintain consistency in its understanding and application of this doctrine. If the Lord is sovereign over all, he is sovereign over trials, afflictions, and global catastrophes.
