September 14

"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." — Isa. 19.

WITHOUT any prefatory remarks, we proceed to notice

THE ATTACK. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood." Let us

Explain the metaphor. It implies incursion. The enemy will not stay without the walls of the Church, as in the besieging of a city, but actually enters. Satan comes into the families of Christians, and kindles the fire of strife. He enters the closet, the sanctuary. He comes into the hearts of God's people. It implies multiplicity. A flood of water consists of many drops. How numerous are the Christian's enemies! The seed of the serpent is more numerous than the seed of the woman. It implies unity. As drops of water in a flood are closely connected together, and run into the same channel, so Satan and his hellish crew are united in their opposition to the Captain of our salvation and his royal army. Whatever jarring and strife exist among the followers of the dragon, yet they are as one man in their opposition to the Church of Christ. We have instances in proof of this, both in sacred and profane history. It implies violence. The waters of a flood are rapid in their motion, and have great strength. Satan is sometimes violent in his attacks on the Christian, so that, if it were possible, he would carry him in the streams of apostasy to the very gulf of perdition. Let us now

Illustrate the truth. When does the enemy come in like a flood? When ignorance abounds in the Church. How many have grown grey under the means of grace, and yet are but children in knowledge! When erroneous doctrines are taught. We talk about the increase of popery in our land, but we have not far to go to hear popish doctrine in protestant assemblies. Where salvation by human merit is taught, there is the essence of popery, and the grand pillar on which the man of sin rests. When infidelity prevails. This is a deadly, poisonous weed, that grows very luxuriant even in favored Britain: may the Lord help his servants in endeavoring to root it up; and on the soil where it has flourished, may there be planted the tree of life, whose wide-spreading leaves shall heal those that have been distempered by it!

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