Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. (Sermon to Children): — The text struck me when I was a lad. Children have a strange way of mixing up things, and I came to think of these words as in some way connected with a place near my native town. Away out on those wild cliffs, with the fierce Atlantic rolling in upon them, there is a valley which came to be in my mind a sort of "valley of decision." I. THE VALLEY OF DECISION IS A PLACE FOR SOBER THOUGHT. There is the little stream hurrying on between the banks, always hastening away to the great sea. Is not that just like our life? It is hurrying away to the great sea of eternity. II. A PLACE OF SOLEMN WARNING. Just under this little valley a merry party had come one day for a picnic. One young man slipped away to bathe. Suddenly, as the others sat singing on the rocks, one sprang up and pointed to their friend as he was being borne away by the current. He was drowning before their eyes. What is death but the sweeping in of the waves of eternity, bearing away one and another T Think of these things deeply and seriously. III. THE PLACE SUGGESTED OUR DANGER AND OUR DELIVERANCE. There was a huge, black, rounded cavern, called Ralph's Cupboard, in a steep, precipitous cliff, never accessible from the land, and scarcely ever to be entered from the sea. A smuggler, hard pressed by the coastguards, turned his boat towards this cave, caught the swelling wave, and was swept into what seemed the jaws of destruction, but to him was harbour of safety. We, too, have broken the law. We want a refuge. And the Bible says, "A man shall be as an hiding-place." Our only Safety is in Him, our only hope of escape is there. Yet all this will not make a place the valley of decision. When we have made up our mind, the day of the Lord is near. (Mark Guy Pearse.) Parallel Verses KJV: Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. |
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