"When the wicked, being approved and encouraged by the authorities, grow numerous, and walk on every side, it is no marvel that transgression increases, as a plague in the country is said to increase when still more and more are infected with it. Transgression grows more impudent and bold, more imperious and threatening, when there are many who want to continue in their wicked ways...

"Let not the righteous have their faith and hope shocked by the increase of sin and sinners. Let them not say that they have cleansed their hands in vain, or that God has forsaken the earth, but wait with patience; the transgressors shall fall, the measure of their iniquity will be full, and then they shall fall from their dignity and power, and fall into disgrace and destruction; the righteous shall have the satisfaction of seeing their fall, perhaps in this world, certainly in the judgment of the great day, when the fall of God's implacable enemies will be the joy and triumph of the glorified saints."

"Though sin seems to triumph now, and Satan boasts of his victories, 'the kingdoms of this world,' with all their vast population, shall 'become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.'

"This is indeed the supporting joy of faith: to realise the glory of the day when the righteous shall see the fall of the now triumphing wicked; and one universal shout shall swell throughout the earth - 'Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are His judgments - Alleluia; for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.'"

"The Lord knows what He has to do, and will do it in infinite wisdom and justice. He has the entire plan and model of providence before Him, and knows what He will do, which we do not, and therefore we do not understand what He does.

"There is a day of judgment before Him, when all the seeming disorders of providence will be set right and the dark chapters of it will be completed. Then you will see the full meaning of these dark events, and the final period of these dismal events when you will see His face with joy.

"Therefore trust in Him, depend upon Him, wait for Him, and believe that the issue will be good at last. When we consider that God is infinitely wise, and righteous, and faithful, and that He is a God of judgment, we shall see no reason to despair of relief from Him, but all the reason in the world to hope in Him, that it will come in due time, in the best time."

"Lord, we praise you that you are truly sovereign over all things. You rule in perfect undisturbed majesty.

"Though the wrong of this world is so evident, and the wickedness is so great, by faith, O Lord, we praise you that you will raise up the humble and bring low the proud and arrogant. You, O Lord, will destroy the schemes of those who oppose you, and from heaven you laugh at their foolishness.

"Lord, give grace to your children who are, even today, being afflicted by the evil actions of the wicked, and draw them close to your gracious bosom. Yet at the same time, pour out your righteous wrath against those who set their hearts on darkness, and cause them to know that you alone are God. We pray in Jesus' Holy Name, Amen."

* Matthew Henry was a renowned Puritan preacher and biblical commentor from Chester, England, during the early 1700's.

Ý Charles Bridges (1794-1869) was one of the leaders in the Church of England in the last century, and one of the outstanding evangelical writers of his day.

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