And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.
Departing glory
1. The Church of God doth esteem the exercises of religion e most excellent and glorious thing that can be had in this life.
(1) They are notable signs of God’s favour and presence.
(2) There is more true comfort in them than in the whole world besides.
2. The weakening of the rulers is the height of misery upon the rest of the members of that body.
3. That people hath a heavy judgment upon them whose guides are destitute and deprived of necessary courage.
4. They that have the greatest outward privilege do often come the soonest into distress when God punisheth for sin (Amo_6:7). (J. Udall.)
Sin ruinous and destructive
We do our utmost to protect great buildings from fire and tempest, and yet all the time those buildings are liable to another peril not less severe--the subtle decay of the very framework of the structure itself. The tissue of the wood silently and mysteriously deteriorates, and calamity as dire as a conflagration is precipitated. The whole of the magnificent roofing of the church of St. Paul in Rome had to be taken out at enormous expense because of the dry rot. Scientific men, by microscopic and chemical methods, have investigated the causes of this premature decay, and after patient search they have discovered not only the fungi which destroy the wood tissue, but also the spore that acts as the seed of the fungus. So this obscure, malign vegetation goes on in the heart of the wood, destroying the glory and strength of minister and palace. Character is liable to a similar danger. All evils do not come from the outside. Some of the worst possibilities of loss, weakness, and ruin emerge from within; the destroying agents work obscurely and stealthily, and are almost unsuspected until they nave wrought fatal mischief.
