them that cry, "My God, we know Thee," yet have
transgressed His covenant, and hastened after another god,(495) hiding
iniquity in their hearts, and loving the paths of unrighteousness,--to
these the day of the Lord is "darkness, and not light, even very dark, and
no brightness in it."(496) "It shall come to pass at that time," saith the
Lord, "that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that
are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do
good, neither will He do evil."(497) "I will punish the world for their
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of
the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible."(498) "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to
deliver them;" "their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a
desolation."(499)

The prophet Jeremiah, looking forward to this fearful time, exclaimed: "I
am pained at my very heart." "I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast
heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction
upon destruction is cried."(500)

"That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of
wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm."(501) "Behold,
the day of the Lord cometh, ... to lay the land desolate: and He shall
destroy the sinners thereof out of it."(502)

In view of that great day the word of God, in the most solemn and
impressive language, calls upon His people to arouse from their spiritual
lethargy, and to seek His face with repentance and humiliation: "Blow ye
the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the
inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is
nigh at hand." "Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the
people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
children: ... let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride
out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
between the porch and the altar." "Turn ye even to Me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your
heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness."(503)

To prepare a people to stand in the day of God, a great work of reform was
to be accomplished. God saw t