096. The Prophet Joel’s Prayer In Time Of Famine.

The Prophet Joel’s Prayer In Time Of Famine. The Prayer as recorded.—Joel 1:19. The Lord’s Answer.—Joel 2:12-13 In most beautiful and pathetic strains this prophet represents all nature joining in a universal lament, even the beast of the field, the “lowing herd,” and grazing sheep in the valleys, are dying and falling thickly around for want of sustenance. Verily it is a time to call upon him who bringeth summer and winter, seed time and harvest, in his own good time, and the prophet calls upon high and low, the rich and poor, to unite with him in prayer to the Almighty, for in his own poetic language, “The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, also are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men.”

He also calls upon the ministers who kept the watches at the temple, to gather their people together on this distressing occasion, to unite in his cry to God, to let it be loud and universal from saint and sinner, to lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth, a striking figure of the deepest sorrow of earth.