II. The blessing which God has promised to it —
The prophecy before us declares that the increase of this seed shall be,
1. Strong —
[The woods of " Lebanon" were proverbially grand. Waving their lofty heads, they seemed to defy the storms and tempests. Such was to be the fruit that should spring from the Gospel seed. Weak as corn is to withstand a storm, that which was to grow upon the mountain-tops should be firm as the deep-rooted cedars. And has not the event justified the prediction ? The powers of earth and hell combined against the infant church, but were not able to crush it. Neither imprisonment nor death could intimidate the disciples of Jesus. Even the weaker sex were enabled to endure the most cruel tortures, and to glory in their tribulations for Jesus' sake. In every successive age the same holy fortitude has characterized the followers of the Lamb. If any through the fear of man have forsaken the Church, they have only proved thereby that they never truly belonged to it ; " they went out from us because they were not of us ; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us**." Every true believer has been faithful unto death.]
2. Numerous —
[What more numerous than the piles of grass ? Yet such, it was foretold, should be the converts to Christianity. And how was this verified in the apostolic age! Thousands were converted by one single sermon. In a few years the followers of Christ filled, not Judea alone, but also the whole Roman empire. At the reformation too the seed that had long lam under the earth, sprang up and yielded a glorious harvest. But the promised period is yet future, though, we hope, it is hastening on apace. Li the latter day " the people of God shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude". " A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation *=". Yea, " a nation shall be born in a day". And " All the ends of the earth shall remember themselves and turn unto the Lord**". There still indeed may be seasons when, as in former ages, they shall be mown down by their persecutors ; but they shall spring up again like the grass : and the very blood of the martyrs shall be the seed of the church. " The knowledge of the Lord shall surely cover the earth as the waters cover the sea^".]
This SUBJECT may well excite in us, 1. Thankfulness for what is past —
^ 1 John ii. 19. c isai. Ix. 22. i Ps. xxii. 27. ^ Hab. ii. 14.