of God's dear children. Let such then be thankful for the disthiguished mercies vouchsafed unto them : let them remem- ber that " all things, which pertain unto life and godliness, are communicated to us through the knowledge of Christ^;" and let them seek to " grow both in grace and knowledge," till from " beholding Christ only as in a glass darkly," they shall " see him as they are seen, and know him as they are known ^."]
a 2 Pet. i, 3. ^1 Cor. xiii. 12.
Isai. xi. 10. I7i that day there shall be a root of Jesse, tvhich shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and his rest shall he glorious.
IN the Scriptures, you frequently see a particular period referred to under the designation of ^' that day." This term very generally marks the season of the Messiah's advent; of which season the prophet speaks in the words before us. In the preceding chapter he has predicted the total destruction of the Assyrian empire, which, having ah'eady brought into captivity the ten tribes, now menaced, with every prospect of success, the other two tribes, which had been reduced to the lowest ebb of weakness and misery : " The Lord, the Lord of hosts shall lop the bough with terror ; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled : and he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron ; and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one." Then, in the beginning of this chapter, he declares, that, whilst Assyria should be destroyed to rise no more, the Messiah should rise from the family of David, when it should have sunk to a state of utter insignifi- cance : " And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." He mentions the stem of Jesse, rather than of David ; because David was a powerful monarch ; whereas Jesse, his father, was but a private individual of low rank. Then, in my text, he repeats that same prophecy, saying, " In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the