BENEFITS ARISING FROM GOD's RETURN TO THE SOUL.
Isai. xxx. 26. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
THE dispensations of Providence, if rightly im- proved, are calculated to promote our spiritual welfare.
god's return to the soul. ;)7
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The Jews derived many instructive lessons from the dealings of God with them in Egypt and the wilder- ness. But God here promises them more abundant knowledge and joy by means of their deliverance from the Assyrian hosta. The grandeur, however, of the words before us evidently shews, that the prophet had respect to more distant times, and to blessings which no temporal deliverance was able to convey. We must say of this promise, I. That it is verified amongst us at this day — It is fulfilled to us,
1. At the first reconciliation of our souls to God — [The convictions of an awakened conscience are as deep wounds to the soul. Sin, though it be honey in the mouth, becomes gall in the stomach : Peter, Judas, and David in par- ticular, shew what " wounds" it will make in the souP; nor can any one view it aright, without having his heart broken with a sense of its malignity.
But reconciliation with God heals these wounds. The blood of Christ is that " balm of Gilead," which never was applied in vainc. It operates as the sight of the brazen serpent on the dying Israelites, to restore to life and vigour those, whose state seems altogether desperate*1. David, after the foulest trans- gressions, declared his persuasion of its efficacy to cleanse even hime. And all who are reconciled to God through Christ experience its full effects f.
Now this is a season wherein the knowledge and joy of the soul are much enlarged. Till this great event is accomplished, the views of the soul are very contracted ; nor is it acquainted with any joy but what is carnal: but no sooner has this taken place, than the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines into the heart, and all his perfections are admired and adored. Now also the excellency of the Gospel salvation is discovered ; and the reasonableness of a life devoted to God is deeply felt. Now is a new and inexhaustible source of hap- piness opened to the soul : and its peace and joy flow down like a river; and all the pleasures that it ever enjoyed in the ways of sin, are no more in comparison of its present consolations, than the faint " light of the moon" to the invigorating rays of the meridian " sun." But this promise has a further accom- plishment,]
a That this is the literal import of the passage appears from ver. .'3 1 . compared with ver. 25, 26.
b Ps. xxxii. 1 — 6. c Jer. viii. 22. ll John iii. 14, 15.
<•' Ps. li. 7, 8. ' Luke iv. 18. 1 Pet. i. 8.