leap as an hart ;" so that they not only walk, but " run in the way of God's commandments with enlarged hearts." Lastly, by it is " the tongue of the dumb made to sing the praises of Jehovah," and to anticipate, amidst all the troubles of this earthly state, the felicity of heaven.
Now this is not a poetic fiction, but a plain and undeniable reality. This is the state of men wherever the Gospel of Christ produces its proper and legitimate effects. It is not among the rich only or the poor, the old or the young, that it operates in this way, but in persons of every age and every class. Wherever it is preached, " with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," there it is " quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- edged sword," and becomes to multitudes the power of God to the salvation of their souls. The miracles wrought by our blessed Lord were but a shadow of what is wrought, and shall be wrought, by the preached Gospel : and, I thank God, there are millions this day upon earth who can bear witness to this blessed truth, that, in their own actual experience, they are become altogether " new creatures ; old things having passed away, and all things being become new."]
Observe then, from hence,
1. What little reason any person has to despond —
[Can any one conceive himself to be in a worse state than that of a desert, destitute of all good, and filled with every thing that is of the most malignant quality ? Or, if he take humanity for his standard, can he conceive of himself as in a more deplorable condition than one blind, and deaf, and lame, and dumb ? Yet these are the maladies which the Gospel is sent especially to relieve. It does not merely suffice for these things ; but it is the prescribed remedy, which never did, nor ever can, fail. Instead therefore of being discouraged by any sense that we have of our own extreme want and wretchedness, we should take occasion, from our very necessities, to glorify God, and to enlarge our expectations of relief from him ; assured, that " his strength shall be made perfect in our weakness," and his grace be magnified in our unworthiness.]
2. What glorious prospects are before us —
[We believe that these wonderful changes shall take place in God's appointed time, and that " all the kingdoms of" the world shall become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ." The change from the dreary barrenness of winter to the verdure and fertility of spring, is pleasing to the sight : but, oh ! what is it to see a place, where Christ was neither known nor thought of, filled with persons displaying in their souls all the wonderful operations of his grace ! And what must it be, to behold these scenes spreading from city to city, from kingdom to kingdom,