god's delight in his people.
Isai. lxii. 5. As a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee : and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee*.
AMONGST those who have paid attention to the sacred Oracles, no doubt exists but that very glorious days are near at hand, even those days when " the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas." In this conversion of the world to God, the Jewish people will take the lead : " their righteousness will go forth as brightness, and their salvation as a lamp that burnetii : and the Gen- tiles shall see their righteousness, and all kings their glory : and they shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name"!" In them shall God be pre-eminently glorified : for " they shall be as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of their Godc." At present they are in a state proverbially " desolate," as indeed they have been for nearly eighteen hundred years : but the time is coming when " their nation shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor their land be any more termed Desolate ; but she shall be called Hephzi-bah ; and her land Beulah ; for the Lord delighteth in her, and her land shall be married*1:" and God's delight in her shall be such as we have just now heard in the words of our text.
With all the caution due to so delicate a subject, let us consider,
I. God's relation to his people —
The words primarily relate to the Jewish Church —
[God had called them from the most destitute condition, even that of a new-born infant, that had no one to administer to its necessities ; and had separated them for himself, to be brought, in due season, into the most intimate and endeared
a In treating this subject, the utmost possible delicacy must be ob- served.
b ver. 1, 2. with chap. Ix. 1 — 5. c ver. 3. d ver. 4.