Isai. lxii. G, 7. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusa- lem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night ; ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence ; and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
IT is melancholy to reflect, that notwithstanding God has given a revelation of himself to man above three thousand years, there is not a sixth part of mankind that has ever so much as heard of salvation through a crucified Redeemer. And, of those who are called Christians, a very small portion indeed has any vital union with Christ, or experimental know- ledge of his love. In this view, even the Church itself may be termed Forsaken and Desolate. But it will not be always thus. There is a period fixed in the Divine counsels, when the Jewish Church, being- enlarged by vast accessions from every quarter of the globe, shall be called Hephzi-bah, and Beulah; seeing
that the Lord will delight in her, and regard her as his Bride a.
To the hastening forward of that blessed time we all may contribute, and all ought to contribute to the utmost of our power. How we may be instrumental to the glorious work, we are told in the words before us : in considering which we shall shew,
I. What should be the great object of our solicitude —
As having immortal souls, we are all concerned in the first place to seek salvation for ourselves. But our anxiety should extend to the Jewish Church, and to the whole world : we should desire not only to prosper in our own souls, but to see " Jerusalem," even the Church of the living God, prospering also, so as to be " a praise in the earth." In a word, our desire should be,
1 . That the light of the Gospel should be univer- sally diffused —
[In the Gospel is contained the brightest discovery of all the Divine perfections as united and harmonizing in the work of Redemption : it is an exhibition of " the light of the know- ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ "
Now, in comparison of this, the works of creation have no glory, by reason of the glory that excelleth : the sun itself is darkness when compared with " the Sun of Righteousness that hath arisen on the world with healing in his wings "
And where, but in the Church, is this glory seen ? Not one ray of it shines in the whole world besides
The Church then is " a praise in the earth," in proportion as this light shines forth in the earth : But alas ! at present the greatest part of the world is under an eclipse. We hope, however, that in due time every intervening object will be removed ; and that the light now rapidly spreading over the horizon, will extend its beams to regions that are yet lying in darkness and the shadow of death ; and that it will shine, in its meridan splendour, not successively, but at once, on every portion of the habitable globe.
How greatly is this to be desired ! If the light of civilization be esteemed a blessing, how much more must the light of Sal- vation be so ; especially when, with that, the glory of God and of all his infinite perfections is displayed ! ]
a ver. 4, 5.