await them in that day ; for that period shall be distinguished by,
I. Frequent ordinances —
At the first establishment of the Christian Church, the people " continued daily in the temple with one accord, and brake bread together from house to house, eating their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." Thus also will it be in that blessed day, when apostolic piety shall again prevail throughout the Church : there will be no " famine of the word," but frequent ordi- nances in every place :
[In public, ministers will then " give themselves wholly to their work:" they will be "instant in season and out of season:" they will live only to fulfil their ministry, and will " count their lives dear to them" for no other end. The people too will be as eager to receive instruction, as the ministers to convey it. As many followed our blessed Lord for days together to hear his word, and forgot, as it were, the very wants of nature through the insatiableness of their appetites for spiritual food ; so, me thinks, in that day the people will, as it were, "dicell in the house of the Lord, that they may nourish in the courts of our God."
Then also will social ordinances abound. Friends, when they meet together, will then seek to edify each other in faith and love. In families, all will look for the returning seasons of divine worship, as much as for their regular meals. Parents will "command their children to fear the Lord;" and masters will universally adopt the resolution of Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
In private, too, men will delight in approaching to their God, and in pouring out their souls before the throne of grace. "At morning, and at evening, and at noon-day will they pray," as David did in the times of old ; yea, they will be ready to say with him, " Seven times a day will I praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments."
Thus in the public, social, and private ordinances there will be such a rapid succession, that the " plowman will overtake the reaper ; and he that treadeth out the grapes, the sower." Not that temporal things will be neglected: men will "not be the more slothful in business, because they are fervent in spirit;" but they will carry the fear and love of God into every thing, so that they will " be in the fear of the Lord all the day long." " The fire on their altar will never go out."]
From this state of things there will arise,
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