II. Numerous converts —
\Noiv ministers may fish all the day, and take scarcely any thing ; but then the Lord will direct them where and how to cast their nets ; which they shall scarcely be able to drag to land, by reason of the numbers that they shall catch. The days of Pentecost shall be revived. From a small handful of corn shall spring up a crop waving like the trees of Lebanon, and standing as close upon the ground as piles of grass upon the earth e. Fresh converts shall be continually hastening for- ward, as " doves flying to their windows ;" yea rather, they shall be like a majestic river "flowing together to the goodness of the Lord," and that too, not as in an ordinary course, but upward, " even to the mountain of the Lord's house that shall be established on the top of the mountains f." The church itself shall be perfectly astonished at the increase ; which will be so vast and so rapid, that places shall be wanting for their reception s. In a word, "the fields will be always white ready to the harvest;" and one crop will not be gathered in, before another is ripe for the sickle."]
Nor will Christianity be a mere profession then ; for all who embrace it shall be distinguished for,
III. Exalted virtues —
[All will then " live, not unto themselves, but unto their God ; even to Him who died for them, and rose again." The fruit which individuals will then bear will not be thirty or sixty- fold, but an hundred-fold. It will appear as if all the most eminent saints that have ever lived had risen again ; on which account it is called, " The first resurrection11." So subdued will be all the evil passions of men in that day, that " instead of the thorn will grow up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier will grow up the myrtle-tree1 :" "for brass there will be gold; for iron, silver; for wood, brass; and for stones, iron k." It will be truly the reign of Christ upon earth : nothing but his will will be done ; and it will be done on earth, in good measure, as it is done in heaven. Godliness will then be, not an act, but a habit ; so that one act of piety will be only as a prelude to another ; " the very mountains dropping with sweet wine, and the hills melting" into rivers of wine.]
Resulting from this state of piety, there will be,
IV. Abundant consolations —
[This is doubtless intimated in our text, as in the parallel passage in the Prophet Joel1. Truly " God will then comfort
e Ps. lxxii. 16. t Isai. ii. 2. s Isai. xlix. 18 — 23.
h Rev. xx. 5, 6. » Isai. lv. 13. k Isai. lx. 17.
1 Joel iii. 18.