Zion ; he will comfort all her waste places ; he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody m." The world at this time is only a vale of tears : but then " there will be new heavens and a new earth : yea, God will make all things new"." What will be the state of men's minds at that time, may be gathered from the
description given of it by the Prophet Isaiah0 Blessed
and glorious state! " the peace of all will flow down as a river,"
and the joy of all be unspeakable and glorified1* " God
will cause them universally and without ceasing to triumph in Christ0- ;" and to live as on the very confines of heaven itself."]
Improvement —
Let us inquire,
1. Whence it is that we are comparatively in so
low a state ?
[It is manifest that religion, though perhaps nourishing in comparison of what it was a century ago, is still but at a low ebb. If we look at the ordinances, public, private, and social, they are far from being attended with that life and power that they were in the apostolic age. And whence is this ? Are we straitened in our God? No: "we are straitened in our own bowels ; " we do not pant after the life and power of godliness, as the first converts did: and " we have not, because we ask not." O that we were more earnest and constant in prayer, forgetting all that we have received, and pressing forward for higher attainments ! — • ]
2. How we may attain a greater measure of that prosperity which the saints will enjoy in the latter day ?
[We must all begin with our own hearts. If all would labour for higher attainments in their own souls, the whole Church of God would revive and flourish But an at- tention to others also is most desirable. The walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt with incredible celerity, because all, women as well as men, " repaired before their own doors r :" and if we laboured, all of us in our own more immediate neighbourhood, what might we not effect ! If only we " had a mind to the work," " the work of the Lord should prosper in our hands," and the kingdom of Christ " should come with power" in the midst of us.]
m Isai. li. 3. See also xxxv. 1, 2. " Rev. xxi. 1, 5.
0 Isai. xii. 3 — 6. p Isai. xxxv. 6, 10. 1 2 Cor. ii. 14. ' Neh. iii. 10, 12, 23, 28,29.