2. To the desponding" —
[What can the Saviour add to convince you of his will- ingness
* Isai.lv. I. " Luke xiv. 16 — 24. ^ John v. 40.
» Matt. viii. 1 1, 12. * Matt, xxiii. .37.
ingness to accept and bless you ? Perhaps you vnW say, ' J have tried to come to him, and I cannot : and I have tried so long, that I think it in vain to entertain a hope of final suc- cess.' Is this the case ? Then hear what the Saviour says to you i y the prophet Isaiah : When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue failetli for thiist, I the Lord will hear them, I tlie God of Israel will not forsake them: 1 a\'11 open rivers in high places, and fountains in the ' midst of the \ alleys : I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water". Now I cannot conceive a case more desperate than that which is here de- picted : The person is in himself " poor and needy." (There you will easily recognize your own character.) He has " sought for water," even for the waters of salvation. (That represents what you also profess to have done.) He has *' found none." (There is your unhappy lot painted with the utmost precision.) " His tongue faileth for thirst ;" so that he is ready to sink in utter despair. (What can you add to that, to bring it home more fully to your own case?) Yet this is the very person for wlunn God has reserved his blessi?i^s, and to whom he engages to impart them. ' But I am in such a state, that it is almost impossible to deliver me : you might as well expect a river to be running over the highest mountains. as for the waters of Salvation to reach me.' Is that the case? says the Saviour: then " I will open rivers in high placrs; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." See here, my Brethren, what wonderful condescension there is in your Lord and Saviour, that he will so describe your case, that it should not be possible for you to fail in recognizing your own character, or to doubt any longer his ability and willingness to save you. Take then this passage ; and rely upon it ; and plead it with him ; and expect the accomplishment of it to your own soul. Then shall " your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noon-day ''." You shall find that the Saviour is not " a fountain sealed"^," but "a fountain opened'^;" and "out of that well of salvation you shall drink water with joy" for ever- more ^]
* Isai. xli. 17, 18. '' Isai. Iviii. lO. ' Cant. iv. 12,
'' Ps. xxxvi. 9. Joel iii. 1 8. • Isai. xii. 3.
424 iiEVELATiox, XXII. 18, 19. [1221.