3. The interest we have in him is also more deep and lasting —
[Many of them had been healed in their bodies ; but we, even every one of us that welcomes him aright, have been healed in our souls, and have his healing work continually carrying on within us. They, whatever benefits they might receive, looked only to this life as the season for enjoying them. But we look to the eternal world, as the true and pro- per season for enjoying the fulness of his blessings. The com- mencement of them, indeed, we here possess, in pardon of sin, deliverance from its power, and in the manifestations of God's love to our souls. But these are only earnests of our full inheritance, which we shall possess for ever in a better world. I think, that when these considerations are duly weighed, we shall have no hesitation in adopting, in the highest pos- sible sense, the acclamations that were used by them.]
Let me, however, add,
1. A word of caution —
[It is evident that the joy of that people was of a tumul- tuous kind : and I confess I am no friend to such expressions of piety amongst us. It was suited for them ; but it is not so for us. Our joy in the Lord should be more intelligent, more humble, more quiet, more enduring.
We should have just views of Christ altogether, and of the
whole work which he came to accomplish We should
have a deeper sense of our need of him, and of our utter undone state without him We should have less of ani- mal fervour, and more of that which is spiritual And,
with us, it should be not merely occasional, as called forth by some particular circumstance, but the daily and continued habit of our minds. In a word, ours should resemble rather the joy of the glorified saints above, who prostrate themselves on their faces before the throne, and rest not, day nor night, in ascribing glory to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb.]
2. A word of encouragement —
[If you truly glory in the Saviour as you ought to do, you will find Pharisees in abundance ready to condemn you for your zeal and love. One would have thought, that the reasons which that people had to exalt the Saviour were abundantly sufficient to justify them, even in the eyes of those who could not participate their joy. But envy is of a peculiarly malig- nant character : and they who have no piety themselves, hate to behold the exercise of it in others. Know, however, that
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