1 Chronicles 9:44

REFLECTIONS

It is impossible to read this Chapter, and connect with it, in our remembrance, that this opens a new history of the Church after the desolation of the Babylonish captivity, but with very interesting feelings. Let the Reader figure to himself the desolated view of Jerusalem and Zion plowed as a field. The people returned to their beloved city, and finding the whole in ruins. The Prophet Jeremiah, the mournful Prophet, only in contemplation of what it would be, cried out, How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow that was great among the nations!

Reader! Pause over the sad picture! See what sin was capable of effecting. And if God so punished Israel, what security hath any other nation? If God spared not the natural branches, what shall a grafted instock expect in rebellion?

Blessed Jesus! thou glorious, all-prevailing Intercessor, be gracious, Lord, we beseech thee to our land. Say, Lord, concerning us, I am returned to Jerusalem in mercies. And when thou returnest to bless a land, thou comest with grace to pardon, grace to sanctify, grace to bless, grace to deliver, grace to renew, grace to heal, all our diseases. Oh, then, blessed Jesus, come with all thy quickening, reviving, comforting presence, and say unto us, Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land be anymore termed Desolate; but let the nations of the earth call us the Holy People; the redeemed of the Lord. And let us be called, Sought out; a city not forsaken.