Isaiah 58:14

REFLECTIONS

MY soul! listen to the call of God, by the Prophet, for he it is that speaks in his word, and by his word; and let a conscious sense of sin lead thee to seek salvation by Christ. And see to it, my soul, that while using all the means of grace, and following every sacred ordinance of the Lord's appointment, with diligence, under the divine blessing, thou place no stress upon the means, to the forgetting of the end. For what are all ordinances, unless the God of ordinances be found and enjoyed in them? So that if, like Israel of old, thou shouldest draw nigh to God with thy mouth, and honour him with thy lips, while thine heart is far from him; will not this be to prevent the very design of everything that is sacred; and, instead of bringing thine heart to God, to lead thy heart from God? No, my soul! beg of God for grace, that thy fasts and thy poor services may be first seasoned by the Holy Spirit, and that the glory of God in Jesus Christ may be the grand object of pursuit and desire in every one. Oh! for grace to know these things, and to live in the heart-felt affection for them; for then, Jesus's righteousness will go before thee, and the glory of the Lord will be thy rereward.

And, my soul! see to it also, that what the Prophet hath so graciously marked of divine promises be in thy experience. The Lord will guide continually, it is said. He will satisfy thy soul in drought. He will make fat thy bones. Precious, precious Lord Jesus! be thou my portion, and, sure I am, I shall be well guided, well satisfied, and well fed, with the fatness of redemption. Yea, Lord, I shall be as a well watered garden, whose waters fail not. For thou art the Repairer of the breaches of our poor fallen nature, and the Restorer of paths to dwell in.

And, Lord! help me to reverence thy sabbaths, to delight in, to love, and to esteem them, above all seasons; that, with one of old, I may say, and feel the full blessedness of the expressions, while I say it, One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. Yea, my ever blessed Lord Jesus, be thou thyself my sabbaths; for being thyself my sabbaths, my rest, my joy, and sole delight, upon earth, thou wilt be my heaven of sabbaths in the life to come. Amen.