Job 37:24

REFLECTIONS

READER, it is highly profitable to follow, with our profound meditation, the Lord in all his works of nature, and to be ever ready to bless him for all the goodness he is unceasingly bestowing upon the sons of men. He maketh (as our adorable Redeemer teacheth) his sun to rise, upon the evil and upon the good: and sendeth the blessings of his rain both upon the just and upon the unjust. Oh! that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he doeth for the children of men!

But when from the world of nature we are enabled to follow the LORD into the world of grace; and when, from the common blessings of his providence, in creation, we are led to behold the special blessings of his love, in redemption, this is like passing from the outer courts of his temple into the more immediate apartment of his presence. And, in JESUS, what a vast and unlimited contemplation is thrown open to a poor sinner's view.

Reader, cannot you tell (as Elihu beautifully expresseth it) how your garments make you warm, when the LORD quieteth the earth by the south wind? And will you any longer wonder that you are not able to explain how it is, that the robe of JESUS'S righteousness becomes a complete justifying garment, to warm the soul of a sinner, and to make him, that is in himself unclean, yet now viewed in CHRIST, holy, blessed, and sanctified? Oh that men should be unbelievers in a point of so much mercy, when their daily experience in the most common things of GOD'S providence, compels them to give a cordial assent to what they can no more explain, than how warmth or cold is induced by north and south influences!

But Reader, let you and I, from the reasoning of Elihu, not only gather improvement, both in the subjects of nature and grace, but look up to the same Almighty Teacher, which teacheth us, to profit, that from both our souls may be led on to the yet higher and more sublime point of all the same precious mercies and dispensations of our Covenant GOD in CHRIST, leading to glory. All here below is with a view to minister to this end. For this cause the Son of GOD came down from heaven to raise up our ruined nature from the miseries of the fall. And when by sin, storms and tempests, both in the natural, in the moral, and in the spiritual world, were introduced, JESUS, full of benignity, grace, and truth, came to repair the desolations of many generations, and to restore perfect order among all the works of GOD. Hail thou great, thou Almighty Repairer of the breach! the Restorer of the paths to dwell in! We bow down before thee, thou blessed precious LORD JESUS! Oh! do thou give us to see, that both in the kingdom of nature and providence, grace and glory, thou art the All in All, the portion of thy people, here and hereafter, and their life forevermore.