Micah 5:15

REFLECTIONS

BLESSED Lord Jesus! I would leave all other subjects, all other considerations, to follow thee thou Lamb of God, wherever I find thee in thy scriptures of truth. And as here in this Chapter thou didst commission thy servant Micah to tell the Church, ages before thine incarnation, where thou wouldest be born; at Bethlehem Ephratah would my soul meditate the mysterious birth of Him, whose name was, and is, and ever will be, Wonderful! Take wing, my soul, this morning, and fly to the honored spot. A greater light than the ministry of a star, which guided the wise men, will guide thee; for Jesus himself, by his blessed Spirit, will go before, and pointing to the place, will say, as in his own blessed words, this man was born here! But, oh! Almighty Jesus! even when in sweet meditation at Bethlehem, shall I not in devout thought run back into the contemplation of eternity, and call to mind that thy goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Indeed, indeed, my honored Lord, it was before all worlds that thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for their salvation wert thou then the anointed. So that all thou hast done afterwards in time, and all that thou art unceasingly engaged in now in eternity, and will be forever and ever, is on the same blessed design, for the glory of thy Father, in the redemption of his and thy chosen. Hail! thou Almighty God! Hail! thou Wonderful Man. Thou art, and wilt be, the peace of all thy redeemed, when the whole troops of Assyrians, even the whole host of the Church's enemies, shall come into our land. Thou will stand and feed thy flock in the strength of Jehovah, in the presence of their foes, and make their cup run over! And thy remnant shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew, so numerous, so beautiful, so refreshed and comely, from thy comeliness put upon them. And all this, yea, and more than eye, hath seen, or ear heard, or the mind can think, wholly from thyself, and to thyself, and thine own glory; not waiting their cry, or their deservings, but like the sweet influences of heaven in the falling showers, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. Lord! be thou thus according to thy promise, as the dew unto all thine Israel. Amen.