Revelation 1:20

REFLECTIONS

BLESSED! forever blessed, be God the Father, for the gift of his dear Son Jesus Christ. Blessed! forever blessed, be God the Son, for this gracious revelation of himself to his servant John, to comfort, and instruct the Church. And blessed be God the Holy Ghost, for causing so sweet and precious a record, to be handed down to the Church from generation to generation, of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Lord! add a blessing to the whole, and give grace to thy people, that they may hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.

May it be the blessedness and felicity of the Lord's redeemed, to find grace and peace, according to the Apostle's benediction, from Him, which is, and which was, and which is to come. Yea! may the Church daily find all Covenant blessings, from God the Judge of all, from Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and from the influence of the Holy Ghost, in his sevenfold gifts and graces, which are before the throne. Oh! the unspeakable mercy of God in Christ. He who hath made us Kings and Priests, unto God and the Father, having loved us, and washed us from our sins, in his blood!

Precious Emmanuel! thou who didst bless John with thy presence, and gavest him those blessed revelations, to deliver unto thy Church, condescend to visit thy people now. Thou art still the Alpha and the Omega. Thou art still all the blessedness of thy Church and people. Lord! visit thy Churches. No Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, or Laodicea, ever needed thee more, than the professing Churches of this land, where we dwell. Oh! then, come Lord, and take up thine own cause, lest our Churches, like those of Asia, which are now no more, be desolated, and without inhabitants. If Jesus will come forth with his people, if God the Spirit will ordain ministers, and walk up and down in the midst of his people; then will thy servants be as stars to the right hand of Christ, and his people, like the candlesticks, shining bright with the oil of grace, from Jesus walking in and out among them. Oh! for a little revival in the present day, that the Lord may not remove our candlestick out of its place!