tressing, and that your cup of sorrow is imbittered by the hidings of your heavenly Father's countenance, even under circumstances such as these, I have a message from God to you, exactly suited to your case:-"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."* "The Lord can clear the darkest skies, And give you day for night; The Lord can do this, he has done it in thousands of instances; he is willing to do it, for such is the tenour of his promises and he will sooner or later make good his gracious word, in the experience of every afflicted soul that believingly, obediently, and patiently waits upon him for this purpose. "I waited patiently for the Lord," says David," and he inclined. unto me, and heard my cry. He brought * Isaiah 1. 10. me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto our God." Well therefore might he go on to say, "Blessed is that man who maketh the Lord his trúst."* 3. Let Christians, under all possible circumstances, be reminded by the present subject, duly to value the means of grace, constantly to attend upon them, and faithfully to improve them; for these, as we have seen, are the streams of salvation; they are the very channels, through which the water of life is usually dispensed to thirsty souls. The ways of access to the pool of Bethesda, we are told, were thronged with multitudes of infirm and diseased persons, who needed, and with eager impatience waited for the healing virtue of its waters. Why do not the courts of the Lord's house present a similar spectacle from sabbath to sabbath; why do we not behold multitudes patiently waiting upon God for the healing of their spiritual diseases and the supply of their spiritual * Ps. xl. 1-4. + John v. 3. wants? Oh! why are the public ordinances of religion so lightly esteemed amongst us, and why is the word of life so little prized? Whatever spiritual help we require, let us seek for it out of Zion.Surely God is in the midst of his sanctuary.—There, in a peculiar manner, he manifests to his people the brightness of his countenance, and causes all his goodness to pass before them; there we may expect the fullest displays of his presence and perfections, and the largest communications of his grace; there the power of the Lord is especially present to heal; and there do the streams of the river of life abundantly flow to cheer and invigorate, to sanctify and cleanse, to refresh and gladden every waiting, seeking soul.And they that wait upon God in the use of his appointed ordinances shall renew their strength. Whilst, however, we thankfully use these means, we must ever look above them to Him who is alone the "fountain of living water," and the spring of all our joys. He has promised to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, and on the fulfilment of this promise to our selves, entirely depends the vigour of our graces, the consistency of our lives, the measure of our consolations and joys, our growth in grace, and progressive meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. Let us then wait humbly upon God for such discoveries of the glories and excellencies of Christ, and such communications of the grace of the blessed Spirit, that as trees planted by rivers of water, we may become abundantly fruitful; and, as citizens of the heavenly Zion, may walk increasingly worthy of our high vocation, until we shall attain to the light of everlasting life," and enter in through the gates into the city," even that abiding city whose builder and maker is God.* 66 * SHILOAH or SILOAM, which is alluded to in the preceding Discourse, and referred to in the text, was a fountain under the walls of Jerusalem, east, between the city and the brook Kedron: it is supposed to be the same as the fountain En-Rogel or the Fuller's Fountain. (Josh. xv. 7, and xviii. 16. 2 Sam. xvii. 17, and 1 Kings i. 9.) The spring issues from a rock, and runs in a silent stream, according to the testimony of Isaiah, viii. 6.— It has a kind of ebb and flood, sometimes discharging its current like the fountain of Vaucluse; at others, retaining and scarcely suffering it to run at all. The pool or rather the two pools of the same name are quite close to the spring. They are still used for washing linen as formerly. The water of the spring is brackish, and has a very disagreeable taste: people still bathe their eyes with it, in memory of the miracle performed on the man born blind. From this pool, on the last day of the feast of tabernacles, which was a day of great festivity among the Jews, it was the custom to fetch water, some of which they drank with loud acclamations of joy and thanksgiving, and some was brought to the altar, where it was poured upon the evening sacrifice. During this solemn offering, the people sang with transports of joy the 12th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, particularly the 3rd verse, With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. To this custom our Lord alludes in John vii. 37: it was observed in commemoration of their forefathers being miraculously relieved when they thirsted in the wilderness; and the water poured on the altar was brought as a drink-offering to God, when they prayed for rain against the following seed time."-Horne's Introduction to the critical Study of the Scriptures, vol. iii. pp. 40, 41. |