February 19

They shall come which were ready to perish. - Isaiah 27:13.

WE have here the attraction the gospel shall exert. Whatever knowledge the heathen had, they were utterly unable to carry it into effect, both for want of evidence and authority. None of them could speak in the name of that God who calleth the things that are not as though they were. Hence we find Plato complaining that he was unable, by all his instructions, to bring over the inhabitants of a single village. But if we go to Thessalonica, to Corinth, to Colosse, to Ephesus, and survey the character of the inhabitants before they received the gospel, it is largely described by the apostle, and we cannot suppose that the devil himself could make or wish them worse. Yet the apostle stands forth and says, “Such were some of you;” “ye were sometimes far off;” you “were dead in trespasses and sins;” but “you hath he quickened;” “instead of the thorn came up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier came up the myrtle-tree.” “Our gospel came unto you, not in word only, but in power also;” “the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”

Accordingly, the gospel is expressed evermore by images which indicate its efficacy. It is called the “rod” of God’s power-a “hammer” to break in pieces-a “two-edged sword”-“leaven” which commences its operations in the centre, and extends them to the circumference until the whole is leavened-“seed” which, though it looks dead, yet fills the earth with its fruit, thirty, sixty an hundredfold. This success God himself has insured, or we could not reckon upon it. “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.”

The gospel never leaves people as it finds them: it enlightens their understanding; it prevails on their wills; it purifies their affections; it makes them new creatures. How can we honour the gospel so much as by showing what it can do? What has the gospel done for multitudes? If they are as proud, and covetous, and revengeful, after hearing the gospel, as they were before hearing it, where is the change? Where is the conversion? In the passage before us the trumpet is blown, but it is heard,-it is answered:-they “come.” How do they come? “With weeping and with supplication;” they come eagerly, hastening, running, flying like doves to their windows when they behold the approaching storm. ‘From whence do they come? From the dark dens of ignorance -from the lurking-holes of hypocrisy-from the false refuges of pharisaism-from the service of sin-from the bondage of Satan. To whom do they come? “To whom coming as unto a living stone,” “to him shall men come.” He is the only resource; and he says, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me.”

What is faith, what is religion, but the soul in motion to him and negotiating all its affairs with him?