September 18

"I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." Zecn. 9:11.

PERSONS may be prisoners as felons, as robbers, as debtors, as captives taken in war. The character of the subjects of divine grace, by nature, involved all these.

A pit wherein there is no water is a situation expressive of destitution, wretchedness, and danger. There the victim has nothing to relieve his wants, nothing to quench his raging thirst. He cannot live in it; he cannot escape from it. He is ready to perish. Such was Joseph's pit. Such was Jeremiah's dungeon. In such a condition the Lord finds his people.

But he does not leave them there. He always produces a change in their favor. If they are darkness, he calls them into his marvellous light. If they are far off, he brings them nigh. If they are prisoners in a pit wherein there is no water, he sends them out of it. In his love and pity he redeems them, and makes them free indeed.

The work is entirely his own, and the principle cannot be mistaken. How unworthy were they of his notice. How great the evil from which they have been rescued. How infinite the blessedness resulting from it. And after such a deliverance as this, shall they again break his commandments? A soul redeemed demands a life of praise. Let my people go, that they may serve me. What has he sent them out of their bondage to do, but to go and tell sinners, such as they themselves once were, that with the Lord there is mercy, and with him plenteous redemption; but to show forth his praise; but to acknowledge, that by the grace of God they are what they are; but to walk in newness of life; to run in the way of his commandments; to return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their head?

And can this be a task? Did Zacharias think so when he sung and prayed, "That we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our lives?" His service is perfect freedom.