June 10

A Leader to the People.—Isaiah 55:4.

OF Jesus it was said, that he was sent to guide our feet into the way of peace. Mankind had all erred and strayed from God, and had wandered into the traetless mazes of ignorance and misery. Utterly unable to retrace their steps, they must inevitably have perished, had not the mercy of God interposed for them. In this important human emergency, God in his matchless love, withheld not his son, but sent him forth to be “a Leader to the people.” Christ is eminently qualified for this work. His knowledge and wisdom are infinite, all in heaven, and earth, and hell, are perfectly and clearly before his eyes. He dwells in cloudless light; he is himself truly the light, and in him is no darkness at all. So that confusion, or error, can never frustrate his engagements. He sees all things from the beginning. All events in all worlds, both in eternity and time, are plainly before him. Who then so well qualified to lead as Jesus? The Allwise, and infallible Creator and

Ruler of all things! Consider from what, and to what, Jesus leads all his people. He leads them from darkness, and the regions of death, to the light of gospel day, and the way of spiritual and eternal life. He leads them from error to truth. From wretchedness to comfort and peace. From condemnation to Divine acceptance. From vassalage to freedom. From the curse of the law, to the blessings of the gospel, and from the verge of perdition, to the way of everlasting salvation. He leads them from sin to holiness, from danger to safety, and from hell to heaven. This leading commences in the day of the soul's conversion, when with prayer and supplication, the penitent earnestly desires to find Jesus, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets wrote. When Christ has opened the eyes, and changed the heart, then as his disciples, they arise and follow him. And as his people, and the sheep of his pasture, he leadeth them into all the pastures of his ordinances, and into all the paths of progressive holiness, and finally he leads them to his kingdom, and eternal glory.