Isaiah 15:9

REFLECTIONS

READER, in the history of Moab, behold the history of every man by nature, exposed to the just judgment of God, the curse of his broken law, and all the terrors, which will one day fall upon the wicked! their hatred to God and his Christ, is manifested by their hatred to his people; neither can the malignity he taken out or purged by whole burnt sacrifices. From generation to generation, their anger burns with implacable hatred, neither can anything soften it. And as nothing tends to lessen or remove it, so the causes everlastingly must exist, to increase it more and more! Oh! the awful state of the enemies of God and his Christ!

Reader! can we look back to the days of our dwelling with the Moabs of this world? Can we remember our return, like Ruth and Naomi, from the country of Moab to the land of Bethlehem, even the house of bread, in Jesus, who is himself the bread of life. Oh! the blessedness of such a recovery! Precious Lord Jesus! give us grace to praise thee: let nothing but thy power, in the sweet influences of thy Holy Spirit, could persuade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem, or constrain our hearts into the love of God, and info the patient waiting for Jesus Christ. Blessed Lord! since thou hast called us by thy grace, and brought our souls to be savingly acquainted with thy love, oh! help us to live to thy glory, and to cease from all the Moabs, who are the enemies of thy cross, and to come out from among them, and to be separated, and touch not the unclean thing; so wilt thou receive us, and be a Father unto us, and we shall be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.