Judges 6:40

REFLECTIONS

READER! let you and I pause over this chapter, and in the view of Israel's repeated departures from the Lord God of their mercies, behold the picture of our own hearts. How often, how very often, hath our adorable Redeemer saved us from our enemies, and yet how prone are we to forget the gracious hand that hath wrought our salvation? And while we view our unworthiness, let the reflection lead us to contemplate renewed mercies. Doth not God send his messengers, like the Prophet, to remonstrate with us? Are not his visitations, either in the common Providences of life, in sickness, trouble, persecution, and the like, voices like the Prophet's of solemn expostulation? And when, these messengers of correction and reproof are accompanied with his grace, and put a cry in our heart, under a sense of sin, and the prayer of earnestness for deliverance, doth not Jesus fly to our aid, and like his type, the Gideon here spoken of, come forth to our rescue? Oh! thou adored Lord our Righteousness! how precious is it to my soul, to see thy renewed goings forth for me in all the redemption of thy mercy! Dearest Jesus! grant me, from such repeated testimonies of thy love, such unalterable assurance of my interest in thee, that I may neither seek the moistened nor the dry fleece, to tell me that thou art a faithful God. Oh! for grace amidst all the departures and backslidings of my unworthy heart! Oh, for grace to believe stedfastly the record which God hath given of his dear Son.