Luke 13:35

REFLECTIONS

Reader! let us both, as we contemplate the Lord's visitations on those Galileans and men of Siloam, gather improvement from what Jesus hath said, and solemnly remember, that without faith and repentance, which are both the gifts of God, and arising from the Lord's regenerating the heart, we shall all likewise perish. And, Reader! in the barren fig-tree, growing without fruit within the pale of God's vineyard, the Church, let us behold the awful state of all those who have a name to live, but yet are virtually dead before God. Oh! the blessedness of being found trees of the Lord's planting, made fat and fruitful by his blessing!

Precious Lord Jesus! do thou graciously come into our synagogues, thy Churches, on thine own day, and every day in thine ordinances! Oh! how many of thine, like this daughter of Abraham, are bound in the Adam-nature of sin by Satan! And wilt thou not, dear Lord! call them all to thee? lay thine Almighty hand upon them, and make them whole? All thy redeemed will glorify thee for all the gracious manifestations of thy love. And do thou, dearest Lord! give thy people to see thy unremitting watchfulness and care over them. All the tenderness and solicitude of the hen cannot describe the boundless love of Jesus, in gathering his little ones to him, and covering them with his wings, while thy faithfulness and truth become their shield and buckler. And oh! thou gracious, God of our salvation, cause us to note down, in the strongest characters, thy distinguishing grace! While nations and individuals, like Jerusalem of old, became Gospel despisers, and perish, and refuse to have thee to reign over them, do thou, Lord! strongly impress the wonderous truth upon the hearts of all thy redeemed, that it is all of grace wherein they differ, and that to thy grace they may cheerfully ascribe all the glory.