humble confidence, that grandest of titles, "The Redeemed of the Lord?" Have we on the pilgrim garb,-the Righteousness alike imputed and implanted-the attire of the King's daughter, all-glorious without,—“ all-glorious within?" and is our chief element of joy in the prospect of the Heavenly Zion—not the negative one, the absence of sorrow and mourning— but that which consists in the vision and fruition of Zion's God, assimilation to His character, conformity to His will, active energy in His service, serving Him day and night in His Temple (Rev. vii. 15). Oh! with such a hope, we may well be patient under present trial; though 'sorrowful,' we may be 'alway rejoicing.' "God our Maker giveth songs in the night." Better the night, with songs in it, than no night and no song. Better the thorn in the nest to tempt to this magnificent flight, than to settle in the downy nest of false security and ease, selfishness and death. The world has its joys too; but, apart from God, they are a poor counterfeit of the true. They are often precarious, uncertain, fitful while they last the grave will sooner or later close over them, and they will vanish like the transient flash of summer lightning, never to be recalled, or as a dream when one awaketh." But, Christians! "everlasting joy," like a festive chaplet or coronet, shall be upon your head. Yours are to be robes ever bright, palms ever green, crowns never fading. "The Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended." "Here, the great unrest of ages; Here, the trouble, toil, and strife: Here, the sighing of the branches; Here, the wave-beat on the shore: There, the ceaseless strain of angels Here, the rocks and shoals and quicksands; "IN THE MULTITUDE OF MY THOUGHTS WITHIN ME "Awake, awake; clothe thyself in thy might, O Zion; Clothe thyself in thy garments of beauty, O Jerusalem! thou City of holiness: For no more shall enter into thee the uncircumcised and the polluted. Shake thyself from the dust; sit on thy lofty throne, O Jerusalem (Lowth): Loose the chains from thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. How lovely appear upon the mountains The feet of the joyful messenger, publishing peace (Barnes); For eye to eye they see how JEHOVAH bringeth Zion home (Delitzsch). Burst forth into joy, shout together, ye ruins of Jerusalem (Lowth), For JEHOVAH hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem. Verily not in confusion shall ye go forth, --ISAIAH lii, 1-2, 7-9, 12. XIX. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, Glad Tidings. "Thy God reigneth." -ISAIAH lii. 7. THERE are few portions of Isaiah which combine more obviously than this, both an historical and evangelical reference, and each of these is beautiful and significant. To begin with the former. Jerusalem is represented (in ver. 1) as a dejected female mourner, a widow in her weeds, or a prisoner in her prison garments, with chains (the symbol of degradation and captivity) around her neck, sprinkling her head with the dust in which she sits; degraded, powerless. As a commentator expresses it, "She is lying on the ground, stupified with the wrath of God, and exhausted with grief." In the former chapter, as we noted in considering the passage, she had raised the supplicatory cry, "Awake, awake; put on strength, O arm of the Lord" (ver. 9). The answer comes a second time from the Being she there invoked. It is a fresh verbal echo of her prayer-" Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city" (ver. 1). 'Lay aside that sombre attire, these robes of grief; and put on festive raiment of gladness and joy;' -alluding, either to the sacerdotal robes used by Aaron and his successors in the tabernacle and Temple, or to those of princely and regal splendour which belonged to her as the regal capital, the metropolis of God, the city of the Great King (Delitzsch). She is farther summoned, not only to arise from this dust of humiliating servitude,-to gather up her loose, |