"He is Faithful that Promised."
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be
weary; they shall walk, and not faint."--ISAIAH xl. 31.
Reviving Grace.
"Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" My soul! art thou conscious of thy
declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly?
Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,--diminished
communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has
been?--the pulsations of spiritual life more languid, and fitful, and
spasmodic?--the bread of life less relished?--the seen, and the
temporal, and the tangible, displacing the unseen and eternal? Art thou
sinking down into this state of drowsy self-contentment, this
conformity-life with the world, forfeiting all the happiness of true
religion, and risking and endangering the better life to come? Arise!
call upon thy God! "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" He might have
returned nothing but the withering repulse, "How often would I have
gathered thee; but thou wouldst not!" "Ephraim is joined to his idols;
let him alone!" But "in wrath He remembers mercy." "They _shall_ revive
as the corn." "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." How and where is
reviving grace to be found? He gives thee, in this precious promise, the
key. It is on thy bended _knees_--by a return to thy deserted and
unfrequented chamber! "_They that wait upon the Lord!_" "Wait on the
Lord; be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I
say, on the Lord!"
"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"