darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Here we have first the persons with whom we have to do, I will bring, that is God, God the Lord, he that created the heavens and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. He it is who will bring the blind, and who are the blind? The Gentiles, sinners, such as we all are or have been. I am found of them that sought me not, I said, Behold me, Behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; a people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face. And what is the way that they knew not? Christ crucified. He is the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. He is the door of the sheep. By Him if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. It is Christ that is given for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Christ crucified is the way that they knew not. All power given to Him in heaven and in earth. Christ is the agent by whom we are converted from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. It is Christ the Lord who findeth out sin

is

ners before they think of Him.

He goeth to seek

He by his Spirit calls them, but

and to save sinners which were lost. strives with them long in vain. He they turn a deaf ear to his voice. But his love is not soon discouraged. He sends them affliction or disease; He disappoints their pursuits; He makes shame and calamity to attend their sin; He fills them with distaste and dissatisfaction at their own devices. Then he calls to them again, saying, "Will you hear me now?" He thus chasteneth us out of pure love. At length we listen to his voice, and, more out of disappointment from the world than from love to Him, with sullen and downcast looks, a doubting, wavering heart, little affected with love and gratitude for his forbearance, and full of worldly thoughts and earthly passions, but yet with some sincerity of purpose of relinquishing whatever offends Him, we submit ourselves, reluctantly, to his guidance. He gives us encouragement and smiles upon us; but we start aside like a wild animal; we sin against him; our resolutions fail; the way of holiness is arduous and difficult; we faint, and faulter, and fall back for all this time he is bringing us on in a way that we knew not, a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and leading us by paths that we have not known. Those paths that we have not known are difficult to walk in; we are apt soon to be weary of them, and often to err from them. Just so it is with sinners who enter upon the way of holiness; they are apt

soon to be weary of it; and often to err from it, because it is a way which they have not known. They wander in the wilderness in a solitary way; they find no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainteth in them. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and since the world hath stood, the result of this crying to the Lord in our trouble is, that he delivereth us out of our distress. The Lord Jesus is a guide that hath patience with all our wanderings. Though we forsake Him, yet he doth not forsake us. As high as the heaven is in comparison of the earth, so great is his mercy towards us. As often as our resolutions have failed, as often as we have renounced his guidance, as often as other lords have gained dominion over us, as often as sin hath abounded, yet his grace much more aboundeth; as often as we have relinquished his ways, yet when we have returned to Him, saying, I repent, he hath received of us.

He is the great Shepherd, feeding his flock, gathering the lambs with his arm, carrying them in his bosom, and gently leading those that are with young. Though we like sheep have gone astray, though we have strayed from the fold, though we are at first stubborn and refractory, and with great difficulty submit to his guidance, yet by resolving to follow his guidance, He openeth the eyes of our understanding to discern that He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, but corrects us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

At length having patiently followed the guidance of the Lord, darkness is made light before us, and crooked things straight. Do you ask what these crooked things are that are to be made straight? Our hearts are those crooked things. (For I am considering our particular concern in the prophecy.) Our hearts are crooked, and his laws are straight, but as our hearts must be brought into harmonious contact with his laws, this must be done, not by making his laws crooked, but by making our hearts straight; by making straight in this desert a highway for our God. Do you ask what the darkness is that is to be made light? It is the darkness of enmity against God, the darkness of our carnal nature. This darkness, this enmity, he hath abolished in his flesh. What then; can this darkness be dispelled altogether? Can those who have this light discern the hand that leads them, the arm that protects them, the eye that watches over them? Can they discern those hands which were nailed to the cross, and that forehead which was pierced with thorns? Alas! no; although this is the most earnest desire of their hearts. Darkness, while we are in this dim, dark state of being, cleaves both to the righteous and the wicked, to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not. Both are blind but the one roves in darkness, stumbling and falling in every direction without knowing whither he is going; the other rejoices under the conduct of a wise and faithful guide, who

prevents even his foot from being dashed against

a stone.

You with whom the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is striving yet in vain, who regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, O be persuaded, before it be too late, to turn to Him! For who hath hardened himself against him and prospered? Though He hide his face yet his ways are intelligible. Let not day after day pass without reminding you that the night cometh, and that time shall be no more. Let not sabbath after sabbath pass without reminding you that there remaineth an eternal sabbath for all who will not shut themselves out from it. Let not every marked period of time, which is portioned out in parcels as if on purpose to remind you of its value, pass by you unregarded. Let not warnings innumerable be sent to you in vain. Let not the Church bell sound in your ears in vain. Let not his ministers, his word, his ordinances, his sacraments be considered by you as things which bear relation to this world only. He hath long holden his peace. He hath been still and refrained himself; but he will cry like a travailing woman; he will destroy and devour at once.

you

And whom he is leading in his ways, learn to follow Him with less hesitation, and with greater confidence and alacrity. He loved you before you loved Him. He was your guide antecedently to your own choice. He led you on by means which were strange to you, by means to