Beloved Lord, reveal thy face,
And win my heart by love's free grace.

Beloved Saviour! speed the day, When, borne from sin and earth away, My soul shall hail thy love's display, And ever in thy presence stay.

SIXTH MEDITATION.

BRANCH.

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My Saviour is the BRANCH OF THE LORD, beautiful and glorious.” * His beauty is the beauty of holiness. His glory is without parallel, because it is divine. As a branch emanates from the tree, and is one with it, so the Son of God, in his superior nature, “ came forth from the Father,” and is one” with him. He spreads over heaven and earth, filling both with his glory, and affording to the children of men the fruits of life eternal.

In reference to his human nature, our Lord was to proceed from David ; and at a time when the family of that monarch should be in a state of the most abject poverty and obscurity. he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground,” † — as a scion, or sapling from a tree, which has been cut

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down level with the earth, but whose root is still left in the ground. Yet, though he would thus appear to the world as a feeble and undesirable plant, “like the palm-tree, he would flourish under the greatest oppression; and, however laden with his people's sins, would shoot up, and rise superior to all the incumbent load." The event has been so.

My Saviour came forth as a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and as “a BRANCH grew out of his roots ; "* he “ stands for an ensign of the people; to him the Gentiles have sought; and his rest,” since the hour when he exclaimed, “ It is finished !” has been “ glorious.” Blessed Lord ! thy character and work have most exactly corresponded with the descriptions previously given by thine own prophets; and it is now most delightful to the reflecting mind to compare the language of prediction with that of history.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David A RIGHTEOUS BRANCH; and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and judgment in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely,” and, as it were, under his protect

"*

ing shade; "and this is his name, whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. All the merely natural branches of David's line were partakers of their progenitor's guilt; being, like him, shapen in iniquity, and conceived and born in sin. He, however, who preëminently bears the title of the Son of David, was a RIGHTEOUS BRANCH, in himself most perfect; and, moreover, the RIGHTEOUSNESS of his believing people, whereby they are freely, fully, and forever justified.

Am I by faith united to this living and glorious Branch this true Vine? Then am I also a partaker of the divine nature, by the imputation of a divine righteousness, and by the communication of a new and divine life to my soul. Let me never lose sight of my

Lord's admonition “ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without (or separate from) me, ye can do nothing." +

From the pen of the prophet Zechariah, also,

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I find two prophecies of my Saviour, under the figure and name of the BRANCH. The one foretold him to the servant of Jehovah; the other predicted, in the clearest language, his manhood and his Godhead. In the former vision, the Lord thus spake of the promised Redeemer “Behold, I will bring forth my servant, the BRANCH;”* and in the latter he said, “ Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; even he shall build the temple of the Lord: and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne ; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." +

O Saviour! graciously fulfil thy mission, by placing me as a lively stone in that spiritual temple which thou hast undertaken to erect, and of which thou art the sure foundation-stone. To thee, even to thee, belongs the whole glory of the structure. Whatever instruments are ployed, thou art the Architect and Builder, whose name it is to bear. Thou hast borne the charge, and the pains, and the shame, attendant

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