His fond delight for ages were

With us, the destined sons of earth: Through the long-past eternity he planned, And loved the offspring of his plastic hand.

But shallow was creation's scheme,

Compared with mercy's purposed love: Here flowed thy-wisdom's amplest stream,

Full-bursting from thy throne above, When Justice cried, with wrath-enkindled eye, “ Man, guilty, hapless man, the death must die!”

66

Dear Counsellor, that awful hour

Beheld thee stand 'twixt me and hell: O for an angel's tongue of power,

Thine advocating grace to tell! Redemption makes thy glorious works complete, For there thy justice and thy mercy meet.

NINTH MEDITATION.

THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS.

My SAVIOUR IS THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. Thus spake the prophet Haggai, concerning the expected Saviour of men 6 The Desire of all nations shall come.” * He was promised to the mother of mankind, as in a peculiar sense her seed, and the mighty deliverer of her children from the thraldom of Satan. He was promised to Abraham as a source of blessing to all nations

- to all the families of the earth. The father of the faithful, and all who trod in his steps, contemplated his future advent with generous exultation, knowing that it would be the opening of heaven's gate to men of every clime and every tongue. The sweet singer of Israel often struck his harp in harmony with a song of universal benevolence. When he implored mercy and blessing, and the light of God's countenance, for him

and his people, he looked from Mount Sion round the whole world, and prayed, “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.",

David looked far beyond his own beloved Solomon, even to his own Son and Lord, when he foretold, that “ All kings should fall down before him : all nations should serve him ;” — “ that all nations should call him blessed." +

Among the heathen, some traditional notices of the world's Redeemer prevailed very generally, and were to be found in the narratives of history, and the fables of poetry. Their wisest men sighed for the opening of the windows of heaven, to pour light upon the universal darkness. it is probable, have resembled the interesting Burman female, Mah Men-la, whose little history is recorded in the Life of the late Mrs. Judson! For ten years had her mind sought, with an anxiety nearly amounting to distraction, a satisfactory knowledge of the origin of all things, and of innumerable other points connected with that primary question, before a tract, written by Mr.

How many, Judson, gave her the first clear notion of an eternal God. There is a desire, inseparable, it should seem, from the very essence of an immortal spirit, after something, which it feels necessary to its happiness, and which eludes its search, wherever that search is directed. This desire, debased by the fall, seeks, but never finds, satisfaction in earthly and polluted things; and, though it cannot reach the full possession of its object, — for

Our very wishes give uş not our wish, –

yet, until the soul is taught from above, it turns with aversion from Him, who in his own person and work is alone and altogether what the soul wants.

But do not the enterprising men, who in the present day have gone forth amongst the nations of the earth, make known to us a state of feeling - a preparedness of mind for the written, or the preached word of the Lord, which remarkably justifies this appellation of my Saviour, and looks to him, though unseen and unknown, more truly than the needle in every clime points to the polar star? O! let me rejoice in any opportun that presents itself of helping to draw aside

veil which for thousands of years has conceal. ed this object from the view of men. Shall all nations desire Him whom I know, and desire in vain, while I possess to any extent the means of making him known to them? Alas! if I thus act, my love to him is the pretence of hypocrisy, and my benevolence towards mankind is affectation.

And, while He is, or ought to be, and shall be, as the Desire of all nations," can he be less than 56 the Desire of

my soul ? Can any sinner need him more than I do? Can any satisfaction short of him fill my breast? Is the day hastening on upon the rapid wings of light, when Jesus will be THE DESIRE the paramount — the allcomprehensive Desire of all nations ? Then let me earnestly implore such an outshedding of divine influence upon my heart, that all the desires, yea, all the capacities of desire in my soul, may centre in Him, who is the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." For what object in the universe has a claim upon my desires, in comparison with the Lord Jesus Christ? O that my heart

may

be drawn after him with an intensity of desire which nothing else shall be able to abate, to divert, or to satisfy, even for a