Spurgeon: June PM
* 06/01/PM
"He will make her wilderness like Eden."
--Isaiah 51:3
Methinks, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and
terrible desert, like to the Sahara. I perceive nothing in it to
relieve the eye, all around I am wearied with a vision of hot
and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of
wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way
in the pitiless waste. What an appalling sight! How horrible! a
sea of sand without a bound, and without an oasis, a cheerless
graveyard for a race forlorn! But behold and wonder! Upon a
sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a plant of
renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands--it is a rose,
and at its side a lily bows its modest head; and, miracle of
miracles! as the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the
wilderness is transformed into a fruitful field, and all around
it blossoms exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is given unto it,
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Call it not Sahara, call it
Paradise. Speak not of it any longer as the valley of
deathshade, for where the skeletons lay bleaching in the sun,
behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up spring the dead, a
mighty army, full of life immortal. Jesus is that plant of
renown, and His presence makes all things new. Nor is the wonder
less in each individual's salvation. Yonder I behold you, dear
reader, cast out, an infant, unswathed, unwashed, defiled with
your own blood, left to be food for beasts of prey. But lo, a
jewel has been thrown into your bosom by a divine hand, and for
its sake you have been pitied and tended by divine providence,
you are washed and cleansed from your defilement, you are
adopted into heaven's family, the fair seal of love is upon your
forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on your hand--you are
now a prince unto God, though once an orphan, cast away. O prize
exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes deserts
into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy.