WHAT a poor, uncertain, dying world is this! How dark, how desolate, without the light of the gospel and the knowledge of Jesus! It does not appear so to us in a state of nature, because we are then in a state of enchantment, the magical lantern blinding us with splendid delusion.
Thus in the desert’s dreary waste,
By magic power produced in haste,
As old romances say,
Castles and groves and music sweet,
The senses of the heathen cheat
And stop him in his way.
But while he gazes with surprise
The charm dissolves, the vision dies;
‘Twas but enchanted ground.
Thus if the Lord our spirit touch
The world which promised us so much
A wilderness is found.
It is a great mercy to be undeceived in time; and though our gay dreams are at an end, and we awake everything that is disgustful and dismaying, yet we see a highway through the wilderness; a powerful guard, an infallible Guide at hand to conduct us through; and we can discern beyond the limits of the wilderness, a better land, where we shall he at rest, and at home. What will the difficulties we meet by the way then signify? The remembrance of them will only remain to heighten our sense of the love, caret and power of our Saviour and Leader. Oh how shall we then admire, adore, and praise Him, when He shall condescend to unfold to us the beauty, propriety, and harmony of the whole train of His dispensations towards us, and give us a clear retrospect of all the way, and all the turns of our pilgrimage!