Psalm 137:5

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy"—Ps. cxxxvii. 5, 6.

— Psalm 137:5

My soul! sit down this evening, and contemplate the languishing state of Zion. Did ever the church of Christ lie in more desolate circumstances than now? Amidst a great profession of zeal for religion, how little possession of the divine life is to be met with among men! And who is there that seriously lays it to heart? For whom doth a throne of grace witness, that they are holy mourners for Zion, and are earnestly wrestling, night and day, with the Lord, that he would visit Zion, and make his glory to appear? Where is the priest, the minister of the Lord, that is weeping between the porch and the altar, and saying," Spare thy people, O Lord! and give not thine heritage to reproach?" Joel ii. 17. And where are the people that seriously lay it to heart? My soul! what sayest thou of these things, personally considered? Dost thou really love Jesus? Surely then, thou canst not be indifferent to his interests? Is not Zion the purchase of his blood? Are not her walls, in all her ruined state, constantly before him? Yea, is not her name engraven on the palms of his hands? And shall her name be on Jesus's hand, and no concern for Zion in thy heart? Moreover, look and see, in the tribulations of the present day; are not God's judgments abroad in the earth? And is not his jealousy for his church the sole cause? And if the nations of the earth are under the frowns of thy God, canst thou rejoice in aught but the church's prosperity? Are thousands dying in sin, and shall not the children of God mourn? Where are the trophies of the Redeemer's precious death and salvation? When shall Jesus see, agreeably to the promise, the travail of his soul, and be satisfied? Oh! for a portion of that holy zeal with which the Lord inspired the prophet, when he cried out, "Oh! that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" Oh! holy Lord! give my soul from henceforth a more earnest concern for the prosperity of thy Zion! Oh! for grace to enter, through the blood of Jesus, into the retirings of the Lord, and to plead with him, as the patriarch did, with an: importunity not to be resisted, that he would turn the captivity of his people. Oh! take away the rebuke of thy chosen, and let it be no longer said, of any of thine, who know Jesus, and have been made partakers of salvation by him: "There is none to guide her, among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand, of all the sons that she hath brought up." Isa. li. 18.