A Few Scraps as They Fell from the Lips of the Late W. Gadsby.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he bath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort them that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion: to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."- (Isaiah lxi. 1-3.)

What a divine cluster of immortal blessings rests in the Man Christ Jesus! And how blessed it is for poor sinners, that he is appointed to give them these blessings, and that he is filled with the Spirit without measure, that he might give in measure to such vile sinners, loathsome sinners, God-dishonouring sinners as we! And his blessed Majesty has to deal out these blessings to these poor sinners. However men may despise these poor, hobbling creatures, yet the Lord will find them out in some corner or other. God's method is, to deal out his pity to these poor, forlorn creatures. Now, if the Lord has given you to feel the blessedness of these three verses, when you come on a deathbed you will outshout the devil, and be enabled to triumph in the mysteries of the cross.

~

"But they shall be named the priests of the Lord; men shall call you the ministers of our God."

Who? Why these poor, hobbling creatures, these poor captives, these sin-sick souls. "They shall be named priests;" and God the Spirit shall instruct them, and he will show them the mysteries of the cross. God's method is, to take these poor creatures from the dust, and the beggars from the dunghill; he lifts them up and rejoices over them.

~

"For your shame ye shall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion."

"Ay," says some poor soul, "I am afraid I shall have double confusion, for I feel so much boiling up of my inward corruptions." Notwithstanding all the shame and confusion that it produces, still the Lord says, "Ye shall have double." Double of what? Of God's method of saving sinners; and if you have this double you will triumph in the Lord.

~

"And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people; all that see them shall acknowledge that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed."

Who? These poor, broken-hearted sinners - despised by men; this obscure family. These are the seed which the Lord has blessed; and when God makes this manifest, you will be enabled to say, with the prophet in the next verse, "I will greatly rejoice in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of his righteousness."

Now, has the Lord brought these feelings into your heart and conscience? Since I saw you last; the Lord has laid me on a bed of affliction with a broken bone, and I did not expect to see you again, at least, not in this world. But while on a bed of affliction, I was brought to feel that he had wrapped me up in his righteousness; and he passed the sentence of death so on self, that I felt no solid pleasured out of Christ. I want nothing else, let others have what they may. I want to be wrapped up in his righteousness, and to feel the mysteries of redeeming love.

849-85