"As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all."—Isaiah 65:8 It is blessed to trace our mercies to the fountain head, and to find them all folded up from everlasting in Jesus. What was it that preserved our whole nature when blasted and withered by the fall? Was it not because Jesus, the promised seed, was in it? And what is it that preserves every individual among the children of God during the dark season of their unregeneracy, but the same precious cause? He that looks on (and who is this but Christ himself?) amidst all our perishing…

"And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land, of thy acts, and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words until I Came and mine eyes had seen it: and beheld, the half was not told me!"—I Kings 10:6-7 If the queen of the South was so astonished in the view of Solomon's wisdom, what ought to be thy surprize, my soul, in the contemplation of Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge! When thou didst first hear of Jesus, and when constrained by necessity to come to him, a poor blind ignorant sinner, how little didst thou conceive either of thyself or him. He told thee indeed, all…

"My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies."—Song of Solomon 6:2 Wonderful condescension! Jesus, the beloved of all his people, is indeed come down into his garden, the church; for he loves the sacred walks of a spot so near and so dear to him, which is at once the gift of his Father, and the purchase of his own most precious blood. Moreover, he hath gathered it out of the world's wide wilderness and separated it as a sacred enclosure by his distinguishing grace. Surely then he will visit it. Yes, here he constantly walks; here he comes to observe the souls of his people as trees of his own…

"Thou hast kept the good wine until now."—John 2:10 The good wine of the gospel must be Jesus himself, for He, and He alone, trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath, when the Lord bruised him and put him to grief. This is the wine which, in scripture, is said to cheer both God and men; for when God's justice took the full draught of it for the sins of the redeemed, the Lord declared himself well pleased. And when the poor sinner, by sovereign grace, is first made to drink of the blood of the Lamb, he feels constrained to say, the Lord had kept the good wine until now; for never before had his soul been so satisfied. Oh, precious Jesus' how sweet…