Days now dark and dreary be;
Harps untuned and silent ever,
Silent by the moaning sea.
Sadly weeping stands the willow
On thy shore, O surging sea;
'Neath its shade my steps shall never,
Never, never more shall be.
“Zion” is a metaphor, signifying “Jerusalem, which is from above,” or the church of God. It is the home of the saints, where they are cared for by the Lord. As the ancient literal city of Babylon typifies the great spiritual Babylon, so the literal city of Jerusalem typifies the spiritual Jerusalem or Zion or church of God. God does not want his people joined unto a sect and under the laws and creeds and authority of man. He wants the full care of them. However, many of God's children, through ignorance, have been induced to seek a home in Babylon. Here they have been taken captive. In this evening time God is leading them back to Zion. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” Isa. 35:10. The songs of Zion are not to be sung in the barren land of Babylon. Babylon has gone into Zion and captured God's devoted children, but God will be avenged. “And I [pg 482] will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.” Jer. 51:24.
Here is a prophecy relating to this evening time. “In those days, and that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” Jer. 50:4, 5. See them coming home to Zion with the glory of God risen upon them. Halleluiah!
Zion.