[26] To tender; to care for, to guard. ‘He had provoked others to tender and seek the glory of God.’—Udal. Not frequently used in this sense.—Ed.
[27] How tenderly does the Psalmist exhibit the love of God to his chosen under this figure, ‘Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.’ He will never leave nor forsake them; and, when heart and flesh shall fail, he will guide them and receive them to his glory. ‘Wonders of grace to God belong.’ Christian women! with such an example, can you hesitate to go and make the bed of a poor sick and afflicted neighbour?—Ed.
[28]
‘Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on his breast I lean my head,
And breath my life out sweetly there.’—Dr. Watts.
THE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS GRANTED;
OR,
A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN’S DESIRES.
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR
As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man’s heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity—the evidence of the new birth—the spiritual barometer of faith and grace—and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes—the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built—and the root by which they are nourished. It is from this principle of Divine life which flows from Christ to his members, that these desires and struggles after holiness of thought and conduct arise, and are kept alive. They prove a fountain of consolation to the harassed and tried believer; for if we are in the sense of this scripture ‘righteous,’ we shall have those desires to enjoy the presence of God on earth, and with him felicity in heaven, which the voice of the Omnipotent declareth SHALL be granted. O! the blessedness of those in whose hearts are planted ‘the desires of the righteous.’
This brings us to the most important of all the subjects of self-examination—am I one of the ‘righteous’? or, in other words, ‘am I born again?’ Upon this solemn heart-trying inquiry hangs all our hopes of escape from misery and ascension to glory—a kingdom, a crown, a bright, a happy, an eternal inheritance, on the one hand, or the gloomy abodes of wretchedness on the other hand, are for ever to be decided. What are our desires? To guide our anxious inquiries into this all-important subject, our author unlocks the heavenly treasures, and in every point furnishes us with book, and chapter, and verse, that we may carefully and prayerfully weigh all that he displays in the unerring scales of the sanctuary. A desire after the presence of God—of conformity to his image and example—for a greater hatred of sin—yea, as Bunyan expresses it, a desire to desire more of those blessed fruits of the Spirit, inspires the inquirer with the cheering hope that he has passed from death unto life—that he has been born again, and has been made righteous. And if, as we progress in the Divine life, our experience of the delights of communion with God enables us to say with David, ‘My soul panteth,’ or crieth, or, as the margin of our Bibles have, brayeth, ‘yea, thirsteth after God,’ however we may be assaulted by the enemies within and without, we may say with confidence, ‘Why art thou disquieted, O my soul? hope thou in God, for I SHALL yet praise him.’