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THE
MOURNERS
OP
ISRAEL.
635
heal
and
lead him
:
and
when this
healing
work
begins,
then the soul
begins
to
mourn
sensibly for
its old back
-
slidings,
and
conies
under
that
promise
;
Blessed
are
they
that mourn for
they shall
be
comforted.
Ans.
Il.
The
mourners of Israel
may imply
fellow
christians,
that
sought the
Lord
for
him,
and
that
mourned
for
his
wanderings. All
his
friends,
that
have
been
of
flicted
for
his sins
and
departure
from
God, shall rejoice
in
his
return,
and
in
his
consolations.
The
ministers
of
the
gospel,
that
have
mourned
over wandering
souls,
shall
delight
to see
them
returning
to
their great shepherd.
The
watchmen shall rejoice, with.the voice
together
they
shall
sing,
when they shall see
the people
belonging
to
their
charge,
face to
face,
in
the presence
of
the Lord.
When
the
Lord
shall bring the
children
of
Sion back
again to
their father's
course, and
his
ordinances, front
their captivity to
sin
and Satan.
And
our
thoughts
may
from hence
take a
rise,
and meditate
upon
the overflow-
ing
joys
of
that
day, when all
the backsliders
of
Israel
shall
be
brought
home
;
when all
the mourners shall
be
comforted;
when they shall
return
to
Sion
;
when
they
shall arise to
heaven
with
everlasting
joy
upon
their
heads,,
and
sorrow
and sighing
shall
fly
away.
SERMON
V.
2
Colt.
vi.
9.
As
dying, and behold
we
live.
LET
us
read
the
account
which
St.
Paul
gives
of
him-
self,
his
dangers and
his
sufferings, in
2
Cor.
xi.
23,
&c.
and
we
shall see
the
words
in my
text
abundantly
exem-
plified
and confirmed
;
in
stripes above measure,
in
la-
bours more
abundant,
in
prisons more frequent,
in
deaths
often.
Of
the Jews
five times received
I
forty stripes,
save
one
;
thrice
was
I
beaten with rods, once
was
I
stoned,
thrice
I suffered shipwreck, a
night and
a
day
I
have been
in
the
deep:
in
journeying
often,
in
perils
of
water,
in
perils
of
robbers,
in
périls
by
my own
country-
men,
in
perils
by
the heathen, in perils
in
the
city,
in
perils
in
the
wilderness, in perils
in
the sea,
in
perils
among false
brethren;
in weariness
and
painfulness, in
watchings often,
in
hunger and thirst,
in
fastings often,
in cold
and nakedness.
The
apostle
is
in
all these
suf
-.