Sermons of John Newton - M - Booklet Six 12. Effects of Messiah's Appearance and 13. The Great Shepherd
By John Newton
Extract
Sermons of John Newton
Booklet Six
12. Effects of Messiah’s Appearance and
13. The Great Shepherd
12. Effects of Messiah’s Appearance “The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” Isaiah 35:5, 6.
How beautiful and magnificent is the imagery, by which the Prophet, in this chapter, represents the effects of MESSIAH’S appearance! The scene, proposed to our view, is a barren and desolate wilderness. But when He, who in the beginning said, “Let there be light, and there was light,” condescends to visit this wilderness, the face of nature is suddenly changed by His presence! Fountains and streams of water burst forth in the burning desert, the soil becomes fruitful, clothed with verdure, and adorned with flowers. The towering cedars, which were the glory of Lebanon, and the richest pastures, which were the excellency of Carmel, present themselves to the eye, where, a little before, all was uncomfortable and dreary. How is it, that so few of those who value themselves upon their taste, and who profess to be admirers of pastoral poetry in particular, are struck with the elegance and beauty of this description? Alas, we can only ascribe their indifference to the depravity of the human heart. They would, surely, have admired this picture, could they have met with it in any of their favourite authors; but descriptive paintings in this style, so exquisitely combining grandeur with simplicity, are only to be found in the Bible, a book, which their unhappy prejudices and passions too often lead to depreciate and neglect.
But they who have a scriptural and spiritual taste, not only admire this passage as a description of a pleasing change in outward nature, but consider it as a just and expressive representation of a more important change, a moral change, of which they have themselves been, in a measure, the happy …