I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
The Church’s encouragement in times of depression
I. A representation cf the Church in a state of great depression and affliction.
1. Consternation and dismay are evinced. There is “the voice of trembling,” and the agitation of “fear,” at the apprehension of approaching calamities. “Every man” is represented “with his hands upon his loins,” the symptoms of agonising pain; and “all faces are turned unto paleness,” the effect of extreme alarm.
2. Desolation and ruin are also intimated. Their “bruise was incurable, and their wound was grievous”; for they were “wounded” by the hand of “an enemy,--with the chastisement of a cruel one.”
II. The encouraging promise here given to the Church of her restoration to peace and prosperity.
1. Tranquillity and protection; or, “peace in all her borders” (Jeremiah 30:10).
2. The renewal of her religious privileges (Jeremiah 30:18; Jeremiah 30:22).
3. The increase of her converts (Jeremiah 30:19).
4. The joy of her members is next promised;--and this follows as a matter of course.
5. The destruction of her enemies. (R. Bond.)