Turning of Our Captivity
By L. A. S.
“WHEN the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” Ps. 126:1. How contrary to all human expectations, how far beyond all human calculations, are the workings of the providence of God! Men may form their own conceptions of things to come in the fulfilment of prophecy, and become so accustomed to those conceptions that they would be in no wise surprised by their realization; but when they come face to face with the workings of the mind that is infinite, all their human conceptions sink into insignificance, and they can only stand still and behold with wonder the salvation of God. “How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.” How like a dream are the changes that have come to hasten the work of God in the earth to its completion; for verily the turning of Zion’s captivity has begun. No longer will Zion be bound and the work delayed by the old order of things. How wonderful the sudden change from that order of things! and how foreign to all human calculations a few short months in the past! But there is more to this happy dream. “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.” And verily this part of the inspired prediction will not fail. The time has come for God to do great things to exalt his name among the heathen. The truth of God, the last saving truth the world can know, has gone in comparative quietness along the byways of the earth; but it is now to5go “with a loud voice” along the highways. And all this will be not because the instruments through which God will work will be greater or better than any he has used in the past, but because he can do that which he pleases with humble instruments which offer no resistance to his will. It will be because of the willingness of his people in the day of his power. Let every obstacle be removed from the King’s highway.