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the isles made glad*^ under Jehovah’s reign^ and the kings 
of the isles bringing presentsf to his Son ! And vrhat 
new transport must have thrilled Isaiah’s ardent spirit, 
when he now beheld a partial accomplishment of what, 
in distant ages, he had delighted to sing. The wilder¬ 
ness rejoiced—the desert blossomed as the rose—the 
sword was beaten into the ploughshare—^the wolf and 
the lamb dwelt together—and the islands sang the 
praises of Jehovah !”J 
With equal transport, and with greater sympathy, 
those happy disembodied spirits of just men made perfect, 
who have more recently entered on their everlasting rest, 
if they have a knowledge of what passes on earth, must 
have viewed the change! And if angels, who have none 
of those sympathies which the redeemed must feel, 
experience an addition to their joy, in every sinner 
that by penitence returns to God, it seems an inference 
not unwarranted by revelation, that the spirits of de¬ 
parted believers may have a knowledge of events and moral 
changes, which transpire in our world, especially with 
those relating to the progress of the Messiah’s reign among 
mankind. Then with what augmented joy must that 
honoured and distinguished saint,§ in strict obedience 
to whose last bequest and dying charge, the South Sea 
Mission was attempted, with those holy and devoted 
men who first matured, and subsequently aided so 
nobly, the plan of sending the gospel to Tahiti, have 
viewed the pleasing change. Those patient labourers, 
also, who had toiled in the field, but had been called 
away before the first waive-sheaf was gathered in, must 
have felt their joy increased, as the enlarged spiritual 
* Psalm xcvii. 1. t Psalm Ixxii. 10. t Isaiah xlii. 10. 
§ The late Countess of Huntingdon. 
