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I. A BENEFICIENT POWER.

1. It is connected with deliverance.

2. With purity.

3. With enjoyment. Possess here means, enjoy their possessions.

II. A CONSUMING POWER. There is a fire in the true Church (ver. 18).

1. The characteristics this fire displays. What is the fire? The fire of truth, that burns up error; the fire of right, that burns up wickedness; the fire of love, that burns up selfishness. It is a strong fire; an extending fire; a steady fire; an unquenchable fire.

2. The materials this fire consumes. "Stubble." What is moral depravity in all its forms, theoretical and practical, religious, social, and political? "Stubble." Error to truth, wrong to right, malice to love, is but stubble to fire.

III. AN AGGRESSIVE POWER. The Gospel is at once the inspiration, the life, and the instrument of the true Church.

1. The elements of which the Gospel is composed. "Grace and truth," or eternal reality and Divine benevolence. To show the aggressiveness of these principles, state three facts.

(1)  The human soul is made to feel their imperial force.

(2)  The human soul is bound to yearn after these elements as its highest good.

(3)  The human soul is everywhere restless without these elements.

2. The proselytising spirit which the Gospel engenders. Every genuine recipient of the Gospel becomes a missionary.

3. The triumphs which the Gospel has already achieved. Such thoughts as these tend to demonstrate the essential aggressiveness of the true Church.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

WEB: But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.