Twenty-first Day.Twenty-first Day.
“And He bearing His cross.”—John, xix. 17.
When did Jesus bear the cross? Not that moment alone, surely, when the bitter tree was placed on His shoulders, on the way to Golgotha. Its vision may be said to have risen before Him in His infant dreams in Bethlehem’s cradle; there, rather, its reality began; and He ceased not to carry it, till His work was finished, and the victory won! Acloud, of old, hovered over the mercy-seat in the tabernacle and temple. So it was with the Great Antitype—the living Mercy-Seat—He had ever a cloud of woe hanging over him. “Hecarriedour sorrows.”
Reader! dwell much and often under theshadow of your Lord’s cross, and it will lead you to think lightly of your own! IfHegave utterance to not one murmuring word, canstthoucomplain? “If we were deeper students of his bitter anguish, we should think less of the ripplings of our waves, amidst His horrible tempest.”—(Evans.) The saint’s cross assumes many and diverse shapes. Sometimes it is the bitter trial, the crushing pang of bereavement—desolate households, and aching hearts. Sometimes it is the crucifixion of sin, the determined battle with “lusts which war against the soul.” Sometimes it is the resistance of evil maxims and practices of a lying world; vindicating the honor of Christ, in the midst, it may be, of taunt, and obloquy, and shame. And as there are different crosses, so there are different ways of bearing them. To some, God says, “put your shoulder to the burden; lift it up, and bear it on; work, and toil, and labor!” To others, He says, “Be still, bear it, andsuffer!”
Believer! thy cross may be hard to endure; it may involve deep struggles—tears by day,watchings by night; bear it meekly, patiently, justifying God’s wisdom in laying it on. Rejoice in the assurance that He gives not one atom more of earthly trial than He sees to be really needful; not one redundant thorn pierces your feet. In the very bearing of the cross forHissake, there are mighty compensations. What new views of your Saviour’s love! His truth, His promises, His sustaining grace, His sufferings, His glory! What new filial nearness; increased delight in prayer; an inner sunshine when it is darkest without! The waves cover you, but underneath them all, are “the everlasting arms!”
Do not look out for a situationwithoutcrosses. Be not over anxious about “smooth paths;”—leaving your God, as Orpah did Naomi, just when the cross requires to be carried. Immoderate earthly enjoyments—unbroken earthly prosperity—write upon these, “Beware!” You may live to see them become your greatest trials!
Remember the old saying, “No cross, no crown.” The sun of the saint’s life generallystruggles through “weeping clouds.” One of the loveliest passages of Scripture is that in which, the portals of heaven being opened, we overhear this dialogue between two ransomed ones—“And one of the elders answered saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me,These are they which came out of great tribulation!”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-second Day.Twenty-second Day.
“The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.”—John, ii. 17.
“Zeal, is a principle; enthusiasm is a feeling. The one is a spark of a sanguine temperament and overheated imagination. The other, a sacred flame kindled at God’s altar, and burning in God’s shrine.”—(Vaughan.) Such was the holy, heavenly zeal of our Great Exemplar! His were no transient outbursts of ardor, which time cooled and difficulties impeded. His life was one indignant protest against sin;—one ceaseless current of undying love for souls, which all the malignity of foes, and unkindness of friends, could not for one moment divert from its course. Even when He risesfrom the dead, and we imagine His work at an end, His zeal only meditates fresh deeds of love. “Still His heart and His care,” says Godwin, “is upon doing more. Having now dispatched that great work on earth, He sends His disciples word that He is hastening to heaven as fast as He can, to do another.” (John, xx. 17).
Reader! do you know any thing of this zeal, which “many waters could not quench”? See that, like your Lord’s, it be steady, sober, consistent, undeviating. How many are, like the children of Ephraim, “carrying bows”—all zealous when zeal demands no sacrifice, but “turning their backs in the day of battle!” Others “running well” for a time, but gradually “hindered,” through the benumbing influences of worldliness, selfishness, and sin. Two disciples, apparently equally devoted and zealous, send through Paul, in one of his epistles, a conjoint Christian salutation—“Luke and Demas greet you.” A few years afterward, thus he writes from his Roman dungeon—“OnlyLukeis with me,” “Demashathforsakenme, having loved this present world!”
While zeal is commendable, remember the Apostle’s qualification, “It is good to be zealously affected always in agoodthing.” There is in these days much base coin current,called“zeal,” which bears not the image and superscription of Jesus. There is zeal for church-membership and party; zeal for creeds and dogmas; zeal for figments and non-essentials. “From such turn aside.” Your Lord stamped with His example and approval no such counterfeits.Hiszeal was ever brought to bear on two objects, and two objects alone—the glory of Godandthe good of man. Be it so withyou. Enter, first of all (as He did the earthly temple), the sanctuary ofyour own heart, with “the scourge of small cords.” Drive out every unhallowed intruder there. Do not suffer yourself to be deceived. Others may call such jealous searchings of spirit “sanctimoniousness” and “enthusiasm.” But remember, to bealmost saved, is to bealtogether lost!—to be zealous about every thing but“the one thing needful,” is an insult to God and your everlasting interests!
Have a zeal forothers. Dying myriads are around you. As a member of the Christian priesthood, it becomes you to rush in with your censer and incense between the living and the dead, “that the plague may be stayed!”
Be it yours to say, “Blessed Jesus! I amThine!—Thine only!—Thine wholly!—Thine for ever! I am willing to follow Thee, and (if need be) tosufferfor Thee. I am ready at Thy bidding to leave the homestead in the valley, and to face the cutting blasts of the mountain. Take me—use me for Thy glory. ‘Lord! what wilt Thou have me to do?’”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-third Day.Twenty-third Day.
“Who went about doing good.”—Acts, x. 38.
“Christ’s great end,” says Richard Baxter, “was to save men from theirsins; but He delighted to save them from theirsorrows.” His heart bled for human misery. Benevolence brought Him from heaven; benevolence followed His steps wherever He went on earth. The journeys of the Divine Philanthropist were marked by tears of thankfulness, and breathings of grateful love. The helpless, the blind, the lame, the desolate, rejoiced at the sound of His footfall. Truly might it be said of Him, “When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me.” (Job, xxix. 11.) Allsuffering hearts were a magnet to Jesus. It was not more His prerogative than His happiness to turn tears into smiles. One of the few pleasures which on earth gladdened the spirit of the “Man of sorrows” was the pleasure ofdoing good—soothing grief, and alleviating misery. Next to the joy of the widow of Nain when her son was restored, was the joy in the bosom of the Divine Restorer! He often went out of His way to be kind. A journey was not grudged, even ifoneaching spirit were to be soothed. (Mark, v. 1; John, iv. 4, 5.) Nor were his kindnesses dispensed through the intervention of others. They were all personal acts. His own hand healed. His own voice spake. His own footsteps lingered on the threshold of bereavement, or at the precincts of the tomb. Ah! had the princes of this world known the loving-tenderness and unselfishness ofthatheart, “they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory”!
Reader! do you know any thing of such active benevolence? Have you never felt theluxuryof doing good? Have you never felt,that in makingothershappy, you makeyour selfso? that, by a great law of your being, enunciated by the Divine Patron and Pattern of Benevolence, “it is more blessed to give than to receive”? Has God enriched you with this world’s goods? Seek to view yourself as a consecrated medium for dispensing them to others. Beware alike of penurious hoarding and selfish extravagance. How sad the case of those whose lot God has made thus to abound with temporal mercies, who have gone to the grave unconscious of diminishing one drop of human misery, or making one of the world’s myriad aching hearts happier! How the example ofJesusrebukes the cold and calculating kindnesses—the mite-like offerings of many even of His own people! “whose libation is not like His, from the brim of an overflowing cup, but from the bottom—from thedregs!”
You may have little to give. Your sphere and means may be alike limited. But remember God can be as much glorified by the trifle saved from the earnings of poverty, as by thesplendid benefaction from the lap of plenty “The Lord loveth acheerfulgiver.”
The nobler part of Christian benevolence is not vast largesses, munificent pecuniary sacrifices. “He went aboutdoing good.” The merciful visit—the friendly word—the look of sympathy—the cup of cold water, the little unostentatious service—the giving without thought or hope of recompense—the kindly “considering of the poor”—anticipating their wants—studying their comforts; these are what God values and loves. They are “loans” to Himself—tributary streams to “the river ofHispleasure;” they will be acknowledged at last as such—“Ye did it untoMe.”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-fourth Day.Twenty-fourth Day.
“Jesus saith unto him, Get thee hence, Satan.”—Matt. iv. 10.
There is an awful intensity of meaning in the words, as applied to Jesus, “Hesuffered, being tempted!” Though incapable of sin, there was, in the refined sensibilities of His holy nature, that which made temptation unspeakably fearful. What must it have been to confront the Arch-traitor?—to stand face to face with the foe of His throne, and His universe? But the “prince of this world” came, and found “nothing in Him.” Billow after billow of Satanic violence spent their fury, in vain, on the Living Rock!
Reader! you have still the same malignantenemy to contend with; assailing you in a thousand insidious forms; marvelously adapting his assaults to your circumstances, your temperament, your mental bias, your master-passion! There is no place where “Satan’s seat” is not; “the whole world lieth in the Wicked one.” (1 John, v. 19.) He has his whispers for the ear of childhood; hoary age is not inaccessible to his wiles. “All this will I give thee”—is still his bribe to deny Jesus and to “mind earthly things.” He will meet you in the crowd; he will follow you to the solitude; his is a sleepless vigilance!
Are you bold in repelling him as your Master was? Are you ready with the retort to every foul suggestion, “Get thee hence, Satan”? Cultivate a tender sensitiveness about sin. The finest barometers are the most sensitive. Whatever be your besetting frailty—whatever bitter or baleful passion you are conscious aspires to the mastery—watch it, crucify it, “nail it to your Lord’s cross.”Youmay despise “the day of small things”—the Great Adversary doesnot. Heknows the power oflittles; that little by little consumes and eats out the vigor of the soul. And once the retrograde movement in the spiritual life begins, who can predict where it may end? the going on “from weakness to weakness,” instead of “from strength to strength.” Make no compromises; never join in the ungodly amusement, or venture on the questionable path, with the plea, “It does me no harm.” The Israelites, on entering Canaan, instead of obeying the Divine injunction of extirpating their enemies, made a hollow truce with them. What was the result? Years upon years of tedious warfare. “They were scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes!” It is quaintly but truthfully said by an old writer, “The candle will never burn clear, while there is athiefin it. Sin indulged, in the conscience, is like Jonah in the ship, which causeth such a tempest, that the conscience is like a troubled sea, whose waters cannot rest.”—(Thomas Brooks.)
“Keep,” then, “thy heart with all diligence,”or, (as it is in the forcible original Hebrew,) “keep thy heartabove all keeping,” “for out of it are the issues of life.” (Prov. iv. 23.) Let this ever be your preservative against temptation, “How wouldJesushave acted here? wouldHenot have recoiled, like the sensitive plant, from the remotest contact with sin? CanIthink of dishonoring Him by tampering with His enemy; incurring from His own lips the bitter reflection of injured love, ‘I am wounded in the house of my friends’?”
He tells us the secret of our preservation and safety, “Simon! Simon! Satan hath desired to have thee, that he might sift thee as wheat;but Ihave prayed for thee that thy faith fail not!”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-fifth Day.Twenty-fifth Day.
“This man receiveth sinners.”—Luke, xv. 2.
The ironical taunt of proud and censorious Pharisees formed the glory of Him who came, “not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Publicans and outcasts; those covered with a deeper than any bodily leprosy—laid bare their wounds to the “Great Physician;” and as conscious guilt and timid penitence crept abashed and imploring to His feet, they found nothing but a forgiving and a gracious welcome!
“His ways” were not as “man’s ways!” The “watchmen,” in the Canticles, “smote” the disconsolate one seeking her lost Lord;they tore off her veil, mocking with chilling unkindness her anguished tears. Not so “the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls.” “Thismanreceivethsinners”! See Nicodemus, stealing under the shadows of night to elude observation—type of the thousand thousand who in every age have gone trembling in their night of sin and sorrow to this Heavenly Friend! Does Jesus punish his timidity by shutting His door against him, spurning him from His presence? “He will not break the bruised reed, He will not quench the smoking flax!”
And He is still the same! He who arrested a persecutor in his blasphemies, and tuned the lips of an expiring felon with faith and love, is at this hour standing, with all the garnered treasures of Redemption in His hand, proclaiming, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out”!
Are we from this to think lightly of sin? or, by example and conduct, to palliate and overlook its enormity? Not so; sin,assin, can never be sufficiently stamped with thebrand of reprobation. But we must seek carefully to distinguish between the offence and the offender. Nothing should be done on our part, by word or deed, to mock the penitential sighings of a guilty spirit, or send the trembling outcast away, with the despairing feeling of “No hope.” “This man receiveth sinners,” and shall notwe? DoesHesuffer the veriest dregs of human depravity to crouch unbidden at His feet, and to gaze on His forgiving countenance with the uplifted eye of hope, and shallwedare to deal out harsh, and severe, and crushing verdicts on an offending (it may be adeeplyoffending) brother? Shall we pronounce “crimson” and “scarlet” sins and sinners beyond the pale of mercy, whenJesusdoes not? Nay, rather, when wretchedness, and depravity, and backsliding cross our path, let it not be with the bitter taunt or the ironical retort that we bid them away. Let us bear, endure, remonstrate, deal tenderly. Jesusdidso, Jesusdoesso! Ah! If we had within us His unconquerable love of souls; His yearning desire for theeverlasting happiness of sinners, we should be more frequently in earnest expostulation and affectionate appeal with those who have hitherto got no other than harsh thoughts and repulsive words. If this “mind” really were in us, “which was also in Him,” we should more frequently ask ourselves, “Have I done all Imighthave done to pluck this brand from the burning! Have I remembered what gracehaswrought, what gracecando?”
“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins!”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-sixth Day.Twenty-sixth Day.
“Neither was guile found in His mouth.”—1 Pet. ii. 22.
How rare, and all the more beautiful because of its rarity, is a purelyguilelessspirit! A crystalline medium through which the transparent light of Heaven comes and goes; open, candid, just, honorable, sincere; scorning every unfair dealing, every hollow pretension, every narrow prejudice. Wherever such characters exist, they are like “apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
Such, in all the loveliness of sinless perfection, was the Son of God! His guilelessness shining the more conspicuously amid the artful and malignant subtlety alike of men and devils. Passing by manifold instances in the course of His ministry, look at its manifestationas the hour of His death approached. When, on the night of his apprehension, He confronts the assassin band, in meek majesty He puts the question, “Whom seek ye?” They say to Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” In guileless innocence, He replies, “I am He!” “Art thou the King of the Jews?” asks Pilate, a few hours after. An evasive answer might again have purchased immunity from suffering and indignity, but once more the lips which scorned the semblance of evasion reply, “Thou sayest!”
How He loved the same spirit in His people! “Behold,” said He, of Nathanael, “an Israelite indeed, in whom isno guile!” That upright man had, we may suppose, been day after day kneeling in prayer under his fig-tree, with an open and candid spirit—
“Musing on the law he taught,And waiting for the Lord he loved.”
See how the Saviour honored him; setting His own Divine seal on the loveliness of this same spirit! Take one other example, whenthe startling, saddening announcement is made to the disciples, “One of you shall betray me;” they do not accuse one another; they attempt to throw no suspicion on Judas; each in trembling apprehension suspects only his own treacherous heart, “Lord, is it I?”
How much of a different “mind” is there abroad! In the school of the world (this “paintedworld”), how much is there of what is called “policy,” double-dealing!—accomplishing its ends by tortuous means; outward, artificial polish, often only a cloak for baseness and selfishness!—in the daily interchange of business, one seeking to over-reach the other by wily arts; sacrificing principle for temporal advantage. There is nothing so derogatory to religion as aught allied to such a spirit among Christ’s people—any such blot on the “living epistles.” “Ye are the light of the world.” That world is a quick observer. It is sharp to detect inconsistencies—slow to forget them. The true Christian has been likened to ananagram—you ought to be able to read him up and down, every way!
Be all reality, no counterfeit. Do not pass for current coin what is base alloy. Let transparent honor and sincerity regulate all your dealings; despise all meanness; avoid the sinister motive, the underhand dealing; aim at that unswerving love of truth that would scorn to stoop to base compliances and unworthy equivocations; live more under the power of the purifying and ennobling influences of the gospel. Take its golden rule as the matchless directory for the daily transactions of life—“Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-seventh Day.Twenty-seventh Day.
“I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work.”—John, ix. 4.
How constant and unremitting was Jesus in the service of His Heavenly Father! “He rose a great while before day;” and, when His secret communion was over, His public work began. It mattered not to Him where He was: whether on the bosom of the deep, or a mountain slope—in the desert, or at a well-side—the “gracious words” ever “proceeded out of His mouth.” We find, on one touching occasion, exhausted nature sinking, after a day of unremitting duty; in crossing, in a vessel, the Lake of Tiberias—“He fell asleep”! (Matt. viii.) He redeemed every precious moment. His words to the Pharisee seem aformulafor all, “Simon, I have somewhat to say untothee”!
Oh, how our most unceasing activities pale into nothing before such an example as this! Would that we could remember that each of us has some great mission to perform for God, that religion is not a thing of dreamy sentimentalism, but of energetic practical action; moreover, that no trade, no profession, no position, however high or however humble in the scale of society, can disqualify for this life of Christian activity and usefulness! Who were the writers in the Bible? We have among them a King—a Lawgiver—a Herdsman—a Publican—a Physician! Nor is it to high spheres, or to great services only, that God looks. The widow’s mite and Mary’s “alabaster box of ointment” are recorded as examples for imitation by the Holy Ghost, while many more munificent deeds are passed by unrecorded. We believe that God says, regarding the attempt of many a humble Christian to serve Him by active duty, “I saw that effort, thatfeebleeffort to serve andglorify Me; it was the veryfeeblenessof it I loved!”
Did it never strike you, notwithstanding thedignityof Christ, and theactivityof Christ, how little success comparatively He met with in His public work? We read of nonumerousconversions; no Pentecostal revivals in the course of His ministry. May not this well encourage in the absence of great outward results? He sets up no higher standard than this—“She hath done what she could.” An artist may begreatin painting a peasant as well as a king—it is the way he does it. Yes, and if laid aside from theactivitiesof the Christian life, we can equally glorify God bypassive endurance. “Who am I,” said Luther, when he witnessed the patience of a great sufferer; “who am I? a wordy preacher in comparison with this great doer.”
Reader! forget not the motive of our motto verse, “The night cometh!” Soon our tale shall be told; our little day is flitting fast, the shadows of night are falling. “Our span length of time,” as Rutherford says, “willcome to an inch.” What if the eleventh hour should strike after having been “all the dayidle”? A long lifetime of opportunities suffered to pass unemployed and unimproved, and absolutelynothingdone for God! A judgment-day come—our golden moments squandered—our talents untraded on—our work undone—met at the bar of Heaven with the withering repulse, “Inasmuch as ye did itnot.” “The time we have lost,” says Richard Baxter, “can not be recalled; should we not then redeem and improve the little that remains? If a traveler sleep or trifle most of the day, he must travel so much the faster in the evening, or fall short of his journey’s end.”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-eighth Day.Twenty-eighth Day.
“But committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously.”—1 Peter, ii. 23.
With what perfect and entire confidingness did Jesus commit Himself to his Heavenly Father’s guidance! He loved to call Him, “My Father!” There was music in that name, which enabled Him to face the most trying hour, and to drink the most bitter cup. The scoffing taunt arose at the scene of crucifixion: “He trusted in God that He would deliver Him, let Him deliver Him!” It failed to shake, for one moment, His unswerving confidence, even when the sensible tokens of the Divine presence were withdrawn; therealized consciousness of God’s abiding love sustained Him still: “My God! my God!”
How many a perplexity should we save ourselves by thus implicitly “committing ourselves,” as He did, to God! In seasons of darkness and trouble—when our way is shut up with thorns, to lift the confiding eye of faith to Him, and say, “I am oppressed, undertake for me!” How blessed to feel that He directs all that befalls us; that no contingencies can frustrate His plans; that the way he leads us is not onlya“right way,” but, with all its briers and thorns—itstears and trials—it istheright way!
The result of such an habitual staying ourselves on the Lord will be a deep, abidingpeace; any ripple will only be on the surface—no more. It is thebosomof the ocean alone which the storm ruffles; all beneath is a serene, settled calm. So “Thou wilt keep him, oh God, in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed onThee!”
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” I shall be content alike with whatHe appoints or withholds. Ican notwrong that love with one shadow of suspicion! I have His own plighted promise of unchanging faithfulness, that “all things work together for good to them that love Him!” Often there are earthly sorrows hard to bear;—the unkind accusation, when it was least merited or expected; the estrangement of tried and trusted friends, the failure of cherished hopes, favorite schemes broken up, plans of usefulness demolished, the gourd breeding its own worm and withering. “Commit thy cause and thy way to God!” We little know what tenderness there is in the blast of the rough wind; what “needs be” are folded under the wings of the storm! “All is well,” becauseallis fromHim. “Events are God’s,” says Rutherford; “let Him sit at His own helm, that moderateth all.”
Christian! look back on your checkered path. How wondrously has He threaded you through the mazy way—disappointing your fears, realizing your hopes! Are evils looming through the mists of the future? Do notanticipate the trials of to-morrow, to aggravate those of to-day. Leave the morrow with Him, who has promised, by “casting all your care on Him, to care for you.” No affliction will be sent greater than you can bear. His voice will be heard stealing from the bosom of the threatening cloud, “Be still, and know that I am God!”
“My Father!” With such a word, you can stretch out your neck for any yoke; as with Israel of old, He will make those very waves that may now be so threatening, a fenced wall on every side! “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” “Inallthy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths!”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Twenty-ninth Day.Twenty-ninth Day.
“That they all may be one.”—John, xvii. 21.
Surely there is nothing for which Christian churches have such cause to hang their harps on the willows, as the extent to which the Shibboleth of party is heard in the camp of the faithful—sectarianism rearing its “untempered walls” within the Temple gates!
How different “the mind of Jesus!” Sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” He was never found disowning “othersheep not of that fold.” “Them also will I bring,” was an assertion continually illustrated by His deeds. Take one example: The woman of Samaria revealed what, alas! is too common in the world—a total absence of all realreligion, along with an ardent zeal for her sect. She was living in open sin; yet she was all alive to the nice distinction between a Jew and a Samaritan—between Mount Gerizim and Mount Zion: “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria?” Did Jesus sanction or reciprocate her sectarianism?—did He leave her bigotry unrebuked? Hear His reply—“If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked ofHim, andHewould have given thee!”Hewould have allowed no such narrow-minded exclusiveness to have interfered with the interchange of kindly civilities with a stranger. Nay, He would have given thee, better than all, the “living water” which “springeth up to everlasting life!”
How sad, that when the enemy is “coming in like a flood”—the ranks of Popery and infidelity linked in fatal and formidable confederacy—that the soldiers of Christ are forced to meet the assault with standards soiled and mutilated by internal feuds! “Uniformity”theremaynot be, but “unity,” in the true sense of the word, thereoughtto be. We may be clad in different livery, but let us stand side by side, and rank by rank, fighting the battles of our Lord. We may be different branches of the seven golden candlesticks, varying and diversified in outward form and workmanship; but let us combine in “showing forth the praises of Him” who recognizes, as the one true “churchmanship,” fidelity in shining for His glory “as lights in the world.” How can we read the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, and then think of our divisions? “How miserable,” says Edward Bickersteth, “would an hospital be, if each patient were to be so offended with his neighbor’s disease, as to differ with him on account of it, instead of trying to alleviate it!”
Ah! if we had more real communion with our Saviour, should we not have more real communion with one another? If Christians would dip their arrows more in “the balm of Gilead,” would there not be fewer wounds in the body of Christ? “How that word ‘toleration’is used amongst us,” said one who drank deeper than most, of his Master’s spirit—“how wetolerateone another—DissenterstolerateChurchmen, and ChurchmentolerateDissenters! Oh! hateful word!Tolerateone for whomJesusdied!Tolerateone whom He bears upon His heart!Toleratea temple of the living God! Oh! there ought to bethatin the word which should make us feelashamedbefore God!”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Thirtieth Day.Thirtieth Day.
“I am not of the world.”—John, xvii. 14.
In one sense it wasnotso. Jesus did not seek to maintain His holiness intact and unspotted by avoiding contact with the world. He mingled familiarly in its busy crowds. He frowned on none of its innocent enjoyments; He fostered, by His example, no love of seclusion; He gave no warrant or encouragement to mortified pride, or disappointed hopes, to rush from its duties; yet, with all this, what a halo of heavenliness encircled His pathway through it! “I am from above,” was breathed in His every look, and word, and action, from the time when He lay in the slumbers of guileless infancy in His Bethlehemcradle, until He said, “I leave the world, and go to my Father!” He had moved uncontaminated through its varied scenes, like the sunbeam, which, whatever it touches, remains as unsullied, as when it issues from its great fountain.
But though Himself in His sinless nature “unconquerable” by temptation—immutably secure from the world’s malignant influences, it is all worthy of note, as an example to us, that He never unnecessarily braved these. He knew the seducing spell that same world would exercise on His people, of whom, with touching sympathy, He says, “Theseare in the world!” He knew themanywho would be involved and ensnared in its subtle worship, who, “minding earthly things, would seek to slake their thirst at polluted streams!”
Reader! the great problem you have to solve, Jesus has solved for you—to be “inthe world, and yet notofit.” To abandon it, would be a dereliction of duty. It would be servants deserting their work; soldiers flying from the battle-field.Livein it, that whileyou live, the world, may feel the better for you.Die, thatwhenyou die, the world, theChurch, may feel your loss, and cherish your example! On its cares and duties, its trusts and responsibilities, its employments and enjoyments, inscribe the motto, “The world passeth away!” Beware of every thing in it that would tend to deaden spirituality of heart; unfitting the mind for serious thought, lowering the standard of Christian duty, and inducing a perilous conformity to its false manners, habits, tastes, and principles. As the best antidote to the love of the world, let the innervacuumof the heart be filled with the love of God. Seek to feel the nobility of your regenerated nature; that you have a nobler heritage to care for than the transitory glories which encircle “an indivisible point, a fugitive atom.” How can I mix with the potsherds of the earth? Once, “I lay among the pots;” now, I am “like a dove, whose wings are covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold!” “Stranger—pilgrim—sojourner” “mycitizenshipis in heaven!” Why covet tinsel honors and glories? Why be solicitous about the smiles of that which knew not (nay, which frowned on) its Lord? “Paul calls it,” says an old writer, “schema(a mathematical figure), which is a merenotion, and nothing in substance.”—(Thomas Brooks.)
Live above its corroding cares and anxieties; remembering the description Jesus gives of His own true people; “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world!”
“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”
Thirty-first Day.Thirty-first Day.
“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.”—Luke, xxiii. 46.
In the death of Jesus, there were elements of fearfulness, which the believer can know nothing of. It was with Him the execution of a penal sentence. The sins of an elect world were bearing him down! The very voice of His God was giving the tremendous summons, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd!” Yet His was a death ofpeace, nay, oftriumph! Ere He closed His eyes, light broke through the curtains of thick darkness. In the calm composure of filial confidence He breathed away His soul—“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!” What was the secretof such tranquillity? This is His own key to it—“I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”
Reader! will it be so withyouat a dying hour? willyour“work” be done? Have you already fled to Jesus? Are you reposing in Him as your only Saviour, and following Him as your only pattern? Then—let death overtake you when it may—you will have nothing to dobut to die! The grave will be irradiated with His presence and smile. He will be standing there as He did by His own tomb of old, pointing to yours, tenanted with angel forms, nay, Himself as the “Precursor,” showing you “the path of life!” There can be no true peace till the fear of death be conquered by the sense of sin forgiven, through “the blood of the Cross.” “Not till then,” as one has it, “will you be able to be a quiet spectator of the open grave at the bottom of the hill which you are soon to descend.” “The sting of death issin, but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ!”
Seek now to live in the enjoyment of greater filial nearness to your covenant God; and thus, when the hour of departuredoescome, you will be able, without irreverence, to take the very words of your dying Lord, and make them your own—“Father!into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”Father!It is goingHOME!the heart of the child leaping at the thought of the paternal roof, and the paternal welcome! “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine!”
It is said of Archbishop Leighton, that he “was always happiest when, from the shaking of the prison-doors, he was led to hope that some of those brisk blasts would throw them open, and give him the release he coveted.” Christian! can you dreadthatwhich your Saviour has already vanquished?Death!It is as the angel to Peter, breaking the dungeon-doors, and leading to open day; it is going to the world of your birthright, and leaving the one of your exile; “it is the soldier at night-fall, lying down in his tent in peace, waiting the morning to receive his laurels.” Oh! tobe ever living in a state of holy preparation! the mental eye gazing on the vista-view of an opening Heaven! feeling thatevery momentis bringing us nearer and nearer that happyHome! soon to be within reach of the Heavenly threshold, in sight of the Throne! soon to be bending in adoring rapture with the Church triumphant—bathing in floods of infinite glory—“LIKE HIM,”—“seeingHimas He is,” and thatfor Ever and Ever!
“AND EVERY MAN THAT HATH THIS HOPE IN HIM PURIFIETH HIMSELF, EVEN AS HE IS PURE!”