The Befriended Orphans.
Does the Christian’s path lie all the way through Beulah? Nay, he is forewarned it is to be one of “much tribulation.” He has his Marahs as well as his Elims—his valleys of Baca as well as his grapes of Eschol. Often is he left unbefriended to bear the brunt of the storm—his gourds fading when most needed—his sun going down while it is yet day—his happy home and happy heart darkened in a moment with sorrows with which a stranger (with which often abrother) cannot intermeddle. There isOneBrother “born for adversity,” whocan. How often has that voice broken with its silvery accents the muffled stillness ofthe sick-chamber or death-chamber! “‘Iwill not leave you comfortless:’ the worldmay, friendsmay, the desolations of bereavement and deathmay; butI will not; you will be alone, yetnotalone, for I your Saviour and your God will be with you!”
Jesus seems to have an especial love and affection for His orphaned and comfortless people. A father loves his sick and sorrowing child most; of all his household, he occupies most of his thoughts. Christ seems to delight to lavish His deepest sympathy on “him that hath no helper.” It is in the hour of sorrow His people have found Him most precious; it is in “the wilderness” He speaks most “comfortably unto them;” He gives them “their vineyards from thence:” in the places they least expected, wells of heavenly consolation break forth at their feet. As Jonathan of old, when faint and weary, had his strength revived by the honey he founddropping in the tangled thicket: so the faint and woe-worn children of God find “honey in the wood”—everlasting consolation dropping from the tree of life, in the midst of the thorniest thickets of affliction.
Comfortless ones, be comforted! Jesus often makes youportionlesshere, to drive you to Himself, theeverlasting portion. He often dries every rill and fountain of earthly bliss, that He may lead you to say, “All my springs are in Thee.” “He seems intent,” says one who could speak from experience, “to fill up every gap love has been forced to make; one of his errands from heaven was to bind up the broken-hearted.” How beautifully in one amazing verse does he conjoin the depth and tenderness of his comfort with the certainty of it—“As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and yeSHALLbe comforted!”
Ah, how many would not have theirwilderness-state altered, with all its trials, and gloom, and sorrow, just that they might enjoy the unutterable sympathy and love of this Comforter of the comfortless, one ray of whose approving smile can dispel the deepest earthly gloom? As the clustering constellations shine with intensest lustre in the midnight sky, so these “words of Jesus” come out like ministering angels in the deep dark night of earthly sorrow. We may see no beauty in them when the world is sunny and bright; but He has laid them up in store for us for the dark and cloudy day.
“THESE THINGS HAVE I TOLD YOU, THAT WHEN THE TIME COMETH, YE MAY REMEMBER THAT I TOLD YOU OF THEM.”
“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”—John xvi. 33.
The World Conquered.
And shall I be afraid of a world already conquered? The Almighty Victor, within view of His Crown, turns round to His faint and weary soldiers, and bids them take courage. They are not fighting their way through untried enemies. The God-Man Mediator “knowstheir sorrows.” “He was inall pointstempted.” “Both He (i. e., Christ) who sanctifieth, and they (His people) who are sanctified, are all of one (nature).” As the great Precursor, he heads the pilgrim band, saying “I will show you the path of life.” The way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that woundsthem, has woundedHimbefore. Everycross they can bear, he has borne before. Every tear they shed, He has shed before. There is one respect, indeed, in which the identity fails,—He was “yet without sin;” but this recoil of His Holy nature from moral evil gives Him a deeper and intenser sensibility towards those who have still corruption within responding to temptation without.
Reader! are you ready to faint under your tribulations? Is it a seducing world—a wandering, wayward heart? “ConsiderHimthat endured!” Listen to your adorable Redeemer, stooping from His Throne, and saying, “Ihave overcome the world.” He came forth unscathed from its snares. With the same heavenly weapon He bids you wield, three times did he repel the Tempter, saying, “It is written.”—Is it some crushing trial, or overwhelming grief? He is “acquaintedwithgrief.” He, the mighty Vine, knows the minutestfibres of sorrow in the branches; when the pruning knife touchesthem, it touchesHim. “He has gone,” says a tried sufferer, “through every class in our wilderness school.” He loves to bring His people into untried and perplexing places, that they may seek out the guiding pillar, and prize its radiance. He puts them on the darkening waves, that they may follow the guiding light hung out astern from the only Bark of pure and unsullied Humanity that was ever proof against the storm.
Be assured there is disguised love in all He does. He who knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves, often puts a thorn in our nest to drive us to the wing, that we may not be grovellers forever. “It is,” says Evans, “upon the smooth ice we slip, the rough path is safest for the feet.” The tearless and undimmed eye is not to be covetedhere;thatis reserved for heaven!
Who can tell what muffled and disguised “needs be” there may lurk under these world-tribulations? His true spiritual seed are often planted deep in the soil; they have to make their way through a load of sorrow before they reach the surface; but their roots are thereby the firmer and deeper struck. Had it not been for these lowly and needed “depths,” they might have rushed up as feeble saplings, and succumbed to the first blast. He often leads His people still, as he led them of old, to “a high mountain apart;” but it is to ahighmountain—above the world; and, better still, He who Himself hath overcome the world, leadeth them there, and speaketh comfortably unto them.
“I HOPE IN THYWORD.”
“Fear not, little flock; it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”—Luke xii. 32.
The Little Flock.
The music of the Shepherd’s voice again! Another comforting “word,” and how tender!hisflock alittleflock, afeebleflock, afearfulflock, but abelovedflock, loved of the Father, enjoying His “good pleasure,” and soon to be aglorifiedflock, safe in the fold, secure within the kingdom! How does He quiet their fears and misgivings? As they stand panting on the bleak mountain side, He points His crook upwards to the bright and shining gates of glory, and says, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you these!” What gentle words! What a blessed consummation! Gracious Saviour, Thygentlenesshath made megreat!
That kingdom is the believer’s by irreversible and inalienable charter-right—“I appoint unto you” (by covenant), says Jesus in another place, “a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.” It is as sure as everlasting love and almighty power can make it. Satan, the great foe of the kingdom, may be injecting foul misgivings, and doubts, and fears as to your security; but he cannot denude you of your purchased immunities. He must first pluck the crown from the Brow upon the Throne, before he can weaken or impair this sure word of promise. If “it pleased the Lord” tobruisethe Shepherd, it will surely please Him to make happy the purchased flock. If He “smote” His “Fellow” when the sheep were scattered, surely it will rejoice Him, for the Shepherd’s sake, “to turn His hand upon the little ones.”
Believers, think of this! “It is your Father’s good pleasure.” The GoodShepherd, in leading you across the intervening mountains, shows you signals and memorials of paternal grace studding all the way. He may “lead you about” in your way thither. He led the children of Israel of old out of Egypt to their promised kingdom,—how? By forty years’ wilderness-discipline and privations. But trust Him; dishonour Him not with guilty doubts and fears. Look not back on your dark, stumbling paths, nor within on your fitful and vacillating heart; but forwards to the land that is far off. How earnestly God desires your salvation! What a heaping together of similar tender “words” with that which is here addressed to us? The Gospel seems like a palace full of opened windows, from each of which He issues an invitation, declaring that He has no pleasure in our death—but rather that we would turn and live!
Let the melody of the Shepherd’sreed fall gently on your ear,—“It is your Father’s good pleasure.” I have given you, He seems to say, the best proof that it ismine. In order to purchase that kingdom, I died for you! But it is alsoHis: “As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so,” says God, “will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” Fear not, then, little flock! though yours for a while should be the bleak mountain and sterile waste, seeking your way Zionward, it may be “with torn fleeces and bleeding feet;” for,
“IT IS NOT THE WILL OF YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN, THAT ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES SHOULD PERISH.”
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”—John vii. 37.
The Unlimited Offer.
One of the most gracious “words” that ever “proceeded out of the mouth of God!” The time it was uttered was an impressive one; it was on “the last, the great day” of the Feast of Tabernacles, when a denser multitude than on any of the seven preceding ones were assembled together. The golden bowl, according to custom, had probably just been filled with the waters of Siloam, and was being carried up to the Temple amid the acclamations of the crowd, when the Saviour of the world seized the opportunity of speaking to them some truths of momentous import. Many, doubtless, were the “words of Jesus” uttered on the previous days, but the most importantis reserved for the last. What, then, is the great closing theme on which He rivets the attention of this vast auditory, and which He would have them carry away to their distant homes? It is,The freeness of His own great salvation—“If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.”
Reader, do you discredit the reality of this gracious offer? Are your legion sins standing as a barrier between you and a Saviour’s proffered mercy? Do you feel as if you cannot come “just as you are;” that some partial cleansing, some preparatory reformation must take place before you can venture to the living fountain? Nay, “if any man.” What is freer than water?—The poorest beggar may drink “without money” the wayside pool.Thatis your Lord’s own picture of His own glorious salvation; you are invited to come, “without one plea,” in all your poverty and want, your weakness andunworthiness. Remember the Redeemer’s saying to the woman of Samaria. She was the chief of sinners—profligate—hardened—degraded; but He made no condition, no qualification;simple believingwas all that was required,—“If thou knewest the gift of God,” thou wouldst have asked, and He would have given thee “living water.”
But is there not, after all,onecondition mentioned in this “word of Jesus?”—“Ifany manthirst.” You may have the depressing consciousness that you experience no such ardent longings after holiness,—no feeling of your affecting need of the Saviour. But is not this very conviction of your want an indication of a feeble longing after Christ? If you are saying, “I have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep,” He who makes offer of the salvation-stream will Himself fill your empty vessel,—“He satisfieth thelongingsoul with goodness.”
“Jesusstoodandcried.” It is the solitary instance recorded of Him of whom it is said, “He shallnotstrive nor cry,” lifting up “His voice in the streets.” But it was truth of surpassing interest and magnitude He had to proclaim. It was a declaration, moreover, specially dear to him. As it formed the theme of this ever-memorablesermonduring His public ministry, so when He was sealing up the inspired record—the last utterances of His voice on earth, till that voice shall be heard again on the throne, contained the same life-giving invitation,—“Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Oh! as the echoes of that gracious saying—this blast of the silver trumpet—are still sounding to the ends of the world, may this be the recorded result,
“AS HE SPAKETHESE WORDS, MANY BELIEVED ON HIM.”
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”—Matt. xi. 30.
The Joyful Servitude.
Can the same be said of Satan, or sin? With regard tothem, how faithfully true rather is the converse—“my yoke isheavy, and my burden isgrievous!” Christ’s service is a happy service, theonlyhappy one; and even when there is a cross to carry, or a yoke to bear, it is His own appointment. “Myyoke.” It is sent by no untried friend. Nay, He who puts it on His people, bore this very yoke Himself. “Hecarriedour sorrows.” How blessed this feeling of holy servitude to so kind a Master! not like “dumb, driven cattle,” goaded on, butled, and led often most tenderly when the yoke and the burden are upon us. The great apostle rarely speaks of himselfunder any other title butone. Thatonehe seems to make his boast. He had much whereof he might glory;—he had been the instrument in saving thousands—he had spoken before kings—he had been in Cæsar’s palace and Cæsar’s presence—he had been caught up into the third heaven,—but in all his letters this is his joyful prefix and superscription, “TheServant(literally,the slave) of Jesus Christ!”
Reader! dost thou know this blessed servitude? Canst thou say with a joyful heart, “O Lord, truly I am Thy servant?” He is no hard taskmaster. Would Satan try to teach thee so? Let this be the refutation, “He loved me, and gaveHimselfforme.” True, the yoke is the appointed discipline he employs in training his children for immortality. But be comforted! “It is His tender hand thatputsit on, andkeepsit on.” He will suit the yoke to the neck, and the neck to the yoke.He will suit His grace to your trials. Nay, He will bring you even to be in love with these, when they bring along with them such gracious unfoldings of His own faithfulness and mercy. How His people need thus to be in heaviness through manifold temptations, to keep them meek and submissive! “Jeshurun (like a bullock unaccustomed to the harness, fed and pampered in the stall) waxed fat, and kicked.” Never is there more gracious love than when God takes His own means to curb and subjugate, to humble us, and to prove us—bringing us out from ourselves, our likings, our confidences, our prosperity, and putting us under the neededYOKE.
And who has ever repented of that joyful servitude? Among all the ten thousand regrets that mingle with a dying hour, and oft bedew with bitter tears a dying pillow, who ever told of regrets and repentance here?
Tried believer, has He ever failed thee? Has His yoke been too grievous? Have thy tears been unalleviated—thy sorrows unsolaced—thy temptations above that thou wert able to bear? Ah! rather canst thou not testify, “The word of the Lord is tried;” I cast my burden upon Him, and He “sustained me?” How have seeming difficulties melted away! How has the yoke lost its heaviness, and the cross its bitterness, in the thought of whom thou wert bearing it for! There is a promised rest in the very carrying of the yoke; and a better rest remains for the weary and toil-worn when the appointed work is finished; for thus saith “that same Jesus,”
“TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU, AND LEARN OF ME, ... AND YE SHALL FINDRESTUNTO YOUR SOULS.”
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.”—John xv. 9.
The Measure of Love.
This is the most wondrous verse in the Bible. Who can sound the unimagined depths of that love which dwelt in the bosom of the Father from all eternity towards His Son?—and yet here is the Saviour’s own exponent of His love towards His people!
There is no subject more profoundly mysterious than those mystic intercommunings between the first and second persons in the adorable Trinity before the world was. Scripture gives us only some dim and shadowy revelations regarding them—distant gleams of light, and no more. Let one suffice. “ThenI was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.”
We know that earthly affection is deepened and intensified by increased familiarity with its object. The friendship of yesterday is not the sacred, hallowed thing, which years of growing intercourse have matured. If we may with reverence apply this test to the highest type of holy affection, what must have been that interchange of love which the measureless lapse of Eternity had fostered—a love, moreover, not fitful, transient, vacillating, subject to altered tones and estranged looks—but pure, constant, untainted, without one shadow of turning! And yet, listen to the “words of Jesus,” As the Father hath lovedme,sohave I lovedyou! It would have been infinitely more than we had reason to expect, if He had said, “As my Father hath lovedANGELS, so have I loved you.” But the love borne to no finite beings is an appropriate symbol. Long before the birth of time or of worlds,that love existed. It was coeval with Eternity itself. Hear how the two themes of the Saviour’s eternal rejoicing—thelove of His Father, and Hislove for sinners—are grouped together;—“Rejoicing always beforeHIM,andin the habitable part of Hisearth!”
To complete the picture, we must take in a counterpart description of theFather’slove to us;—“Thereforedoth my Father love me,” says Jesus in another place, “becauseI lay down my life!” God had an all-sufficiency in His love—He needed not the taper-love of creatures to add to His glory or happiness; but He seems to say, that so intense is His love for us, that He loves even His beloved Sonmore(if infinite love be capable of increase), because He laid down His life for the guilty! It is regarding the Redeemed it is said, “He shallrestin His love—He shall rejoice overthemwith singing.”
In the assertion, “God is love,” weare left truly with no mere unproved averment regarding the existence of some abstract quality in the divine nature. “Herein,” says an apostle, “perceive weTHE LOVE,”—(it is added in our authorised version, “of God,” but, as it has been remarked, “Our translators need not have addedwhoselove, for there is but one such specimen”)—“becauseHe laid down His life for us.” No expression of love can be wondered at afterthis. Ah, how miserable are our best affections compared with His! “Ourlove is but the reflection—cold as the moon;Hisis as the Sun.” Shall we refuse to love Him more in return, who hathfirstloved, and soloved us?
“NEVER MAN SPAKE LIKE THIS MAN.”
“Only believe.”—Mark v. 36.
The Brief Gospel.
The briefest of the “words of Jesus,” but one of the most comforting. They contain the essence and epitome of all saving truth.
Reader, isSatanassailing thee with tormenting fears? Is the thought of thy sins—the guilty past—coming up in terrible memorial before thee, almost tempting thee to give way to hopeless despondency? Fear not! A gentle voice whispers in thine ear,—“Only believe.” “Thy sins are great, but my grace and merits are greater. ‘Only believe’ that I died for thee—that I am living for thee and pleading for thee, and that ‘the faithful saying’ is as ‘faithful’ as ever, and as ‘worthy of all acceptation’ as ever.”—Artthou abackslider? Didst thou once run well? Has thine own guilty apostacy alienated and estranged thee from that face which was once all love, and that service which was once all delight? Art thou breathing in broken-hearted sorrow over the holy memories of a close walk with God—“Oh that it were with me as in months past, when the candle of the Lord did shine?” “Only believe.” Take this thy mournful soliloquy, and convert it into a prayer. “Only believe” the word of Him whose ways are not as man’s ways—“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding.”—Art thou beaten down with some heavytrial? have thy fondest schemes been blown upon—thy fairest blossoms been withered in the bud? has wave after wave been rolling in upon thee? hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious? Hear the “word of Jesus” resounding amid the thickest midnight of gloom—penetrating eventhrough the vaults of the dead—“Believe,only believe.” There is an infinitereasonfor the trial—a lurking thorn that required removal, a gracious lesson that required teaching. The dreadful severing blow was dealt in love. God will be glorified in it, and your own soul made the better for it. Patiently wait till the light of immortality be reflected on a receding world. Here you must take His dealings on trust. The word of Jesus to you now is, “Only believe.” The word of Jesus in eternity (every inner meaning and undeveloped purpose being unfolded), “Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldestbutBELIEVE, thou shouldstSEEthe glory of God?”—Are you fearful and agitated inthe prospect of death? Through fear of the last enemy, have you been all your lifetime subject to bondage?—“Only believe.” “As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.” Dying grace will be given when a dying hourcomes. In the dark river a sustaining arm will be underneath you, deeper than the deepest and darkest wave. Ere you know it, the darkness will be past, the true Light shining,—the whisper of faith in the nether valley, “Believe! believe!” exchanged for angel-voices exclaiming, as you enter the portals of glory, “No longer through a glass darkly, but now face to face!”
Yes! “Jesus Himself had no higher remedy for sin, for sorrow, and for suffering, than those two words convey. At the utmost extremity of His own distress, and of His disciples’ wretchedness, He could only say, ‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.’ ‘Believe, only believe.’”
“LORD, I BELIEVE, HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF.”
“Be of good cheer: It is I; be not afraid.”—Mark vi. 50.
The Great Calm.
“It is I,” (or as our old version has it, more in accordance with the original), “I AM! be not afraid!” Jesus lives! His people may dispel their misgivings—Omnipotence treads the waves! To sense it may seem at times to be otherwise; wayward accident and chance may appear to regulate human allotments; but not so: “The Lord’s voice is upon the waters,”—He sits at the helm guiding the tempest-tossed bark, and guiding it well.
How often does He come to us as He did to the disciples in that midnight hour when all seems lost—“in the fourth watch of the night,”—when we least looked for Him; or when, like the shipwrecked apostle, “for days togetherneither sun nor stars appeared, and no small tempest lay on us; when all hope that we should be saved seemed to be taken away,”—how oftenjust at that moment, is the “word of Jesus” heard floating over the billows!
Believer, art thou in trouble? listen to the voice in the storm, “Fear not,IAM.” That voice, like Joseph’s of old to his brethren, mayseemrough, but there are gracious undertones of love. “It is I,” he seems to say; ItwasI, that roused the storm; It is I, who when it has done its work, will calm it, and say, “Peace, be still.” Every wave rolls at My bidding—every trial is My appointment—all have some gracious end; they are not sent to dash you against the sunken rocks, but to waft you nearer heaven. Is itsickness? I am He who bare your sickness; the weary wasted frame, and the nights of languishing, were sent by Me. Is itbereavement? I am “the Brother” bornfor adversity—the loved and lost were plucked away by Me. Is itdeath? IAMthe “Abolisher of death,” seated by your side to calm the waves of ebbing life; it isI, about to fetch My pilgrimshome—It is My voice that speaks, “The Master is come, and calleth for thee.”
Reader, thou wilt have reason yet to praise thy God for every one such storm! This is the history of every heavenly voyager: “SoHe bringeth them to their desired haven.” “So!” That word, in all its unknown and diversified meaning, is inHishand. He suits His dealings to every case. “So!” With some it is through quiet seas unfretted by one buffeting wave. “So!” With others it is “mounting up to heaven, and going down again to the deep.” But whatever be the leading and the discipline, here is the grand consummation, “SoHe bringeth them unto their desired haven.” It might have beenwith thee the moanings of an eternal night-blast—no lull or pause in the storm; but soon the darkness will be past, and the hues of morn tipping the shores of glory!
And what, then, should your attitude be? “Looking unto Jesus” (literally, lookingfrom unto); looking away from self, and sin, and human props and refuges and confidences, and fixing the eye of unwavering and unflinching faith on a reigning Saviour. Ah, how a real quickening sight of Christ dispels all guilty fears! The Roman keepers of old were affrighted, and became as dead men. The lowly Jewish women feared not; why? “I know that ye seek Jesus!” Reader, let thy weary spirit fold itself to rest under the composing “word” of a gracious Saviour, saying——
“I WAIT FOR THE LORD, MY SOUL DOTH WAIT, AND INHIS WORDDO I HOPE.”
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”—John xiv. 27.
The Dying Legacy.
How we treasure the last sayings of a dying parent! How specially cherished and memorable are his last looks and last words! Here are the last words—the parting legacy—of a dying Saviour. It is a legacy ofpeace.
What peace is this? It is His own purchase—a peace arising out of free forgiveness through His precious blood. It is sung in concert with “Glory to God in the highest”—a peace made as sure to us as eternal power and infinite lovecan make it! It ispeacethe soul wants. Existence is one long-drawn sigh after repose.Thatis nowhere else to be found, but through the blood of His cross! “Being justified by faith,wehavepeace with God.” “Hegiveth his belovedrest!”
How different from the false and counterfeit peace in which so many are content to live, and content to die! The world’s peace is all well, so long as prosperity lasts—so long as the stream runs smooth, and the sky is clear; but when the cataract is at hand, or the storm is gathering, where is it? It isgone! There is no calculating on its permanency. Often when the cup is fullest, there is the trembling apprehension that in one brief moment it may be dashed to the ground. The soul may be saying to itself, “Peace, peace;” but, like the writing on the sand, it may be obliterated by the first wave of adversity. BUT, “Not as the world giveth!” The peace of the believer is deep—calm—lasting—everlasting. The world, with all its blandishments, cannot give it. The world, with all its vicissitudes and fluctuations, cannot take it away!It is brightest in the hour of trial; it lights up the final valley-gloom. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” Yes! how often is the believer’s deathbed like the deep calm repose of a summer-evening’s sky, when all nature is hushed to rest; the departing soul, like the vanishing sun, peacefully disappearing only to shine in another and brighter hemisphere! “I seem,” said Simeon on his deathbed, “to have nothing to do but to wait: there is now nothing butpeace, thesweetest peace.”
Believer! do you know this peace which passeth understanding? Is it “keeping (literally, ‘garrisoningas in a citadel’) your heart?” Have you learnt the blessedness of waking up, morning after morning, and feeling, “I am at peace with my God;” of beholding by faith the true Aaron—the great High Priest—coming forth from “the holiest of all” to “bless His peoplewith peace?” Waves of trouble may be murmuring around you, but they cannot touch you; you are in the rock-crevice athwart which the fiercest tornado sweeps by. Oh! leave not the making up of your peace with God to a dying hour! It will be a hard thing to smooth the death-pillow, if peace be left unsought till then. Make sure of itnow. He, the true Melchisedec, is willingnowto come forth to meet you with bread and wine—emblems of peaceful gospel blessings. All the “words of Jesus” are so many rills contributing to make your peace flow as a river;—“These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.”
“I WILL HEAR WHAT GOD THE LORD WILL SPEAK, FOR HE WILL SPEAK PEACE UNTO HIS PEOPLE AND TO HIS SAINTS.”
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”—Matt. xxviii. 18.
The Supreme Investiture.
What an empire is this! Heaven and earth—the Church militant—the Church triumphant—angels and archangels—saints and seraphs. At His mandate the billows were hushed—demons crouched in terror—the grave yielded its prey! “Upon his head are many crowns.” He is made “head overall thingsto His Church.” Yes! overall things, from the minutest to the mightiest. He holds the stars in His right hand—He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, feeding every candlestick with the oil of His grace, and preserving every star in its spiritual orbit. The prince of Darkness has “a power,” but, God be praised,it is not an “all power;”potent, but notomnipotent. Christ holds him in a chain. He hath set bounds that he may not pass over. “Satan,” we read in the book of Job, “went out (Chaldee paraphrase, ‘with a licence’) from the presence of the Lord.” He was not allowed even to enter the herd of swine till Christ permitted him. He only “desired” to have Peter that he might “sift him;” there was a mightier countervailing agency at hand: “Ihave prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”
Believer, how often is there nothing but this grace of Jesus between thee and everlasting destruction! Satan’s key fitting the lock in thy wayward heart; but a stronger than the strong man barring him out;—the power of the adversary fanning the flame; the Omnipotence of Jesus quenching it. Art thou even now feeling the strength of thy corruptions, the weakness of thy graces, the presence of some outward orinward temptation? Look up to Him who has promised to make His grace sufficient for thee; “all power” is His prerogative; “all-sufficiency in all things” is His promise. It is power, too, in conjunction with tenderness. He who sways the sceptre of universal empire “gently leads” His weak, and weary, and burdened ones:—He who counts the number of the stars, loves to count the number of their sorrows; nothing too great, nothing too insignificant forHim. He puts every tear into his bottle. He paves His people’s pathway with love!
Blessed Jesus! my everlasting interests cannot be in better or in safer keeping than in Thine. I can exultingly rely on the “all-power” of Thy Godhead. I can sweetly rejoice in theall-sympathyof Thy Manhood. I can confidently repose in the sure wisdom of Thy dealings. “Sometimes,” says one, “we expect the blessing inourway; Hechooses to bestow it inHis.” But His way and His will must be the best. Infinite love, infinite power, infinite wisdom, are surely infallible guarantees. His purposes nothing can alter. His promises never fail. His word never falls to the ground.
“HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY, BUTMY WORDSSHALL NOT PASS AWAY.”
“He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”—John xvi. 14.
The Divine Glorifier.
The Holy Spirit glorifying Jesus in the unfoldings of His person, and character, and work, to His people! The great ministering agent between the Church on earth and its glorified Head in Heaven,—carrying up to the Intercessor on the throne, the ever-recurring wants and trials, the perplexities and sins, of believers; and receiving out of His inexhaustible treasury of love,—comfort for their sorrows—strength for their weakness—sympathy for their tears—fulness for their emptiness,—andthisthe one sublime end and object of His gracious agency,—“He shall glorify Me.” “He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shallhear, that shall He speak.” My words of sympathy—My omnipotent pleadings—the tender messages sent from an unchanged Human Heart,—all these shall He speak. “He shall tell you,” says an old divine, commenting on this passage, “He shall tell you nothing but stories of My love” (Goodwin). He will have an ineffable delight in magnifying Me in the affections of My Church and people, and endearing Me to their hearts; and He is all worthy of credence, for He is “the Spirit of truth.”
How faithful has He been in every age to this His great office as “the glorifier of Jesus!” See the first manifestation of His power in the Christian Church at the day of Pentecost. What was the grand truth which forms the focus-point of interest in that unparalleled scene, and which brings three thousand stricken penitents to their knees?It is the Spirit’s unfolding of Jesus—glorifyingHimin eyes that before saw inHim no beauty? Hear the key-note of that wondrous sermon, preached “in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power,”—“Himhath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to His people, and forgiveness of sins.”
Ah? it is still the same peerless truth which the Spirit delights to unfold to the stricken sinner, and, in unfolding it, to make it mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. All these glorious inner beauties of Christ’s work and character are undiscerned and undiscernible by the natural eye. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” “No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” He is the great Forerunner—a mightier than the Baptist—proclaiming, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
Reader! any bright and realising view you have had of the Saviour’s glory and excellency, is of the Spirit’s imparting. When in some hour of sorrowyou have been led to cleave with pre-eminent consolation to the thought of the Redeemer’s exalted sympathy—His dying, ever-living love; or in the hour of death, when you feel the sustaining power of His exceeding great and precious promises;—what is this, but the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of His all-gracious office, taking of all things of Christ, and showing them unto you; thus enabling you to magnify Him in your body, whether it be by life or death? As your motto should ever be, “NoneBUTChrist,” and your ever-increasing aspiration, “MoreOFChrist,” seek to bear in mind who it is that is alone qualified to impart the “excellency of this knowledge.”
“THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH WHICH PROCEEDETH FROM THE FATHER,HESHALL TESTIFY OF ME.”
“Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”—John xvi. 20.