and the temple of the God of Israel. For Israel were His children, His
people, and His worshippers, and the affections of a Father's heart, and
the joys and honours of the Lord and King, found their object and their
sphere at Jerusalem. And this is more than enough to account to us for
her high distinction. And all this is she to be again. It will be the
palace, the temple, and the family mansion again. It will be the place
of prayer for all nations. It will be the seat of legislation, worship,
judgment, and government. It will be the fountain, too, of the virtues
of the new covenant, from whence the living waters will flow, to make
her, in those days, the mystic mother of the family. Psalm lxxxvii. And
the glory of the heavens will shine on her from above, doing for her the
service of sun and moon, while she is lifted up and exposed, that she
may bask in the full light of it, and dwell under it as her native air.
Isa. iv. 5; lx. 1; Zech. xiv. 10.
And she shall be the bride of the Lord of the earth, and the queen in
the day of His power. He will clothe her with ornaments as such, rejoice
over her, impart His name to her, and have her so honoured and cherished
by the whole world, as to treat despite of her as indignity done to
Himself. Psalm xlv.; Isaiah lx.; Jeremiah xxxiii.; Ezekiel xlviii.;
Zeph. iii.
All this may well account for the place which Jerusalem holds in the
thoughts of the Spirit. His prophets, those who spake as they were moved
by Him, address her again and again as the bride, the queen, and the
mother, in the days of the approaching glory. But what shall we say of
Him, who has thus decked her with all beauty and dignity, and given her
such relationship to Himself? Is it not wondrous and happy to see the
circle of human sympathies thus seating itself in the divine mind? Is
_friendship_ only human? How can I say so, when I see Jesus and the
disciple whom He loved walking in company? Are the affections of
_kindred_ merely human? How can I say so, when I think of Christ and the
Church, and a thousand witnesses from Scripture? Is the heart's fond
delight in _home_ a divine as well as a human joy? How can I doubt it,
when I thus see the Lord and Jerusalem? Surely the divine mind is the
seat of all the pure and righteous sensibilities of the heart, and "the
Man Christ Jesus" tells me so. The Lord God of Israel has known, and
will know again, the affection that lingers round the homestead of many
a family recollection and joy.
Such will be Jerusalem, and such the earth itself, the nations, and
Israel, in the promised days of the presence and power of the Lord.
Faintly traced by the hand, more feebly responded to by the heart. But
"yet true," though "surpassing fable."
All Scripture, however, shows us that such joy cannot be had on earth,
or in the circumstances and history of the world, in their _present_
state, nor till the earth is made the scene of righteousness; and such
it is not to be, till the Lord have ridded it of all that offends, and
all that does iniquity. _The sword of judgment_ must go before _the
throne of glory_. The earth must be cleared of its corruptions, ere it
can be a garden of holy, divine delights again.
The Gospel is not producing a happy world, or spreading out a garden of
Eden. It proposes no such thing, but to take out of the world a people,
a heavenly people, for Christ. But the presence of the Lord will make a
happy world by-and-by, when that presence can righteously return to it.
The close of the Psalms shows us this. Beautiful close! All
praise---untiring, satisfying fruit of lips uttering the joy of a filled
heart, and owning the undivided glory of the Blessed One! But this had
been preceded by the sorrows of the righteous in an evil world, and then
the judgment of that world. For that Book gives the cries of the
righteous in an evil world, the joys of the Spirit in the midst of that
evil, the varied exercises of the soul by the way, and the end of the
righteous in the joy of praise. All, however, forbids the heart from
entertaining the thought of joy _in the_ _earth_ till the judgment have
cleansed it; the _rest_ is to be prepared for _Solomon_ by the _sword_
of _David_.
The proper thought of this will keep the heart from being tossed by
disappointments, and take it off from the expectation of any progress to
rest and stability for the world, or in it, till the Lord have executed
judgment. Our joy now is to be in Himself, in spirit, in the thought of
His love, and the sense of His peace, helped onward, day by day, in the
hope of full and righteous joy with Him, when the wicked have gone from
the scene for ever.
How sensitively does the Lord's mind recede from the thought of joy in
the earth, when the people were wondering at all things that He did!
Turning to His disciples He said, "Let these sayings sink down into your
ears; for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men." But
this, I may say, was only a sample of all His mind, as He looked to the
earth in its present condition. It was ever in His thoughts connected
with trial.
Psalm lxxv. strikingly utters this. There Messiah looks on the earth as
all dissolved and disordered, about to drink the cup of judgment at
God's righteous hand. For the present He expected nothing from it. But
then, after the exhausting of that cup, He does look on it as the scene
of joy and praise and exaltation of righteousness, He Himself bearing up
its pillars, and leading its songs.
I feel it, however, to be a very solemn truth, that God is allowing man,
giving him space and time, to ripen his iniquity, that the judgment may
fall upon him in the height of his pride, and crush the system which he
is raising in its point of greatest pretension and advancement. It is
surely a solemn truth. But even in such a purpose, as in all others,
"Wisdom is justified of all her children." The believer may be awed by
such a fact in the divine dealings with man, but he approves it,
understands it to be a fitting thing, that man should be allowed to
produce the fully ripened fruit of his own departure from God, to
present it and survey it in the pride of his heart, and then receive his
righteous answer to all his boasted and enjoyed apostasy, from the
signal judgment of God. The iniquity of the Amorites was to be _full_,
ere justice should overtake it. The Lord bore with Babel till the cry of
it went up to Him. Nebuchadnezzar had built "great Babylon," as he
gloried, by the might of his power, and for the honour of his majesty,
when he was driven from his high estate; Haman was full when God emptied
him even to the dregs. And the great man of the earth, at the last,
shall come to his end, just as he has planted the tabernacles of his
palaces in the glorious holy mountain.
It is solemn; but it is as wisdom would have it, and as faith deeply
approves it. God is justified in His sayings, and overcomes when He is
judged.
Happy I desire to find this meditation. Where there is much conflict of
thought and judgment among the saints, it is grateful to the soul to
turn to subjects of _common_ interest and delight; and when the scene
around is getting full of man's inventions and man's importance, it is
well, to look to those regions of light and purity, where God, supreme
and all-sufficient, will gather together all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth. Regions of light and purity
indeed, where all will tell of intimacy or nearness, and yet of the full
sense of the position of the Creator and the creature, the Sanctifier
and the sanctified. In many a delightful page of God's Word is this
brightly reflected. The Lord dwelt in the midst of the camp of Israel
while at rest, and, as it took its journey, went along with it, whether
by night or by day, whether the road lay right onward, or turned back to
the mountain or the sea. But still He was _God_, the Lord of the camp.
How does all that commend itself to our souls! We bow to this. We
rejoice to know that He dwells in a light that no man can approach unto,
and yet that He has walked through the cities and villages of earth;
that He is One whom no man hath seen, nor can see, and yet that none
less than the One who is in His bosom has declared Him to us, been in
the midst of us, our Kinsman in the flesh, as well as Jehovah's Fellow.
His supreme authority, as Lord, is infinite; His distance and holiness,
as God, are infinite. And yet He is "Head over all things _to_ the
Church," and God Himself is "for us." At the very moment of His
commanding Moses and Joshua to take their shoes from their feet, because
of His presence, He was manifesting Himself to them in symbols or
characters significant of the deepest sympathy, and of the most devoted
service. Exodus iii; Joshua v.
But enough. I will not pursue these thoughts any further. Yet in the
days of increasing gloom and perplexity, like the present, the soul is
the more sent to the sure hiding-place of safety, or to the sunny Pisgah
heights of hope and observation. It gets the more accustomed to meditate
on the strength of those foundations which God has put under our
feet---the intimacy of that communion into which He has even now
introduced our hearts---and the brightness of those prospects which He
has set before our eyes.
I only ask, beloved, Are we pressing, in desire, after this portion? Are
we unsatisfied with all in comparison with it? Are we refusing to form
any purpose, or to entertain any prospect, short of this? In Psalm
lxxxiv. the heart of the worshipper is still _on the way_, unsatisfied,
though he have "pools," and "rain," and "strength" of the Lord, till he
reach Zion. In Psalm xc. all which the man of God sees is the vanity of
human life and the "return" of the Lord. He does not anticipate changes
and improvements in the condition of things, but looks to being "made
glad" and of being "satisfied" at the "return" of Christ.
Is this our mind? I again ask. Are we still prisoners of hope, refusing
to let anything change the expectant attitude of the soul? The Holy
Ghost is given to us, not to change that, but to strengthen it. His very
presence does but nourish present dissatisfaction of heart, and the
longings of hope and desire. He causes the saint to "abound in hope,"
and gives breadth and compass to the cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." Spirit of
truth, the other Comforter, as He is, He does not show Himself for the
Bridegroom, nor propose to make His refreshings "the marriage supper of
the Lamb." The energy of hope, the desirings of the soul after our still
unmanifested Lord, only speak the Spirit's presence in us the more
clearly and blessedly. It is His very design and workmanship. He draws
us forth to hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to us at
the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And is He, beloved, our object? The heart well knows the power of that
which is its object. Do we make Jesus such? Do we find, in ourselves,
anything of that sickness of hope of which we read in Scripture? And are
we able to say, "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?"
May the Spirit shed abroad more and more, in the heart of each of us,
these and the like affections. And to Him that loved us, and washed us
from our sins in His own blood, be glory and dominion for ever! Amen.
Bride of the Lamb! awake, awake!
Why sleep for sorrow now?
The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,
A child of glory thou.
Thy spirit through the lonely night,
From earthly joy apart,
Hath sigh'd for One that's far away,
The Bridegroom of thy heart.
But see, the night is waning fast,
The breaking morn is near,
And Jesus comes with voice of love,
Thy drooping heart to cheer.
He comes; for, oh, His yearning heart
No more can bear delay,
To scenes of full, unmingled joy
To call His Bride away.
This earth, the scene of all His woe,
A homeless wild to thee,
Full soon upon His heav'nly throne,
Its rightful King shall see.
Thou too shalt reign, He will not wear
His crown of joy alone,
And earth His royal Bride shall see
Beside Him on the throne.
Then weep no more, 'tis all thine own,
His crown, His joy divine,
And sweeter far than all beside,
He, He Himself is thine.
London: _A. S. Rouse_, 15 & 16, Paternoster Square, E.C.