old man is crucified with Christ, then the world, which knows nothing
better than that previous life, if it only goes on well and easily,
uses all kinds of efforts to hinder the rising up of the new life,
some of them well-meaning, others self-interested and therefore
hostile. Some, with good intentions, like those friends of the Savior,
consult together, and try all in their power, keeping away all
extraneous influences, to preserve at least the appearance of their
friend from being defaced, and tho no joyful movement can ever again
be awakened, to preserve the form of the old life. Others, seeking
their own interest and pleasure in a way by which they almost
certainly accuse themselves, try to prevent an abuse being practised
in this state of things, and also to guard against the gay, merry life
which they lead, and into which they like so much to lead others,
being brought into contempt by a question of a new life arising after
this dying off of the old man, when, as they think, there is really
nothing else and nothing better here on earth and when it is a vain
pretense for some to assert that they know this new life, and a
mischievous delusion for others to attempt attaining it. Therefore
wherever they perceive such a state of things, they have their spies
to watch against every deception that might be practised about such
a new life, or at least at once to discover and publish what kind of
delusions prevail in connection with it.
But when the hour has come which the Father has kept in His own power,
then in one form or another His life-bringing angel appears to such a
soul. Yet how little do we know about what part the angel had in the
Savior's resurrection! We do not know if the Savior saw him or not; we
can not determine the moment at which he rolled away the stone from
the tomb and the reanimated Savior came forth; no one witnessed it,
and the only persons of whom we are told that they might have been
able to see it with their bodily eyes were smitten with blindness. And
in like manner, neither do we know how the soul, lying, so to speak,
in the tomb of self-destruction, is wrought upon by the angel of the
Lord in order to call forth the life of God in it. It arises unseen in
that grave-like silence, and can not be perceived until it is actually
present; what is properly the beginning of it is hidden, as every
beginning usually is, even from him to whom the life is imparted. But
this is certain, as the apostle says, that the Lord was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, and thus also, according to the
words of the Savior, no man comes to the Son except the Father draw
him; that same glory of the Father, which then called forth the Savior
from the tomb, still awakens in the soul that has died to sin the new
life, like the resurrection life of the Lord. Indeed, among all the
proofs of the Father's glory in heaven and earth, there is none
greater than this, that he has no pleasure in the death-like condition
of the sinner, but that at some time or another the almighty,
mysterious, life-giving call sounds in his ears--Arise and live.
2. And, secondly, this new life resembles its type and ideal, the
resurrection life of Christ, not only in being risen from death, but
also in its whole nature, way and manner. First, in this respect, that
tho a new life, it is, nevertheless, the life of the same man, and in
the closest connection with his former life. Thus, with our Savior;
He was the same, and was recognized by His disciples as the same, to
their great joy; His whole appearance was the very same; even in
the glory of His resurrection He bore the marks of His wounds as a
remembrance of His sufferings and as the tokens of His death; and
the remembrance of His former state was most closely and constantly
present with Him. And just so it is with the new life of the Spirit.
If the old man has died in sin, and we now live in Christ, and with
Him in God, yet we are the same persons that we were before. As the
resurrection of the Lord was no new creation, but the same man, Jesus,
who had gone down into the grave, come forth again from it; so in the
soul before it died the death which leads to life in God, there must
have lain the capability of receiving that life when the body of sin
should die and perish; and that life is developed in the same human
soul amid the same outward circumstances as before, and with its other
powers and faculties remaining unchanged. We are entirely the same
persons, only that the fire of the higher life is kindled in us, and
also that we all bear the signs of death, and that the remembrance
of our former state is present with us. Yes, in manifold ways we are
often reminded of what we were and what we did before the call to new
life sounded in our hearts; and it is not so easy to efface the scars
of the wounds, and the numberless traces of the pains under which the
old man had to die that the new man might live. And as the glad faith
of the disciples rested on the very fact that they recognized the Lord
as being, in the glory of His resurrection, the same person that He
was before; so also in us, the confidence in this new life, as a
permanent and now natural state with us, rests only on this--that we
recognize ourselves in it as the same persons that we were before;
that there are the same faculties, lower and higher, of the human
soul, which formerly served sin, but are now created anew as
instruments of righteousness. Indeed, all the traces of that death,
as well as of the former life, make us more vividly conscious of the
great change that the life-giving call of God has produced in us, and
call for the most heartfelt gratitude.
And as the Savior was the same person in the days of His resurrection,
so His life was also again of course a vigorous and active life;
indeed, we might almost say it bore the traces of humanity, without
which it could be no image of our new life, even in this, that it
gradually grew stronger and acquired new powers. When the Savior first
appeared to Mary, He said, as if His new life had been, as it were,
timid and sensitive, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my
God and your God." But after a few days He showed Himself to Thomas,
and bade him boldly touch Him, put his hand in the Master's side, and
his fingers into the marks left by the nails of the cross, so that He
did not shrink from being touched even on the most sensitive spots.
And also even in the earliest days, and as if the new life were to be
fully strengthened by doing so, we find Him walking from Jerusalem to
Emmaus, and from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, as well as going before His
disciples into Galilee, and leading them back to Jerusalem, where He
then ascended to heaven in their sight. And as He thus walked among
them, living a life with them, human in every part, and exercising a
human influence on them; so also His most important business was to
talk with them of the kingdom of God, to reprove and rouse them up
from their slowness of heart, and to open the eyes of their minds. Now
so it is, my friends, with our new life--that is like the resurrection
life of the Lord. Oh, how very gradually it gains its faculties in us,
grows and becomes strong, only bearing still more than the new life
of the Lord the traces of earthly imperfection. I can appeal on this
point to the feeling of us all, for assuredly it is the same in all.
How intermittent at first are the manifestations of this new life,
and how limited the sphere of its action! How long does it retain
its sensitive spots, which can not be touched without pain, or even
without injurious consequences, and those are always the places in
which the old man has been most deeply wounded in his dying hours! But
in proportion as it becomes stronger, this new life ought the less to
give the impression of being a mere fantom life,--the impression the
Lord's disciples had when in the first moments they thought in their
fear that they saw a spirit, so that He was obliged to appeal to the
testimony of all their senses, that they might perceive He was no
spirit, but had flesh and bones. And thus if our new life in God
consisted in mere states of feeling and emotions, which were not in
the least capable of passing into action, or perhaps did not even aim
at doing so; which were too peculiar and special to ourselves to be
actually communicated to others or to move them with good effect, but
rather might touch them with a chill sense of awe; what would such
a life be but a ghost-like apparition that would no doubt excite
attention, but would find no credence, and would make men uneasy in
their accustomed course, but without producing any improvement in it?
No, it is a life of action, and ought to be ever becoming more so; not
only being nourished and growing stronger and stronger through the
word of the Lord and through heart-communion with Him, to which He
calls us, giving Himself to us as the meat and drink of eternal life,
but every one striving to make his new life intelligible to others
about him, and to influence them by it. Oh, that we had our eyes more
and more steadily fixt on the risen Savior! Oh, that we could ever be
learning more and more from Him to breathe out blessing, as He did
when He imparted His Spirit to the disciples! Oh, that we were more
and more learning like Him to encourage the foolish and slow of heart
to joyful faith in the divine promises, to active obedience to the
divine will of their Lord and Master, to the glad enjoyment and use of
all the heavenly treasures that He has thrown open to us! Oh, that we
were ever speaking more effectively to all connected with us, of the
kingdom of God and of our inheritance in it, so that they might see
why it was necessary for Christ to suffer, but also into what glory He
has gone! These are our desires, and they are not vain desires. The
life-giving Spirit, whom He has obtained for us, effects all this in
each in the measure that pleases Him; and if once the life of God is
kindled in the human soul if we have once, as the apostle says, become
like Him in His resurrection, then His powers are also more and more
abundantly and gloriously manifested in us through the efficacy of His
Spirit for the common good.
But along with all this activity and strength, the life of the risen
Savior was yet, in another sense, a secluded and hidden life. It is
probable that when, in order to show Himself to His disciples, He went
here and there from one part of the land to another, he was seen by
many besides them, who had known Him in His previous life. How could
it be otherwise? But the eyes of men were holden, that they did not
recognize Him; and He made Himself known only to those who belonged
to Him in faithful love. At the same time, however, He said to them,
Blest are they who do not see, yet believe! And what was the little
number of those who were counted worthy of seeing Him, even if we add
to them the five hundred whom Paul mentions, compared with the number
of those who afterward believed in their testimony to the Lord's
resurrection? And thus it is also, my friends, with the new life in
which we walk, even if it is, as it ought to be, strong and vigorous,
and ever at work for the kingdom of God; yet it is at the same time an
unknown and hidden life, unrecognized by and hidden from the world,
whose eyes are holden; and he who should set himself to force
the knowledge of it upon them, who should hit upon extraordinary
proceedings in order to attract their attention to the difference
between the life of sin and the resurrection life, would not be
walking in the likeness of the Lord's resurrection. As the people
in the time of Christ had opportunity enough to inquire about His
resurrection, in seeing how His disciples continued to hold together,
so our neighbors also see our close alliance, which has nothing to do
with the affairs of this world; and if they, because of this, inquire
about what unites us, the answer will not be lacking to them. But our
inner history we will as little thrust upon them as the risen Christ
thrust His presence on those who had slain Him, and who had therefore
no desire to see Him. Instead of this, as He showed Himself only to
His own, we also will make known our inner life only to those who are
just in the same way our own; who, glowing with the same love, and
cheered by the same faith, can tell us in return how the Lord has
revealed Himself to them. Not by any means as if we followed some
mysterious course, and that those only whose experiences had been
entirely alike should separate themselves into little exclusive
groups; for even the days of the Lord's resurrection present examples
of various kinds of experience, and of one common inner fellowship
connected with them all. And not only so, but even those who as yet
have experienced nothing at all are not sent empty away. Only they
must first become aware, by what they see without our thrusting
it upon them, that here a spirit is breathing to which they are
strangers, that here is manifested a life as yet unknown to them. Then
will we, as was done then, lead them by the word of our testimony to
the foundation of this new life; and as, when the word of preaching
pierced men's hearts, when to some of them the old man began to appear
as he really is, and they felt the first pangs that precede the death
of the sinful man, there also sprang up faith in the resurrection of
Him whom they had themselves crucified; so will it always be with the
knowledge of the new life proceeding from Him who has risen. Therefore
let us have no anxiety; the circle of those who recognize this life
will always be widening, just because they are beginning to share in
it. And as soon as even the slightest premonition of it arises in a
man's soul, as soon as he has come only so far as to be no longer
pleased and satisfied with the perishing and evil things of the world,
as soon as his soul absorbs even the first ray of heavenly light, then
his eyes are opened, so that he recognizes this life, and becomes
aware what a different life it is to serve righteousness, from living
in the service of sin.
3. And lastly, my friends, we can not feel all these comforting and
glorious things in which our new life resembles the resurrection life
of our Lord, without being at the same time, on another side, moved
to sorrow by this resemblance. For if we put together all that the
evangelists and apostles of the Lord have preserved for us about His
resurrection life, we still can not out of it all form an entirely
consecutive history. There are separate moments and hours, separate
conversations and actions, and then the Risen One vanishes again from
the eyes that look for Him; in vain we ask where He can have tarried,
we must wait till He appears again. Not that in Himself there was
anything of this broken or uncertain life, but as to our view of it,
it is and can not be but so; and we try in vain to penetrate into the
intervals between those detached moments and hours. Well, and is
it not, to our sorrow, with the new life that is like Christ's
resurrection life? I do not mean that this life is limited to the few
hours of social worship and prayer, glorious and profitable as they
are; for in that case there would be cause to fear that it was a mere
pretense; nor to the services, always but small and desultory,
that each of us, actively working through the gifts of the Spirit,
accomplishes, as it were, visibly and tangibly according to his
measure, for the kingdom of God. In manifold ways besides these we
become conscious of this new life; there are many quieter and secret
moments in which it is strongly felt, tho only deep in our inmost
heart. But notwithstanding this, I think all, without exception, must
confess that we are by no means conscious of this new life as an
entirely continuous state; on the contrary, each of us loses sight
of it only too often, not only among friends, among disturbances and
cares, but amid the commendable occupations of this world. But this
experience, my dear friends, humbling as it is, ought not to make us
unbelieving, as if perhaps our consciousness of being a new creature
in Christ were a delusion, and what we had regarded as indications
of this life were only morbid and overstrained emotions. As the Lord
convinced His disciples that He had flesh and bones, so we may all
convince ourselves and each other that this is an actual life; but in
that case we must believe that, tho in a hidden way and not always
present to our consciousness, yet it is always in existence, just as
the Lord was still in existence even at the times when He did not
appear to His disciples; and had neither returned to the grave, nor as
yet ascended to heaven. Only let us not overlook this difference. In
the case of Christ we do not apprehend it as a natural and necessary
thing that during those forty days He led a life apparently so
interrupted; but each of us must easily understand how, as the
influence of this new life on our outward ways can only gradually
become perceptible, it should often and for a long time be quite
hidden from us, especially when we are very busy with outward work,
and our attention is taken up with it. But this is an imperfection
from which as time goes on we should be always becoming more free.
Therefore always go back, my friends, to Him who is the only fountain
of this spiritual life! If, ever and anon, we can not find it in
ourselves, we always find it in Him, and it is always pouring forth
afresh from Him the Head to us His members. If every moment in which
we do not perceive it is a moment of longing, as soon as we become
conscious of the void, then it is also a moment in which the Risen One
appears to our spirit, and breathes on us anew with His life-giving
power. And thus drawing only from Him, we shall attain to having
His heavenly gifts becoming in us more and more an inexhaustible,
continually flowing fountain of spiritual and eternal life. For this
He rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we should be
made into the likeness of His resurrection. That was finished in His
return to the Father; our new life is to become more and more His and
the Fathers return into the depths of our souls; there they desire to
make their abode; and the life of God is to be ever assuming a more
continuous, active and powerful form in us, that our life in the
service of righteousness may become, and continue even here, according
to the Lord's promise, an eternal life.
MASON
MESSIAH'S THRONE
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
John Mitchell Mason, the eminent divine of the Reformed Presbyterian
Church, was born in New York City in 1770. He completed his studies
and took his degree at Columbia College and thence proceeded to take a
theological course at Edinburgh. Ordained in 1793, he took charge of
the Cedar Street Church, New York City, of which his father had been
pastor. In 1807 he became editor of the _Christian Herald_, and in
1821 was made president of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
He died in 1829.
MASON
1770--1829
MESSIAH'S THRONE
_Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever_.--Heb. i., 18.
In the all-important argument which occupies this epistle, Paul
assumes, what the believing Hebrews had already profest, that Jesus of
Nazareth is the true Messiah. To prepare them for the consequences
of their own principle--a principle involving nothing less than the
abolition of their law, the subversion of their state, the ruin of
their city, the final extinction of their carnal hopes--he leads them
to the doctrine of their Redeemer's person, in order to explain the
nature of his offices, to evince the value of his spiritual salvation,
and to show, in both, the accomplishment of their economy which was
now "ready to vanish away." Under no apprehension of betraying the
unwary into idolatrous homage by giving to the Lord Jesus greater
glory than is due unto His name, the apostle sets out with ascribing
to Him excellence and attributes which belong to no creature.
Creatures of most elevated rank are introduced; but it is to display,
by contrast, the preeminence of Him who is "the brightness of the
Father's glory and the express image of his person." Angels are great
in might and in dignity; but "unto them hath he not put in subjection
the world to come. Unto which of them said he, at any time, Thou art
my son?" To which of them, "Sit thou at my right hand." He saith they
are spirits, "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation. But unto the Son," in a style which
annihilates competition and comparison--"unto the Son, he saith, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever."
Brethren, if the majesty of Jesus is the subject which the Holy Ghost
selected for the encouragement and consolation of His people, when He
was shaking the earth and the heavens, and diffusing His gospel among
the nations, can it be otherwise than suitable and precious to us on
this occasion? Shall it not expand our views, and warm our hearts, and
nerve our arm in our efforts to exalt His fame? Let me implore, then,
the aid of your prayers, but far more importunately the aids of His
own Spirit, while I speak of the things which concern the King: those
great things contained in the text--His personal glory--His sovereign
rule.
His personal glory shines forth in the name by which He is revealed; a
name above every name: "Thy throne, O God." ...
Messiah's throne is not one of those airy fabrics which are reared by
vanity and overthrown by time: it is fixt of old; it is staple, and
can not be shaken, for it is the throne of God. He who sitteth on it
is the Omnipotent. Universal being is in His hand. Revolution, force,
fear, as applied to His kingdom, are words without meaning. Rise up in
rebellion, if thou hast courage. Associate with thee the whole mass of
infernal power. Begin with the ruin of whatever is fair and good in
this little globe. Pass hence to pluck the sun out of his place, and
roll the volume of desolation through the starry world. What hast thou
done unto Him? It is the puny menace of a worm against Him whose frown
is perdition. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh."
With the stability which Messiah's Godhead communicates to His
throne, let us connect the stability resulting from His Father's
covenant.
His throne is founded not merely in strength, but in right. God hath
laid the government upon the shoulder of His holy child Jesus, and set
Him upon Mount Zion as His King forever. He has promised and sworn to
build up His throne to all generations; to make it endure as the days
of heaven; to beat down His foes before His face, and plague them that
hate Him. "But my faithfulness," adds He, "and my mercy shall be with
him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. Hath he said it, and
will he not do it? Hath he spoken it, and shall it not come to pass?"
Whatever disappointments rebuke the visionary projects of men, or the
more crafty schemes of Satan, "the counsel of the Lord, that shall
stand." The blood of sprinkling, which sealed all the promises made
to Messiah, and binds down His Father's faithfulness to their
accomplishment, witnesses continually in the heavenly sanctuary. "He
must," therefore, "reign till he have put all his enemies under his
feet." And altho the dispensation of His authority shall, upon this
event, be changed, and He shall deliver it up, in its present form, to
the Father, He shall still remain, in His substantial glory, a priest
upon His throne, to be the eternal bond of our union, and the eternal
medium of our fellowship with the living God.
Seeing that the throne of our King is as immovable as it is exalted,
let us with joy draw water out of that well of salvation which is
opened to us in the administration of His kingdom. Here we must
consider its general characters, and the means by which it operates.
The general characters which I shall illustrate are the following: