us, above us. We can count on His unchanging love. We can count on
His power. The reality of the Person of our exalted Lord keeps us
down here. Oh, draw near, beloved reader, for it is your privilege,
your calling, to know Him and to enjoy Him. His heart is never
satisfied unless you drink deep of His love and you lie in blessed
dependence at His feet. Have you failed Him? Are days, weeks,
perhaps months of wandering your past, days in which you grieved
Him? Return, oh return! it is "this same Jesus" who at the lake of
Tiberias so tenderly restored Peter and who waits for thy return.
And "this same Jesus" comes again. If the joy was so great when He
left, because the heavenly messengers gave the good news that this
same Jesus is coming again, what will be the joy when he _does_
come! He comes as Saviour, which is the meaning of His blessed name.
"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of
humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body"
(Phil. iii:20-21). The glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us, will some day take
place. And when He comes into the air and gives the shout, He will
be "this same Jesus." When we are caught up in clouds to meet Him in
the air we shall meet _Him_, the same blessed Person, who walked on
this earth, who died on the cross, who in His unchanging love kept
and carried us and called us home. We shall see Him as He is. He
comes, this same Jesus, to take us to be with Him. What will be His
joy then when all His blood-washed, redeemed people are at last with
Him! Then this same Jesus who bore our sins in His own body on the
tree will bestow upon us His glory, the glory the Father has given
Him.
Reader! Is it even now before you such a living reality, this same
Jesus--is coming again; coming to take us all into the Father's
house with its many mansions, to the place whose portals were opened
with His own blood! And how soon it may be that we shall see Him and
be with Him!
If an angelic message were brought to-day to all Christians, we said
recently in a meeting, and that message would state in terms
unmistakably, one week more and the Lord Jesus Christ comes, one
week more and we shall see Him; what would be the result? We can
imagine the eagerness with which all would begin to serve and reach
out after the unsaved; what self-denials and boldness we would
behold! How all the earthly things, the childish things, the
playthings of the dust, would lose their attractiveness. Then
heaven's glory would break upon us. But such a message is not
promised to us. It is nowhere said that it will take place. No angel
will come to announce the time when "this same Jesus" comes to call
us home. The fact is God has told us in His Word, that His ever
blessed Son will come and that He will come suddenly. He may come
_to-day_. He may call us home before another morning comes. And if
we believe it we shall walk in expectation and in separation. The
Lord graciously revive the blessed Hope in our hearts and through it
make us holy in our lives, zealous for the Gospel, untiring in
service and loving towards all the Saints.
The Wondrous Cross.
WHO can tell out the story of the cross! There was a time when we
thought we knew much of it; but oh! the depths, the wonderful depths
of the cross and the work accomplished there, which constantly break
in upon the heart, as one meditates on the cross. One who knew the
cross, whose eyes were filled with all its glory, because He beheld
Him, who hung on the cross, in highest glory has told us "But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world." Crucified unto the world. Dead to the world and to sin are
the blessed effects of the cross.
Some time ago while remembering the Lord on the Lord's Day we sang a
familiar hymn:
When we survey the wondrous cross
On which the Lord of glory died,
Our richest gain we count but loss,
And pour contempt on all our pride.
How true!--contempt must be poured on all our pride when one
beholds that sight, the cross on which the Lord of glory died. But
is it so, "and pour contempt on all our pride?"
And when we sang the second verse its truth came home still more to
the conscience:
Forbid it, Lord, that we should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, our God;
All the vain things that charm us most,
We'd sacrifice them to His blood.
How true! If such a one died to deliver us out of this present evil
age then the vain things that charm us most, not the sinful things,
must be relinquished. But is it really so--all the vain things that
charm us most--we'd sacrifice them to His blood?
There from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature ours,
That were an off'ring far too small;
Love that transcends our highest powers
Demands our soul, our life, our all.
And then once more the heart said, How true! Marvelous sight the
Lord of Glory on that cross for me! Forsaken of God, paying the
penalty of my sins, drinking the cup of wrath, untasted by me. Such
love surely demands our soul, our life, our all. But is it so? How
often we sing these blessed truths and our lives are strangers to
them. God grant that we may live out the truth of the cross in our
lives. May the deliverance, the victory, the power of His cross be
manifested in our lives. Dead to the world and the world dead to me.
His Legacy.
BLESSED and ever precious are the words, which came from the lips of
our loving Lord, before he went to the cross. His own were gathered
around Him; before He ever comforted them and poured out His loving
heart, He manifested that love by serving them. He arose from the
supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
What a sight the Son of God girded! "After that He poureth water
into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe
them with the towel wherewith he was girded" (John xiii:5). It was a
great symbolical action. He who stooped so low to wash the feet of
His sinful creatures is the same who declared in the Old Testament
"Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with
thine iniquities" (Isaiah xliii:24). The washing typifies the
service our beloved Lord renders to His saints in cleansing them
from defilement; it is "the washing of water by the Word." And thus
He continues in loving service till at last all His redeemed people
are brought home into the presence of the throne and "the sea of
glass like unto crystal" (Rev. iv:6) where no more defilement is
possible and no more washing is needed.
Many and blessed are the words, which then flowed from His lips,
after Judas had gone out into the dark night. Only He could speak
thus. Thousands upon thousands, countless multitudes have been fed
upon His gracious, comforting words and have been strengthened and
upheld. Their careful and refreshing power is undiminished. Like
Himself His Words are eternal and inexhaustible. The Father's house
with its many mansions, the fact of His personal return, the gift of
the other Comforter, who came to abide with and in His own, the
promises concerning prayer and assurance that the Father Himself
loves them and many other precious truths were spoken by Him ere He
left the world to go to the Father. At that time He gave His blessed
legacy. "_Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you_" (John
xiv:27). And the last word He spoke to His disciples before He
uttered that marvelous high priestly prayer, contains also the
assurance of peace. "These things have I spoken unto you, that _in
Me_ ye might have _peace_. In the world ye shall have tribulation;
but be of good cheer I have overcome the world" (John xvi:33).
The adorable Lord came to this poor sin cursed earth, a world of
sinners and enemies of God by wicked works to make peace. The great
work of reconciliation was effected on the cross. By His death on
the cross the enemies of God, believing in Him, became reconciled to
God. He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. i:20). As
believing sinners we are justified and _have_ peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Not our walk or service, not our faith or
repentance or anything we have done or are doing is the ground of
peace with God, but what Christ has done for us. Yea He Himself is
our peace. And because _He_ is our peace, it is a peace which can
never be undone or unsettled.
Oh, the peace forever flowing
From God's thoughts of His own Son!
Oh, the peace of simply knowing
On the cross that all was done!
Peace with God, the blood in heaven
Speaks of pardon now to me:
Peace with God! the Lord is risen!
Righteousness now counts me free.
When all was finished, the mighty victory over sin, Satan, death and
the grave had been gained, when every foe had been met and fully
conquered, the blessed victor appeared in the midst of His beloved
disciples. It was on "the same day" the day when He arose, when the
mighty power of God opened the grave, on the same day, He suddenly
stood in their midst. The doors were shut. The disciples were full
of fears and doubts. Thomas was not there at all. All at once their
eyes beheld Him once more who had been crucified, had died and was
buried. "Peace be unto you!" This heavenly greeting came from His
lips and soothed their sorrows, cleared their doubts and dispelled
their fears. And He who stood thus in their midst was the same whom
Gideon had seen and who answered His fears with "Peace be unto you;
fear not" (Judges vi:23). Jehovah is peace; He is our peace. On the
glad and glorious resurrection day the gracious Lord appeared in
their midst and proclaimed peace to them. But He also showed them
His hands and His side. The marks of the nails and of the spear were
seen there. They are the evidences of His death for His people. But
He who was dead is risen and lives evermore. Ah! that is peace! The
Christ who died for our sins, who is risen and is in God's own
presence is our peace. Would we enjoy that peace in a greater sense
and have it more real, then let us just have Himself, the Person as
the object of our hearts. "Then were the disciples glad, when they
saw the Lord." Nothing could make them glad aside from the Lord
Himself. Alas! that some of God's people try to find joy and peace
in their service, experiences, knowledge of truth. Dear souls, it is
the Lord only, who gives us peace and gladness.
But the blessed legacy of our Lord is not so much the peace with
God, as it is "His own peace." The peace which He possessed while on
earth, that peace like a majestic river, ever flowing on in silence
with not a moment's interruption. His own peace, He bequeathed to
His own. What a peace was His! What restfulness the divinely
reported scenes of that blessed life breathe! We have written before
on His patience, His joy and His love, the love which passeth
knowledge. How much might be written too on "His peace." But not
half could ever be told. What calmness we see wherever we look. The
threatening multitudes did not disturb Him, nor did the fierce storm
on the Galilean sea; peacefully He rested in sleep, while the angry
waves tossed the little ship aside and the terror-stricken disciples
awoke Him. They cried "Lord, save us; we perish." And then His eyes
opened and in loving tenderness He said unto them, "Why are ye so
fearful, O ye of little faith?" _Then_ He arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea and there was a great calm. Ah! poor human heart!
how canst thou ever doubt with such a Lord at thy side!
And this peace which was His constant portion, was the result of a
constant communion with God. His meat and drink was to do the will
of Him that sent Him. That calm, unruffled peace was the fruit of
His constant trust in God and dependence on Him. And this peace He
wants us to enjoy. In a world full of tribulation, anxiety and care,
a world full of increasing evils, conflicts and sufferings, He wants
us to have His own peace. The enjoyment of this peace of our Lord
Jesus Christ depends on our communion with God and the realization
of our union with Him. On that blessed evening of the resurrection
day the Lord spoke a second time, "Peace be unto you." Why should He
repeat the same greeting? The words which follow explain this. "As
my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" (John xx:22). As
Christians saved by grace and in Christ we are sent by Him as He was
sent by the Father. As we realize this and walk under Him, as we set
the Lord always before our eyes and our life's aim is to do _His_
will and not our own, to please Him and not ourselves, to serve Him
and not man, to let Him plan and not we ourselves, to be nothing
instead of something, to be in the dust instead of exalted, then
shall we enjoy His legacy "His own peace." He wants us to have it.
He wants us to be kept in perfect peace. Are we willing to have it?
And what else honors our absent Lord more than a life which
manifests His peace. What pleases the Father more than to behold His
children reminding Him by their lives of dependence and peace, the
result of the rest of faith, of His own blessed Son. And the Holy
Spirit, who produces all this in us will ever lead us on in the
fuller enjoyment of the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We must expect in the coming days greater tests of faith, greater
conflicts, greater trials. It cannot be otherwise in these perilous
times. We must not expect anything else. But He can and will keep
us. "Thou wilt keep him in _perfect peace_, whose mind is stayed on
Thee, because He trusteth in Thee." And ere long the God of peace
will bruise Satan completely under our feet. What joy--oh what joy
awaits us when we shall see Him face to face, who is our peace.
"They that trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true."
"Our God is able."
What have I to Do With idols?
MUCH is said in reproof of Ephraim by the prophet Hosea. All the
wicked dealings and defilement of Ephraim is uncovered--and the
Lord said: "I will be unto Ephraim as a lion." Again Jehovah said:
"Ephraim is like a cake not turned." "Ephraim is like a silly dove
without heart." "Ephraim hath made many altars to sin." "Ephraim is
joined to idols, let him alone." But all reproof and chastisement
did not bring Ephraim back. Nothing seemed to be able to draw
Ephraim's heart away from the idols. At the close of the Prophet
Hosea, however, Ephraim is made to speak and a significant word it
is. "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I
have heard Him, and observed Him; I am like a green fir tree. From
me is thy fruit found" (xiv:8).
A familiar yet blessed truth is contained in this statement. Ephraim
dealt with by judgments after the severe rebukes of the Lord could
not let go the idols. Joined to idols, the Lord said, "Let him
alone." But the day was to come when Ephraim would willingly forsake
all idols and cry out, "What have I any more to do with idols?" And
what brought about Ephraim's conversion? Ephraim heard Him and
observed Him. The sight of the Lord, His love and tenderness, His
patience and kindness beheld in faith, was enough for Ephraim to
forsake all idols and cleave to Him alone. Thus Ephraim became like
a green fir tree.
And this is still true to-day. There is no other way to be separated
from idols and walk wholly with the Lord than Ephraim's way. Why are
God's people joined to idols? Why are Christians half-hearted,
conformed to this present evil age, given to covetousness, which is
idolatry (Col. iii:5)? There is but one answer. Our hearts do not
listen to that blessed voice, which delights to speak to those who
belong to Him. Our eyes do not look upon Him in all His glory and
beauty. We lose sight of Him who is altogether lovely. Our minds
instead of being occupied with the things of Christ are centered
upon earthly things. Our thoughts are so little brought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ and are controlled by our own
imaginations and the spirit of the times. There is no other way of
being delivered from idols, from everything which would draw us
away from Himself and all which hinders from giving to Him the
pre-eminence. That way is heart occupation with our Lord, conscious
communion with Him through His Word in the power of His Spirit. We
must hear Him, we must observe Him. Then He appears to our hearts in
all His lowliness, in all His majesty and glory, and that vision
will be enough to disgust us with the playthings of the dust and He
will become the supreme object of our lives. There is no other way
to practical holiness than hearing Him and observing Him.
Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
"Chief among ten thousand" own Him,
Joyful choose the better part.
Idols once they won thee, charmed thee,
Lovely things of time and sense;
Gilded, thus does sin disarm thee,
Honey'd lest thou turn thee thence.
What has stript the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not the sense of right or duty,
But the sight of peerless worth.
Not the crushing of those idols,
With its bitter void and smart,
But the beaming of His beauty,
The unveiling of His heart.
Who extinguishes their taper
Till they hail the rising sun?
Who discards the garb of winter
Till the summer has begun?
'Tis that look that melted Peter,
'Tis that face that Stephen saw,
'Tis that heart that wept with Mary.
Can alone from idols draw--
Draw, and win, and _fill completely_,
Till the cup o'erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols,
Who have companied with Him?
Reader! Gaze afresh in that lovely face of transcendent beauty.
Think of His great love for you, His never-changing love, His
eternal love. Follow the dictates of that new nature Grace has given
to you and have the Lord constantly before your eyes and heart.
Anything less will lead you to idols. What have I to do any more
with idols? I have heard Him and observed Him.
The Never Changing One.
"JESUS Christ the same yesterday, and to-day and forever" (Heb.
xiii:8). Blessed truth and precious assurance for us poor, weak
creatures, yea, among all His creatures the most changing; _He_
changeth not. "For I am the Lord, I change not" (Mal. iii:6). "Of
old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are
the work of Thy hands. They shall all perish, but Thou shalt endure:
yea all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt
Thou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same,
and Thy years shall have no end" (Psalm cii:25-27 and Heb. i:10-12).
The above blessed statement puts Him before our hearts as the
unchanging Son of God, the solid rock of ages. It is a verse which
is like Himself, infinite, inexhaustible. Our adorable Lord is here
mentioned as having a past, a present and a future, a yesterday,
to-day and a forever. This Epistle at the close of which we find this
word gives us a definition of the yesterday, the today and the
forever of the Son of God. He is the true God; He had never the
beginning of days, a yesterday, a past without a beginning. By Him
the worlds were made. He is the effulgence of His glory and the
expression of His substance (Heb. i:3). His yesterday is Eternity;
His goings forth are from old, from everlasting (Micah v:2). And in
that yesterday, in the bosom of the Father, the great plan of
redemption was blessedly known. Oh! what a love that knew all and
was ever ready to give all to carry out that wonderful scheme.
"Wherefore coming into the world, He says, sacrifice and offering
Thou willedst not; but Thou hast prepared me a body. Thou hadst no
pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, Lo,
I come, in the roll of the book it is written of me, to do, O God,
Thy will" (Heb. x:5-7). And then He came to manifest the eternal
love of God. He came in the form of a servant; He, whose yesterday
is eternity, was made a little lower than the angles (Heb. ii:9).
And while on earth He was the same as in eternity. He showed His
power as the Creator, over nature, disease and death. Though in
humiliation, the Son of God had Glory, yet it was hidden. How
blessed it is to trace His way while on earth and what love, mercy,
patience, meekness, humility, peace and much more we find here. And
then His great work of redemption. It behooved Him in all things to
be made like unto "His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things relating to God to make propitiation
for the sins of the people (Heb. ii:7). Who in the days of His flesh
having offered up both supplications and entreaties to Him, who was
able to save Him out of death; with strong crying and tears (having
been heard because of His piety); though He were Son yet learned
obedience from the things He suffered; and having been perfected,
became to all of them that obey Him, author of eternal salvation"
(v:7-10). In His yesterday He made purification of sins; He put away
sin by sacrificing Himself. He fulfilled the eternal will of God, by
which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all.
And this Epistle likewise speaks of His "today," the Present of
Himself. His "to-day" began with the opened tomb, that blessed,
glorious resurrection morn. He is the great shepherd of the sheep
brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ (xiii:20). He is
the appointed heir of all things, on the right hand of the majesty
on high, taking a place so much better than the angels, as He
inherits a name more excellent than they (Heb. i:3-5). He is
addressed by God as high priest according to the order of
Melchisedec (v:10). We gaze into the opened heavens and we see Jesus
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of
death, crowned with glory and honor (ii:9). Now a summary of the
things of which we are speaking is: We have such a one high priest
who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in
the heavens; minister of the holy places and the true tabernacle,
which the Lord has pitched and not man (vii:1). He has a priesthood
unchangeable. Whence also He is able to save to the uttermost those
who approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them
(viii:25). For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with
hands, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us (ix:24). But, He having offered one
sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God,
waiting from henceforth until His enemies are made His footstool
(x:12). Such and much more is His "to-day." All power in heaven and
on earth is given to Him.
His "forever" will begin when He leaves the Father's throne and when
He is brought into the world again, when all things are to be
subjected under His feet and He will be in the fullest exercise of
His Melchisedec priesthood, a priest upon His throne. And in all,
yesterday, in the days of His humiliation, to-day upon the Father's
throne as our advocate and priest, in His glorious future, upon His
own throne He is the same, the mighty Jehovah, who changeth not, the
Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. He is the unmovable
rock, no storms, no changes can move the rock upon which we stand,
and though heaven and earth pass away neither He, the living,
eternal Word, nor His written Word will change.
His power, His grace, His love, His patience, is kindness, His
sympathy is ever the same towards His own beloved people, who have
trusted in Him and share His life. Having loved His own, who are in
the world, and loved them to the end (John xiii:1); and that end is
eternity. In the beginning of the last book of the Bible, we hear
the voice of the Holy Spirit in the church, worshipping Him, in that
matchless outburst "Unto Him that loved us and has washed us from
our sins in His own blood." But it does not say "loved," but it
reads "Unto Him that _loveth_ us." The love He has for His own is an
abiding, an unchanging love. Oh to think more of that love, that
changeless love, which passeth knowledge! And how true it is what a
saint has sung long ago:
"Oh! I am weary of my love,
That doth so little t'wards Thee move;
Yet do I constantly groan,
To know the depth of all Thine own.
That groan, sweet Spirit, is from Thee,
Nor self-begotten e'er can be;
No natural heart, oh Lord, of mine
Could long to lose itself in Thine.
O love of loves, for me that died;
The love of Jesus crucified!
Who lowly took His part with me,
That I as _one_ with Him might be.
Loved, and for ever on Thy throne
Adored, and loved, Thou changeless One;
Thou wilt thro' one eternal day,
The height and depth of all display."
Meanwhile, Thou precious, wondrous Lamb
Content--at least with this I am,
To count my love too mean to own,
And know but Thine--"_Thy love alone_."