It was our privilege not long since to converse with an aged believer, who is living, consciously, in the very sunshine of the love of Christ. When we entered his room he told us he had just been trying in vain to read the fourteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, but that his head ached so with the effort, he had to give it up. When nearly blind, he had learned to read with his fingers on the raised letters, and at times found great comfort in so doing, but on this particular occasion the effort had been beyond his feeble strength. Seeing that his thoughts were running on the chapter he had tried to read, we said “Most precious words for us, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you; and again, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” What a Savior Jesus is! Our home is ready, and till He comes He would not have us troubled about the present, or fearful about the future.”
“I have not a trouble, nor a fear,” broke in the aged man, “blessed be His name, and I am soon going home to be with Him for eternity.” He grew full of joy and longing as he spoke for the time when those whom he loved should be with him in heaven, all at home in the Father’s house.
“Nota trouble, nor a fear,” our friend continued. “I have all I want for this life, for He has taken care of me, and I have nothing to fear, for He will take care of me. But it wasn’t so a few years ago it was always trying, trying then, and no hope. After forty years of trying and working in my own strength God used this text to open my eyes, These are they... who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. I saw then it was not our trying, but His dying, that saves us.
“Now, as I am so happy, I want to know the meaning of a text which I cannot understand: The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow. (Psa. 90 10.) Here am I between seventy and eighty, and am happy all the day long, and want for nothing, and the Lord says, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. What, then, can it mean― their strength is labor and sorrow? I do not understand it.”
“The labor and the sorrow is but for your poor body,” we replied. “You cannot get up and down stairs so quickly as you once did, neither can you see well enough to read. Your body is meant here, not your soul.”
This quite satisfied our aged friend: “For,” added he, “these are the happiest and the brightest days of my life. I was once an active man, traveling all over the country, but now I am fixed to my little room, and the Lord keeps me company all the day long. I am happier and happier every day.”
Christian reader, there is a sermon for us all in the old man’s thoughts: the pathway home, perfect peace―the peace that Jesus gives―for what He gives must needs be perfect. The Lord had said, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,” and the answer of His happy servant was, “Not a trouble, nor a fear!” Hallowed experience―heavenly realization.
There are those amongst God’s people who are in trouble, but who are not troubled― “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” (2 Cor. 6:1010As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (2 Corinthians 6:10).)
We all have our troubles. Certainly, our aged friend had his―that is, if partial blindness, loneliness, poverty, and the weakness of old age are troubles! But he was not troubled, for he lived in the Lord’s peace, and dwelt in the Lord’s company. Being near Jesus, and dwelling in His peace, is heavenly Christianity.
We think it is even more Christian like to be without fears for the morrow than to be troubled about the cares of the day. Fears are a sore hindrance to christian progress. The ardent disciple who walked on the waters to come to Jesus went well till he looked on the foaming billows; then he was afraid, and then he began to sink.
The future is the stumbling stone of the Christian’s soul―what will happen next? ―but Jesus says, “Let not your heart be... afraid.” He will take care of the morrow. Then trust Him. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” (Isa. 26:33Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (Isaiah 26:3).) Alas! how many a day’s usefulness is lost for eternity by profitless occupation with what the morrow may possibly be, and most frequently with what the morrow never will be!
At the commencement of the fourteenth chapter of St. John we hear the Lord say to us individually, that He is about to prepare HOME for us. And He says He will come again and take us there. All will be well at last. We shall, each one, be in heaven at the end the journey, and be with Him there. This is sweet assurance; but, dear Christian, let u: listen to our Lord’s words recorded toward! the close of the same chapter. We need their strong consolation; we need Him with us here. We have a PATH to tread as well as HOME prepared, and, with the path before us Jesus says, not only “Let not your heart be troubled,” but also “neither let it be afraid.” Give Him today’s troubles and tomorrows fears, and let Him be your dwelling place.
The well-known ninetieth Psalm, a text from which raised a difficulty to our aged friend, is also a word for the path. Moses, the man of God, who wrote it, had seer what the wilderness was. He had borne six hundred thousand murmurers in his bosom as it were; he had seen God’s ways in consuming backsliding Israel, and in bringing their children, whom they said He would cause to perish by the way, to the borders o: Canaan; and, looking back on the past, the man of God said, “We spend our years as a tale that is told.” (Psa. 90:99For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. (Psalm 90:9).) The experience; of the way will all come to an end. But as we read the psalm we can but feel that we Christians have what even Caleb and Joshua had not on their journey, for we have Christ’s peace for our portion on the way: “My peace I give unto you.” Perfect peace dwell in the heart of Christ as a man on earth, and He says, “My peace I give unto you.”
True spiritual mindedness is having Christ in our hearts by faith. Even the labor and sorrow incident to the weakness of age are lose to perception by reason of the excellence of His peace in the heart. A really heavenly man in character is surrounded with heavenly peace and brightness, and when the test of trial comes it simply proves what he is―the crushed herb sends forth its sweet savor May we be like our aged friend, so satisfied with Christ, so content in His love and company, that we shall truly say in answer to ow Lord’s words concerning both the home and the journey, “Not a trouble, not a fear!”