A Heavenly Saviour.

THE Lord Jesus Christ was once upon earth. When here, it was ever His delight to minister to the necessities of those around Him, ―both in relation to the body, with its present sufferings;
and the soul, with its eternal need.
You are doubtless aware of the solemn fact, that men in that day refused Him a place here. They could not endure the light of His presence, for there was that in the presence of Christ which ever discovered the true moral condition of those near to Him. Where this was owned and confessed, it was His unceasing delight to minister forgiveness and eternal blessing. The multitude, however, in that day, loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil; and that they might continue in their present course, they shut out from their souls the light that would have revealed not only their own condition, but the blessed reality that a Saviour was in their midst.
The cross on Mount Calvary was, as far as man is concerned, the open declaration that they would not have Him; they “crucified the Lord of glory;” they “killed the prince of life.” But God “raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.”
But, reader, I ask you to remember, that what the Lord Jesus Christ was as a Saviour upon earth, He is now as a Saviour in heaven. There, in those realms of light; there, in the very center of the glory of God, ―He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” There He is a Saviour for you; there He waits upon you, in this blessed character, “Mighty to save!”
Do you not need His present service? You surely cannot, dare not, say, “I need Him not.” If the light of God’s truth has ever dawned upon your soul, has it not, with “a still small voice,” told you that you need a Saviour? If angels came from glory to announce the birth of a Saviour upon earth, what tidings are these for you today, that, although the Lord Jesus Christ has been rejected by man on earth, He is for you, today, a Saviour in heaven above?
To have despised Him on earth was surely to expose themselves to judgment in that day; but what if you now despise Him in heaven? The greater the presentation of grace on God’s side, the more terrible will be the judgment if you despise it! “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” E. P. C.