It is impossible to read this charming section of inspiration and not be struck with what we may venture to call the rallying power of a risen Savior’s voice and presence. We see the dear disciples scattered hither and thither, in doubt and perplexity, fear and despondency—some running to the sepulcher; some coming from it; some going to Emmaus, and some crowded together at Jerusalem, in various states and conditions.
But the voice and realized presence of Jesus rallied, reassured, and encouraged them all, and brought all together around His own blessed Person, in worship, love, and praise. There was an indescribable power in His presence to meet every condition of heart and mind. Thus it was; thus it is; thus it ever must be, blessed and praised be His matchless Name! There is power in the presence of a risen Savior to solve our difficulties, remove our perplexities, calm our fears, ease our burdens, dry our tears, meet our every need, tranquillize our minds, and satisfy every craving of our hearts.
“Jesus, thou art enough,
The mind and heart to fill,
Thy life—to calm the anxious soul,
Thy love—its fears dispel.”
The two disciples going to Emmaus proved something of this, if we are to judge from their own glowing words to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Yes, here lay the deep and precious secret: “He talked with us,”—and “He opened to us the scriptures?” What seraphic moments!—what high communion! what loving ministry! A risen Savior rallying their hearts by His marvelous words, and mighty exposition of the scriptures.
What was the effect—what the necessary result? The two travelers instantly returned to Jerusalem to seek their brethren. It could not be otherwise. If we lose sight of a risen Savior we are sure to get away from our brethren, sure to get occupied with our own things—to pursue our own way—to get into coldness, deadness, darkness, and selfishness. But, on the other hand, the moment we get really into the presence of Christ—when we hear His voice, and feel the sweetness and power of His love—when our hearts are brought under the mighty moral influence of His most precious loving ministry, then we are led out, in true affection and interest, after all our brethren, and in earnest desire to find our place in their midst in order that we may communicate to them the deep joy that is filling our own souls. We may lay it down as a fixed principle—a spiritual axiom—that it is utterly impossible to breathe the atmosphere of a risen Savior’s presence and remain in an isolated, independent, or fragmentary condition. The necessary effect of His dear presence is to melt the heart and cause it to flow out in streams of tender affection toward all that belong to Him.
But let us pursue our chapter.
“And they rose up the same hour of the night”—thus proving they had but little business at Emmaus, “and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and path appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.”
They, too, needed a risen Savior’s challenge to bring them to their senses—to calm their fears, and raise their drooping spirits. They needed to realize the power of His presence, as the risen One. They had just declared to their two brethren from Emmaus that “The Lord is risen indeed;” but yet when their risen Lord appeared to them, they did not know Him, and He had to challenge their hearts with His stirring words, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb, and he took it, and did eat before them.”
What tender love! What gracious condescension to their weakness and need! What compassionate entrance into all their feelings, spite of their folly and unbelief! Gracious Savior! Who would not love thee? Who would not trust thee? May the whole heart be absorbed with thee, may the whole life be cordially devoted to thy blessed service! May thy cause command all our energies! May all we have and all we love be laid on thine altar as a reasonable service! May the eternal Spirit work in us for the accomplishment of these grand and longed-for objects!
But, ere closing this brief article, there is one point. of special interest and value to which we must call the attention of the christian reader, and that is, the way in which the risen Savior puts honor upon the written word. He rebuked the two travelers for their slowness, of heart to believe the scriptures. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
So also in His interview with the eleven and the rest at Jerusalem. No sooner had He satisfied them as to His identity, than He sought to conduct their souls to the same divine authority—the holy scriptures. “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
All this is of the deepest possible importance, at the present moment. We feel persuaded that professing Christians, everywhere, need to have their hearts stirred up in reference to the paramount claims of the word of God, its absolute authority over the conscience, its formative power, its complete sway over the entire—course, character, and conduct.
It is to be feared, greatly feared, that holy scripture is fast losing its divine place in the hearts of those who profess to take it as the divine rule of faith and morals. We have often heard that watchword sounded in our ears, “The bible, and the bible alone is the religion of Protestants.” Alas! alas! if this motto were ever really true, we fear that its truth, at this solemn moment, is more than questionable. Very few, comparatively, even of those who occupy the very highest platform of profession, seem to admit, and still fewer actually acknowledge practically, that in all things, whether of faith or morals—in all the practical details of life, in the Church, in the family, in the business, and in our private walk from day to day—we are to be governed absolutely by that commanding, that mighty, that morally glorious sentence, “It is written”—a sentence enhanced exceedingly in value, and heightened in its moral glory by the telling fact that it was used thrice by our adorable Lord, at the opening of His public career, in His conflict with the adversary; and sounded in the ears of His loved ones just as He was about to ascend into the heavens.
Yes, dearly beloved christian reader, “It is written” was a favorite sentence with our divine Master and Lord. He ever obeyed the word. He yielded a hearty and unqualified submission to its holy authority in all things. He lived on it and by it, from first to last. He walked according to it, and never acted without it. He did not reason or question, imply or infer, He did not add or diminish or qualify in any one way—He obeyed. Yes; He the eternal Son of the Father—Himself God over all blessed forever—having become a man, lived on the holy scriptures, and walked by their rule continually. He made them the food of His soul, the material and the basis of His marvelous ministry—the divine authority of His perfect path.
In all this He was our great Exemplar. Oh! may we follow His blessed footsteps! May we bring ourselves, our ways, our habits, our associations, our surroundings, to the test of holy scripture, and reject, with whole-hearted decision, everything, no matter what or by whom propounded, that will not bear that searching light.
We are most thoroughly persuaded that in hundreds of thousands of cases, the first grand point to be gained is to recall the heart to that delightful attitude in which the word of God is fully owned and submitted to as an absolute authority. It is positively labor lost to be arguing and disputing with a man who does not give scripture the selfsame place that our Lord Christ gave it. And when a man does this, there is no need of argument. What is really needed is to make the word of God the basis of our individual peace and the authority of our individual path. May we all do so!