Complete in Christ.
“No more veil! God bids me enter
By the new and living Way—
Not in trembling hope I venture,
Boldly I His call obey;
There with Him, my God, I meet,
God upon the Mercy-Seat.
In the robes of spotless whiteness,
With the Blood of priceless worth,
Christ has passed into that brightness,
Christ rejected from the earth—
Christ accepted there on high,
And in Him do I draw nigh.
O the welcome I have found there,
God in all His love made known ,
O the glory that surrounds there
Those accepted in His Son!
Who can tell the depths of bliss
Spoken by the Father’s kiss?
All His joy told out unhindered,
Nought but Christ His eye can see―
Christ into His joy has entered,
And in Christ He welcomes me;
Would I know how dear to God?
Priceless, as Christ’s precious blood.
As within His Temple olden,
Was there seen no costly stone,
Nought but cedar carved and golden,
Nought but Christ, and Christ alone—
So the stones so dearly bought,
God in Heaven beholds them not
‘There,’ He saith, ‘and thus I meet thee,
On the Mercy-Seat above;
There I commune with thee, greet thee,
Tell thee all thy Father’s love;
There thy blest reward shall be,
All that Jesus is to Me.’”
AN some would come who desired to serve and please the Lord, but it seemed to them they could bring Him nothing that was worthy of Him, with all their toil and weariness. And their hearts were sad, for they said, “How can God have His good pleasure in such as we are? for we are faulty, and weak, and foolish, and our best service is little worth.”
And Julian told them, as it were in a parable, that it was thus: ―
“The Lord showed Himself to me, sitting as it were on the earth, barren and desolate, His eyes full of lovely pity, and in His face a fair looking of tender compassion and of joy, And it was shown me that by His sitting on the earth, barren and desolate, is this to mean. He made man’s soul to be His own city and His dwelling-place, which is most pleasing to Him of all His works. And man fell into the sorrow and pain of sin, so that he was not seemly to serve to that noble office.
“And therefore the Lord abode, awaiting till the barren place should be brought again by His grace into noble fairness, by the hard travail of His dear worthy Son. And therefore His pity was mingled with joy, for He saw the worshipful restoring that should be by the work of His Son.
“There was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved. I marveled, and thought what it might be, and I was answered in my understanding, ‘It is a meat which is lovesome and pleasing unto the Lord.’ But as the Lord sat in the desolate place, I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to serve Him. This was one marvel. Another marvel was that this solemn lord had no servant but One, and Him He sent out.
“I beheld, thinking what labor it may be that the servant should do. And then I understood that He should do the greatest labor, and the hardest travail; that is, He should be a gardener, delving and dyking, and turning the earth up and down; and seek the deepness, and water the plants He had sown, until noble plenteousness of fruit should spring, which He should bring before the Lord, and serve Him therewith to His liking.
“And He should never turn again till He had prepared this meat all ready, as He knew that it liked to the Lord; and then He should take this meat and drink, and bear it Himself right worshipfully before the Lord. And all this time did the Lord sit right on the same place, abiding the servant whom He sent out. And yet I marveled from whence the servant came.
“And I saw in the Lord, that He hath within Him endless life, and all manner of goodness; and there lacked Him naught save the treasure that was in the earth, which He loved with marvelous deepness of endless love. But yet was it not to His worship and liking till His servant had thus nobly prepared it, and Himself brought it before Him, Himself presenting it before His face. And all around the Lord was right naught but wilderness.
“And I understood not all that this example meant, and therefore I wondered whence the servant came. And it was showed me that the servant is the Son of God, who in Himself did the worshipful deed by which mankind was brought again into Heaven; so that I beheld in this picture the rueful falling of man on the one part, and on the other the worshipful satisfaction that our Lord hath made for man.
“And thus, therefore, meekly knowing our feebleness, witting that we may not stand the twinkling of an eye, but with keeping of grace, let us enter into that one high love and marvelous joy of God, knowing the nobleness that He shall bring us to, turning all our blame into endless worship.
“For in each soul that shall be saved, hath He put a godly will that never assenteth to sin, nor never shall. And our Lord willeth that we know truly in faith, that we have all this blessed will whole and safe, not in ourselves, but in our Lord Jesus Christ.
“For the nature wherewith Heaven shall be filled is His, and it behooves and needs that it should be knit and united in Him, for it is that which may never, and can never, be parted from Him. Therefore it is in Him that is this life of our souls, which life of His goodness and grace shall last in Heaven without end, Him loving, Him thanking, Him praising.
“For I saw that God never began to love mankind, for right the same that mankind shall be in endless bliss (fulfilling the joy of God in regard of His works), right so, the same mankind hath been, in the foresight of God, known and loved from without beginning in His righteous intent.
“And by the eternal counsel of God, the mid-Person, the blessed Son of God, would be the ground and Head of this fair kind, out of whom we who are saved be all come, in whom we be all enclosed, into whom we shall all go, in Him finding our full Heaven in everlasting joy, by the foreseeing purpose of all the Blessed Trinity from without beginning.
“For before that He made us, He loved us; and when we were made we loved Him. And this is a love that is of the Holy Ghost, mighty by reason of the might of the Father, and wise by reason of the wisdom of the Son.
“And thus I understood that man’s soul is made of naught—that is to say, it is made, but of naught that is made; as thus, when God should make man’s body, He took the slime of the earth and made it therewith. But to the making of man’s soul He would take right naught, but made it.
“And it is by the eternal love of God that the soul He has redeemed is kept, and never shall be lost. And right the same that we shall be without end, the same we were treasured in God, and hid, known, and loved from without beginning.
“Wherefore He willeth that we wit the noblest thing that ever be made is mankind; and the highest virtue is the blessed soul of Christ, the soul of His Beloved, preciously knit to Him in the making; which knot is so subtle and so mighty, that He and the Father are one. Furthermore, He willeth that all the souls that shall be saved in Heaven be knit in this knot, being made one with Christ.
“And thus, for the endless love that God hath to men, He maketh no separation in love between the blessed soul of Christ, and the least soul that shall be saved. It is full easy to believe and know that the blessed soul of Christ abideth on high in the glorious Godhead. And truly, where the blessed soul of Christ is, there shall be all the souls that are saved by Christ, presented before God in Him.
“We be enclosed in the Father, and we be enclosed in the Son, and we be enclosed in the Holy Ghost. And the Father is enclosed in us as His dwelling place, and the Son is enclosed in us, and the Holy Ghost is enclosed in us; all might, all wisdom, all goodness dwelling in us, maketh us to be the children of God; and Christ mercifully working in us, maketh us to be Christian in living.
“Thus it is His work, not ours; and in Him are we mightily borne up into Heaven, and presented before God. And it is in this that our Lord wills we should rejoice, and to understand and believe, whatever may be our feeling of woe or weal, that we be more verily in Heaven than on earth.
“And so must it ever be; for the City of God is prepared for Him from without beginning. Into which city, even the souls He saves, He cometh, and never shall remove from it; for God is never out of the soul, in which He shall dwell blessedly without end; yea, the place that Jesus taketh in our soul, He shall abide therein forever.
“And all the gifts that God may give to the creature, He hath given to His Son Jesus for us. God is more near to us than our own soul, for He is the ground in whom our soul standeth; yea, our soul sitteth in God in very rest, and our soul standeth in God in secure strength, and our soul is rooted in God in eternal love.
“Thus His kind goodness maketh that mercy and grace work in us, but it needeth also His kind goodness to enable us to receive the working of mercy and grace. And it is His liking to reign in our understanding blissfully, and to sit in our soul restfully, and to dwell in our soul eternally; and this bliss we might never have had and known, had not sin and wickedness risen up contrary to God; for the sin has made us to know the property in God which doeth good against evil, and turneth it to goodness and worship in all that shall be saved.
“And true it is that if we fell not, we should not know how feeble and wretched we be of ourselves, nor also should we so fully know the marvelous love of God; for marvelous in truth is that love which may not, nor will not, be broken for trespass.
“And if it seem to me, when I look at myself alone, that I might be broken off from Christ, yet I know that the Holy Church is one with Himself, even with Christ Jesus, and therefore the Church hath never been broken from Him, nor never shall be without end. Therefore it is a sure thing, and a good and gracious, that we be thus mightily fastened and united to Him.
“For the flood of mercy, that is His dear-worthy Blood and precious water, is plenteous to make us fair and clean. His sweet and gracious Hands, as those of a mother, be ready and diligent about us; and by the Blood that flowed from His blessed wounds, Both He rejoice to heal us.
“It is His office to save us, it is for His honor to do it, and it is His will that we know it; for He willeth that we love him sweetly, and trust in Him meekly and mightily. Yea, this hath He showed me in these gracious words, ‘I keep thee full securely.’”