Green Pastures of Today,
“It ends―the vigil of high festival,
The solemn night of song;
For lo! the crimson day has lit the hills,
The day desired so long.
From peak to peak there burns the jasper glow,
The morning star grows dim―
How passing strange the joy that now we know,
So soon to look on Him.
Oh, deeper than our longing and our love,
More wondrous than our bliss,
His love that waited while the ages rolled
To welcome us as His.
And now the watching and the waiting o’er,
The sin and sorrow past,
Behold, within the palaces of gold,
The harps are strung at last!
‘The Bridegroom from His chamber goeth forth
Resplendent as the sun―
Oh, Bride, arise, and put thy jewels on,
The desert journey done.’
Thus do the morning stars together sing;
Our shout of joy replies―
For lo! He cometh as the solemn dawn
Awakes the silent skies
The joy of God’s fair city peals afar,
Through portals open wide;
All Heaven awaits the shining marriage train,
The Bridegroom and the Bride.”
AND to another of the “Friends of God” of our own days, we will listen for a few moments more, knowing that the “song of Heaven” will never cease here below, till it sounds forth in chorus from all the saints of God, gathered in the Father’s house at last.
“Though in ourselves most imperfect and failing, the definition given by the Spirit of God of a Christian, is that he is a transcript of Christ. Your natural thought may be, If that be true, I do not know what to think of myself; I do not see this transcript in myself.’
“No, and you ought not to see it. Moses did not see his own face shine. Moses saw God’s Face shine, and others saw Moses’ face shine.
“The glory of the Lord as seen in the face of Moses was terrible to the people. They could not bear that glory. But we see it now with ‘open’ unveiled face in Christ, and we are not the least afraid. We find rest, comfort, and joy in beholding it. Instead of fearing, we rejoice.
“It is Christ alive in the glory that I see; not Christ down here (sweet as that was), but Christ at the right hand of God. And I have no fear. Though that glory is in the heavens, I can steadfastly behold it; because that glory of God shines forth from the face of a Man who has put away my sins, and who is there in proof of it. I cannot see Christ in glory without knowing that I am saved.
“How comes He there? He is a Man who has been down here mixing with publicans and sinners, the friend of such, choosing such as His companions. He is a Man who has borne the wrath of God on account of my sins, who has borne my sins in His own body on the tree, and it is in His Face I see the glory of God.
“I see Him there consequent upon the putting away of my sin, because He has accomplished my redemption. I could not see Christ in the glory, if there were one spot or stain of sin not put away. The more I see of His glory, the more I see the perfectness of the work He wrought, and of the righteousness in which I am accepted.
“So much has God been glorified about my sins (that is in respect of the work Christ has done on account of my sins), that this is the title of the Man Christ Jesus, to be there at the right hand of God.
“Where are my sins now? Where are they to be found in heaven or on earth? Once they were found on the head of that blessed One—but they are gone, never more to be found.
“As a practical consequence of beholding Him, I am changed into His likeness. ‘We all, with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.’
“I delight in Christ, I feast upon Christ, I love Christ. It is Christ Himself I love. I need no riches―I have unsearchable riches in Him; I need no pleasures of the world―I have pleasures at God’s right hand for evermore.”
“We should know that we are the Lord’s garden―we should know that here in the wilderness we are planted as God’s trees. It is not merely that we are saved. God has set rivers of water to flow through the barren land―not thence, but there; so that in this dry land we may bear witness to the perfectness of Christ’s work―the infiniteness of the efficacy of His death.
“What a marvelous miracle of grace is the Church of God—in the land where no water is, the water flowing through the midst of it, watering the trees of His planting, the work of His hands.
“We do not want the ‘vision of the Almighty,’ the ‘opened eyes,’ to discover inconsistencies in the walk of our brethren; but we need to have our eyes opened to see, as God sees, this beauty and glory of the Church.”
“ ‘While the son was yet a great way off the father saw him, and had compassion on him, and ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him.’ Why did he do this? Was it for anything in the son? No, it was because of the love that was in his own heart. He fell on his son’s neck because he loved to be there.
“It is the love of God, not any loveliness in the sinner, that accounts for the extravagant liberality of his reception through Christ.
“If the Father kisses me, the very consciousness that He is doing it, while I am yet in the rags of the far country, proves what a forgiveness it is. There is not another in the whole world who would not have thought about my rags, before he fell on my neck and kissed me.
“God clothes us with Christ, and brings us into His house with nothing less than all the honor He can put upon us, as He would have us to be there. The Father’s mind was, that a son of His was worth it all, and that it was worthy of Him to give it. I am loved as He loves His Son Jesus.
“My heart believes it, and I am reconciled to God. The peace has been ‘made through the Blood of His Cross,’ and the only part I had in that which saved me was my sins.
“And I am not come half-way to God. ‘Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation. ‘I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.’ The poor thief goes straight from the Cross to Paradise, made in one moment a fit companion for Jesus throughout eternity.”
“Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it (Eph. 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25)). He not only did something for it; He gave Himself. And mark how His loving it, and giving Himself for it, goes first. It is not that He cleansed it first, and then loved it because it was cleansed and fit to be loved. No. He gives Himself for it because He loved it; and now, He says, it must be cleansed and made fit for Me.
“And the same love that fits it, watches over it, as it passes through, the world in the dark days and toilsome ways. There cannot be a want in Christ’s Church, without there being an answer to it in Christ’s heart. There is no forgetfulness in grace. It takes up to the third heaven, but goes down to the smallest things. Ah, surely ‘goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’”
“Christ has been in the lowest place of misery and death, and is taken up to the highest place in glory—the throne of God—and all between is filled up by Christ. He is not distant from us; but we who know Him have the consciousness of His being in and around us.
“It is said of the City, ‘the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.’ The Lamb is nearer to my heart than any. He has known me better than any, better than I know myself.
“And this Christ who dwells now in our hearts by faith, is the One we shall meet there. I shall find One in Heaven nearer and dearer to my heart than any one I know on earth. Nothing is so near to us as the Christ that is in us, and nothing is so near to God as Christ. With all the sensibilities of the heart to good or evil (and this makes the heart of man such a wonderful thing), Christ can meet all.”
“The Father brings many sons unto glory, and brings them back perfect with the work of Christ—not an affection of God’s delight in Him is wanting. Therefore all that Christ has, we have. We are to be conformed to the image of His Son. He is the firstborn among many brethren.
“This is our present place. ‘Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.’ ‘But,’ says the Lord, you need not wait till then; today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’
“Oh, how the things of the world, are dimmed by this, that we are loved as Christ is loved! There is not one possible blessing into which Christ has entered as Man, that we are not brought into. Christ never gives away; He brings us into enjoyment with himself — ‘not as the world giveth, give 1 unto you.’ This is perfect love.
“Have you the thought of God’s heart about your blessing? Is the thought you have, that you are loved as Christ is loved? This is the very thing that makes us see our own utter nothingness.
“Have you given up all the claims of the first Adam entirely, and found your place in the second Adam, ‘accepted in the Beloved?’ This is not forgiveness merely.
“What unutterable love it is! How thoroughly we see that it is Divine! The moment God shows us ‘the exceeding riches of His grace,’ in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus, we cannot wonder at anything. When the angels see the thief who was on the cross, the woman that was a sinner, one of us, in the same glory with Christ, and like Him, they will know the exceeding riches of His grace.
“The most wonderful thing of all is the Cross: after this no glory is too great. That which we have to desire, is hearts that own the unspeakable fullness of the work of Christ; hearts that desire in everything down here to glorify Him.
“May we see this blessing in spirit, the blessing of Melchisedec, of Christ the Lord, the King. How imperfectly all the joy of this blessing can be declared, our own enjoyment of it must surely tell.
“May the Spirit of our God teach a more skillful tune to those who learn the lesson of His love; and after all, our imperfect notes here are but poor witnesses to that new song which we shall sing in eternal notes of praise. And may the sweetness of the instrument itself strike some heart as yet untuned. To hear or know how sweet is the melody of Heaven, of Jesus’ praise, we have yet to learn in all its blessed gladness, when we are in the glory of the blessing which rests not only on the head of Jesus, but is in His heart for the redeemed of God.”