“I go on my way rejoicing,
Though weary the wilderness road;
I go on my way rejoicing,
In hope of the glory of God.
O well do I know that glory,
That home and that welcome sweet,
Where above the mists and the shadows,
With the heart of my God I meet.
There the ship of my soul is anchored
In the calm of the crystal sea;
For within the veil is the anchor,
Where Jesus has entered for me.
Awhile in the earthen vessel
Those treasures of glory gleam;
In Heaven the fount eternal,
In the desert the living stream.
And looking on Christ in glory,
That glory so still, so fair,
There passes a change upon me,
Till I am as He who is there.
Then no more in the earthen vessel
The treasure of God shall be;
But in full and unclouded beauty,
O Lord, wilt Thou shine through me,
Afar through the golden vessel
Will the glory of God shine bright;
There shall be no need for the sunshine,
For the Lamb shall be the light.
With a light like a stone most precious,
Shall the City of God be fair;
He shall shine who is like to the jasper,
In cloudless radiance there.
Undimmed in that wondrous vessel,
The glory of God’s great love
Shall beam o’er the earth He ransomed,
And shall fill the Heavens above.
All, all in His new creation,
The glory of God shall see;
And the lamp for that light resplendent
The Bride of the Lamb shall be.
A golden lamp in the Heavens,
That all may see and adore
The Lamb who was slain and who liveth,
Who liveth for evermore.
So I go on my way rejoicing
That the Heavens and earth shall see
His grace, and His glory, and beauty,
In the depth of His love to me.”
―Romans 52; 2 Cor. 3:1818But 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. (2 Corinthians 3:18); Revelation 4:3; 21:10, 113And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. (Revelation 4:3)
10And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; (Revelation 21:10‑11).
But there is another side to the experience of the Abbess Gertrude―another side to the experience of many now.
There was a truth mixed with her error, which is dimly seen and confusedly grasped by many a mind. There are those who own the perfect and completed cleansing by the Blood of Jesus, and yet feel that more is needed for the unclouded enjoyment of the Presence of the Beloved.
It is the truth set forth in the words which came to her as she knelt that evening in her cell, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him; and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”
Do we not know in our own experience that this consciousness of the abiding of the Lord in us, even in the cleansed believer, is dependent on the keeping of His words, and that our abiding in Him stands connected, inseparably connected, with a blessed consequence, even that we bring forth much fruit?
And do we not ask ourselves, often mournfully and wonderingly, why His Presence is so often to us as that of a wayfaring man who tarrieth for the night? And why the abundance of fruit so seldom tells that we are abiding in Him? Is it not after all that we labor too little in His service, and that our part is not done?
It is in the hope of answering these questions that the teaching and experience of some of the saints of God have been collected, in confirmation of His own words, spoken to His saints of old, and to His children today.
He who giveth liberally of His wisdom, upbraiding not, was the patient teacher of the Abbess Gertrude in those ages of cloud and shadow, when the light was darkened by stained windows of man’s devices.
Nearly seven years passed away, and the Abbess Gertrude was still groping after the power to serve the Lord she loved, and still cast down because so little fruit was found where she had toiled so wearily.
“Then,” she wrote, “it came to pass, before Advent, that I, moved by Thy Spirit, besought a certain person to pray for me every day, and to say such words as these― ‘For the sake of Thy pierced heart, O beloved Lord, pierce her heart with the darts of Thy love, so that she may no longer be holden down by earthly things, but may be held up by the power of Thy Godhead.’
“And I believe that it was through the prayer of this person that Thou wert moved on the Sunday bore Christmas to put a longing into my soul, whereby I was compelled to speak to Thee, saying, Lord, I confess that according to my deserts I am not worthy to receive the smallest crumb of Thy gifts, but I join with the prayer from those other lips, and beseech Thee that Thou wilt pierce my heart with the arrows of Thy love.’
“And there and then I knew it, that Thy grace had flowed forth, and that the words I spike had been in a power that reached the heart of God.
“But my longing was not fully satisfied until the Wednesday following, when suddenly Thou wert there, and Thou spakest to me in words that entered into my innermost heart, saying, ‘All the multitude of thy desires, all thy longing and thy hoping, all thy joy and thy sorrow and thy fear, and all that is in thee, bind them all together and cast them all into the depths where all is rest, into the depths of Mine eternal love.’
“Then did I see, that in the place of all my shortcomings and my unworthiness, was the mighty Love, which abides in its fullness in Him who sitteth at Thy right hand, and who had joined me to Himself. And through Him I cast down before Thee all my lamentations over my sin and unworthiness. And I saw, as a special sin, how I had overlooked and neglected Thy gifts, looking to Thee for that which was already given.
“For truly, hadst Thou given to me, unworthy as I am, one poor thread to keep in remembrance of Thee, I should have held it in higher honor than the gifts that Thou hast given, and that I have so lightly esteemed, the gift of the Spirit of Christ.
“And my soul received at that time a certain inexpressible comprehension of those sweetest words, ‘God shall be all in all,’ for it was as if He spake to me, saying, ‘Thou art called to be conformed to the image of My Son, receiving ever into thy soul, which is made partaker of the Divine nature, the stream of the eternal life that is in Him, as the air receives the streams of the sunlight, and is filled and glorified thereby.’
“O wondrous power of the right hand of the Most High, that an earthen vessel, a vessel of earth so coarse and common, should be made to hold a treasure so glorious and so precious!”
Thus were the eyes of the Abbess Gertrude anointed that she might see the marvelous gift already given, but given to one unconscious of having received it. She had been praying that He might enter the temple that He had cleansed, and she had been unaware of the power of His Presence, even after the answer given her seven years before, when she knelt at her bedside in her cell. She could see the unsightliness of the earthen vessel, but her eyes had been blind to the treasure within it.
For, as a matter of experience, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. We believe the blessed words of God, that it is even as He has said; and we know in all our hearts and all our souls that “not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord our God spake concerning us—all are come to pass unto us, and not one thing hath failed thereof.” Did He not say, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you?”
And is it not that Presence in the cleansed believer that brings forth in him the fruit of the Tree of Life? Does not He, “the Mighty Love,” give to His beloved even now, to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God? And feeding on that fruit, we bring forth, rather let us say, He brings forth in us, “the leaf that shall not fade, and the new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary. And the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf for medicine.”
Is it because of our worthiness that He thus dwells within us? Or is it rather because of the precious blood which has cleansed us―for as of old the blood was sprinkled on the tabernacle, and the glory entered to dwell there, so now, not because of works of righteousness which we have done, but because of that precious Blood, does the true Shekinah take possession of the tabernacle, to be our light and gladness even now on the wilderness way.