AS we were returning from our walk last evening, and the stars began to appear, we noticed how very quickly they came into sight, first one and then another of our old friends the constellations, until, in less than half-an-hour from our noticing the first one, the sky was twinkling and flashing in all directions with the gleaming lights. Conspicuous among all the others were the Great Bear and Cassiopeia. And as I thought over the lovely view of all these bright creations of my Father, it brought flashing into my mind a truth from His word which connected itself with what we had been admiring.
You are all familiar now with our friend the Great Bear, are you not? But perhaps you have not all noticed a beautiful group, there are five principal stars in it, and they are so nearly in the form of the letter W, that you will not have much, if any, trouble to find them. Let us go on to the balcony and look for them. There shines Ursa Major—now look up to the Pole Star, and the same distance on beyond, there we see our new acquaintance, Cassiopeia. The five stars are like the five points in W, are they not? and I think you will soon learn to know it, although it is not so conspicuous as the opposite constellation, Ursa Major. They are always revolving round the famous Pole star. A line drawn from one to the other of these two groups would pass through this star, which, I suppose, is really the most important of all to man, for it forms a starting-point for the calculations of most astronomers, and is of the greatest use as a guide to travelers, and navigators would be greatly puzzled if they had to do without it.
Now if you look only at these stars, you will see perhaps what so struck me the other evening after I had been thinking of them. Do you see how clearly they shine out, lifted up, as it were, from many others? Always there, always speaking in their stellar language of Him who made them. And as I noticed them more closely and wondered what message the Lord would give me for tonight, these words flashed into my mind: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
And with the words came the thought, that all the infinitely glorious truths of God center around this most marvelous fact, that His Son, Jehovah, Jesus, Emmanuel, was, as the Son of man, lifted up upon the cross. And so the two gleaming groups of stars that with the others revolve round the Pole star, reminded me in a peculiarly precious way of this other light that is most certainly "above the brightness of the sun." For, dear friends, your salvation and mine depends upon that truth. Not one solitary individual of the lost race of Adam could ever tread the golden streets if that verse-John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14)—had not been literally fulfilled.
Know all that those words involve we shall never. What that lifting up was to God and to Christ, what the depths of suffering it led into, we shall never see fully, for we are finite creatures. Only He who is the infinite God could gauge sufferings that were also infinite. Shadows of this we get through the Old Testament, and I think we may see one in the description given us of the building of Solomon's temple. An account is given in the word of the materials used, and of the gold, silver, and brass that entered into the construction of that exceedingly magnificent building. We are told what was the exact weight of the gold and silver, but at least twice over is it said that “the weight of the brass could not be found out." Now if we remember that brass was used for the great altar where the sin-offerings were burnt—indeed it is called the brazen altar—and if we see the way in which brass is mentioned in the scriptures, I think we shall find that in many cases it conveys the thought of the bearing of judgment.
And looking back now from this side of the cross, as all these types and shadows looked forward to it, it seems to me very sweet and precious that we can read between the lines, as it were, and see Jesus in them all. And so when I read "that the weight of the brass could not be found out," it seems to whisper softly, like an echo from the words, that even when I shall have known and entered into all the glory for which Christ has purchased me, I shall never be able to understand what it cost Him, never realize what that judgment was that He took upon Himself for my sake.
But we may see a little of it, dear friends, if we look at His words in Gethsemane, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Now if the looking forward to it could cause the blessed Lord to utter words breathing such anguish as these, what must have been the bitter reality? Oh! what horrible hearts must ours be that ever we can lightly think of that sin that cost Him the agony of Calvary.
I was once told of a poor man who, after living a life of folly and sin, spending all that he earned as soon as he received it, became so poor as not to have the necessaries of life. And then he took to selling fish about the streets. Not very long was he doing this before the exposure brought on illness, and in a few weeks it was plain to those around him that his life here would be very short.
At this time, someone who had found Christ as a Savior for himself, went to see the poor man, to tell him of a home ready for him if he would have the One it belonged to for his Friend.
Do you think he would be likely to refuse it? He had to leave this world he knew—he could not help himself—and then all was darkness beyond. So now to hear of a glorious home all ready for him, all his past forgiven—for the sake of Another—was news of the happiest kind to him. And when he found that it was Jesus who had done all and suffered all for him, his gratitude and gladness were good to see.
He grew worse and worse, nothing could hinder the terrible pain that caused the great drops of perspiration to roll down his sunken cheeks. But he was patient through all; and one day when a friend noticed the cold drops coursing down the weather-beaten face, he seemed anxious not to think of his own pain, but said, “This is but little, He sweat blood for me." That poor man had learned something of what caused his Savior the sufferings of Gethsemane. He saw his sins there.
Now friends, could anything be more welcome to us than to know that this sinful nature of ours—our sinful hearts—all in us that is against God (and that means ourselves, our nature, not our body)—will be gone forever. Surely nothing could give us deeper peace.
One of the very sweetest joys of the glory will be the getting rid forever of the sin in us that so hinders and clogs us now. To be stainless without—stainless within, not a single thought then of evil. All purity forever. Do not you think it delightful to look forward to this? Those of you who know that even now your sins are gone, does it not make you long for the time when it will be literally true of you?
Well, dear friends, for your faith and mine it is true already, and I see the proof that it is so in this verse, for the Son of man was lifted up on the cross, and there the moral history of man was ended, once and forever for God, and mine and yours, as belonging to the race, also ended there. And so all I am in myself—all you are in yourself—as a sinful child of Adam, has no longer any existence for faith. So that we may say, “I am gone, and Christ only remains as my life;" for as Son of man He died instead of me. If you and I had really died in these bodies of ours, would not that have been an end of us here? Of course it would; death ends everything here, as far as the dead person is concerned.
But instead of you and me having to suffer that death of shame and agony, this “Son of man "suffered it for us, and so through death He has opened to us the way into life—and there is new creation with Christ Himself, the beginning, and we in Him. Could any place be more secure, more blessed than that? So that it is now we can take up such words as these; “I have died, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”
Now I am not going to ask you if you all understand this. I do not understand it all, but, thank God, I believe it, and that is what I want you to do. If you will read carefully and thoughtfully through Rom. 6, you will see how God teaches us the blessing of this death. But, then, if we never think about it or look at it, we shall get very little enjoyment from it now. And besides that, God expects us to care about it. If you have ever been away long from your parents, and they have written you a letter telling you what to do, are you satisfied with reading a line here and there? Of course you are not.
I know a girl who is away at school, and when she gets a letter from home, she is not content with once reading it; over and over again is that letter taken out and read and re-read, till every part is well known, especially if there are instructions in it as to her journey home. Now we are on a journey home, and God's word is like a letter telling us how we are to act as we go along; but we must know the position He has given us before we can go through the journey so as to please Him You know when first we found out that we were just poor lost sinners, we were glad to find that Jesus came to save the lost, and we learned that His precious blood made us "whiter than snow.), And we know that we are clean through His word. Then we could go on and see that that wondrous death of Calvary's crucified One did still more, for it brought us right home to God and to know Him not only as our God, but as out Father; and here to-night, if what we have been talking about on the previous evenings is really our own, we can go on and see that that same precious death was really our death; for it is said in Rom. 6:10, 1110For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:10‑11):" In that he died he died unto sin once, in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now do not let us forget this. If we feel it is beyond some of us, well, then, let us tell our Lord about it, and ask Him to teach us. For I do not think we ever get really quite settled in our hearts in perfect peace, until we believe this truth of our death in that of our Lord's.
Some years ago, a friend told me of a young man he had been visiting who was very ill—fast passing out of this world. A gentleman had been previously to see him, and had said something to him about dying, and the sick man joyfully said, “I have no death to be afraid of, I died many years ago, so it is all past for me." He had known and believed what His Master's word said about it. And so he could calmly fall asleep, to wake up in the presence of the One he longed to see.
Will you not all believe the same Master's word to you? It was nothing that he had ever done that gave him this peace in the presence of what others called death. It was simple faith in Christ Jesus. Perhaps some of you will say, "Yes, but that was a man, we are young and cannot understand so well as those who are older.”
Well, dear young people, I can tell you of a dear young girl, whom I once knew, who was saved in the same way as others, that is, by trusting herself to Christ. When I first knew her, she was about twelve years of age, and had very little knowledge of the Bible. She came to stay it the house for a few months where some friends of mine were living, and they soon became greatly attached to her. As they learned more of her, they found that she had scarcely heard anything of God or of His Son, so that when one day she read one of the gospel narratives, repeated in a story that she was reading, she brought it to show it to my friend as something quite new, and was surprised to find that it was in the Gospel of John. My friend and her mother took every opportunity of speaking to Elsie, and had the delight of soon seeing that she was greatly interested in all that she had heard from God's word. And at last, one day, she told them she must buy a Bible for herself and read all these wonderful things of which they spoke. A day or two after, she came in to show them her new treasure, a very nice Bible that she had bought; she had plenty of pocket money, for her friends were wealthy people as far as mere money is concerned, and Elsie had most of the things that money can procure to make a child happy. Her Bible became her very precious friend. Many times was there a gentle tap at the door of my friend's room, and, on opening it, there stood little Elsie, Bible in hand, either come to show some newly found and wonderful verses, or to ask the meaning of others. And so daily studying this life-giving word, it was not very long before Elsie told them that she believed for herself now, and was resting her soul on God.
Then she became very anxious about an only brother who was away at school, and would write to tell him all she knew, and beg him to trust the same Savior.
At last the time came for her to leave B—, and go back to her home; and very sorrowful was her parting with her dearly-loved friends who had shown her the way of salvation. And when she left them it was with the hope of soon returning to them again. But that was not to be. A few long letters came from her, in all of which her Bible was spoken of as her one joy in the world. And she spoke with sorrow, too, of the friends who would not read or hear it.
At last there came a short letter from her saying she was very ill; but perfectly happy. One other short note from her also came, I think, in which she told them she was to be taken to Bognor; then for some time they were left in suspense. Then came a letter from her brother, enclosing from Elsie a tiny little note, so feebly written, telling them that she was going home to Jesus, and longing to go, and asking them to write to her brother. The letter from her brother was to tell them that his darling sister was gone to be with the Lord, rejoicing to the very last.
Now this dear girl found the truth just as real and precious as the young man, and for both of them death had no terror, because they knew Another had passed through it for them and taken away its sting.
And there is something else, too, about this real story, and that is that my friend who was the one that spoke most to Elsie, and who used to show her her need of a Savior, was young herself, and an invalid, almost entirely confined to the house; but even then she found means of doing something for her Lord. And was she not richly repaid when she saw that her little friend was safe forever?
Now before we leave off our chat for this evening, I want to look a little at what I only just referred to before, and that is the new place we are put into when we believe what God has said in His word. The Lord Jesus Himself spoke of it as “passed from death unto life." He Himself is "the Life." And in His parting words to His sorrowful disciples He told them that after He had gone away they should know that they were in Him. And the apostle Paul loved to speak of this grand truth of being “in Christ Jesus." No greater, more glorious truth can we learn than this. It is for you and for me, dear friends, to adoringly believe and own this as our only place before God.
I was reading a little while ago of a very learned and clever astronomer who, at the beginning of this century, made great discoveries regarding the sun and moon, and also wrote very valuable works about the stars; but once, after a long course of studies on the different aspects of the sun, and very close observations of it through the most powerful telescopes then made, he announced that from all his researches, he saw no reason why the solid nucleus of the sun should not be the dwelling-place of millions of reasonable creatures.
And I dare say he found great pleasure in thinking of the glory and splendor of such a home as the radiant, light-giving sun. I do not think many people agree with this great man in his opinion; they think that no one could live in such a fiery home as our glorious orb of day. But such a home is not to be compared for glory or radiance to yours and mine, if we are “in Christ Jesus our Lord." Do you think it is? We are in Him already; soon we shall be with Him.
“There in effulgence bright,
Savior and Guide, with Thee
I'll walk, and in Thy heavenly light
Brighter my robe shall be.”