The Light of His Countenance.
“That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
“At the Lord’s right hand there are pleasures,
There are pleasures for evermore―
In the depths of His glory are treasures,
A measureless priceless store.
O God, we have shared Thy pleasures,
Thy treasures of countless price―
Those joys that no thought can measure,
For all are Christ.
That cup of Thy love and gladness
Has cheered us along the road;
Through ages of sin and of sadness
Partaking the joys of God―
Through Thy Spirit sent down from Heaven
Thy Christ to our hearts is dear;
The Spirit who tells of His sweetness
Is with us here.
Thus false though our hearts and faithless,
We love Him with love divine;
With a love that is true and scatheless,
For it is not ours but Thine.
Thy love from our hearts outflowing,
Its source in the Heavens above,
That love of Thine own bestowing
Eternal love.
O God, with Thy love we love Him,
And thus are our praises sweet;
A fragrance that fills the Heavens
As we fall before His feet.
Our God, of Thine own we give Thee,
And Thine is the golden store;
What are we that we thus can offer,
Can thus adore?
Our heart and our flesh may fail us,
And the mists of sin may rise;
They may hide the land of the glory
From our faithless wandering eyes.
But the Spirit within us fails not
Forever to tell of Him;
And His Face is seen in its beauty
When all is dim.
In the dungeons and in the deserts
Have Thy saints, by the world despised,
With joy untold and unmeasured,
Looked on the Face of Christ.
In the torture or in the fire,
‘Midst the scorn and the hate of men,
They have seen but the light of His Presence
Around them then.
O Lord, we adore Thee and bless Thee,
That we in Thy Hands of might
Are the chords whereupon Thou makest
The music of Thy delight―
Whereon Thou wilt sound forever
In wondrous and glorious tone,
The Name of Thy Son beloved,
His Name alone.
What rocks it that cold and worthless
And wayworn my heart may be,
If the love that came down from Heaven
Flows back to the Lord from me?
A glorious tide of worship
Unsilenced by sin and by death;
Sweet melody made in the cornet
By God’s own breath.”
LET us not think of these experiences as the ground for our belief in the truth that the children of God, having received His Spirit, are one with Christ it glory.
To the Abbess Gertrude the experience was doubt less known before the truth stood revealed to her plainly in the Word of God. But it is well to have our faith founded on the unchangeable, infallible Word, which assures us (however dim and imperfect our realization of it may be) that Christ and His members are one, and that all who believe, being baptized by the One Spirit, are baptized into the One Body.
And in answer to faith will the blessed experiences follow, and the fruit be abundant.
“It was on the second Sunday in the fast,” wrote the Abbess Gertrude again, that these words were sung, ‘I have seen the Lord face to face.’ And my soul was illumined by a marvelous light, the light ‘as of a stone most precious,’ the light of the Lord’s presence manifested to me.
“The Lord lifted up the light of His countenance upon me, that Face whereof Bernard said, ‘It is not formed, but it formeth.’ A Face that did not blind the bodily eyes, but rejoiced the eyes of the soul-the Face, the radiance whereof is Love.
“Thine eyes looked upon me, and the gladness of that look flowed in mighty power through heart and soul and mind. It was as if from those Divine eyes, a wondrous light that made all fair upon which it fell, passed into me and filled all my being, and worked in all my members, and I had as it were passed away, lost in the fullness of that glory.
“What more can I say of that sweet and blessed countenance that then shone full upon my soul! For truth to tell, it seems to me that by the gift of speech of all the tongues of men I could never in all the days of my life have been persuaded that the soul could see Thee in so marvelous a manner, even in the glory of Heaven.
“It needed Thy grace, my God, to teach me this by the experience of that hour. And if the sweetness of Thy kiss is yet a further joy than the gladness of Thy countenance, I truly say that it needs Thy Divine might to sustain him who receives it—else were it not possible he should remain a moment longer in the body-though well I know that Thy power, Thine unfathomable might, and Thy boundless love can do all things—and measure the abundance of the revelation to him to whom it is granted.
“For have not I known, and often known, the tender love of Thy kiss, so that at times when I sat alone, and my heart waited upon Thee, oftentimes during the reading of the Psalms, Thou didst again and again give the kiss of peace to my soul—a kiss sweeter than the odors of all precious ointment—a kiss which is the spiced wine of Thy joy.
“And for this, and for all Thy grace, the secret working whereof is known to Thee alone, be the blessed love offered up to Thee, which in Thy dwelling-place above the Heavens each Person of Thy Godhead transmitteth to another, the perfect, the eternal Love.”
Is it not so, that the love ascending to God from the heart of His child is but the Divine love shed abroad in the heart, and flowing back to Him from whom it came? The blessed answer to the prayer of Jesus, “I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
“My soul praiseth Thee,” wrote the Abbess Gertrude again, “my soul praiseth Thee, O my God, my Lord, my Creator, acknowledging to Thee from the depths of my heart how marvelous is Thy mercy, a fountain forever flowing down to one utterly unworthy. O Thou blessed lover of my soul, I thank Thee with all the powers of my being for Thine immeasurable love, Thine unwearied patience.
“Thou didst bear with me, and wait for me, through the years of my childhood and my youth, till near the end of my twenty-fifth year. Through years when I was dazzled by worldly things, and senseless as to Thee. Years, when in thought and word and work, with no pricks of conscience, I was led simply and solely by anything that came into my mind, following my own will and pleasure as far as I had the means of doing so.
“But by the natural distaste Thou gavest me to much that was evil, and a natural desire for some things that were good, and by reproof and persuasion of others, or by circumstances around, Thou didst in Thy mercy preserve me frequently from doing that which otherwise I would have done. Yet as regards Thee, I was living as a heathen amongst heathens who had never heard that Thou condemnest that which is evil and rewardest that which is good.
“And thus as the fine gold shines more brightly when colors are placed beside it, and specially when laid upon a ground of black, so does the Divine glory, of Thy goodness shine the brighter beside the blackness of my unthankful life. For Thou in Thy great majesty, in Thy Divine goodness, couldst only give the gifts that were worthy of Thee, and I in my inborn baseness and gracelessness had naught to bring in return but that which the vilest sinner has to bring, my wretchedness and helplessness.
“And when Thou, O my Saviour, whose habitation is in the palace of the Father’s love, high above all heavens, in the sweet eternal rest, when Thou in Thy marvelous grace didst come and ask for a lodging in my poor small dwelling-place, did I, an unfriendly, a graceless hostess, so ill entertain Thee, so little consider Thy presence, that I might well out of natural kindness have bestowed more care and thought upon a leper who would have cost me much toil and trouble, but whom need had driven to take refuge in my home.
“And though, O Lord, Thou who didst clothe the stars with glory, hast comforted my heart with the tenderness of Thy love, so that I found more delight and joy in Thy companionship than I could have found in the wide world, had I wandered in search of delight from the sunrise to the sunset; yet I, unthankful and evil, have so cast contempt upon Thee, and so put Thee to shame, that I yet could seek for pleasures in outward things, and ofttimes choose the leeks and onions rather than Thy Heavenly Manna.
“And when I have distrusted Thy promises, my hope grew dim, even as if Thou wert a man who could lie, and be false to the word He had spoken.”