From Helps in Things Concerning Himself: Volume 2 (1892)
Walter Thomas Turpin
Table of Contents
“the First Month of the Year”
Another year is past and a new year has begun, verily “We bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.” It is well then, standing here just now, to survey for a little in memory the way of the past. There can be but little doubt that at such a season as this, recollections of the past will mingle strangely, and it may be unbidden as well, with anticipations of the future. The past! think of the memories that word recalls! Think of the deep emotions and varied experiences it awakens! With how many is it associated almost through all its months, with scenes of sorrow and suffering, hours of toil and temptation, days of depression, gloom and darkness, times of peril and perplexity.
These must ever have the upper hand with us, if we have not learned by faith to have to do with Himself outside the scene through which we are passing.
In the chapter from which the heading of our paper is taken, we find that from the creation time had rolled on unchanged as to the mode in which it was reckoned.
It is striking that not even the flood of waters, the universal grave of the generation of that day, save those in the ark, effected any change; but now we are introduced to a most important and striking change, and we are justified in saying that all was new that characterized this change: they have often been dwelt upon, hence it must suffice just now to enumerate them.
1. The sacrifice was new—a Lamb.
2. The time of its being offered was new—in the evening.
3. The place was new—Egypt.
4. The feast inside was new—a roasted lamb, “his head with his legs and the purtenance thereof.”
5. The time for eating it, and the attitude and apparel of those who eat it was new; namely, the time midnight; the attitude, standing; the apparel, loins girded; shoes on the feet; and staff in hand.
6. The bread was also new—for it was unleavened. Thus we find the items as we may say of Israel’s new history.
How blessed, my reader, if the commencement of another year should find you, if never before, in a new order of things, as to your soul’s realization in faith; oh, to know Christ Himself in the new and heavenly place where He is, to abide there with Him, finding all your heart’s deepest longings there fully met and satisfied, so that in heavenly peace and repose and calmness, you can go through this world of unrest and disturbance, as has been so blessedly said, like a rich man amongst the destitute, having everything to contribute, but looking for nothing and wanting nothing here. That in this sense, this year may be the opening up and out of “blessings of heaven above” to all my readers, is the earnest desire of my heart.
“Follow Thou Me”
The first thing needful, in order to walk with God, is to have the conscience perfectly at rest; the blood of Christ alone can secure this to us. If the conscience is not at rest, and without the sense of being so perfectly purged that it is fit for the presence of God, there is no true liberty; and all things are regarded in the light of its felt need and, as yet, unsatisfied demands. A conscience enlightened by the word of life will not rest, and cannot rest, short of full and uncondemning quietness in the presence of God, where He dwells. How blessedly perfect, then, must that work be, which, on the one hand, has so perfectly glorified God, down to the very lowest depths of humiliation and judgment, where the eternal Son of the Father, who humbled Himself to become a man, went and lay for us, and has, on the other hand, so divinely and completely settled the question of sin, in its guilt and power, as regards our consciences, that the believer in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, is both relieved and delivered in regard to his conscience, and blessed up to the full height of that glory where Christ is, in whose once marred, but most blessed face, the whole glory of God now shines.
My reader, have you such a conscience before God?—until you have, it is vain to speak of other things.
Allow me to show you, as far as I am able, and with God’s help, how this blessed redemption-work of the Lord Jesus thus acts upon the conscience. As born of the first Adam, every man by nature is lost and guilty; the first, or “lost,” is common to all men alike as born into this world. The other, “guilty,” relates to conducts or acts; and hence, each man has his own guilt, or sins, to account for to God. Now, this twofold pressure on the conscience, is blessedly met by the death of Christ. Scripture declares that “the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Heb. 10:2). Observe carefully the expression, “conscience of sins”: what does it mean? Why, simply, that there is nothing between me and God; that God has no controversy with me in respect of sins; they are, for me, completely put away, and my conscience is perfectly purged. Now, mark, consciousness of sin, which means that I know I have an evil nature in me, is a different thing altogether from “no more conscience of sins.” Knowing that I have an evil nature in me, need not, and ought not to give me a bad conscience. Yielding to that evil nature, indulging it, or giving way to it, will surely soil my conscience, and make it bad practically, so that I cannot stand against the accusations of the devil.
But I can well suppose some one of my readers, to whom all this is quite new (and it is for such I write), earnestly asking this question, “How can I ever get that liberty from this evil nature, which I am conscious is in me, and under the dominion of which, I fear, I really am at this moment?” Well, there are few questions more important; and if the answer is not known in the soul, its history is the monotonous circle of self, self, self: the blessed fact is, that, not only are the sins of the believer all put away that his conscience may be perfectly purged, so that there should be nothing between him and God; but his old man has been crucified with Christ on the cross; and God does not regard the believer now as in that status at all, but in Christ risen from the dead, in whose death that old man was judged and condemned. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6). “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3).
Now I quite admit there is a difference in the way in which these truths reach the conscience, and I will endeavor to point it out here.
With respect to the first, namely, the question of my sins, believing on the Son of God, I have the testimony of God, in the word, to my conscience, that all my sins are forgiven, never to be remembered any more. This is not, in any sense, feeling or experience. No doubt such will flow from it, and the more so in proportion as faith is simple; but in no sense do I believe because I experience or feel it; but on the contrary, I feel it as I believe it. The pillars of my faith are the atoning death of the Son of God on the one side; and the blessed witness of the Holy Ghost on the other. “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us . . . their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:15, 17).
There are three great objects on which the eye of faith rests.
1st. The cross, and the garden with its new sepulcher, hewn out of the rock, wherein the blessed One was laid,and out of which He was raised and glorified.
2nd. The Father’s throne in the heavens, on which He who bore my sins, is now seated—soon to be on His own throne. And
3rd. The blessed witness of the Holy Ghost, the record, the testimony of the living God, which endureth for ever.
With regard to the other truth, namely, how we are delivered from the dominion of sin; experience has every place, that is, it has to be learned by experience; and this process leads to discovering these three things
1st. That in us, that is in our flesh there dwells no good thing.
2nd. That there is in us a new nature as well as (yet quite distinct from) the old.
3rd. That, notwithstanding this, the old is too strong for us, and deliverance from it is looked for outside of self altogether, and from another; this issues in, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”; it is the song of the prisoner bird, now liberated—it is its first note as it flies; it is not its highest, nor its every note; it is the starting-post of the soul, not its goal or prize. Perhaps many souls have recently found this new liberty and life—if so, the Lord be praised; but do not, dear reader, allow yourself to suppose for a moment, that it is anything more than the normal state of a Christian. It is not, I suppose, to be wondered at, that those who considered it a necessary thing to be tied and bound with the chain of their sins, for so many years, should regard their newly found liberty (if they have found it) as something wonderfully beyond what any one else had ever known—and the highest and greatest good.
There is one further point, and when I have touched on it, I feel I shall have cleared the way for my subject.
Have you ever looked at two scriptures, to which I shall now allude? namely, Rom. 6:9-11: “Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now what does that mean? Why simply this, that faith accepts this wondrous fact, that the believer has been crucified with Christ, and he accordingly recognizes himself to be dead. The Lord give us thus simply by faith to keep our reckonings with God.
The other scripture is, 2 Cor. 4:10: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”
What does this mean? Why, this simply, that Paul constantly applied the cross, the dying of Jesus, to himself, so as to keep in the silence of death, sin, that was in him. Oh, how one’s soul ought to adore in the presence of such wondrous liberty and power, secured through the precious death of Him who was God over all blessed for evermore. This, then, is the realization of faith, as the other is the recognition of faith. The Lord give us to be established in these realities, that we may be free to listen.
That we may listen to His voice we must be in possession of both liberty and rest. If you have not repose, you cannot give Him an audience. I do not mean to deny for a moment that there is a previous exercise connected with the silencing of nature, the fading of other sounds which were wont to fill the ear of the soul; but this is the dying of what intrudes, in order that the disengaged ear may be turned without distraction to Him instead of a morbid heart that wastes a weary, restless life away by feeding on itself.
There is a repose in one who listens well, that is very blessed to witness—there was something of it at least in Mary, when she sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word. Her very attitude was restful; she sat, and heard.
I do not deny the activity of life, either in its earnestness to obtain, or its readiness to surrender; but I contend it ought to be restful activity—an activity which is kept alive and sustained by an object outside itself.
“As ground, when parched with summer heat,
Gladly drinks in the welcome shower;
So would we, listening at His feet,
Receive His words, and feel His power.”
I shall here note one or two results of listening in this spirit.
First, there is abstractedness of soul, other sounds which otherwise might influence, now fail to interest. The ear is turned to catch every note of the voice of the Charmer; and, oh, what a voice that is! His enemies, even declared, that never man spake like Him.
The bride (when the day of union had not as yet dawned and whose affection is restless) is spell-bound as she listens in the twilight, and announces with rapture “the voice of my beloved,” . . . “my beloved spake”—her whole soul turns to hear what the bridegroom of her heart has to say.
Next to abstraction is absorption, entire occupation of soul; the ear, not only bent to hear, but filled with the sound of His voice; and that, too, not as one who is apart from me, but One to whom I am united.
The eye of the soul is exercised as well as the ear: the voice of the object delights and engages the ear; the Person Himself delights the eye, as it were of the soul. It is a wonderful thing to know that the heavens are opened to the faith of a believer now, and Jesus in glory, pointed out by the indwelling Holy Ghost, to the one who looks up with steadfast gaze. Oh, it is everything to have the eye on the object. What distinguishes Christianity from what went before it, is an object outside of us, and power in us: Jesus in the glory of God, and the Holy Ghost, who dwells in us.
If the eye of the soul is turned in, the object is not seen. Failure will necessitate this, but self-judgment will clear the way out of it; so that the object may again fill the eye: self- judgment, will hinder self-occupation, and promote earnestness and purpose of heart. Self-judgment is not an act, once for all performed, but a continuous habit of soul. Oh, what a blessed sight for faith, that transcendent Person, that glorified Man, that mighty Savior! Well may we pray,
“O fix our earnest gaze
So wholly, Lord, on Thee.”
Let me again impress upon you the fact, that we do not behold the Savior in glory, as apart from Him, but as those who are united to Him, one with Him. How very blessed to know, I am one with my object. I shall only touch upon one or two consequences of beholding.
First, as we behold we are transformed into the same image (2 Cor. 3:18); that is, as we are occupied with Christ, where He is, we become like Him; the moral features of Him who is our object, are transferred to those who, by the Spirit, behold Him in glory. Stephen is a beautiful instance of this; he acted like Christ in the midst of the most trying circumstances. (See Acts 7.)
Next, we find that the object in glory forms the affections suited to itself. Herein lies the difference between Christian affection and heart-longing, and that which is found in the Canticles, in the latter, the bride does not possess the profound repose and sweetness of affection that flows from a relationship already formed, known, and fully appreciated. Previous to the day of union, the relationship sought for, was the consequence of the state of the heart, but now that the day has dawned, the state of the heart, and the affections are the consequence of the relationship. The same is observable in the Psalms; yearning, panting after God, are all to be found there; and the earnestness might well put us to shame: but the relationship, as well as the object of faith, and the power to enjoy the one, and behold the other, are wanting. In the Song of Songs, the bride is not united to the bridegroom; and in the Psalms, the Remnant, whose experience is so blessedly depicted in various scenes and circumstances, is as yet outside of all that which will, ere long, crown their hopes, aspirations, and yearnings.
The feet pursue the path marked out by His blessed footsteps, who has gone before. For this, divine energy is needed. The blessed apostle, who knew Christ in glory, heard His voice speak to Him from glory, and had seen Him in glory, follows Him. “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The mark denoted the spot, as it were, whither he pressed; the prize was that for which he ran. He did not think of his eye, or his feet. That on which his eye rested, and for which his feet pressed on, was everything to him: purpose of heart, earnestness, energy, there must be, as well as self-abnegation, every step of the course; diligence of soul and vigilance of heart, too; but if Christ seen in glory, and known in glory, does not form and maintain these in the heart, I know of no other motive or power. The Lord keep us hearing, and beholding and following His own Son; that the tastes, suited to Christ, may be both formed and kept alive in us; and we ourselves thus divinely strengthened to refuse everything of the first man, because we are so satisfied with the Second Man; and that we may show forth His virtues, and glories, and excellences, in a crooked and perverse generation among whom we shine as lights (heavenly bodies) in the world, holding forth the word of life.
Labor and Rest
Mark 6:31, 32
There is a word here of sweet and precious import, and full of deep comfort.
The context presents a scene of labor and toil. The Lord had called the twelve, and sent them out two by two for their journey, without anything save a staff, “no scrip, no bread, no money.” They went forth, they preached, they cast out devils, they raised the sick; it was a time of work and incessant toil, but a time of labor which resulted in fruit.
In v. 30 we find the apostles returning, gathering themselves together, and rehearsing to Jesus all they had done and taught. He had sent them out empty, and they had returned full, and now they spread before the precious Master, as it were, their riches, the proceeds and fruit of their labor and toil; and this draws forth the heart of the blessed Lord, ever overflowing in love and tenderness and compassion for hungry multitudes and weary servants—and here are His gracious words, “Come ye yourselves into a desert place and rest awhile.” Now let us note how it is not, “go and rest,” but “come!” Oh! The sweetness of that word “Come!” Assuredly it is not the desert place that would constitute the rest, necessary, yea called for as it is at times for all His workmen, but the rest is connected with the company, with the presence of Jesus. He accompanies us there, and hence the rest, His own bright and blessed company secures that which neither the comforts of a fertile valley, full of springs of water, could supply, nor the barrenness and aridity of a howling desert, could hinder. May every beloved laborer then remember it is “come and rest.” Then there is another precious thought, the Master knows well the snares of service, He sees how easily the poor weak vessel could be ensnared into giving service that place which alone belongs to Himself, how soon the work would take the place of occupation with Him, hence I am sure He often isolates us, saying, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place.”
Further we are told that “there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” In this day of rush and ceaseless toil, how often is it so? But we need to be reminded that “preaching is not Christ,” and the Lord’s workmen must have time for feeding on Christ and meditation in His word, if their service is to be of any real profit. The quality of our service we fear is in this day but little thought of compared with the quantity; the quality will indeed be poor and wretched in the extreme, if the laborer’s own soul is not nourished and fed upon the true Bread that came down out of (,z6) heaven. How loving then of our own Master to say, “Come and rest,” and how blessed when He takes His poor, fainting, failing workmen by the hand, aside, apart into the desert place, shutting them out from all around, and shutting them in to Himself, that with a mind undisturbed, and a heart undistracted, they may rest with Himself, thus gathering up new strength and fresh courage to go forth with and for Him.
But there is also here a beautiful instance of the deep compassion of the Savior’s heart, which was ever touched by distress and want. We are told the people “outwent them and came together unto him.” Yes, Jesus was the attraction! They were seeking Him. How many such testimonies do the gospels contain to His tenderness and pity and accessibility! So we see how He yearned over a scattered flock of sheep destitute of a shepherd’s care. Though it be a desert place, He will cause it to yield bread enough and to spare for them, thus He feeds them and sends them away, He Himself departing into a mountain to pray. Now we have a picture of the present and the future. Jesus has gone on high into the place of intercession; during His absence the wind and storm and waves of difficulties, vicissitudes, are felt; yet He is not absent from His own in interest or heart. Then His poor disciples proved it, for in the fourth watch (the darkest part of night on the eve of day dawn) He comes to them walking on the water! Oh! The majesty of the scene, which sets before us the tender, compassionate, unfailing Friend, at the same time the mighty God, “God—over all, blessed evermore.”
Have You?
“Death proves the folly of all human wisdom and foresight, of all human grandeur”—a common observation, little acted on, but always true. As it is said of wisdom, ‘death and destruction have heard the fame thereof with their ears.’ They cannot give positive wisdom, but they can negatively show that only what does not belong to mortal man has any value. Man establishes his family, perpetuates his name, but he is gone; nothing stays the hand of death. Ransom from that is out of man’s power. There is a morning coming when the righteous will have the upper hand of those who seem wise as regards this world. Death feeds on these, or, as neglectors of God, they are subjected to the righteous, when His judgment comes. But the power of God in whom the righteous trust is above the power of death. But further, Christ having died, the Christian’s connection with this world has ceased, save as a pilgrim through it. He has the sentence of death in himself. He knows no man after the flesh, no, not even Christ. His associations with the world are closed, save as Christ’s servant in it. He reckons himself dead. He is crucified with Christ, yet lives; but it is Christ lives in him, and he lives the life he lives in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him, so that he is delivered from this present world. Oh the folly of laying up and making oneself great and counting on a future in a world where death reigns, and in the things to which its power applies. Man being in honor abides not. How difficult, even if happy and heavenly-minded in Christ as to one’s own joys, not to look upon the things that are seen, to think that the wisdom, and talents, and success, and approval of men is simply nothing, the food of death; and that all the moral question lies behind, save so far as these may have deceived men! The saint has to watch still, not to be afraid when success accompanies those who do not accept the cross. We await God’s judgment of things in power; we exercise it in conscience. There is no divine understanding in the man whose heart is in the glory of the world. Men will praise him. How well he has got on, settled his children, raised himself in his position. The fairest names will be given to it. He has no understanding. His heart is in what feeds death, and that death, weighs it. All the motives of the world are weighed by death. After all, in them man is only as the beasts that perish, with more care”—What a solemn witness is this, my dear reader? Is it possible to call it in question? Is it not true? Suffer a poor fellow-passenger on life’s great highway to ask you with real concern and affection, what are you living for? Whither are you hastening? If your heart is in the glory of the world, there is no divine understanding in you. Scripture says—“the world passeth away and the lust thereof” (1 John 2:17).
Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins having been washed away in His precious blood? If so, permit me to ask you, are your associations with the world closed, by Christ’s death, save as Christ’s servant in it? Have you learned that as a Christian your place is thus described—“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
“God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).
How blessed to have great in our eyes Him who hung on that cross: and to see the world that crucified Him in its true character in that cross; to glory in it, happy by this means to be dead to the world, to have it ended, crucified, put to shame for the heart—
“His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spread o’er His body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.”
“the Word of the Lord”
Jeremiah 22:29
Assuredly it becomes the Christian, at a moment like this, to hear “the word of the Lord.” In one sense, who else can hear it? He is pleased, in His great grace, to open the blind eye and unstop the deaf ear by such a solemn and loud- speaking call as the present prevailing sickness, we had almost said plague. Oh that this might be the case in many instances at this time, will be the earnest cry and prayer of faith.
The Christian is not of the earthly family dispensationally, nor of the world morally, by Christ’s death the Christian is crucified to the world and the world to him, his resorting to the world is doing violence to the cross. He is not of the world even as Christ is not of the world. Alas! how little this barrier of death is owned, even in doctrine, and hence the failure in practice. Alas! too many of God’s saints belong to the world on principle; the church-world and the world-church is the order of the day; the religion of the world and the world of religion keep step in giant stride and funeral march in these last times.
The Christian has a positive status, as well as a negative one; he belongs positively to heaven now, he is going to where in faith and spirit and affection he is already; he is blessed now with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; this is not the position nor the description of the position of the earthly family. I feel that this introduction must be entered into, rightly to understand the application to a Christian now of the Lord’s voice in either pestilence, or famine, or sword.
If I understand correctly what is the singular and unique position of a Christian, I could not apply to him, save in a moral way, passages of scripture which contemplate directly the earthly people—yet in a moral way such a passage as that which heads this paper does very distinctly apply, as well as all such kindred passages.
Further, I am assured that in proportion to the departure of the Christian from his own proper position, calling, and hope, so is intensified the call of the word of the Lord in this moral sense.
Is it then not gross darkness to be now insensible to the present rod, His appointed stroke?
Let us not fear to plainly state the truth. The so-called church and the world have become one Christendom, which is fast ripening for judgment. The world is an empty, lying pageant. The so-called church loves to be patronized by it, and caressed by it, and in return, adopts its principles, habits, and ways. Alas! how many true, beloved saints and servants of Christ seem asleep or indifferent to this. Has, then, the fact that “the Lord’s voice crieth unto the city” no solemn moral significance at this time in this direction?
The angel of death has been stalking through the land, neither prince nor peasant is spared; it has been a solemn moment, may God open His people’s ears to hear. Oh, is He not saying to us, “hear ye the rod.” Shall we listen, shall we hear? One passage of scripture very distinctly comes before me in connection with the Lord’s word to Christians, namely, “Hear me, ye Levites; sanctify now yourselves, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place” (2 Chron. 29:5). It is in this very especial way, at this present moment, the Lord’s voice speaks to Christians. How solemn to see the tendency on all sides to coquette with the world and adopt its ways, both in the worship and service of God. Alas! some who speak loudly against it in worship, seem inclined to adopt it in measure, in service, and Christian work. How fully the heart responds to the following words of a servant of Christ, just recently put forth: “Now I desire to profess my full confidence in God’s word, as the only means by which God’s work is to be done. I believe that it is still ‘the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth’ (Rom. 1:16). That it is still ‘able to make wise unto salvation’ (2 Tim. 3:15); that ‘it shall accomplish that which Jehovah pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto he sent it’ (Isa. 55:11). I am not tempted therefore to adopt any of the modern methods of the nineteenth century, which all proceed on the implied assumption that the word of God has grown weak and has lost its ancient power. No, ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost.’ I have no apologies to make for the truth of His word, and I have no commission to treat with its enemies. I am charged to ‘preach the word,’ and bidden to have faith in its power, while forewarned that the time will come when men will not endure ‘sound doctrine’ (2 Tim. 4:2, 3). It is not my business therefore to study the tastes of such by what are called attractive services, which mean that the music is to get longer and longer and the sermons shorter and shorter, because the time has come when ‘men will not endure sound doctrine.”
Thank God for such a faithful, outspoken testimony. The need for a firm front as to this is now plainly seen. Alas! there are Christians who seem, just now, to be “drifting away,” an easy but dangerous process; some time back, the scriptures of truth, the word of God, seemed to be their one weapon, the word of God and the Holy Ghost their one confidence; but now they seem disposed to go with the times and tide, and the thin edge of the wedge of the world is pressed in in some little way, in some innocent innovation—a musical instrument, or a magic lantern, or some little beginning—avowedly to meet the growing taste of the age, which ever is the precursor of greater and further departure. O beloved fellow-Christians, let us hear the voice of the Lord at this time! Is He not speaking loudly to His own? Is He not distinctly saying, “Consider your ways”; “Carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place”?
Alas! has not Christian position and testimony become neutralized by world-bordering and worldliness, in the spirit of it as in the letter of it, and is there not a great danger of being seduced by the intoxicating cup that is passing around—the mixed, “cup of fornication”?
May the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, called, commissioned, and sent by Him from glory, lift up their voices without fear, may they see that none are out of reach of the danger. They must expect to be reproached and despised as not up to date, and so forth; be it so: may they prefer the contempt and sneer of the world and the worldling to their smile and approbation; it is the part of the servant of Christ to look for and to seek his dear Master’s approval, and to await that day when all shall be made manifest.
May the voice of the Lord be heard at this time, in the city, in the midst of man’s proud haunts of business and of pleasure, with the corresponding recklessness and indifference to God; but let us remember that if the saints of God refuse to hear it, in its moral application to them, they are effectually helping to bind faster upon the poor ungodly world the chains of darkness flung around it, as well as to stop the ears of men to the solemn cry addressed to the earth at this time: “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.”
The Heavenly Comforter and the Heavenly Home
John 16:7
It is very solemn to reflect upon a fact to which attention has been very pointedly directed long ere this, namely, that the more the truth comes out in its clearness and fulness, and the more developed becomes the state of the external professing church, it is only too evident that in the dark ages, prior to the time of the Reformation, the full truth of the gospel, the Holy Ghost as the present power of the church of God, and the present standing and calling before God of the Christian individually, was not possessed or known.
After the long dark reign of Popery, with its records of monstrosity and iniquity, the blessed God in His grace wrought by the Reformation, which was indeed as daybreak after a weary night of darkness. Then it was that a partial recovery was reached, as regards the gospel of his grace; and the value of Christ’s blessed work was brought to light; yet how much it was vitiated by what has been termed the “suckers” of Popery, those who have weighed the history must know. It is well known that the theology of justification, at the time of the Reformation, set forth God as an appeased Judge, and Christ as a Savior, in whose heart the love was. This was the extent to which it went, there was no thought of the presence on earth in person of God the Holy Ghost, consequent upon full and accomplished redemption, and Christ glorified as Man at the right hand of God.
In these latter times, God has, in infinite grace, again wrought, and the result of his sovereign goodness is the truth now clearly and plainly set forth, namely, that God the Holy Ghost, a divine Person, now has come down to dwell, whether in the believer’s body individually, or in the whole house of God on earth; so that Christianity is characterized by His presence and indwelling. The scripture is plain and distinct as to this, so much so that it is written, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). In setting this forth it is thus described: “It is not a question of what he a may be afterwards, or whether he is a sheep, or, so to speak, "ÛJä; but even if God be working in him to lead him to Christ, he is not yet His in fact until he has His Spirit.”
. . . “All men are Christ’s in a certain sense; all His sheep are His own in another: but none can be said to be His when they have not His Spirit” (Letters of J. N. D.).
Now the first great truth which is presented by the blessed Lord in connection with the promised sending of the Comforter, is his own departure out of this world. What a thought for the heart—the absence of Christ! The manner in which the blessed One speaks of it and refers to it, is worthy of our adoring contemplation. He was about to “depart out of this world to the Father”; again, “I go my way to him that sent me”; “I go away and come again unto you. If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I said I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” Think of all that these precious words bring before the soul as to the Father and the Son; and the infinite grace that gives us to be interested in His own glory, in His happiness, and in it, to find our own.
Alas, beloved reader, how little is it so! What a small thing it seems to say, “He is not here,” and how well we all seem to get on without Him here, save, indeed, when some stormy wind or wild commotion shakes our earth-bound nest; then it may be in some poor sense, selfishness asserts itself in an expressed distress, not because He is not here, but because of the contrary winds and waves. But oh, that we might be conscious of the blank for His own sake! Then, and not till then, shall we enter into the greatness of His gift, sent by Himself as the ascended, glorified Man.
Further, it is the sense of His absence here that induces in the heart the affectionate desire to know Him where He is, in His own proper glory, which can only be by the Holy Ghost sent by Him from the Father, as well the longing to be with Him, which may be at any moment by His coming again to take us to Himself, or by our departing and being with Christ, which is far better. In this longing, which has Christ for its motive and object, we see the reflection of that desire of His own heart, thus so tenderly expressed, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). Thus then we see how that the absence of our blessed Lord from this world is presented in the forefront of our subject. There are three points in which this expediency of His going away will appear to us.
First: It was only by the Holy Ghost they could know about, and have communion with Him in the heavenly glory He was going into. I need not say that it was only by the Holy Ghost they could be united to Him in heaven; but that I do not treat of here, as it does not form the subject of John’s writings; it is, as we know, fully unfolded and applied in those of Paul.
Now this is a truth of the deepest moment for the heart sensible of the absence here of its beloved Lord. Its path here is one of increasing retirement and isolation because He is not here, not that it would be inactive in His interests, for they, in truth, now constitute the one object of the life of strangership where He is not; Himself in heaven, His interests on earth.
Next, the expediency of His departing is set forth in the fact that they should have on earth God the Holy Ghost, both in and with them; thereby the testimony of Christ’s deep affection and love for His own would be maintained, and by the Holy Ghost all this would be both entered into and enjoyed. Moreover, the blessed Spirit dwelling in them would be the source and power of those divine and heavenly affections of which Christ Himself is the object.
Thirdly, by the Holy Ghost alone as the divine power, suited testimony would be given here on earth. This we know on the authority of the risen Lord Himself in these words, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Let us note this well, that a new power was to fill and energize the vessels of testimony, whether the testimony related to the earthly side of Christ’s glory, or whether it pertained to the heavenly glory, in which He, the blessed One, now is; of whatever character or nature the witness was, the power for rendering it should be the Holy Ghost in and with the vessel. The twelve were to testify of what they had seen of Jesus on earth, Paul was to witness of Him whom He had seen in heavenly glory. We may here well ask how far have we divinely taken in the immensity of this grace? The heavenly Savior and Lord is, alas, but little known as such. The drift of the present tide is this side of the cross and death of our precious Lord and Master; the Lord knows how little prepared any of us are for such words as these, “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16). Oh that His own voice, in its mighty power by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, might be heard clearly in all our souls, saying as it were to all of us, “Let us go over to the other side,” and then assuredly, like the people in John 6, we shall find Him in true heavenly order, “on the other side.”
There is one other point of real comfort in connection with the presence of the Comforter consequent upon the absence of Christ. It is striking how, in the Gospel of John, the personality of the blessed Spirit is brought out, when the absence of Jesus is fully announced by the blessed Lord Himself. He is set forth rather as power in the early chapters, but in the last chapters He is spoken of as a divine Person throughout, He is the Paraclete (A"D"680J@H), the Comforter.
This term, Paraclete, occurs five times in the New Testament; four of these are in the Gospel of John, and applied to the blessed Spirit; once we find it in the Epistle of John (1 John 2), and there it is applied to Christ, as we know Advocate there is Paraclete.
All this is most interesting to the heart, as bringing before us in a very distinct and striking way, His personality. Oh that our hearts may more sensibly appreciate the companionship of such a heavenly Guide, and rejoice in such comfort as He brings! Further, this blessed Person is found abundantly set forth as such in the Acts, called those of the apostles, but in reality of the Holy Ghost; there we see Him ever in personality, supernatural, supreme, directing, controlling the servants of Christ in everything, thus establishing, in part, the words of the Lord Jesus Himself in John 14, “When he the Spirit of truth is come.” Some at least, who read this, will note what force His personality derives from the expression “he” not it: in the language of revelation z,6,\<@l (he).
It is not possible to over-rate, at the present moment the value and importance of this great truth; the presence here on earth of a divine Person, sent from Christ in His own proper glory in heaven; this, along with accomplished redemption and the coming of the Lord, form the great distinguishing present characteristic of Christianity, and its specific future as well. It is no question of acquirement of knowledge in any sense, but the heavenly position and power of the Christian; and Christianity cannot be apprehended, or entered into in faith where this great truth has not its place; and I judge that, at the present moment, there is a tendency to let it slip, and thus to drop down to an order other than what is heavenly, an order which does not “go beyond earthly things, though earthly things with God—the desert now [not Canaan], and the desert to blossom as a rose, but not Canaan.” Surely the Lord would have all our hearts exercised before Him as to this, that the heavenly Comforter might conduct our souls in faith to that blest place where Jesus is, fill and satisfy them with Him who is there, so as to detain our affections in that scene itself, and enable us in this world where Jesus is not, without effort of any kind, without a gloomy or sad face, but simply and naturally, in heavenly brightness, to reflect its light on all the darkness and dreariness around.
The Rejected Man
1 Chronicles 12
Among those who were gathered to David at Ziklag were characters full of deep instruction for present times. The center of that despised company, and the light and beauty of that exiled spot, the rejected man of that day, beautiful in appearance yet contemned, was a type of that blessed living One on high, who is the rejected Man of this day of boasted resources and might, the motto of which is, “I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” The first thought therefore that presents itself, as we meditate over this scripture, is concerning a truth now well-nigh practically obsolete, namely, a rejected Lord! Alas, how little thought of, even! And as to the few who once owned it, or it may be now doctrinally own it, what are they corporately and individually, with some bright exceptions, but a testimony to how little it formed them?
Now with regard to these Gadites, and men of Issachar, it is interesting and blessed to see that the combination of their characteristics supplies us with an example of that state of soul in the saints now, which alone can act suitably to our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of His rejection.
The first notable feature in the sons of Gad is that they were a separated company, they had gone out, not come in; how important to see that this is the very responsibility of the saint to-day, in order to his being a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use. (Cp.1 Chron. 12:8 with 2 Tim. 2:21.) May the Lord give us understanding to see that communion is a greater thing in His eyes than usefulness, and that communion is the alone divine spring of all usefulness and service suitable to God. How blessed, how pleasing to Him to find a separated company like the sons of Gad, or a sanctified vessel, whose purest joy and deepest delight is suitability to His Person, to Himself. Then further, it is said of these separated sons of Gad, that they were men of might, men of war; they could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains. How blessed to see that in their separation was found strength, courage, skill, boldness, alacrity; these are the qualities of a separated heart to Christ, and His Person is worthy of them all.
But further, how solemn to observe that ere any of these qualities are found in exercise, Jordan must be crossed, and that when it had overflown all its banks (v. 15); so that these sons of Gad, separated unto David, filled with strength, courage, skill, boldness, and alacrity, must pass, as it were, through death, ere they could serve. And beloved reader, is it not so to-day? “If any man serve me, let him follow me.” In very truth, herein is that which gives scope for all true devotedness to the Lord, death must be known practically as passed and carried by us (see 2 Cor. 4:10). And so it has ever been, whether in type in other days, or in the power of the Holy Ghost in life and reality today—death in the power of life is the secret of all true following of Christ, as well as the secret of all true acting for Christ. Elisha’s newly acquired mantle of power, received from the One to whom he separated himself (see 2 Kings 2:2-14), leads him, ere he uses it, to the same spot as these lion-faced sons of Gad. Oh how deeply solemn and yet how true! May the saints be more really impressed with the reality of it! Jordan alone could open the door for me to reach my Lord in His separated sphere in heaven; Jordan alone can open the door for me to follow Him in suitability to His rejection on earth; and Jordan alone can give to those qualities before spoken of, that subduedness and mellowness so in keeping with the vessels of the Christ, devoted to Him in every turn of the heart, but efficient for Him as death in the power of life is working in them.
Lastly, it will be found that what characterized the men of Issachar, marks the saint of to-day, according to whether he is a son of Gad or not; that is to say, if you are not a son of Gad, you cannot be a man of Issachar; if you are not separated to David, with the qualities of such, but accepting Jordan, when its banks were overflown, too, as the only path wherein to follow David, you cannot have “understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do.” And so it is true now, that no one can know the Lord’s mind as to the saints, who is not suitable to the true David. What can be more excellent, first Christ, then His own, and the only way to know the mind of our Lord about His interests on earth is to be truly devoted to Himself, in communion with Him, and walking in His path, as we follow on through the desert of this world.
Thus it is evident that nothing can please the Lord in this the day of His rejection and shame among men, but a remnant wholly separated to Himself; and because so, empowered, in communion with Him by the Holy Ghost—their alone strength, courage, skill, boldness, and alacrity—to walk His path down here, accepting death, His death, as the only door out of all visible things, to Himself, whether for rest and enjoyment with Him on high, or for true-hearted following below. May the Lord, in rich grace, find and call out such a company in these days.
“Not Here” . . . “Taken up”
Matthew 28:6; Acts 1:2
The above great realities are the truths to which the Holy Ghost would give special prominence in a day like this. The Christ is hidden in the heavens; His work finished and completed; the earth, the scene of His rejection and murder, inhabited by the descendants and generation of those who cast Him out; the course of the age all downward in its ripening progress for judgment. To the faith and affection of the new man the words of the angel are most significant, for they close for it the scene here; not only is all the bad under judgment in Adam, but all that was beautiful on earth has terminated in His death, whose life was taken from the earth.
The more I meditate on this the more impressed I am with our general insensibility. Oh! how little it seems to affect any of us that “He is not here.” If we were under the power of this stupendous reality, it would operate upon us, as it seems to me, in a two-fold way, namely:
First, it would affect us in the place where He was, but is not. The scene of His rejection and refusal could never be a home of rest to us; His absence leaves a blank in this world for the heart that knows Him. The generation of His murderers are in power, and another is on the throne of this world. True; we are here, though He is not; still, let it never be forgotten that we are here as sent by Him, and from Him, and for Him. “As my Father hath sent me even so send I you.”
Secondly, it would affect the place in respect of us; its brightest scenes and days would be clouded and tarnished by the absence of our Lord.
Alas! how little it is so; and yet how well we understand it in our path and history below! How well we can enter into the blank and desolation which the heart is made conscious of in the brightest day on earth, if we have lost from the heart a beloved object—what is it all to us? Can any alleviation be found in the place where our Savior is not?
May the Lord make His absence such a reality to His beloved people that nothing can comfort their hearts save the presence of the Holy Ghost, whose blessed mission it is to testify of Christ, the glorified One. It is this truth which gives tone and character to the true path and witness of the saint to- day; in the absence of His Lord, and in the dark night of this world, he seeks to pass on without an interest here save Christ’s. What part can such an one take in the projects and schemes, the policies or politics of the age? No citizen of the world is he, but a stranger here—ready, it is true, to be used by all; but absolutely refusing to be made part of the order of things. Alas, alas! how sorrowfully evident it is on every side that this peculiar and separate path is either lost sight of or abandoned by the saints to-day; the Demas spirit rules with an iron sway, and increasingly so. Hearts refuse and resent the truths which spoil their hopes and projects here below, which are now, as it was in another day, advantages and rest this side Jordan. (See Num. 32:1-5.)
The second scripture of our subject is that which inaugurates and endears our new home to us. “He was taken up.” This assures me where He is, as the other tells me where He is not. Heaven is now His home, and, blessed for ever be His name, it is the home of His own now and for ever. When He was upon earth, heaven was opened upon Him; now that He is in heaven, it is opened for us: “Our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens.” Another has most blessedly written, “Heaven is the metropolis of Christianity, Rome and Jerusalem must have no place with Paul, except as to bearing with the one in affection, and being ready, when he might, to evangelize the other.” It is very blessed to meditate on the fact that “He was taken up.” It defines our present home on high, where He is, and it positively defines our path and ways below, as the words, “He is not here,” negatively indicate them; for our path and ways on earth are to be characterized by our home and place with Christ in heaven. “He was taken up”—and so have the hearts and affections of those who have tasted His love been taken up along with Him, and the day is coming when they themselves, too, shall be taken up (“caught up,” 1 Thess. 4), and thus be ever with the Lord. This it is they wait for now; they wait for Him to whom they are united in glory; the place where He is not, the scene of their trial and pilgrimage, yet trodden with uncomplaining heart and unweary feet—Himself in spiritual manifestation with them, the Comforter present in their bodies, assuring their hearts of Himself, testifying of Him, taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto you, glorifying Him. What a path! What a mission! What a calling! How miserably short of it are we, His people of to-day, distracted and diverted on every side. Lord, close our eyes and ears to things and sounds where Thou art not, and open and fix them on Thyself where thou art, for Thy name’s sake.
The Position and Ways of the Separated Ones
I have made a distinction between the position and path of separation, and I believe rightly; and I am confirmed in this by observation, for I see clearly at this moment that many “take the ground,” as it is called, who have no sense whatever, nor have they been, in ever so little a degree, exercised in the solemn consequences of it, or of that which may be called the path and ways of separated people; nor is this surprising, when we remember with sorrow that there are those who teach and lead others, who have never as yet even allowed that a path and ways practically of distinct separateness are the inevitable consequences of the position. The wile of the enemy at the present time seems to be in blinding the eyes of saints so effectually as to render them obtuse to a “manner of life” suitable to what the apostle calls “my doctrine.” Now, I believe it is only due to the Lord, and the interests of His blessed testimony, fully to admit the possibility in many instances of an uneven pressing of the “manner of life,” and by this I mean that it may be there has not been an equal prominence given to the producing power, namely, “my doctrine.” I am also free to own that perhaps the state and condition of souls has not been enough taken account of, and that in every case it must be the heart before the feet; this must be increasingly felt to be a point of the deepest moment, yet fully admitting all that might be demanded on these heads, it is now very manifest that there are those whose objections and refusal of the path and ways of separation spring from a source and origin far deeper than that recited. For example, when the habits and principles of the world are appealed to as the guide and director of those who have, professedly at least, taken an outside position, when it is said that we must order our homes and families according to our station in life, that we must dress, for example, according to our position in society, is it not evident that the “manner of life” is rudely severed from “my doctrine”?
Now, it is of no use to urge a general inconsistency—I am willing sorrowfully to admit this; but the sad part in reality is an avowed principle of worldliness which is fast making those who contend for it, while ecclesiastically holding on by the position of separation, a reproach and a by-word; and when I say a principle of worldliness, I mean a line of conduct drawn from the spirit and ways of this age, instead of that flowing from the position of full and complete blessedness in which the grace of God has set us.
It does often seem to one as if the cross in its breadth and magnitude was not apprehended. It is boasted in, and truly, as the ground of forgiveness; but how little is it seen as the end of man and of the world morally before God. How little is it looked at as that “whereby the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”!
If, as a saint now, I am truly laid hold upon by Christ, what is my position? Do I not date the birth of my new history from the risen One? Am I not part of the “much fruit” which results from the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying? Am I not united to Christ, the glorified Man? Is not all this a great fact which faith accepts to-day? But if so, are there no ways, habits of life, practice suitable thereto?
If it be pressed that because “our citizenship is in the heavens,” it is not here, but that on the contrary, pilgrim ways and manners, unworldliness in spirit and in fact should mark all our relationships on earth; are we to be held up as extreme persons? Alas! for that testimony which would amount to little better than a correct creed in boasting of Paul’s doctrine, while adopting the world’s spirit, ways, and habits in the manner of life.
It is not attempted to be denied that good cause may have been given by some in their ignorance and indiscretion to fear the introduction of visionary and imaginative notions laying hold, in fanciful power, upon morbid minds, and thus really injuring the truth of God; yet this is very different from the decided opposition to every kind of practical separation now offered by those who, on the contrary, maintain as a principle that it is the duty of every Christian to keep their worldly status, and to make it the guide of their ways and habits of life. All who plead for heavenly-mindedness and unworldliness in this respect being branded by some as ascetic, by others as transcendental; while the true cause of the dislike is, it is feared, to be found in the fact that such are determined to keep the world, and that a species of antinomianism is fast laying hold of souls, under the wings of which credit for a correct ecclesiastical position is both claimed and enjoyed, while all that surrounded those so claiming it, in their previous life and associations, are not only maintained, but contended for and justified as suitable to their class and rank and the requirements of the so-called proprieties of the age.
Now, it is fully admitted that there are differences of relationship, or our natural relationships in the world: there are husband and wife, parent and child, servant and master, and these are all God-ordered and to be divinely maintained by the saints. No question is raised as to the continuance of these relationships, nor can they be done violence to without the condemnation of the word of the Lord; the absence of natural affection is one of the marks of the last days, and any who manifest it are ungodly and unspiritual. But this is not the real question, but the motive and directing power in which they are to be maintained; and he who, although strenuously advocating orthodoxy, imports into his responsibilities, in respect of such relationships, either the spirit or ways of the age, is a worldling at heart. The Lord Jesus Christ, the risen and glorified One, is the only true wisdom, motive, and power of the saint, for these as for all else. In Him the saint of today is “a new creation,” and “as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
May the Lord open the eyes of His saints to see the vastness of the field of blessing into which His grace has introduced them, that, as separated to God positionally, the character, ways, and habits of it practically may be recognized and joyfully adopted more and more amongst us, for His name’s sake.
The Great Supper and Discipleship
The contrast between the two great subjects of Luke 14, is both instructive and solemn. The great supper which grace provides, and to which the most outcast ones are welcome, is followed by a proclamation very momentous, as to what is involved in following Christ in this day of His rejection. For the first, there is no claim, exaction, or demand whatever: for the other all must be abandoned and forsaken absolutely. Let us inquire as to the differences so markedly presented here. The supper is grace, the provision of the blessed God according to the largeness and ability of His heart: not only so, but in its costly and precious providing, it is the expression of His nature, so that therein is unfolded His own satisfaction and delight as well as the surpassing blessedness of that scene where every heart is satisfied with that which it is the joy of God’s heart to provide. It would be impossible to conceive anything more wonderful than this, it over-reaches all our narrow and contracted thoughts of His grace, and it rebukes our natural conception and ideas of God Himself. The one whose ejaculation of “blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God,” gave occasion to the blessed Lord to expound the supper, must have marveled at the magnificence of the scene described, compared with his own thoughts, but what is it to the soul now taught and led by the Holy Ghost to enter into it by faith? It never can be too earnestly insisted upon that it is not a part of grace, but the whole which is unfolded in the supper; it is not the mere relief of a sin-stricken conscience or a jaded heart, but the rich resources of a sphere where want is unknown. Oh the blessedness and satisfaction of lying down here and surveying the vastness of the love, which not only entitles us to all it provides, but makes us welcome even to share the deep and blessed joys of God Himself; where He has His own festivities.
It is sorrowful to see how this magnificence of grace is received by man: he has no taste for God’s supper, the old wine of nature is preferred to the new wine of grace, and as the one is cultivated, the other is refused. It is true the refusal is not couched in offensive terms, it is polite and refined enough, but it is notwithstanding a genuine and distinct refusal, and “I pray thee have me excused,” is a solemn commentary upon the word of God: “No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better.”
It is well to observe also, that not one of the good things of nature here named as reasons why the invited guests might fairly decline the invitation of grace, are bad things in themselves; they are not what are sometimes called unlawful things, on the contrary they are what may be termed good things, and herein lies the snare. Things bad and unlawful would be readily owned as such, and never for a moment placed in competition with grace, and its rich feast; but the sweets of nature, and its providing here named, are all the things which are lawfully open to man, but as the heart finds its treasure and object in them, Christ is superseded and set aside, there is no taste for the supper. May this have its weight with all our souls at this moment; the joys of nature have the tendency to distract the heart, and this distraction is the bane of real spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. To him whose heart is in the world, or whose exercises of soul to walk with God are not only on the surface, but scant and shallow, it may seem otherwise; but not to him whose eye is single, and whose heart above all desires to be in the secret of the Lord at this time. May the Lord teach His beloved people the surpassing delight and joy of this rich feast of His.
The next subject is discipleship; and here the contrast with the supper is immense; for clearly to follow Christ rejected, involves the breaking with everything; it is impossible to have two hearts, a heart for Christ, and for the world. The deplorable picture which is being presented at this moment is the effort of many to hold the world and Christ; may the Lord in His great grace open eyes to see the impossibility of it! Alas, discipleship as here unfolded is old-fashioned and out of date, and those who seek to follow in this path are reviled and aspersed by the half hearted and the worldling. The consecrating principle of grace spoken of here, salt, that holy separation unto God, alas! at what a discount it is, among the professed servants of Christ, and even among those who outwardly remain where it is evident their hearts and affections are not! What a description the Lord here gives of an unspiritual saint—salt that has lost his savor, and which is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dung-hill, but men cast it out. May the Lord awaken up conscience among His people, that they may see the faith and claims of a rejected Lord and Christ amid the confusion and darkness of the present moment.
The Present Not the Future Heaven
“An exceeding good land,” are the words wherewith the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb, described the land of Canaan, amid the complaints and murmurs of their brethren; and who can deny their application to the land beyond Jordan—the place of promise and rest for Jehovah’s chosen people? Yet not only did they bear testimony to the land, but, as regards the competency of Israel to take possession of it, this is their witness: “We are well able to overcome it”; and further, “if the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into the land and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey” (Num. 13:30; 14:8). Now this Canaan was a type of the present not the future heaven—a type of that place into which faith is conducted to-day, and where it finds all its rest, joys and satisfaction. True we are still, as to our natural life, in this world, and we are called to pass through it as strangers; the cloud and the manna defining our path as well as sustaining us in it. How blessed to think of this! If it were but adopted, how it would dispose of the many anxieties and cares which, alas! too often weigh down the heart.
But life in Canaan is not traversing the wilderness, however true and faithful we may be in it; neither is it the needful and salutary exercise of heart and lessons of the way.
Now as regards this land of promise, it is very instructive to see the manner of its description in the book of Deuteronomy, because it equally applies to that place above, where our Savior is, and where alone true rest and satisfaction can be found. It will be found, then, that the description is twofold: namely, in Deut. 8 it is described in its own essential excellencies, and they are of such an order as to place those brought into that land in a condition of absolute independence in the right and true sense of the term—“without scarceness” and no lack of anything in it. Is it possible to overestimate or unduly to magnify the richness of such “an exceeding good land”? and may I ask, if Canaan, as an earthly rest and portion, was all that to Jehovah’s ancient people, is not heaven, the place “where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God,” as rich a possession and as satisfying a rest for faith to-day? Is it not sorrowful to think that there are many hearts who are contented with leaving heaven as a reported region of future and postponed enjoyment? Consequently they never really retire from earth in heart or affection, and while never rising beyond the wilderness in experience, they never really possess faith or power to carry them even through it according to the mind and thoughts of God. Alas! that it should be so.
But we find that in chapter 11, this goodly land is described in its comparative and contrasted excellencies; in Egypt, anxiety and trouble were evinced around its river, the great source of fertility and refreshment; sowing and watering in the land of bondage, tell their own tale. In Canaan on the contrary, it was drinking water of the rain of heaven, being cared for by the Lord Himself, His eyes resting upon that bright and blessed country from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year; and such, though in a far more perfect way, is that place into which the blessed Spirit leads faith in conscious realization and enjoyment to-day. Who can fully or adequately portray the light and glory of that scene where Christ is? It is from thence comes all true energy and divine power to surmount the various hindrances in our way; we are never really true to our calling in the wilderness, until we have found a home in heaven, and from thence come back, as it were, to be practically heavenly strangers in a land that is not ours.
Now, when we go the book of Numbers, to where we find Israel on the eve of leaving the wilderness, and entering this goodly land, we are met with one or two striking and solemn facts, which are not without a significant voice for us to-day. In Num. 13 is recorded the mission of the twelve spies and the searching of the land—they were sent, they went up, and searched the land, and this is their report: “We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and with honey, and this is the fruit of it”—exhibiting at the same time a branch with one cluster of grapes, borne between two upon a staff, as well as pomegranates and figs. What could have been more convincing or assuring? Yet in the face of all this, arises the wildest outburst of unbelief on the part of ten of these spies, ending with their evil report of the land, and the most solemn and rebellious murmuring of Israel. Observe, there was no question as to the beauty and fertility of the land in itself; still the purport of their witness and report, save Joshua and Caleb, was to deter the people from going up and possessing it. And has not this a solemn counterpart in the history of many at the present time? Verily the history of the ten spies is being repeated in this day; the truth as to the Christian’s heavenly position and relationship is admitted, because it is impossible honestly to deny it; but the unbelief which marked the spies, is as prevalent to-day, and as they sought to hinder Israel by mapping out their evil report, so has it been attempted in this day to deter souls from entering in and spiritually possessing what divine goodness and grace has made theirs. It is striking to see how set against the mind of God at any given moment, the enemy is; in the wilderness, while on the very borders of Canaan, he will have tools for his object in the ten spies, while on the other side of Jordan, and in the land, he will seek to accomplish the same purpose and present the same testimony in the two-and-a-half tribes. May the Lord waken up His saints to the design of the enemy, and, in His grace, preserve us not only from being deceived and robbed of our blessing, but also from becoming the tools of the enemy for this end.
It is very cheering to see in the end of this record of the searching of the land, how the faithful, in such a moment, will rise to the height of their calling and openly assert it, and this was the case with Joshua and Caleb in their day; and beautiful was their testimony. It amounted to this: Jehovah’s heart and hand were enough to lead His people into the land of His choice for them, and so it is with faith now. Unbelief may minutely portray its evil report by mapping out the difficulties and dangers, but the Joshuas and Calebs of to-day will be only the more manifested as each such crisis declares itself. May the Lord grant to all His beloved saints more grace and faith, boldly and fearlessly to put the soles of their feet upon what He has so graciously made ours—may no evil report of the land, however speciously given, deter them from practically going up; and may there be raised up many true- hearted ones who will stand up earnestly and faithfully at this time, for the true calling and testimony of the saints, and by their practical heavenly ways, as well as by their lips and pens, encourage the hearts of their brethren in this day of trial and difficulty.
The Mountain, the Plain, and the City
Matthew 17:1-27
There are three scenes brought before us in this scripture, and I want, by God’s help, to bring them very briefly before you, with the lessons imprinted on them. They are, first, the mountain (what is called the holy mount, where the Lord reached His highest glory as a Man); next, the plain; and third, the city.
I want, first of all, to look at the mountain, and what we find in connection with it. In Peter’s second epistle, we get the divine meaning of the transfiguration. It was a foreshadowing, when Christ was glorified there as a Man upon the holy mount, of that glory which would be His as a Man in the kingdom by-and-by. I say this only to give a true exposition of the scripture. But I would like you to take notice of this, that the path of the Lord Jesus in this world was an ascending one as a man up to this point. I think there is a mistake made when people speak of Him as going from the manger to the cross. That is true in a certain sense, but not the whole truth. He went really from Bethlehem to the holy mount.
He went on, step by step, as a man in all the glory and blessedness of what pertained to Him as a man, until He reached His highest glory as a man on the holy mount, and there He was held forth as a man, perfect in all the distinctness and blessedness of what belonged to Him as a man; and yet more than man, because He was the Father’s beloved Son. Still, as a man, He was glorified. He reached that height of eminence, and distinction, and glory, as a man, that no other man ever reached. Then He descends from the mount, and goes down, step by step, till He goes down to the depths of Calvary. That is the true explanation of His path and course here, till He reached as man His highest point of glory on Tabor; then He leaves Tabor by a descending course until He comes down to the lowest depths of Calvary. That is merely looking at the scripture as to the truth set forth in it. But I think I see more in this beautiful scene. Here, His chosen disciples are brought up, where also you find Moses and Elias; and they are thus all privileged to be in His company on that mount when He was transfigured before them, and appeared in glory, and they appeared with Him. And Peter, who is always the spokesman, and always ardent in that way, looks upon this scene somewhat as we might—namely, how can we perpetuate it? This is a scene beyond all conception of blessedness—how shall we continue to have this order of things here? Jesus in glory, and Moses and Elias appearing in glory with Him. Another Scripture tells us also the nature of their intercourse when there—they spake of the decease He should accomplish at Jerusalem—glory and death were thus brought together.
The disciples were also there, but they could not keep awake in the presence of His glory, any more than they could afterwards in the presence of His sufferings. That is what man is, and what people want to exalt and put on a pedestal to-day. But when they were awake they saw His glory, and then Peter makes this proposition, the object of which was to put the Lord, Moses, and Elias all on an equality one with another. He says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here: let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.” Let us have this thing perpetuated in this orderly kind of way. Now mark what comes.
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
The cloud was the place of the divine presence, the shekinah, or cloud of glory. It was a bright cloud, and there is no brightness except up there. We get the mist here, you must go up there to get the bright cloud—and, with all holy reverence I say it, a bright voice came out of that bright cloud; and a blessed voice it was, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” What is the meaning of that? Just exactly what the disciples found afterwards when the voice was past, when the affirmation of the Father was gone, telling of His heart’s desire to have that Son of His bosom supreme. There could be no equality with Him on that ground. He must be first and last, everything—supreme for time and for eternity, “all things,” and that voice that vindicated the right of Jesus to be first, and to be everything, when past, was found true. They proved what the voice affirmed. “When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only”—Jesus only, that is heaven. Now I think there is no subject, perhaps, that has been more fancifully dealt with, and upon which the imagination has been allowed to play with greater freedom, than the subject of heaven. And I will tell you more—that some of the late ideas and notions on this subject have turned people away from the truth, and turned them away to what I call a specious, wretched kind of materialism which lowers the truth, and brings it down from its own blessed speciality, and peculiarity, and from its own proper glory—and all this has greatly arisen from these fanciful ideas to which I have referred. People have allowed their minds to run on in connection with heaven, and the real meaning of what the enemy is about in all this, the object he has before him, is to make the things down here, which are things of sight and sense, that pertain to this life—his object I say is positively to turn them over, and to give them a sort of exaltation, and thus to level them up; and on the other hand, at the same time, to level the heavenly things down. You never see leveling up, but you see leveling down in proportion. Be assured, as you level up the things of this world, and our life here and all that pertains to it; in proportion as you cry them up, so you correspondingly degrade and bring down the heavenly. And all these ideas about heaven, and pictures of heaven, which are indulged in, even by some in preaching, are simply the outcome of a diseased imagination, which is allowed to run riot in picturing heaven after a material fashion.
What I want you to see, the first thing here, and that which is very comforting to one’s own soul, is, that here we get a picture of heaven, here I find what heaven really is, and what I believe the heart that really longs for it delights in, and that is, it is “Jesus only.” That is heaven, Jesus only. And I will tell you more than that, beloved brethren, the comfort of it to the heart that knows and tastes its preciousness, and that is to hear Him praised, and praised, and praised! That is heaven. You must be conscious of this, that people—and it may be the case with some here tonight—have other thoughts about heaven, I know very well the way people talk about it. They have lost beloved ones on earth, they will meet them in heaven. Their heaven will be a resumption of old ties. All material—that is not the heaven of scripture. I do not mean to say for a moment but that all belonging to Him will be there in supreme blessedness. But do not tell me there is any other object but Jesus only. Mark the jealousy of the Father’s heart to make the Son in that scene supreme. “This is my beloved Son—hear ye him.” The Lord, in His infinite grace, enable us not only to enter into that now, but may we, in spiritual power, let our hearts go out in all its present blessedness.
Some weeks ago a friend staying at my house, had a bird, and she had a thought that this bird long enough in captivity, would not desire to leave, so she opened the cage and let it out in the open air. Well, this bird had wings on it all the time it was in captivity, but could not use them because confined by the cage, but as soon as ever it was out of the cage, and in the open air, it began to use its wings, and did so with effect, and soon flew away, and who would blame the poor creature that it did so? It found out it had wings that would carry it out of the reach of all who would retain it here, and it used its wings. And there is not a Christian here tonight who has not wings: why are we not all using them? Why, because we have got some cage around us. If you are a Christian, you have the Spirit of God, and you cannot have less than the Spirit of God in its fulness. A Christian is a person who, having the forgiveness of sins through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, is sealed with His Spirit. If you say a Christian has the forgiveness of sins, but leave out the fact that he is sealed by the Holy Spirit, you leave out Christianity. He is sealed with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is the wings, and the Spirit would carry you to heaven now, in affection and faith to the place where Jesus is, and carry out the Father’s desire about Jesus, and make Him everything to you. And that is what heaven is now, and oh, do not say it is a very fanciful idea, and that we cannot be in the enjoyment of that now. Did you never hear of a person being in heart where not in body? A man crosses the Atlantic, or goes to the Antipodes, and leaves wife, and children, relations, and friends behind, and is not that man when he reaches the shores of America or New Zealand, in heart and affection still in England? And if that is true down here, how much more true is it where the Spirit of God carries your heart up to Christ. You have not got the Holy Spirit to carry your heart and affections to your natural relations. But He does carry you in faith, and affection, and heart, to the place where Jesus is; and He makes everything of that blessed One, and “Jesus only” is before your soul, and you love to live there. I remember when I first went to Yorkshire, I was greatly interested in watching the coal mining on such an extensive scale, and I felt the truth very much of what I have been speaking about, when I saw the men go down in the cage to bring up the coal, and when I saw these men drawn up again, knew that they had a home and a circle above that they loved so well—did they not leave their hearts behind them when they went down into the coal mine? And so exactly is it as to what I am bringing before you now. The Spirit of God carries the affections of the new man, and sets them on Him who is the spring and delight of those affections after He has created them. Then you find “Jesus only” fills every eye there; and He only satisfies. But you should continue there, and then you will know what heaven is. And be assured you are not fit to live here till you go there. No one is fit to live in this world till he has crossed over, until he has been lifted up in heart and spirit to be where Christ is. Thus this is a beautiful picture of that place where “Jesus only” is before every one. Oh, that the Lord, in His grace, may give us to know what this is! If we would only use our wings, we might. It is the cage, some of us get, that keeps us from it. Only get the door open, break open the cage, and what a different being you would be. Depend upon it, it is the cage that keeps you. Just remember what the writer of the old hymn felt when he wrote,—
“See how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys,
Our souls, how heavily they go,
to reach eternal joys.”
And there is an immense deal of truth in it; but it is the cage that keeps us down. I never saw a person yet who had enjoyed the smallest taste of it, if he could not gratify it, but was depressed. Do you say you do not know what it is? That is because you are not gratifying your heart and your new affections. Here you are, and you have got new tastes, and you are positively not gratifying them. And that is where so many of us are. They are unsatisfied, and you can see it in their faces. Hence some of them take up the Lord’s work in hope of reaching this satisfaction. But this avails not. They will leave the mark of dissatisfaction on their work.
Now observe, when they leave the mount and come down to the plain, what do they find? A very solemn thing—they find the devil’s work, and his confusion and disorder; affliction, the result of his hatred of God and man, they find a most pitiful and touching case. Here was a poor father with a lunatic child, and he comes to the Lord’s disciples, and beseeches them to free him from this terrible calamity. They had the power to do so. We see in chapter 10 Jesus had given them the power; and they might have said, Oh, yes, we have the power; then the father says, Do free me from this pressure; yet they could not do it. Then observe he comes to the blessed Lord Himself and says, “Lord, have mercy on my son,” &c. And Jesus said—and oh! what a word—in tones so tender, so gracious, and gentle, “Bring him hither to me.” Thank God! what comfort to the heart, “Bring him to me.”
Now I want to apply this. You may not have got a trouble so heavy as that—you may not have a lunatic child, but you have some trouble, the result of the devil’s confusion, and what do the Lord’s people do in these circumstances? it is a sad thing to see the resources the saints turn to when difficulties arise. What a mournful thing to contemplate the ways of God’s people! When pressure or difficulty come upon them they are thoroughly perplexed; they run to this person and that, and what to find? Not any good, just distraction, and just unsatisfaction, and the place where they think most to get help and comfort is often the place where they least find it, and they have to go away vexed and disappointed.
What does Jesus say? “Bring him to me.” Have you been to the Lord with your trouble or your difficulty or your affliction? Have you done like John the Baptist’s disciples? When their master was roughly and rudely murdered they took up the body and buried it, but it was just a lifeless body, and their burying it did not calm their broken hearts, but they went and told Jesus. Do you know what it is to do that? Down here in the plain the devil makes all sorts of confusion, and turns things upside down for us, but the whole question is, Have you been to Jesus about it? He says, “Bring him to Me.” The church may fail, do you think He has failed? Do we say, “Is it not all gone?” I tell you, we are all gone if we say so. The disciples have failed, has He failed? That is just the thing that comes out here, “Bring him to me.” And the father brought his child, and again we get the most touching proof of His sufficiency. Oh, how blessed, and what a comfort to see this! He likes us to bring our troubles to Him. Oh if we could only believe how His sufficiency waits upon our every need! Are you in the most pressing exigency, have you a sick child? “Bring him to me.”
He says, as it were, Have you some trouble on your heart, some pressure on your spirit. “Bring it to me.” I am the One to come to when all else is broken up, I am unchanged. That is the way He gives us to get the comfort. He is not changed in the least, the same in glory that He was down here.
Now notice when this child was healed, the disciples say, and well they might, Why could not we cast him out? And mark—and I would to God we might all learn from this—they come to Jesus; there is something very noble in the disciples in this matter. They had the sense, they could not do it, and they would like to know why? Now, dear brethren, do not you think we ought to say to ourselves, when placed in circumstances like this, how did I get into this strait, how was it I did not see the path through this labyrinth? Why in that difficulty—why, Master, could I not meet it? We have got the power by the Spirit, and He is here to guide into all truth; but some confusion of the devil has tripped us up. Why is this? The disciples say, Why could not we? He never says, Because you have not power. He says, Because of your unbelief; because you have not faith. And then He mentions a grand characteristic of faith.
“If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,” &c. If you had the smallest confidence in God, that is, if you had faith at all; not strong faith. I think there is a great deal of confusion introduced by the discussion about faith. If you had faith at all you would be able to do things truly impossible to nature. You might say to this mountain, &c., and nothing would be able to stand against you. But He says further, and this is the thing that ought to come home to us, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Thus you see it is not only a question of power, as some of our dear friends would make us believe. They tell us it is all a question of standing, and all a question of position; there is nothing of that here. It is prayer and fasting wanted, the moral state is in question. And beloved friends, that is so important for us in meeting the devil’s confusion, and what he works. If you have moral condition, or prayer and fasting, that is dependence, and that you do not minister to nature in its resources, you cut that off, then you refuse nature as an adjunct or help if you fast. I do not for a moment mean to say that fasting is not scriptural, that abstinence from food was not what was meant here. I believe it was; I am perfectly convinced Scripture does speak of this. And I believe also there may be cases in which it might be an exceedingly helpful adjunct to the moral state of some. But there is great force in this looked at morally. There must be not only dependence on God, but there must be self-denial, or what is stronger still, the denial of yourself—the refusal to minister to the resources of nature, or to take in nature at all in this holy work. “This kind goeth not out,” &c. And is not this a solemn thing for us in connection with our difficulties, our church troubles, and our domestic troubles, and our troubles generally here in this world? How our moral state is revealed thereby! Is it not a sad revelation of our moral state that when the devil creates confusion in the church there is no power to meet it, and people are stranded in a moment? While all is going on smoothly they can swim on as easily as possible, but the test comes, and they are nowhere, and why? The moral state—lack of prayer and fasting. May the Lord by His Spirit teach us this. They had the power, but could not use it; and they were not able to use it because of their moral condition.
The third scene is the city. And it is a very interesting point we get at the end of this chapter, and that it should have taken place at Capernaum of all places. It was the city of exalted privileges, the place most of all expressive of great glory. A city is the result of man’s wisdom, and skill, and power. It sets forth man and his glory, all that he is able to collect together.
That made it so solemn for the bride in Canticles to be found in the city. What business had she there? The bride in the city! Was it not right she should lose her veil? She had got into man’s circumstances. There are two things here. First the Lord announces His death. Now I am very anxious we should take this in, because there has been a great deal of gratuitous affirmation about what the disciples knew and expected, and what the saints of old time looked forward to; but what did the Lord say here? He announced His death as a martyr, “The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.” Some people would fain persuade us because they were sorry they entered into the thought of his death as a sacrifice for sin. They were exceeding sorry, a very strong word, but why? I never understood the meaning of this passage till I heard a beloved servant of God, many years ago now, explain it; and he used this expression, he said, “it was the death of the heir.” That is to say, He was the link as the heir to all the earthly promises they were looking for, and all the earthly inheritance, and all their hopes in this world, and His death put an end to all. Oh, but people say, how the disciples looked into His death. It was the very thing they stumbled at. Just as in Luke 24 the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, when the Lord met them, and asked them why they were sad. They spoke to Him of his death, and added, “We trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” His death was the overthrow of everything in their minds.
That is how people try to level up and down. What in reality was in their minds? Earthly things; the very thing that turned them all aside; they were looking for something here: and there are people to-day looking for something here, and it is a thousand times worse for people to-day in the light of Christianity, for those who profess to have been brought into the fulness of the light of the truth to be looking for things on earth, and yet that is what diverts people, and that destroys the principle of walking in the truth of the heavenly things. The disciples were full of earthly things; and therefore the death of the heir, the One that linked them with all the promises down here, with all that their hearts were set on—for Him to be slain was intolerable to them. But all our blessings begin with the Son of man lifted up. They begin in connection with the cross. Hence in John 3, you have the earthly and heavenly things contrasted—when do the latter begin? With the Son of man lifted up. Here there was an instance of what I have referred to, how occupation with earthly things turns us away from the heavenly. They were looking for Christ, the heir to all the premises to David and to Israel to set up the kingdom in this world; and hence, as these hopes were blighted, they were exceeding sorry. And we know as a matter of fact, for the Lord says so, and He say’s it, too, in the Gospel of John, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,” &c.
The last point is with Jesus at Capernaum. And I touch on this just to bring out a fact of the deepest blessedness for us, viz., that in connection with the payment of the tribute money. “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, doth not your master pay tribute?” In other words, Is He a good Jew? Peter replies, Yes. When the Lord comes into the house, He anticipates Peter by saying, “What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?” Peter replies, “Of strangers.” “Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.” They were the children of the great King of the temple. They were then to exact from strangers and not from children. “Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” “Lest we should offend them.” What a word this is from Him; see the graciousness of His heart. But again, “Give unto them for me and thee.” How blessed that He should associate His poor disciple with Himself in that act, but that is the kind of association which really takes the heart out of everything here.
For what matters it about things down here in this world if I am associated with Him in that way? You will find the same principle brought out in Psa. 45, viz., that association with Him breaks off other associations—hence He says there (vv. 10, 11), “Hearken, O daughter,” &c. Association with the King breaks off the other—makes you forget the thing nearest to you. It is a hard thing for some people to forget their own people and their father’s house.
Now I commend these three points to you, and may God give us in His grace to know what the joys of heaven are now. What it is to be brought up to the hill-top for we must be brought up there to get them. Jesus brought them up. Just as in Luke 24, they were led out. You must go up for it, not be sitting down here. He brought them up to the mountain, and they found He was everything up there. He was supreme in the Father’s affections, in the Father’s heart; there is no one to Him like His Son. “This is my beloved Son,” and the Father adds, “Hear him.” Listen to His voice, fix your eye on Him, turn from everything else, and let it be “Jesus only.” Will you want your natural tastes there? Oh, no, it will be Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus only!
But down here in this world we need to have prayer and fasting, moral condition to use the power He has given us. And what then shall we covet of the great world and its cities, and all the rest, if nourished with Christ Himself?
Oh, may God, by His Spirit, just imprint these great realities on all our souls, that thus we may rise up and go from this place to live from heaven down here. It is not a sort of materialistic heaven, nor a carnal heaven; but it is a sphere of unspeakable blessedness and delight, where God and the Lamb are the divine source of every joy and love.
“As in the Days of Her Youth”
Hosea 2:15
These are the touching words of the Jehovah of Israel by the mouth of His servant Hosea, describing the future state of the nation, the result of His faithful ways with them in crushing and alluring, then speaking to the heart in the wilderness, and from thence giving them vineyards and hope and song.
It is not without its deep interest to observe that the meaning of Hosea is salvation, thus bringing before us the deep, eternal thought of Jehovah’s heart for His poor and afflicted people.
Let us meditate a little on this and the voice it has for us in the moral and spiritual truths it records. Now redemption out of Egypt was the commencement of their history, as brought to God; on the shores of the Red Sea, which they passed over dry-shod, their first note of song was raised—Miriam, the sister of Moses, and Aaron led that song in those first moments of victory and triumph; that song recorded the might and power and faithfulness of Jehovah. “Jehovah is my strength and song. He is become my salvation.”
He had secured their shelter on the night of the Passover: when He, as Judge, passed through the land of Egypt, in the habitations sprinkled with the blood of Jehovah’s appointed victim they were safe and secure; though they were still in Egypt’s territory, but yet safe and secure beneath the virtue of that blood which had, as it were, met all the holy, righteous claims of the Judge. But through the judgment waters of the Red Sea they passed out of Egypt for ever—here it is change of place, a point of very especial moment to seize—Jehovah, who had provided in the land of Egypt a shelter, at the Red Sea became their salvation; through its opened waters of judgment they pass out of Egypt’s territory, they are brought on to another ground altogether. Salvation ever means this in scripture—as saved they sing. The sea, which opened to let them pass through dry shod, closed in upon their enemies and pursuers in all its strength, when the morning appeared, and swallowed them up, not one being left.
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore; but they also saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians, and they believed and feared and sang.
Now it is to this the words “As in the days of her youth” refer. It is worthy of note that this song celebrates Jehovah’s victory and glory, when they were in the result of it: it did not, save very indirectly, refer to themselves; true they were the subjects of Jehovah’s salvation, but they were not the subject of the song—Jehovah, and He alone, was that. Thus it ever is, where the Victor fills the vision; and is He not worthy? Where can one be found who has such a claim upon the homage and worship, the adoration and praise of those whom He has for ever liberated and blest?
Now following this song of Ex. 15 intervenes a long and checkered history, the pages of which are filled with the record of this peoples departures and backslidings; very solemn are the words of prophetic warning spoken in Deut. 31:20 by Jehovah Himself:
For when I have brought them into the land, which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.
Again, “This people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? and I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils that they shall have wrought, in that they are turned to other gods.”
Then, following these words, are those of the song which Moses taught the children of Israel, in which the faithful, unchanging Jehovah is celebrated thus: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just, and right is he.”
It was none other than such as He who, in His faithfulness and truth, could bring back to Himself a rebellious and headstrong people.
Verily the gifts and calling of God are without change of mind on God’s part; the history of this people is the great evidence and proof of this, and so it will be in that coming day for them, when crushed and allured and broken in His love, from the place least expected, He will give the vineyards and the door of hope, and in the lovely words that head this paper, “She shall sing there, as in the days of her youth.”
This truth has its moral force and voice for us, in principle it is just the same: His faithful grace brings us back to Him, if, like Israel, we have flitted and wandered away. As it was with Israel so it is with us, the valley of Achor is the door of hope.
May He who alone can teach us, lead our hearts into a right apprehension of His own rich and wonderful grace, for Christ’s sake.
“at the End of the Days”
Daniel 12:13
The closing days of another year are upon us, and that in the last moments of the history of the church on earth. One great event, which is our glad future and hope, would seal the doom for ever of thousands around us. Do we realize it? Are we ready for it? The old year is fast dying out, and will soon be numbered with the past. The rapid flight of time suggests {defective copy here} searchings for us all. For us who {defective copy} of God, the word is loud and clear, “It is high time to awake out of sleep.” Alas! how drowsy and insensible to the true state of things are so many of us; the condition of the church God and the world at large seems so little to affect us. Alas! what weakness and feebleness in the former, and what recklessness and wickedness in the latter. Let us awake and arise and shake ourselves from the dust.
The bold and daring rejection of the truth is one of those dials upon which we may read hour of the world’s age, and the lengthening shadows upon its face seem to intimate that the day is drawing towards a close. The most fitting words to describe the present moment are the heart-breaking and solemn utterance of the prophet: “For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth”; and as the loyal and faithful heart enters into this, it responds with all affection to the call which reaches into its inmost depths: “But that which ye have, hold fast till I come.”
May the heart of all my readers respond to this, in ready affection and true-hearted devotion to our only Master and Lord.
Home After Labor
Lord Jesus, I would dwell in Thee,
And nestle in Thy love;
Midst desert lands Thou leadest me,
Whilst Thou art still above;
Though weaker than a bruised reed,
Oft faint beyond a sigh,
Yet “Thou remainest,” still “the same,”
Unchanged Thou’rt ever nigh.
My blessed Lord I’d hear Thy words,
Thy heavenly voice so sweet,
When fever’d is the aching brow,
And worn the toiling feet;
I’d rest with Thee in peace and sleep,
In calmness I’d abide,
My head upon Thy bosom keep,
Whilst watching by my side.
O Savior, Lord, what joy and rest,
Shut in alone with Thee—
Shut out from all the din and strife,
My Christ my all shall be.
Assured Thy love will perfect soon
Thy work of grace alone,
Then oh! The pure, uncheckered joy
Of sharing Thy blest home.