Have you ever thought of God dealing with you not as to what you are in yourself, but as to where He has set you in Christ? Have von ever thought that it is the affections of the Father's heart which flow down to us where we are, seeing us in Christ, not in our poor wretched selves? What we are in self is not the thing to scan, but what we are, and where we are, in Christ; and what there is in the living affections of the God of glory, who has raised us up together with His Son, and has given us all heavenly blessings in Him.
It is not the Father's house, nor the millennial glory, but it is Christ that I want. Where I find the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, it is something for me to rest upon. Everything connected with the One we love, interests and touches the heart; but -the more we love, the more we long for the presence of that One. Whenever I find the Lord in Person present, I find something beyond the scene: in the sermon on the mount, I do not see the Jews, the time or the dispensation-to me there is but the presence of the Lord.
When I get into the Father's house, what thought will be sweeter to my heart than the Lord washing the disciples' feet? What a thing to be -in glory with such a Lord.
Many saints find it a great effort to get the heart into occupation with God and the Lord Jesus Christ in that exalted place; but it is much more a question of relationship than of place. When the heart rises up there, what is its thought? Is there nothing there to strike the chord of its •deepest affections? Is there no answer? Yes! the Son of man is on the Father's throne, not ashamed to call us " brethren."
Whenever faith goes up, what does it find realized there? The thought of One once in all my circumstances of sorrow down here, now at home with the Father. “If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I said I go to the Father."