LIFE is full of beginnings. We are now at the beginning of a year. But here is a beginning that carries our thoughts back beyond all years, all dates of history, all imaginable periods of time, beyond the beginnings of creation. Then Christ was. What a sublime stretch of being these words give to Him Who is our Saviour! We cannot grasp the thought, but we can find security and comfort in it when we think of Christ, and when we rest in Him as our hope and salvation.
We trust in human friends and the comfort is very sweet; yet we can never forget that they are but creatures of a day, and that we cannot be sure or having them even for tomorrow. But we trust in Christ, and know that from eternity to eternity He is the same, and therefore our confidence is forever, sure and strong.
Our trust is still more stable and firm when we read on, and find Who this Person is in Whom we are confiding. “The Word was God.” There is nothing doubtful in this language. No kind, of exegesis can blot from this brief clause the truth of Christ’s divinity. The Saviour, into Whose Hands you have committed your life, is the eternal God. Earthly trusts are never secure, for everything human is mortal; but those who commit themselves to the keeping, or Christ are safe forever.
It is very sweet to think of Christ’s humanity. It brings Him near to us. He is like one of ourselves. He is our own Friend, with tender sympathies and warm affections. We study the gospel and learn the graciousness of His character as seen in His compassion, His tears, His love. “Then when we know that behind these qualities arc the Divine attributes, that He is very God, what glorious confidence it gives us! Let us set this glorious truth at the gate of the New Year; it is a shining point from which to start.
J. R. Miller D.D.