Dear Mr. Editor, A reader of Edification commenting on the paper, “In the Midst,” which appeared in your May issue, says that it had given him great pleasure, as the Lord’s presence with His own when gathered to His Name, and especially for the Lord’s Supper, had been very real to him, and that his desire on these occasions is well expressed in the verse,
“O teach us, Lord, Thy searchless love to know,
Thou who hast died;
Before our feeble faith, Lord Jesus, show
Thy hands and side
That our glad Hearts, responsive unto Thine,
May wake with all the power of love divine.”
But he had been questioned by some as to this, who said they did not understand what he meant by “realizing the Lord’s presence,” and “seeing His hands and side.” They look upon it as something mystical. And he asks for further help on the subject, and for confirmation of what to him is a great reality, unless he is deceived. With your permission I will briefly pursue the subject, which should be of great importance to all who love the Lord Jesus.
First, there is the Lord’s own side to this question, and on this side two things are necessary for His presence in the midst of His own on earth: His unchanging love and His reliable word. If His love can wane and cease, and if He can be indifferent to His word, then we may dismiss the idea, of meeting Him and rejoicing in His presence, as a dream. Every heart that knows Him, knows that these two things are as impossible as it is that God should lie. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” His is,
“Love which on this cold earth grows never cold,
Love which decays not with the world’s decay,
Love which is young when all things else grow old,
Which lives when heaven and earth shall pass away.”
And His word is as immutable as His love is true.
We know that one of the great features of love is the constant desire to be in the company of its object. If it must be at a distance it will communicate with, and labor to the limit of its power for, the loved one; but nothing can satisfy it but its company. We believe that this is most eminently true of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for His own. He serves us and often communicates precious and comforting thoughts to us, but can He come to us? Is this possible? If it is, we know that He will do it. He is not on earth. He has passed through death, has risen up from the tomb, and ascended up into heaven; and heaven seems so far away sometimes. Can He reach us from His high and exalted place in the glory? Yes, He can, love has found a way, and He has said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:1818I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:18)). I know that these words were addressed to His bewildered and sorrowful disciples, and that they had a very special application and meaning to them, even that they were to, SEE Him alive from the dead. They did see Him; they looked with wonder on His wounded hands and side, but they are also good and true words for is and, “blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
Consider them, “I will not leave you orphans,” for that is the meaning of them—I will not leave you desolate, forlorn, lonely, uncared for. It is all that and more. An orphan may be cared for, and that very tenderly by others, but the heart cries our for the love of relationship. “I want my, mother” is the cry that breaks from the heart of the bereaved child. I will not leave you crying out like that for Me, said the Lord, I will come to you. Will He keep His word? Assuredly. His word is as steadfast as the pillars of the throne of God, and His love can be satisfied with nothing less than the company of the loved ones. Then everything is right on His side. What about ours?
On our side three things are necessary. They are love, faith, and the Holy Spirit. Perhaps I ought to have put the Holy Spirit first, for every impulse towards the Lord is from Him; but He must direct the impulse also and sustain it and make it bear its full fruit in Christ’s own assembly. And not the Holy Spirit alone is active, but the Father also. Read verse 16 and 17 of John 14. The Lord was going away, but His love would find a way by which He could meet His loved ones. He would pray the Father, and the Father’s interest in these disciples, beloved of the Lord, would be so great that He would send the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, that the Lord might not seek their company in vain, or love them without response. Full provision has been made.
Is our love for the Lord enough to make us long for His company? Do we miss Him in the world where we have to live and do business? Are we like the bride in Solomon’s Song, who searched for her lover, and said, “I sought him, but I could not find him,” and said to the watchmen, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” He is not in the world’s busy marts or in its haunts of pleasure; our hearts cannot be satisfied in any of these. Do we cry out for the company of the Lord? Would you, for instance, like to meet your Saviour? If your answer is, “Yes, yes, above all things that is my desire,” then there is one thing more, Do you believe His word? He has said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them,” and “will come to you.” Is that enough? If so, with what joy we shall hasten to this tryst. His presence, realized by the Spirit, will be real to affection and faith, and holy subjection to Him, the Lord, will most surely result. And the heart that has known it can never forget it; and there where His presence is, where He is supreme in the midst of His own, is His assembly. There He shows His hands and side—i.e., He brings afresh to adoring hearts the sense of the love that made Him suffer, and He will do this until He comes to rapture His church to glory.
J. T. Mawson.