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. 32:1-51Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; 2The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, 3Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, 4Even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: 5Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. (Numbers 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.