“When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."—Isa. Eli. 2.
BLINDED by the god of this world, the Sun might shine in all its splendor, we saw it not, nor cared. We turned everyone to his own way, and wandered on in the darkness until God, in His wonderful grace, let a little ray of light in, and opened the blind eyes to show us where we were going, and the awful danger we were in. And then the light did more, it showed us what we were; nothing but a hideous ruin, nothing for God, nothing but evil, incurably bad. We might have been overwhelmed and in despair at such a sight, but the light revealed yet more, it showed us Jesus—it shone in His face, and now to us, who once saw no beauty in Him, "He is the chiefest among ten thousand... yea, He is altogether lovely." Then may we have that purpose of heart expressed in these words:— "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after... to behold the beauty of the Lord.”
Whatever is our object in life, that will characterize us, it will color our thoughts, our words, and our ways. If this is then our object, the one thing we set before us, "to behold the beauty of the Lord," will it not be reflected in us in some small measure?
“Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.”
Just in so much as we are occupied with Christ where He is, "beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)). The result will be that others will see it, just as the children of Israel saw the reflection of the partial glory in the face of Moses.
“Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I put upon thee, saith the Lord God.”
We are left here on earth to show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us (1 Peter 2:99But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9)). But how can this be so if we are absorbed with a hundred and one things in which Christ has no place? Oh, may we be occupied with the One who alone can fill and satisfy our hearts, for His own sake; His beauty filling our gaze; the result will come out in us, though we shall not be thinking of that. And then, more wonderful still, God's eye will rest on that which is well pleasing to Him in us.
“So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.”
Nothing but what is of Christ in us can be acceptable to God. We are in Christ before Him "accepted in the Beloved." And now His desire, expressed by the apostle Paul, is to see "Christ formed in us." Do we want to be here for God? Do we earnestly desire that He should find pleasure in us? Let us remember that nothing but Christ will do. God has found perfect satisfaction in His well-beloved Son, and is going to fill heaven with nothing but what is perfectly like Him. He has predestinated us to be conformed to His image; then may we seek to be more so even now. Gazing more and more upon His beauty, while it ever increases in our sight, we shall find all other sights eclipsed, fading into their worthless, temporal insignificance, while our longing desire will be for the moment when at last we shall see Him face to face, and be with Him and like Him forever.
“Oh, fix our earnest gaze
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That with Thy beauty occupied
We elsewhere none may see!"
W.