Beloved! often it is given to us to sing with yearning, joyous hearts:
"The days are passing by, the years flow on apace.
Lord Jesus, Thy return draws nigh; we long to see Thy face!"
and, nearing the close of another year-another year of grace, long-suffering, not slackness, on the Lord's part. (Oh! still unsaved one, if this should. meet your eye, mark it well-" the day of the Lord will come.") Another year marked as ever with the patience and the grace of the " God of patience" (Rom. 15:5) and the "God of all grace" (1 Peter 5:10) in His ways with us, His own. It is a rare joy to us, His called ones (called unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus), to trace adoringly the continuity of His way with us,, manifesting the steadfastness with which He pursues His purpose and with which He will pursue it unto the full fruition thereof, and this is as His strong wine for our heavy hearts, in view of the rapidity of the declension in the House of God upon earth—a declension which in its impetus threatens to carry everything before it; but faith can still speak exultingly of Him who is able to keep us without stumbling, and He has assured us, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa. 46:10).
If it was given to a Moses in a day of impending ruin to pray, " show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee," how blessed for us now to discover His way, His undeviating way! As witness it prefigured in the history of Eleazer and Rebekah in the words so fraught with meaning to us, "the servant took Rebekah and went his way." And what was his way? Naturally we would have looked for a graphic description of the desert journey, its dangers, and the way through them all; but no such account meets the eye. We see the espoused one equipped for the journey in such manner that she is to be carried across at the cost of the father for whose son she had been bespoken, that father's house having furnished full provision for the whole way. The start is made, told out in the words already quoted, " the servant took Rebekah and went his way," and then we read these heart-stirring words, " and Isaac came." Ah! my soul! if this was the way of the servant, simply to bring Rebekah and Isaac together, what is the way of the Servant of the Father and the Son (the Holy Ghost) today, but to accomplish, as accomplish He will, the meeting between the Royal One (" the root and the offspring of David ") and His bride. And, as the eye is lifted to take in that heavenly vision, the scene in that eastern land of old fades from view, and its imperfections are apparent. Isaac's voice could not be heard by Rebekah on the journey across; but oh! spouse of Christ! what ravishing sound is this that greets thine ear upon the way? ''I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star." What will thou say to this? If the presentation to Rebekah's heart of the unseen and unheard Isaac, the father's son, produced the unhesitating reply, "I will go," what hast thou to say to that voice that sets in motion every chord of thy heart, for it is "the voice of my beloved! behold He cometh? " Ah! what canst thou say but, " Come".?
But, mark, if thou art to be in His company shortly and forever, in whose company art thou the bride found traveling onward now? Ah! thy heart would have played the laggard's part long ages ago in thine encounters upon the desert way if thou hadst not been furnished, by the Father who desires thee for I-Iis Son and by the Son who yearns for thee, with such an Escort, for it is thy divine Escort that keeps thine eye uplifted and thine heart attuned. " The Spirit and the bride say, Come." Long has He led thee on, but thou art not travel-worn-thou halt been carried all the way, through varied scenes. Pentecostal glories once were thine manifestly below. He was then with thee. What shall be said of thy place below now when those glories are no longer visible? Ah! thy fickle heart! But He, thine Escort, and thy Guide, He has been journeying on with thee all through, is still with thee, and ever shall be; and, in concert with Him, thou dolt raise the cry, ''The Spirit and the bride say, Come."
And this is His way as truly now as when He came forth from the Father.
"The Holy Ghost is leading,
Home to the Lamb, His bride."
Listen yet again as at the last expiring hour of another year that voice, well known to thee, in its eternal unchanging sweetness, speaks to thee, " Surely I come quickly." And as thine eye beholds that coming One, thou dost not need to put the question to thy Guide, " What man is this?" But again, thy voice is heard, as, led onward still by the way of the Spirit, thine undeviating Escort and Guide-His Paraclete, His Comforter, His Advocate within thee-thou canst not forbear to burst forth, ''Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus."
Nor is the provision for the passage across the sands of the desert yet remaining rendered scant, because of the length of the way thou halt already been brought, as is evidenced by the words thy Guide speaks in thine ear as He still leads thee on-even these, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
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