IN the common things of daily life the worth of all goods and property is measured in terms of some generally accepted standard of value. Houses, lands, labor, etc., are each equivalent to so many British sovereigns.
THE STANDARD OF VALUE.
In the spiritual realm also there is a divine standard of value. That standard is Christ. Before God everything is viewed in its relation to His Son. Unbelieving man on the contrary reckons in terms of a human standard. Anything that "becomes a man" is his standard of fitness. But the truth is, "nothing counts but Christ.”
SELF OR CHRIST?
What are you resting on for eternity? Self or Christ? Can you say like one of old, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day?"
CHRIST THE TOUCHSTONE.
Christ is the test for all things, not alone in the question of present salvation or guilt. The believer is called to judge all things as to the manner in which they range themselves in regard to the person of Christ.
THE CHRISTLESS TRACT.
I was interested in observing how a servant of the Lord acted on this principle in the Crimean war. He was serving Christ in one way and another among the soldiers. And a large quantity of Popish tracts, full of Mariolatry but barren of Christ, came into his hands.
He was at a loss how to dispose of them.
Eventually, by the help of a party of soldiers, he dug a deep trench. "There," says he, "we gave them decent burial;" “but," he goes on to say, we had no burial service over them, and dropped no tears; we only said quietly in our hearts, 'Let the memory of the wicked rot.”
Another heap, "not at all about Christ," he thrust into a Russian furnace at which he and a friend warmed their cold toes.
A third parcel of rubbish he took out in a boat, and cast the dangerous lies into the sea. "We must put poison out of the way of children," was his wise remark.
RELIGION WITHOUT CHRIST.
A religion without Christ is a deadly snare. It acts as an opiate on the conscience. Men persuade themselves that all is well with them because they are religious. Annas and Caiaphas were religious, but they crucified Christ. Saul of Tarsus was eminently religious, but he was a persecutor. They, like Nicodemus, needed the new birth, that Christ in His beauty might be before the soul.
WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?
I beseech you, therefore, to challenge your own heart as to what Christ is to you.
Is He better to you than all beside? Have you by faith seen His face and heard His voice?
Marvel not that Christ in glory
All my inmost heart hath won;
Not a star to cheer my darkness,
But a light beyond the sun.
All below lies dark and shadowed,
Nothing there to claim my heart,
Save the lonely track of sorrow
Where of old He walked apart.
I have seen the face of Jesus—
Tell me not of aught beside;
I have heard the voice of Jesus—
All my soul is satisfied.
In the radiance of the glory
First I saw His blessed Face,
And forever shall that glory
Be my home, my dwelling place.