Vol 01 - The Thief on the Cross
The Thief on the Cross
IT has been said by some one, referring to this scene, "There is but one case of death-bed repentance in the Bible, that man may not despair; but there is only one, that man may not presume." But how much the savor of the self-righteous human heart betrays itself in these words. The latent self-righteousness of the human heart, which would like to add some little atom of its own wretched "doings," to the perfect work of Christ for the soul. And yet when we come to examine this wondrous scene, we find that all must be saved as was this thief! I speak not now of the period at which such a work is wrought in the soul, but of the fact that all must be saved just as he. And if this be the case, Why not, my reader, now? Why not believe, and know the joy and blessedness of an interest in the saving work of Christ, before another day is past, that your soul may be filled with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost?
There is an absolute necessity for an entire and total change in the sinner, before he can even see the Kingdom of God. A man may be at the pinnacle of a religious reputation in the world; his name may grace the lists of benevolence-may be held up as a model for the imitation of others; and yet never have undergone this mighty change. It is a sad and humiliating fact, that possess as he may, piety, or rather that which looks like it, before his fellows; and the deepest learning, an amiable nature, a benevolent mind, all these qualities, and many more besides; and yet he may never even have seen the Kingdom of God. This is a hard saying, who can bear it? Still, it is an absolute necessity that a man must be born again. He must be renewed from the very sources of his nature, thoughts, affections, feelings, heart, conscience, actions. He must be what the Lord Jesus told the man of the Pharisees-the teacher in Israel-the ruler of the Jews-Nicodemus; he " must be born again." In this man’s case, the lesson was but slowly learned. He had much to surrender. It was painful for him to be told that his whole life was wrong; his efforts and energies, sincere, as doubtless they were, had sprung from a wrong basis; and that the whole man must be changed from the very roots, before he could enter into the Kingdom which God was setting up. Painful, it must have been, to think of what gave him weight and authority, and for which he was held in esteem by his fellows, only came under the sweeping sentence from the divine Searcher of hearts, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3). Painful for him to learn, that, if he would enter God’s Kingdom, he must consent to do so as the vilest sinner, stript of all that would put him in advance of others, and give him a precedence there. And yet, this entire, complete, and total change, is absolutely necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God; necessary for the vilest, necessary for all. It levels all distinctions; puts men, in the light of its solemn truth, on an even ground before God, so that no flesh may glory in His presence. Have you, my reader, experienced or undergone this mighty change? Or do you occupy the same platform on which you were introduced amongst the sinners of this world? Important question! May the Lord enable you to answer it honestly in His presence! The case of the thief is a remarkably beautiful illustration of this mighty work in a soul-this total change in the man. And besides this, we have in this scene, the mighty work of Christ for him, which enabled him to take his place with Christ that very day within the vail. The work which fits all who believe it to take their place, by faith, with Jesus, the same moment, in God’s presence, within the vail. The case of the comrade thief, too, is truly and deeply solemn. A soul passing away from this world into another; approaching the portals of an eternity, from which there is no return, with a scoff on his lip, and the taunt for the Blessed One in his mouth, " If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us." Deeply solemn is such a closing hour of a man’s shadowy life here, Christless, faithless, sinning against his own soul. Well is it said of the wicked, " There are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men." (Psalms 73:4-5.)
Let us look at the same hour in the other’s life-the brightest it had ever known. "But the other answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God? "-grand illustration of the work of God in a soul. It began with but a little word, but a word by which one reads a heart which had been taught in wisdom’s ways. For " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 1:7). We have in this little word a precious work of God in his soul. It is said of the wicked, " There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:18). God is not in all their thoughts. " Dost thou not fear God’?" Here was the root of this mighty change in this man: the holy fear of God. God had His proper place in his thoughts, although he did not know Rim yet as a Savior. It was Abraham’s word of the men of Gerar, " Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake." It was the fear of God which guarded Joseph’s heart, when in the land of his exile-" How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God." It is that which guards the heart in a world of sin. Its absence leaves room for the workings of man’s corrupt and wicked will. It is the beginning of wisdom.
How is it with you, my reader? Can you say that this holy fear of God has been the guide and fashioner of all the thoughts and intents of your heart, the actions of your life, and the motives which have governed your ways? Have all these been governed by the fear of the Lord? Has God had His proper place in your heart; and has His fear restrained your will? Job was a man who " feared God, and eschewed evil;" Cornelius-one who " feared God, with all his house." "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought on his name." (Malachi 3:1-18). It was the proof of Abraham’s faith, " Now I know that thou fearest God." (Genesis 22:1-24) Now this "fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." (Proverbs 14:27). It " tendeth unto life," (Proverbs 19:23); and we see this so remarkably in this man. It led him to take his true place before God. " Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly." Can you with him say, " We indeed justly I" Can you, as he did, take the just and righteous sentence of death, to your own soul; and own, in full honesty of heart, the rightness of your sentence? " We indeed justly; for we receive the due reward for our deeds." Do you own the justness of the sentence; yea, have you passed it upon your own self, as the due reward for your sins? Blessed peace; to own in full, your true and proper condition before God, and thus take the sentence of death home to your own soul, as Hebrews 1:1-14 How the work of God grew brighter and brighter, till he was with Christ in Paradise! God had his true place in his soul, and he was in his true place before God! The rightness of his sentence pronounced by his own lips; no excusing of himself, as I dare say, you have often done; pleading circumstances-an evil nature, to palliate your sins. A convicted sinner was there making no excuses for his sins and his sentence, but owning that God was true. Justifying God, and condemning himself, as one of Wisdom’s children. " I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." So much for the work in this man’s soul.
Now we must look at another thing-at the work for him-for all, on the cross beside him
There hung beside him the Lord of Glory: and out of the mouth of Wisdom’s child, as the light grew brighter in his soul, we have a testimony of two things-the spotlessness and the Lordship of Christ. "This man hath done nothing amiss." And the spotless Christ, and the self-condemned sinner, were side by side! Grand and solemn scene, the like of which eternity will never behold again! Beautiful testimony of that dying man, which led him to take his place with Jesus there, at a moment, and amidst the turmoil of a scene such as that which surrounded the cross. A time when the world was united against a man who had " done nothing amiss." When even those who had loved Him and leaned upon Him during His life, deserted Him at the hour of His greatest sorrow And yet the soul of that man was absorbed with Christ, who hung there. His whole soul’s vision was filled with Jesus; and he forgot himself. A complete and total change had taken place in the man;- and, forgetting his agony, all his thought was, " Lord remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom." How would it be with you, my reader, if you were dying on your comfortable bed, surrounded with your sorrowing friends? Or how is it with you now? Would Christ be so precious to your soul then? Is He so precious to you now, as to absorb all your thoughts, and fill your soul with Himself? The terrible suffering of that moment had no power to disengage his heart from Christ. And his only request was, " Lord, remember me!" But what was the reply? The light in his soul ended otherwise than he thought. Instead of being remembered when Jesus returned in His kingdom, he got a place that very day in Paradise with Christ! The work was done by Jesus there which enabled this man to have a place with Him that very same day; even as it fits every soul who believes in it, to take his place that moment with Jesus within the vail!
Dear reader, have you gazed with a believing, adoring heart upon that work of Christ, as that which has delivered you from the wrath to come? And believing, have you taken your place, in virtue of it, within the vail? Where are you, if you have not done so? What are you? Outside the vail, an unbeliever, still in your sins! Solemn place, solemn condition. Rest not a moment, then. The same blow which rent the vail, exposed the wickedness of man’s heart, in the death of Christ; and revealed the love of God’s heart, in sparing not His Son; and has put away forever the sins of His believing people. Rest not a moment, then, till you take your place, by faith, inside the vail. Let no false reasoning of the enemy, or unbelief of your own heart, deprive you of this joy. Happy, indeed, if you have, as the saved thief, the fear of God in your heart: happier still, if you have owned your true state and condition before God
-taken the sentence of death home to your own soul; and happiest, if you have forgotten yourself altogether as he, and that your soul’s vision is absorbed with Him who was there consummating His love in doing a work which gives you a cloudless title to take your place this moment within the wail with Jesus! This day... with me, in Paradise I Holiness-Separation from evil. Innocence-Ignorance of it.
Adam was created in innocence, and fell; thus obtaining the knowledge of good and evil; as we read, " the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." (Genesis 3:22). To the state in which he was created we never can return. We never can unlearn the knowledge of good and evil. The " new man" (the Christian), is "after God created in righteousness, and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24).
JEREMIAH.
All, was reality with Jeremiah. The present corruption was a reality to him, for he rebuked it, and mourned over it. The approaching judgment was a reality to him, for he wept at the thought of it, and deprecated it. The final glory was a reality to him, for he laid out his money upon it. He had occasional refreshings of spirit from the glory. His sleep and the dreams that accompanied it, in Chapter 31, was "sweet unto him." It was a kind of moment in the " Holy Mount" to him-a transfiguration in spirit--for a light for the kingdom visited his soul there. He had revelations, too, of the " Lord our Righteousness," and could speak and write of Him. But not only as thus occasionally refreshed in spirit, and thus gifted to write and speak; but he was a suffering witness against " this present world;" and he laid out his money on " the world to come;" and it was this that completed his character, which would have been poor and wanting without it. For we may speak of Christ, and teach about the kingdom, but to witness for Him against a rejecting world, and to be "rich toward God," in the hope of His kingdom; this is to fill out and realize our character as saints.
We may covet these elements of character, some of us, for we are but half Jeremiahs. We can talk of Christ, but can we suffer for Him? We may teach about the kingdom, but can we lay out our money upon it1 The parable of the potter in Jeremiah 18:1-23, was designed to let Israel know that though brought into covenant, they were still within the range of the Lord’s judgments and visitations. And accordingly in chapter 19:, the judgment is typically executed. In John Baptist’s time, Israel is found in the same state of self-confidence. They said in that spirit, " We have Abraham to our father." And so, under the Lord’s ministry, it is still the same-they still boast in the fatherhood of Abraham and of God (John 8:1-59). But these boasts were vain, as John and the Lord will tell them. That is, John and the Lord teach them again the lesson of Jeremiah 18:1-23, that they were not, though in covenant bonds, beyond the reach of judgment.
Now, the object of the enemy in Matthew 4:1-25, was to get the Lord into the same condition with Israel, 1:e., to inspire Him with confidence, in the spirit of disobedience. He partially quoted Psalms 91:1-16, citing the promised security, but omitting the required conditional obedience. We know how fully He triumphed over the enemy, citing Deuteronomy 6:1-25, where obedience is Israel’s declared ground of security.
Thus the Lord in this feature of character, as in all besides, was the moral contradiction of man or of Israel. But all this has a lesson for us at this day. Christendom or Babylon has now taken the place of Israel of old. Babylon trusts in security in spite of her moral condition. She says, " I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." (Revelation 18:7). But Revelation 18:1-24 is another action, like that of the prophet in the Potter’s house. or in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, teaching the unfaithful steward that the doom of the shattered vessel awaits him.
God never sanctions disobedience. He did not go into the garden of Eden to accredit Adam’s sin, but to bring relief in the way of grace for it. So in the mystery of the Gospel, He utterly condemns sin, while delivering the sinner; 1 Samuel 4:1-22 witnesses this-that God will never sanction disobedience, nor does He commit Himself to His stewards. Ile does commit Himself to His own gifts and calling (Romans 11:1-36), but never to His stewards; they are still answerable to Him, and disobedience works forfeiture, and Christ is the only Steward that ever kept covenant, that ever stood in the conditional place. Matthew 4:1-25 shows that He kept his blessings under Psalms 91:1-16 :-and His Israel blessings under Deuteronomy 6:1-25; but all others, in their several turns, have failed, and Babylon’s boast is a lie.
We live at a moment when Babylon or Christendom is filling itself afresh with this boast, just previous to her overthrow, when she is to meet the doom of the potter’s vessel or of the millstone. For this boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but real disavowal of His claims. It is the denial of her subjection to Him, of her being in the place of the steward’s wife, answerable to Him and his judgment. It is the very characteristic that completes her identification with that Babylon which says, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," and it leaves her ready for the judgment, as the potter’s vessel in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; so of the millstone in the hand of the Angel in Revelation 18:1-24.
Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 8:1-9. THE difference between Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 8:1-9, and the names of Christ in each, helps to the opening up of the word in a most remarkable way. In Psalms 2:1-12 the Lord Jesus is presented as God’s King in Zion-the Lord’s aniaointed (or Christ). He is presented as God’s King in Zion to His people; to the Gentiles, but is rejected. All classes uniting to reject Him-heathen raging-people of Israel-kings and rulers. Jehovah is represented in a figure as laughing at their impotent rage; and the 6th verse tells us, that although his purposes, as far as man could do, were frustrated for a time, they were not set aside-God would yet set His king upon His holy hill of Zion. The Lord presented Himself in His character as Messiah or Christ to His people, and announced the principles of His Kingdom; but His people did not receive Him In Acts 4:25, &c., we find this 2nd Psalm quoted as far as the 2nd verse; and the Holy Ghost shows its fulfillment by Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, in the rejection of God’s Anointed King, His Christ. His Kingdom, consequently, was set aside for the time. This we know was in full measure at the cross, just where His people rejected their Messiah, and said, " We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15). "Then," at that solemn word, Pilate delivered Him up to their will; but while it came out in full measure at the Cross, the spirit that proved itself there, showed itself during His life and ministry. In Luke 8:1-56 we find the Lord going out " Preaching and showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God." In Luke 9:1-62 He sends out the Twelve with the same testimony, and gave them authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. Two remarkable characters of the state of things in the millennial day, when Satan will be bound and restrained in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3), and man cured of his diseases, and the world filled with blessing. These miracles are termed in Hebrews 6:1-20, "The powers of the world to come." They were samples exhibited by the Lord and the Twelve of that which will be to the full in the Kingdom. When they return, the Lord asks them what the result of all this testimony, from His own lips as from theirs had been? Their reply shows that the response the testimony met was the idle speculations of men’s minds as to whom He was: some said one thing-some another; but few cared for God’s Kingdom, or God’s King. (See Luke 9:18-19). The Lord then appeals to the little band of disciples, whom He had gathered around Him, as to whom He was. Peter answering for the rest, replies, "the Christ of God. Jesus straitly charged them to tell no man that thing. The time was past-His claims had been put forth as " The Christ." "The Lord’s Anointed," and had been refused-the Kingdom had been announced in grace, and rejected-there was no use in any further testimony. The Lord then immediately adds, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain and be raised the third day;" the latter statement, which the Lord always adds when he tells them of the " Son of Man" being about to suffer, and be rejected. The title of Psalms 8:1-9, which He fully takes in resurrection, having been previously rejected as "The Christ," according to Psalms 2:1-12 And, accordingly, instead of the glories and blessings of the Kingdom, it entails a path of suffering and rejection on His people. (See verses 23-26.)
Now in Psalms 8:4-8, we find that there is a "Son of Man" to whom dominion is given over all creation-the dominion which Adam had received in Genesis 1:26, and which he had sinned away and lost. When we turn to Heb. we find the Psalm quoted, and applied to Christ Himself; and the Apostle explains, "We see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor," having first tasted death for the inheritance. It was His by right of creation; but he takes it with its load of sin upon it, and inherits it as Redeemer-Heir. We see Him not yet in possession of it; but He is meanwhile crowned with glory and honor, waiting for the headship of all things.
Why, then, does He not take possessions Why the delays We find that God is occupied with something else, while Jesus thus waits. If we turn to Ephesians 1:22, we find the 8th Psalm quoted again. Christ is looked at as the glorified Man, whom God had raised up, He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places-verse 20; and that while he is waiting there, God is quickening, raising up, and seating in the heavenlies in Jesus, the joint-heirs by the same power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies. (See Chapter 2:5,6,). Christ has laid the foundation of this glorious work in His Cross. Having made peace by His blood-broken down the middle wall of partition between the Jew and Gentile, makino. out of twain one new man-reconciling both in one body by the Cross, having by it slain the enmity which had heretofore existed-and through Himself giving access to both by one Spirit to the Father-v. 18. The fioly Ghost becomes the bond of union and power of access for the members of Church- Christ’s body-through Jesus to the Father. Uniting all believers into one body, and to their head exalted as man by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven where Jesus was glorified.
(To be continued, Lord willing.)
SALVATION.
" GOOD morning, Mr. . I understand you say that when a man believes the Gospel he is saved. Is this so S" " Yes, it is quite true; but I only repeat what Scripture so plainly says at Ephesians 2:5-8, ’By grace are ye saved.’ I believe that a sinner is saved, and effectually saved, when he believes the Gospel." " And how is it, then, Mr --, that I am told to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, I am quite sure that is Scripture, too; so that it does not appear to be so sure, after all." " Yes, my friend, it is Scripture, sure enough; but, perhaps, you are not aware that there are two ways in which salvation is spoken of in the Scriptures-the salvation of the sinner, and the salvation of the saint." " Oh, is it so, I never heard that before; tell me how it is, and give me Scripture for your view, because otherwise it may be only your view after all." " Certainly, it would: but I will do so as far as I am able. The passage you have quoted as to working out your own salvation, is in Php 2:12, and refers to the salvation of the saint, from the circumstances, that is the difficulties, trials, temptations, and sufferings of the wilderness journey, after his redemption; he is not told to work out his own righteousness, or his own forgiveness, or his own redemption. Paul is exhorting those who were redeemed, and who possessed righteousness and forgiveness to work out their own salvation, or deliverance from all the difficulties of their pathway, with fear and trembling, not for the result, but because God Himself was working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Chapter 2:12,13.) Paul was now a prisoner in Rome (Chapter 1:13,14; Chapter 2:12), and unable to help them against the enemy as he had while with them, and they were suffering much reproach and affliction." (Chapter 2:27-29.)
" Dear me, why, of course, a believer wants to be helped in all these things, and I am sure he needs to be preserved from the enemy, too; but is this the sort of salvation which is here I" " It is; and in many other places of Scripture, too, such as in Romans 13:11, where Paul writes, Now is your salvation nearer than when you believed." " Oh, I see, they were believers whose salvation was nearer, and as you say, a believer is one who is saved." " Of course he is saved or redeemed; ’By grace ye are saved,’ and the Apostle in this passage tells them that the night is far spent, and that the day is at hand; and exhorts them to cast away the works of darkness, and put upon them the armor of light, because their salvation, that is their final deliverance, was now nearer than when they had believed."
" Yes, I begin to see that the salvation of the sinner is what he receives in believing, and that of the believer what he needs through the wilderness journey from every difficulty and, finally, out of the wilderness altogether." "Quite so, just as God redeemed Israel out of Egypt, and afterward delivered them out of the wilderness-and so of the sinner It is by grace he is saved’ (Ephesians 2:5); and yet he wears ’ for an helmet the hope of salvation’ (1 Thessalonians 5:8), that is, his final deliverance from wilderness circumstances, and entrance into glory."
" I am glad I met you. I am sure that word, work out your own salvation,’ has puzzled many as well as it has myself. How many wiles the enemy practices, to be sure, from which we need deliverance, and this is one of them; using portions of Scripture for persons in one state, which are only intended for people in quite another. Good day."
PEACE OFFERINGS-BURNT OFFERINGS.
Hebrews 13:10-15 AT the close of St. Luke, the Lord takes the disciples forth from Jerusalem, and walks on with them till He reaches Bethany, the place which had already witnessed resurrection. (John 11:1-57) There He ended His walk, and having lifted up His hands and blessed them, He was parted from them and taken up into heaven.
There is a moral beauty in the ascension taking place at the spot which had already (as has been observed by others) witnessed resurrection. The blessing, too, at the moment of the parting, is full of meaning. It tells us that it is blessing which now remains to us as the fruit of his death and resurrection; and it tells us also, that to bless us still, is His care and business in the heavens to which He has now ascended. But there is more. After the Lord had left them, as we further see in Luke 24:1-53, the disciples return from Bethany to Jerusalem, but it is to find it a kind of New Jerusalem. They do not require it as a city of solemnities and ordinances, and legal appointments; but to us it. is as a temple of praise, and fill it with sacrifices of joy and thanksgiving. "They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God." This is very beautiful, and this ought to give us our character as a people who are ever living in the fresh joy and liberty which the
Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus inspire. We ought to be saints of that order, worshippers who have been at Bethany with a risen Jesus, and there seen His ascension as the purger of our sins, up to the highest place in heaven, and this will be confirmed to us when we read other New Testament Scriptures. When we go from the closing verses of Luke to the Epistle of the Hebrews, we find there that the Holy Ghost is leading us to a sanctuary of praise, a temple of peace offerings and burnt offerings, which the accomplished and accepted work of Christ has erected for us in the present dispensation. And I would trace this for a little moment or two.
We learn from Hebrews 13:10, that we have an altar whereof we are to eat. Now it is simple and natural to read this as insinuating a peace-offering; because that was the only offering of which the offerer himself partook. (See Leviticus 1:1-17; Leviticus 2:1-16; Leviticus 3:1-17; Leviticus 4:1-35; Leviticus 5:1-19; Leviticus 6:1-30; Leviticus 7:1-38) But this again intimates that the sin-offering had already been accepted, because the worshipper with a peace-offering must be clean. (See Leviticus 7:20). It was the expression of communion, and in that place, and in that relationship to God. He must be clean, fit for the divine presence, by the justification and acceptance of his person, through a sacrifice for sin already accomplished. This being the intimation of Chapter 13:10 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is deeply interesting to go back to the earlier parts of it, and discover that a feast upon, or after a sacrifice, has been spread out before us there, and we are called to sit and eat of it. I mean this in the whole argument of the Epistle, from Chapter 1 to Chapter 10 the glories of the Lord Jesus now in heaven, after the sacrifice of Himself here for our sins, are shown us; and as they pass before us one after another, we are exhorted to enjoy the sight of them. This is surely the spreading a table for us, or the setting of us at a feast upon a sacrifice; or, as I may express it, a calling of us to the altar in God’s house with a peace offering. And now, according to all this, we are told at the end of Chapter 13:10, that we have this feast, that we are at this altar, and we are warned not to leave it for any service inconsistent with it. This is the conclusion drawn from the previous teaching, and all this gives a beautiful character to the whole Epistle. In connection with this, or rather in company and furtherance of it, I would look at the earlier part of the Epistle, in the light of which I have now referred to it, as showing us a feast upon a sacrifice.
Chapter 1-In this Ch. the Lord is declared to be seated in the high heavens, in personal and official excellency above angels, as the result of His having here on earth purged our sins; and we are exhorted to listen to Him while speaking to us from that place, and in that character. Will it not, I ask, be meat and drink to our souls if we do so? Shall we not be sitting at the feast upon a sacrifice?
Chapter 2-Here He is shown to us as crowned with glory and honor waiting for the Headship, and all this because He has already gone through humiliation and suffering for us, and we are told that " we see" Him there. May I not again ask is not this a feast upon a sacrifice? What less is the sight of such a one in such a place and condition. We see the One who died for us glorified. Yea, because He died for us I
Chapter 5-7-In these chapters the same Lord Jesus is presented to us as the High Priest of our profession, so constituted on the ground of His wrought-out salvation for us, on the fact that He made Himself the author of such salvation by His sufferings, perfected by death. And we are told to use Him in this character, for He is just the One we need. Surely this is but another part of the same altar feast, at which the saints of God in this gospel day by grace are seated.
Chapter 8-Here again His glory, though in another form of it appears before us. But still as the One who has accomplished the remission of sins He is declared to be now in the heavens, the Mediator of the New Covenant which speaks of grace, and of His doings for us, and of nothing else; and we are taught to know that it is in this Covenant we are interested,’" and we are counseled no more to deal with the old Covenant, under which, indeed, we are condemned. Again, I say, this is of the same character. If we do as we are here taught to do, our souls will still be feeding upon a sacrifice.
Chapter 9;10-Here in these chapters, closing as they do the
* Note.-As Christians, we are so far interested in the new Covenant, as to be partakers of its privileges. But we must remember that it is only established with Judah and Israel, never with the Christian. The blood of the new Covenant has been shed, by which we enjoy its privileges; forgiveness of sins, &e.-ED. doctrinal part of this wondrous Epistle, we learn that the altar of sin offering has been forever satisfied, that the one offering of Himself by the Christ of God has answered all its demands; it will never look for another victim. The. Lamb is in glory upon the accomplishment of atonement, and we are sanctified and perfected forever And the word of command to us is this, to be true to this great fact, and with boldness to enter into the holiest-the divine presence, on the title of it. This is truly the crowning and finishing of all this story of mysterious grace. This is not only spreading the feast for us, but setting us in perfect ease at the feast; telling us to be of good courage and of animated hearts because of thoroughly relieved consciences, in the full brightness of the divine presence. Thus we may surely say, we have reached the altar of the present temple of God, as an altar of peace offerings. We have communion with God in full peace of soul, because of reconciliation through the offering of Him who was made sin for us. But we are also ministering at the altar of burnt offering, as after the day of atonement. To exhibit this, we may again look at the Epistle to the Hebrews, as we have already traced it. I may now call to mind that in every light in which the Lord Jesus is seen in the course of that divine writing, He appears as the One who has put away sin. Every sight that we get of Him there, is as the Ascended One, crowned with glory and honor. He is seen in excellency above angels in expectation of His enemies being made His footstool. And then in the prospect of the Lordship of all things, as the victorious Deliverer of sinners from the fear of death, as Mediator of the new Covenant, as one who has been welcomed to the highest seat of heaven, as the Doer of God’s will here on earth, in behalf of us sinners. As the Great High Priest of the sanctuary which God Himself has built in the heavens. All this constitutes a coronation with glory and honor. " Many crowns are on His head," as we sometimes sing together. But each of them tells us that it is because He has made atonement, and put away sin forever. This is so as we have before largely seen. The Lord Jesus is not now girded with the simple white linen garments, the symbols of holiness and humiliation, to go through atoning after the pattern of Aaron at the beginning of the mystic 1)th day of the 7th month. (Leviticus 16:4.) But in.
Priestly robes of glory and beauty, after the pattern of Aaron at the end of that wondrous day, celebrating as in Heaven the accomplishment of reconciliation. (Leviticus 16:23-24.) We see Him as after the day of atonement, and not as going through it. And on this depends the different services of the two ages; the Legal or Mosaic and Evangelic. In the former, atonement was foreshadowed; in the latter it is celebrated. Sin was present then. Had in remembrance afresh every year. How, it is put out of sight, and gone forever. Services in the temple were then typical of atonement; now, they are commemorative of it. The only thing which now remains to be done of all the earthly services of the 10th day of the 7th month, as we read them in Leviticus 16:1-34, is the offering of the burnt-offering, which was done at the end of that day. Because the blood of the true sacrifice for sin has been accepted in heaven. In Levitical language it has been sprinkled on the mercy-seat in the Holiest; it has been applied by faith to the conscience of the sinner; the resurrection, too, like the dismissal of the scape-goat, has published the putting away of sin forever. Yea, moreover, the body oc the victim has been burned without the camp-Jesus is rejected by the world-and thus nothing remains but the offering of the burnt-offering; the rendering to God, the God of salvation, an act of worship and thanksgiving, on the ground of perfected atonement. Therefore, we read, in this same Epistle, and in the same place of it, this fine allusion to the day of atonement and to the offering of burnt-offering which closed it. " For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest for sin, are burnt without the camp; wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate; let us go forth, therefore, unto Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him let us, therefore, offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks, to His name " (Chapter 13:11-15.) Thus in 5: 15, this Epistle sets us at the altar with a burnt-offering, at the end of the day of atonement; as in 5: 10, the same chapter, had set us at the altar with a peace-offering. And we are commanded, or invited, to offer the sacrifice of praise continually, and to give thanks to His name. And this is the temple-service which we saw the disciples rendering in Luke 24:1-53, after they had returned from Bethany to Jerusalem.
What rich present fruit to the soul from the work of Christ, or from the cross and resurrection! Being near Him with a peace-offering, in the enjoyment of communion Being before Him with a burnt-offering, in the character of a worshipper!
Surely the sequel is easily weighed. The Epistle to the Hebrews erects an altar, not to receive a sin offering; but where the believer. may appear with his peace-offering as in.communion.; and with his burnt-offering as a worshipper!
J. G. B.
" THE HEM OF HIS GARMENT."
IT is a precious thought to the anxious soul, that the weakest touch of faith, the touch of the very hem of the garment of Christ-the feeblest apprehension of His work-brings instant and perfect salvation to the soul. It is not how much one has realized of Christ, or His work; but the fact that the soul has, as it were, touched Him by faith, that renders it most blessedly secure in His hand. One hears the expression, " 0! if I had the faith of such a one, I could then know I was saved." What a mistake tq think that it is the amount of ray faith whigli saves me instead of the fact that it is Christ, in whom I have faith, who dpes this. I would press this upon any poor anions soul, hitherto, perhaps, searching its own poor heart, to find strong faith in order to make that a resting place. The soul will, doubtles, grow in the knowledge of Christ, and His work and all its glories-will grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus, when occupied in heart with him. All this may confirm, its faith, and make it stronger au4 stronger; but the feeble touch of faith it is which bxing4 instant and perfect salvation. There is a living link wrought between the soul and Christ, which nothing can snap-a link commenced in time, but made for eternity! This is illustrated in various ways in the Word of God. Take the case of the two disciples of John Baptist (John 1:35-41), to whom John had pointed out the "Lamb of God." They did not realize, at the moment, Jesus by that glorious title, the "Lamb of God;" but they apprehended HMI in the humblest of all His glorious titles-the most earthly; and they say, "We have found the Illessias I" and, consequently, they possessed all that he was. Again, the woman of Samaria, in John 4:1-54 She was unable to grasp at the glories of the person of Jesus, the Son of the Father, who had come from heaven, to reveal the Father in grace to the world, and to give the Holy Ghost. But she had heard of a Messiah who, when he was come, would tell her all things; and the Lord in his grace meets her in the lowest place, where she could apprehend him, and said, "1 tha-4 speak unto thee, am Hebrews 1:1-14" It is a blessed thought for the poor anxious soul, that it is not how much I know, that saves me.; but the. Christ whom I know, who does so.
I heard of late a striking illustration of this truth, which may be a blessing to the heart of some dear, anxious soul. As far as I can remember the story, it was as follows:-A brother in the Lord, who, with the spirit of an evangelist, wished to let others know of the Christ whom he had learned for his own soul, was requested to call and see an aged woman at R, who was ill. He had been enjoying some time previously, the beauties of the Shepherd’s seeking love for the lost sheep, and Father’s reception of the returning prodigal, and other of the varied beauties of that well-known chapter, Luke 15:1-32 He naturally thought that she would have enjoyed them as much as he had himself; and, with such a thought, he read the chapter over and over, and rehearsed to himself the beauties in it which he had so enjoyed; and then went to pay his visit to the woman. On arriving, he produced his Bible, and read the chapter, expounding, as he went on, each part. He stopped for a moment, when he had not got far, and asked the old woman, "Is not that beautiful’?" She replied, "0 yes, it’s beautiful; and sure He says, "Come to me all that are sick, and sore, and sorry, and sad, and I’ll give you rest." My friend then went on with his chapter, and after a little more explanations, ha again asked, "Is not that beautiful’?" Again the old woman replied in the same words, "0 yes, it’s beautiful; and sure He says, " Come to me all that are sick, and sore, and sorry, and sad, and I’ll give you rest" This startled my friend, and he could not make out what she meant, by using the same words twice; still he went on, and when he stopped, to his astonishment, the old woman said exactly the same words! All of a sudden. the truth struck him. The old woman had not apprehended his expositions of the chapter in any wise; but she had some time or other heard those precious words of the Savior, in Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy leaden, and I will give you rest." Those words had quickened her soul to life; His voice had pierced her inmost heart. A living link was wrought in time between her soul and Christ-a link which was formed for eternity. The words were life to her soul. She could just apprehend that one little truth, that He had invited her thus. She knew Him but in that one little word; apprehended no more of Jesus than this; and yet her soul was saved. It was Christ she knew. Her knowledge of Him was confined to this; and the Christ she knew was her Savior. Is there a link-a feeble one it may be, dear reader-between your soul and Jesus Has your poor weak faith but "touched the hem of His garment," as it were? If so, remember this,-it is not the extent of your apprehension of Him; but it is that Christ, whom you have but touched, who is your Savior, and who has earned that title by His own blood; and you are saved "THE MORNING STAR"
IT has been truly said by some one, that the Old Testament Scriptures end with the hope of the coming of the " Sun of Righteousness;" and the New with that of the " Morning Star." Sweetly beautiful is this. The godly remnant of Israel who feared the Lord, and spake often one to another, (Mal had that precious consolation before them-that of the coming of the " Sun of Righteousnes," with healing in his wings (Malachi 4:1-6) And we find them in Luke 2:1-52, the Sim eons, and Annas, and "all them that looked for redemption in Israel," (ver. 25-38), rejoicing in the advent of the " Sun of Righteousness," the " consolation of Israel." But, alas, His beams fell coldly on the hearts of His nation; they had no heart for Him Men were morally unfit to have God amongst them; and so He was obliged to hide His beams of blessing in the darkened scene that surrounded His cross, and to reserve the day of blessing till another season. Meanwhile our calling was revealed, and our hope presented to us; not as the " Sun of Righteousness," but as the " Morning Star." The more we contemplate the fitness of this symbol of our hope, the more does its divine origin appear. It is the watchman during the long night, who sees the morning star for a few moments, while the darkness is rolling itself away from off the face of the earth, and before the beams of the sun enliven the earth with their rays. And so with the Christian’s hope; he watches during the moral darkness of the world, till the dawn; and just as the darkness is deepest, and is about to roll itself away before the beams of the " Sun of Righteousness," his hope is rewarded in seeing the "Morning Star," (Revelation 22:16), in His earliest brightness, coming to take up His people to Himself, that they may shine forth with Him, as the sun in the kingdom of their Father in the heavenlies; (Matthew 13:43.) when He reveals Himself to the Millenial earth, as the " Sun of Righteousness."
"I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify these things in the churches; I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and the Morning Star He which testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus."... Amen.-( Ways of God. Bible Treasury).
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"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:24.
"Verily, verily," Jesus, Lord, Were Thine own words when here; The soul that hearkens to Thy word Need never doubt nor fear.
All who believe in simple faith, From God that Thou wert sent, " Life everlasting," surely " hath," For which Thine own was spent. To condemnation ne’er shall come,
For Thou hast borne it all; The perfect work that Thou hast done, Can never change or fall.
Passed they are from death to life, Before the throne of God; And all that can against them rise, Atoned for by Thy blood.
Then make each seeking anxious heart Bow low before Thy word: And by Thy Holy Spirit taught, Own Thee as Savior, Lord 1G. S. P. THE LEPER.
1’n disease of leprosy is a marked and impressive type of sin in the flesh. Of all diseases, it is the most loathsome; and is utterly incurable by man’s art or device. The leper, too, was perfectly helpless in himself to remove his disease. He was in so sad a condition, that contact with him only partook of his defilement. Whosoever touched him, or whatsoever he touched, partook of his uncleanness. Ms unhappy state is described in Leviticus 13:44-46, " He is a leprous man; he is unclean; the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation he." Nothing can be more sad and pitiable than the. state of the poor leper.
Reader, does it not fitly typify your case, if you are a sinner, unreconciled to God 1 Divest yourself of the garb of "profession" for a moment, and look upon your sad condition in God’s sight. Behold in yourself a sinner from your heart’s core, helpless to do anything for your cleansing; and in such a state that you can only pronounce those words of the leper of old, " Unclean, unclean." In the Scripture before us, we find a precious figure of the work of the Savior Jesus for the poor unclean sinner. We read, " And the priest shall go forth out of the camp," (ver. 3.) How our poor legal hearts reverse this order. Our thought is that the sinner must first come to God; and if he does his best, God will meet him and help him to do the remainder; all the while forgetting that all this " doing" on the sinner’s part for salvation, is but the servile toil of a sinner; and that he is not yet in the position to be a "doer," but is still a sinner who needs to be cleansed from his sins, ere he can " do" anything aright. No, the leper was outside the camp-the sinner is unreconciled to God. He is not yet in the place for the exercise of these " doings," all good and right in their place. The question for the sinner is not, What he is to occupy himself with outside of God’s presence? but, How is he to, get in I His proper occupation outside is to confess his true state as "unclean." Now,
God’s most blessed answer to this is revealed here, " The priest shall go forth out of the camp." Hearken, dear sinner, to this precious revelation of God’s grace, in sending His Son to seek and to save that which was lost-" In this was manifested the love of God toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10). Wondrous love of God! wondrous journey of His Son, from the bosom of the Father to a sin-stained world! Nothing was here to draw forth His love but need; and with all this, He came to the place where the sinner was!
We read in verse 4, etc., "Then shall the priest command to take from him that is to be cleansed, two birds alive, and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet and hyssop; and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water; and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field." This is very precious. The little clean birds tell us of the cleanness and spotlessness of God’s spotless Lamb-The death of one of them, of Christ’s offering Himself through the eternal Spirit, without spot tb God, (Heb. in. 14): and the other soaring aloft into the heavens, of Jesus risen from the dead, bearing the tokens of his blood-shedding up into the heavenly sanctuary-entering into the Holiest by His own blood. (Hebrews 9:12). All this was done by Him who acted for God, in the poor leper’s view. What had he been doing all the while’? He had been " standing still, to see the salvation of God;" gazing in silence at all this wonderful ceremony being performed for him; further than this he could not do. Till the work was complete, and his person sprinkled with the blood, and his eye bad followed the little bird as it ascended towards the heavens, bearing on its wings the blood that had been shed and sprinkled upon him, he had but to stand still and behold! But what a tale it told his poor heart, as he saw the vanishing form of the little live bird 1 A tale of joy and peace-of days of solitude and banishment from the camp being over-of communion with the Lord’s people within about to begin. How his heart must have rejoiced to hear the priest who spake for God declare that he was clean, through, the seven-fold sprinkled blood I My reader, Are you one of the moral lepers•the sinners of the world who wants to be cleansed; one who is conscious that your sins shut you out from the presence of God’? Look then, I beseech you, on the spotless substitute whom God has provided, working out on His cross, that which cleanses your soul before God. Remember that He who did this work for you, has risen again-has passed from the earth, where he suffered "outside the camp" into the presence of the living God, bearing in His body the marks of His perfect work, which cleanses your soul, and gives you a title to be there with Him; and that He who has thus wrought for you has Himself, as speaking for God "pronounced you clean," with a cleanness which befits the presence of God! The leper of old had but to behold the work for him, to hear his sentence pronounced, to believe it, and at once to enter upon all his blessedness. What more is demanded of you? Just to " stand still, and behold the salvation of the Lord." It is " to him that worketh, not, but believeth on Him, that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5). Such, then, is somewhat of what we learn here. The leper was sought outside the camp-the work was done by him who acted for God. The blood was sprinkled by him on the leper. He who spake for God pronounced upon the value and efficacy of the work; and there stood the cleansed man at the conclusion of the ceremony, " clean every whit," and fit for the camp of God! He had not raised a finger in the work; he was not called upon to "feel," or " hope," or " realize," or any of those things which often stumble the poor anxious soul, before he believed. These were all quite right in their place, but he had to do none of these things. And the sinner who gazes upon the cross of Christ has to do none of these things before he believes. What he wants is cleansing-a cleansing in the sight of God -such a cleansing as is worthy of Him; and his satisfaction of heart surely would depend upon the satisfaction of God to the work which had cleansed his soul. God himself sent His Son to seek you, dear sinner; God Himself provided a sacrifice to put away your sins. His own word has pronounced upon its efficacy and your consequent cleanness; and surely your heart may rest in the satisfaction of God in this, and never raise a question, when God has pronounced you clean! May the Lord bless this little word to your soul, my reader. If He guides to it, we may make another visit to this chapter, where we find the cleansed man becoming an active worker himself, finding out the responsibilities and duties of his new place, within the camp of God, and learning to " grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus."
" Clean every whit," thou saidst it, Lord; Shall one suspicion lurk?
Thine, surely, is a faithful word, And thine a finished work."
MEDITATIONS-.`11IARAEL"
SCARCELY had died away the rapturous notes of Israel’s joy and exultation, because of their deliverance from all the power and malice of Egypt, before they are made to feel the barrenness and dearth of the wilderness. With what high and elated thoughts of God’s goodness and power did they step out into the wilderness! Surely they were little prepared for this, their first march in it I To go three days, and find no water, and when they reached some, to find it "bitter!" What a contrast to the high tone and brilliant expectations they had but just celebrated in song! How differently had they expected of God! How natural it was for them, as knowing and rejoicing in the great work of deliverance which He had accomplished for them, to reckon on His providing a scene of unbroken happiness for them. Thus is it often with believers now, after having in li manner’, as it were, crossed the Red Sea. They have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; and they rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. They have the exulting experience of Romans 5:3. But can they say, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also." Do they as a rule, even expect tribulation here, much less glory in it? They are in all the exuberance of delight, because of peace with God, and hope of the glory of God. But what of this world. -this wilderness? Have not many of us expected, and even toiled to find all easy and agreeable here? Have we not sought to make ourselves happy here? Have we not been disappointed, depressed, almost inconsolable, when we have found no water here, and of what there is, only bitter? We have entered the wilderness, without understanding what it is. We have expected that the God who had blessed our souls with such peace and exultation over the enemy, and ovet death, should preserve and screen us from sorrow. In the spirit of our minds, we have not been one whit better than Israel. We have murmured and complained, toiled and fretted, to find easy and agreeable circumstances here. But it cannot be. The wilderness illustrates what the world is to the saint; and the first staae of the journey gives a character of the whole. It is all drought. There was nothing in it for Christ. He has been rejected out of it. There is nothing in it for God, or for His people. The world has condemned itself in its inability to value Christ. If the best cannot be valued, how could anything inferior? If the world has nothing for God in it: if it has rejected the best thing God could send into it, how can I expect Him to make it easy and agreeable to me? On the contrary, if true to Him, and estimating the world as He does, I glory in tribulation; for tribulation worketh endurance; endurance, experience (or trying); and trying hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which He hath given us. I ought to start in the wilderness expecting nothing but dearth; and in not doing so, is where many of us have failed. Our expectations have been like Israel; and our disappointment and disheartenment at not finding them realized, like theirs also. We have had, in fact, to go back, and begin anew-to start aright. Most of our failings in the -Wilderness march are attributed to our having started with a wrong idea of what the wilderness is. Ease or rest we cannot find in it; and the more we txpect it, the more shall we chafe under the disappointment. The first stage in our journey must proclaim to us, as to Israel, what the true nature of the journey is. It is Marah.
What, then, is to be done-the water is bitter? god can make it sweet. He shows Moses a tree which, when cast into the water, makes it sweet. This is Christ crucified. This is what the world rejected; and the only good thing which God has to, give His people in passing through it.
Nay more; the bitterness of the circumstances which I am passing through, is only an opportunity for Christ to come in, and so make the bitter sweet. If you have no Marah here, you know not the power of Christ to convert it into sweetness. Paul in prison at Rome, and John at PatmoS, were in very bitter circumstances; but -would they hare changed them for any other, seeing that those circumstances were the opportunity for the revelation of Christ I God cannot let me find both sweetness here, and sweetness in Christ. If I will have the sweetness of circumstances, I shall not have the sweetness of Christ in the bitter circumstances, for it is He who brightens up the dark circumstances. Let me once be brought to see that without the bitter circumstances I could not have such knowledge of Christ, and I shall murmur at them no more. I accept them; nay, I glory in tribulation. It is not only that I am quiet and resigned, braving my circumstances in the strength of natural character. No, I know they are bitter; but I don’t occupy myself with the bitterness, because God has given me to know more of Christ in it; so much so, that I should be sorry that they should be altered, lest I should lose what I have learned of Christ in them, making them sweet. I am thus prepared for tribulation, but I am also assured of finding in Christ a greater and fuller delight; so that the tribulation is hailed as another opportunity for disclosing to my heart, as a sufferer here, the excellency and virtue of Christ. I am neither vexed nor disappointed; I am in the happiness of God. I joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation. Amen.
PAUL AND THE GALATIANS. In the beginning of Chapter 1 of this Epistle, so full of the divine energy of the Holy Ghost in the Apostle Paul, in contending for the faith he had once delivered to the Galatians, Which had become clouded and dim, we find the purpose of God pressed from his burdened spirit. The purpose of God the Father to deliver us from this present evil age, exhibited in the greeting, " Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age." Well did the Apcstle -personally know this purpose of God. He was the chief Hof sinners-the most wicked man in heart that ever trod the earth. One whose heart was filled with the stern purpose of blotting out if he could, the name of Jesus from the face of the earth; and on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus, he is stricken to the earth, and sees the Blessed One in the glory, and finds in one moment that he was the chief of sinners; and that as such, God had laid hold of him, and against his will, had separated him to Christ, delivering him from his sins and from this present evil age. Acts 9:1-22.
He speaks to the Galatians. They had been getting back into the world in its first form; instead of going on as he was, with a risen and ascended Christ. They had been getting under the Law, and the observation of days-" weak and beggarly elements," as the spirit calls them, things that accredited the flesh. " When ye knew not God, ye did service unto them, which by nature are no Gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather sre known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage." (Galatians 4:8-9.) He finds them again, he says, desiring to be in bondage to such things.
Then in the last chapter (Chapter 6:14,) he says, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." He found that the world to him was a judged thing; out of which he had been separated to Christ. That he was a Nazarite, as it were, separated to God. And he was keeping his Nazariteship practically and undefiled; and was for this reason suffering persecution for the Cross of Christ. Are we then, my readers, walking thus in fellowship with the apostle? Have we realized the delivering work of Jesus, and the purpose of God the Father as he did? And are we bringing the power of the Cross to bear upon all here? Christ tried if the world would be reconciled to God; and headed by a prince, a God of this age, it gave Him a cross! A cross to which attached a curse in the scriptures, which they who professed to be the exclusive people of God possessed. It was He who hung there, who possessed true value in the apostles eyes. His heart swelled within him at the thought of Him whom he loved being there. And the world which had placed Him there had its true value to him; it was a crucified thing. God had ordered the world aright at the beginning; but when man was driven from Paradise, another order of things came in under Cain:-an order to gratify the flesh, and make the world, thus departed from God, a comfortable place to live in and possess; Cain went out, and, with " vagabond" written on his brow, built a city, and embellished the world which was lying under a curse to make it a place of delight. (Genesis 4:1-26) The cross revealed all this; brought out all, and showed it in its true light. Is there anything there in it you can enjoy? Does not the cross of a rejected Christ cast a shadow of its approaching judgment across the world? Can a Christian be happy in its spirit, its pursuits, its aims 2 (He has his own full joy outside the world altogether.) Could we be happy or comfortable going back into a house where a beloved friend had been murdered; and we had barely escaped? A place where Christ had no place to lay His head? Or are we sitting so lightly by all in it that we would not care to find that Satan had swept all away in the morning as we arose! But there is still a deeper thing in the verse. One which judges us more deeply; the words of the apostle, "I unto the world." Are we realizing that we are one with Him who was crucified there, and thus set free from every claim of the world which crucified Him could have on us? What fellowship has He with those of it now I Are we then walking there in the sense of our practical Nazariteship? Walking as those whom God has put apart, not only delivering us from our sins, and this present evil age, but from the world? We must live in it, and toil in it, and it may be suffer in it too; but we can learn to die TO the world; and if He wills, the OUT OF rr as well; but we know that God has no part or lot in its aims or pursuits, no fellowship with it whatsoever. We are a people, as Christians, who have not to be separated; but who have been separated to God, like Jesus thus in character. He was the perfect One in its midst; with all His titles and glories He passed through it; and one to look at Him would say, "here is one who has no part or lot here." His heart, His mind, His soul was above. One to see Him must know this. Are we then realizing in its present power our fellowship with Him, and with Paul in Galatians 6:14? Are we practically freed from the spirit of a world, that would gladly never hear the mention of the name of Jesus? Learning to glory like Paul in bearing in his body those marks of reproach (Galatians 6:17.); " those beautiful initials of Jesus;" the marks which Satan had branded on the apostle for his name? Eve ry mark of the world is a reproach to him who is heavenly. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of-the world;" and " 0, righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but these have known that thou hast sent me" said the, divine Master. " And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." (John 2:17.) "THE OTHER SIDE."
Matthew 14:1-36; Matthew 22:1-46.
DEAR Reader, I want you to look at this. Not for a few minutes, or half-an-hour; but hour by hour, and day by day. I would have you fix your gaze up and away to the other side of death-the other side of judgment; and if you be a true Christian, on the glory awaiting you on the blissful shores of Immanuel’s land! Every child of God knows that they are traveling to the other side, that it is their privilege and blessing to say, with a thankful heart, "We are now no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God."." For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." (Hebrews 13:14.) Oh! what a wonderful and glorious mystery it is that we should be called the " Sons of God," and if sons, heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ! and oh!. blessed word! "inheritors" of the kingdom of heaven. But I think that many Christians forget, or seem to forget, that they are on the way to their Father’s house! Oh! that these few feeble words may stir them up to live more as the followers of Jesus on,Iht to live, letting their light so shine before men, that seeing their good works, they may glorify their Father 74 Mai is in heaven. When the disciples were with Jesus, we Lnd, because it was a "desert place" He "constrained His disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other s.;r1e." And so He still does to those who are His. There are acme who follow Him closely--,who are daily and hourly in communion with Him, as His disciples were; and to those He says, "As you know that you are mine, and all that I have is yours, set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth." " Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God; believe also in me." " Look away from all the cares an 1 surroundings of this life and look up and away to the other side-to the glory in store for you there." Yes, beloved, so God would have us live, looking with a fixed eye, as it were, into heaven itself; entering by faith into the very holiest, relying on His promise, "My presence shall go with thee," and believing that thqugh here we may have trouble and weariness, still, in the end, " He will give us rest." (E wins 33: 14.) What a precious promise is that one also for the believer, in Isaiah 43:2, " When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." This is a strong staff to lean upon, is it not, dear reader? and have we not much to comfort and cheer us on our upward journey The way home may be very long and dreary--the road may be very dark and rough; but when we remember that our sufferings here are but for a "moment," we will be able to sing that sweet little line from our heart.
"Ohl how will recompense his smile, The suff’rings of this little while." And oh! shall it not, beloved I Shall it not amply more than recompense us for any little trials and sufferings we may have borne here silently, mayhap patiently, rejoicing that we were counted worthy to suffer for His sake? Shall it not when we see his tender smile beaming upon us, and hear his loving commendation, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Oh! when we are in the glory on the other side, and can survey from the glorious battlements of the New Jerusalem, all the way which the Lord has led us, how we will wonder at all the care and anxiety, all the trouble and fretting, which our little life down here cost us; and how we will grieve to see others (as we had often done) toiling and striving to gain some paltry height in the world’s estimation, or wearing themselves out with their efforts to lay by stores for days which may never arrive. Oh! dear friends, I do not say that we should not be careful about our worldly affairs, that we should let things go to " rack and ruin," as the saying is, and not try to make them better; but I do say that a Christian should have the same characteristics as had the Nazarite of old; and let the unshaven head and loosely flowing locks be typical of their utter carelesness and disregard of mere worldly position and eminence. While time lasts, there will be Marthas in this world, troubled, and ever anxious about the affairs of this life: but oh! how much more blessed to be like Mary! thinking but of Jesus, learning of Him, and sitting at His feet. Oh! dear Christian reader, though your worldly prospects may be very poor, though you may be sad and weary and lonely, surely the same thought that sustained our blessed Master through all His years of loneliness and sorrow, ought to cheer you in yours! Remember, " He for thejoy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2 Even so, then, think of the glorious prospect that is before you, even the same set before Him; for He says, " To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne." (Revelation 3:21.) And we know that now we are "more than conquerors through Him that loved us."
Oh! dear Christian, when you think of the bliss that is awaiting you on " the other side," the little troubles and trials you experience on your homeward journey, will all fade like the morning mist? Would that we could all keep our eyes more steadfastly fixed upon that distant shore! Would that we walked more upon the mountain tops, watching and waiting for the bright and morning star to arise. Oh! that we could think less of our own trials and afflictions, (though they may sometimes appear as if they would overwhelm us); and, raising our eyes, trustfully see that "behind a frowning Providence, He hides a smiling face;" and that everything-trials, losses, temptations, sorrows, all things work together for good to them that love God. Then he would walk with a firmer tread the path, it may be, a sorrowful one; but, as the days and months fly by-an ever shortening one, which leads to our eternal home.
Oh! then, let us strive, beloved, to live more daily and bourly, "looking unto Jesus," or, rather, "looking of unto Jesus." (Hebrews 12:2.) Looking off from all other objects-worldly and earthly cares and concerns-unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. " Looking off" from all the temptations of pleasures which would lure our hearts from resting above, and looking with a single eye and steadfast faith, unto Him who, "for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." And let our eyes and our hearts be fixed upward and onward and heavenward and homeward, to " the other side," and the pleasures which " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him " (1 Corinthians 2:9.) Oh! then, amidst life’s hot and weary race, let us often invigorate and refresh ourselves by the thought of the time when we will be " forever with the Lord," and live so that when the summons home reaches us, gladly striking our tents, and bidding farewell to our wilderness life, we may be ready to enter the land of promise-the house of our Father in heaven.
Here in the body pent, Absent from Him we roam Yet nightly pitch our moving tent A day’s march nearer home. My Father’s House on high, Home of my soul, how near At times, to faith’s transpiercing eye, Thy golden gates appear. My thirsty spirit faints To reach the land I love- The bright inheritance of saints!
Jerusalem above.
A.