02.B06. Jesus Manifested To The Believer

CHAPTER VI.

JESUS MANIFESTED TO THE BELIEVERS.

BEFORE introducing the topic of the present discourse, I will request the reader to peruse attentively the following passage, John 14:18-23, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto Him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." The work of the Spirit, from the time when He convinces the sinner of his sins, up to the period in which the "renewing of the Holy Ghost" is completed, is to prepare the way for the consummation referred to in the passage above cited -- the consummation in which Christ, with the Father, becomes to the mind a personally manifested and indwelling presence. The language by which this mysterious relation between a human soul and Christ, and God in Him, is expressed in the Scriptures, is quite various and peculiar. God, in referring to this relation between Himself and His people, says, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them." "Your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost," and "ye are builded for a temple of God through the Spirit." "And truly," says the apostle, "our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." Again, we read of "the communion and fellowship of the Spirit." In the following most memorable passage, our Saviour prays that this union and fellowship may be consummated between Him and all believers : -- "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word: that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me." The Scriptures also speak of our "dwelling in God, and God in us," and of "Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith." How, it may be asked, can Christ be in us, and we, at the same time, be in Him? An infidel once attempted to embarrass an unlettered but very intelligent coloured man, by putting to him this very question. The reply of the coloured man was amusing, but very impressive and pertinent. "Well, dat are," he replied, "don’t trouble me. You take dat are poker and put it in de fire. In a little while de fire will be in de poker, and de poker in de fire.’ If we are in Christ, we shall soon be "filled with all the fulness of God," and Christ, with every person of the sacred Trinity, will "make His abode in us." Christ is in us when, as a manifested personal presence, He directly and immediately controls all the powers, susceptibilities, and activities of our being, His manifested love completely moulding our character, drawing our whole hearts, and centering them in Him, and rendering us "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," as He was. We are in Christ when, having "cleansed us from all unrighteousness," He takes us to His heart as the object of His fraternal love, becomes the direct guardian of all our interests, "shows us His glory," and brings us into direct intercommunion with His thoughts, feelings, and purposes of love towards us. The moment when, and the manner in which, Christ first "manifested Himself" to me, will, I doubt not, be held in remembrance to eternity. I had risen from my knees in my study, and had retired to our bedroom to rest for the night, my wife being already in bed. As I approached the side of the bed, the veil was lifted, and Christ, not as an object of physical, but exclusively mental and spiritual vision, was immediately before me. "With open face I beheld as in a glass His glory," or rather, beheld Christ Himself in His glory, with "the light of His countenance lifted upon me." Then I realised, as I had never done before, not only that He had "given Himself for me," but that "He loved me," and was present to me, to "show me the beauty of my Lord," and, as my eternal Friend and Portion, to abide in me for ever. I did not "fall at His feet as dead," the manifestation being too mildly loving for that. My breathing, however, stopped in an instant, and it was some time before I could recover it again. In deep agitation, my wife asked me what had happened? I replied, that my heart was too full to tell her then; I would endeavour to tell her some other time. All I could say was, that my joy was full.

"The brightness of that rising," reader, has never passed away, but is in the soul as an everlasting and evergrowing light. I know’ now that the words of our Saviour are true : "and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." I read my inner life now in the words of the promise of God through His inspired prophet: -- "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." All that the Scriptures record about Christ has a meaning and a life, and a melting and moulding power about it, never experienced before. It is no wonder to me that Paul affirmed, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

If the reading of the above facts and elucidations has not induced the reader, provided he has not yet attained, to say in his heart, "All this, and ’more to follow,’ is for me, and, ’by the grace of God,’ I will seek and walk in this ’everlasting light,’" then, so far as he is concerned, he has read and I have written in vain. "Christ has loved you, and given Himself for you," as He has for me, and is ready to dwell in your heart, as He does in mine. In the words of the aged apostle, I say to you, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy might be full."