June 28
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeFriday after Ascension Day
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6.
IN the Communion Service we are exhorted to "lift up our hearts;" we answer, "We lift them up unto the Lord," unto the Lord, that is, Who is ascended on high; to Him Who is not here, but has risen, appeared to His Apostles and retired out of sight. To that ascended and unseen Saviour, Who has overcome death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, this day and all days, but especially at this season, when we commemorate His resurrection and ascension, are we bound to rise in spirit after His pattern. Prayer and fasting have been called the wings of the soul, and they who neither fast nor pray cannot follow Christ. They cannot lift up their hearts to Him. They have no treasure above. It is the duty and the privilege of all disciples of our glorified Saviour to be exalted and transfigured with Him; to live in heaven in their thoughts, motives, aims, desires, likings, prayers, praises, intercessions, even while they are in the flesh; to look like other men, to be busy like other men, to be passed over in the crowd of men, or even to be scorned or oppressed as other men may be, but the while to have a secret channel of communication with the Most High, a gift the world knows not of; to have their life hid with Christ in God.
Where Thou our Head art gone before, Do Thou to Thee the body draw, On ways where Thine own steps of yore Have trod Thine own life-giving Law.
Now to the Father let us sing, And Holy Spirit, unto Thee, And to our heaven-ascended King, Who captive led captivity.