October 10
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeTwelfth Thursday after Trinity
Faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5:6.
To faith which loves, things seen fade from sight, things heard fall dull upon the ear; it will be unmoved by all outward things, for it has an inward sight and an inward hearing and an inward touch whereby it beholds Him dying on the Cross for love of us, and hears Him pray for us, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and looks on Him Whom by our sins we sinners pierced, and catches the look wherewith He looked on Magdalene and the thief, and in the shadow of His Cross feels itself protected and healed. Yea, faith can enter into that cleft of the rock opened for us, whence gushed "the Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness," and there it finds a refuge. The Cross is not far off; not over the seas in the Holy Land, nor removed by length of time. Faith sees it close at hand, and clasps it and loves it, and is crucified on it, with Him dying to itself, with its Lord nailed to it, motionless to its own desires, dead to the world, and living to Him. Nor is heaven far off to faith. For where its Lord is, there is heaven. Faith is with Him, present with Him in spirit, though absent in the body; a penitent amid those who around the throne sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy." Although as yet unfit to enter, where nothing defiled can enter, it lives and loves in the city of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Dear precious Lamb, Who once wast slain To free my soul from Satan's chain, O how I long to reach that place Where I shall see Thee face to face.