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  THE GOSPEL POINTING TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST
  by Andrew Bonar
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Andrew Bonar's theological work asserting that the person of Christ is the
essence of the Gospel, demonstrating that faith in Jesus Christ as Savior is
central to Christian salvation.

  Chapters: 9

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. The Gospel pointing to the Person of Christ
    1. Preface
    2. Chapter 1
    3. Chapter 2
    4. Chapter 3
    5. Chapter 4
    6. Chapter 5
    7. Chapter 6
    8. Appendix

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  CHAPTER 0: THE GOSPEL POINTING TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST
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  CHAPTER 1: PREFACE
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IN this new Edition no change of any importance has been made beyond the
correction of errata, and extending the texts quoted. The object of the book is
to draw more attention to the great subject of connecting at all times the
Person of Christ with His work. This is a point which the experience of the most
solid believers has testified to as of vast importance. Toplady quotes the
following case from the diary of one who afterwards preached Christ, Mr.Thomas
Cole. Listen to his interesting statement : - '" was convinced I could be saved
no other way than by grace, if I could but find grace enough. But at that time I
saw more in my own sin than in God's mercy. But this put me on a further inquiry
after the grace of God, because my life lay upon it: and then I was brought to
the Gospel. When, however, I came to the Gospel, I met with the law in it; that
is, I was for turning the Gospel into law. I began to settle myself upon
Gospel-duties, such as repentance, humiliation, believing, praying; and (I know
not how) I forgot the promise of grace which first brought me to the Gospel.
Soon I found I could neither believe nor pray as the Gospel required. While I
was in this plunge, it pleased the Lord to direct me to study the Person of
Christ, whom I looked on as the great undertaker in the work of man’s salvation!
And truly here I may say, as Paul did, 'It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.'
God overcame my heart with this. I saw so much mercy in His mercy, so much love
in His love, so much grace in His grace, that I knew not what to liken it to.
And here my heart broke, I knew not how! Before this faith came, I knew not how
to secure myself against past, present, and future sins: but there was that
largeness of grace, that all-sufficiency of mercy, that infinity of
righteousness, discovered to me in Christ, that I found sufficient for all the
days of my life."

GLASGOW, June, 1858.


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  CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 1
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STATEMENT OF THE FACT THAT THE PERSON OF CHRIST IS THE ESSENCE OF THE GLAD
TIDINGS. From the beginning, the Gospel has come to the awakened sinner with the
same consciousness of important news to tell, as that messenger who ran to
David, after the battle of Mahanaim, exclaiming "All is well !" But even as the
burden of that message brought by Ahimaaz was simply victory, without any
narrative of details, so was the Old Testament proclamation of the good news to
our earth. There was still need of a Cushi to give details; and Cushi did come
upon the heels of Ahimaaz, telling that the essence of the victory lay in the
fact of the leader of the host being himself slain. It is thus the New Testament
has overtaken the Old, proclaiming "Tidings, O earth! Tidings! It is the Son of
God who has died, satisfying the Law of His Father, and establishing His
throne." In the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch (Acts xiii. 32) Paul announced to
the intently listening audience, "We declare unto you glad tidings !" and
forthwith added, that the promise made to the fathers was now fulfilled in Jesus
risen. It was as if he had said, "The voice from the excellent glory cries, Hear
the beloved Son! and speaks of nothing but what He is, has, and has done." That
vessel which has endured all the storms of wrath, that ark which has borne
unmoved the shock of cataracts from the opened windows of heaven, and depths
breaking up below, contains everything fitted to meet the sinner's need; and in
proportion as the Holy Ghost reveals this Person to the awakened sinner, there
will come to light a store of all things suited to the cravings of an immortal
soul.

When the sinner has got any clear discovery of this glorious Person, he is a
saved man; for so we find written in Gal i. 13, 15, 16, "Ye have heard of my
conversation in time past. . . . But it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in
me." Matt.. xvi. 16, "Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My
Father which is in heaven." Resting on this Person for salvation is called
"Faith in Jesus Christ." In this faith, there is an intellectual act - namely,
the apprehending of the meaning of what is stated concerning Jesus. But this
apprehension of the meaning of what is stated, or testified, concerning Jesus,
is but the avenue that leads on to the magnificent mansion. It leads the soul to
the Person of whom these things are declared. It never is the belief of bare
propositions that saves the soul ; for these have to do only with the
understanding. Propositions, however weighty, must guide us onward to the Person
who is the essence of the testimony; and they are made use of for this end by
the same Holy Spirit who enlightens our once carnal understanding to see the
real truth.*

* "Though faith be radically in the understanding, yet it operates on the will
which embraces the object" (FISHER'S Catechism). "Faith is begun in the head,
but not perfected till it comes into the heart" (ROGERS of Dedham). "Faith is
not so much a disposition of the mind toward the truth, as a disposition of the
heart toward Christ, produced by means of the truth" (SIEVEWRIGHT). "The soul in
believing closes with the Person of Christ. He is the principal object, though
not the immediate object of faith" (FRASER of Brae). The belief of the
testimony, or record, concerning the Son of God, our Saviour, is the porch of
the building, through which we pass into the audience-chamber and meet the
Living Inhabitant, full of light, and life, and love.

There is a twofold remedy required to meet the exigencies of a fallen soul. 1st,
The soul must feel entirely delivered from that guilt which has compelled the
Holy God to withdraw. The sinner's soul is by nature laden with guilt, the guilt
of original and actual sin; and until this guilt is altogether taken away, there
can be no freedom of access to God. But remove this barrier, and then the Holy
God may meet the sinner, and the sinner may run to the open arms of the Holy
God. This is the bringing of the conscience to solid rest. 2nd, The soul has
feelings, emotions, affections, which constitute what we call in common language
the heart of the man. The heart, then, must be brought to its rest, as well as
the conscience; and it will be brought to rest, if you can find for it an object
vast enough, rich enough, and so accommodated to its frame as to give ample
scope for the exercise of all its powers, and the play of all its feelings. Now,
both these ends are answered when the soul discovers the Person of the God-man.
There it is that the twofold remedy is found. For now, the conscience, enabled
by the Holy Spirit to discern and examine the treasures stored up in the God-man
Mediator, finds all the materials needful to its pacification and rest, inasmuch
as His obedience to the law and the satisfaction rendered by Him for dishonour
done to it, are efficacious beyond measure. And next, when enabled by the same
Spirit of truth to explore the wealth of sympathy, and tenderness, and brotherly
feeling, wherewith the God-man is fraught, and which is given forth from the
side of His humanity, the man finds therein such an object as his heart craved,
an object on which his heart can repose. It is now that he tastes "The Bread of
Life." It is only now that he knows the meaning of making the Saviour his meat
and drink (John vi. 52); for it is now that he has found out the entire remedy
for his case in the person of a Mediator, who unites the human nature with the
Divine, and uses both in dealing with man. Finding flesh and blood (and, of
course, all that is peculiar to a frame wherein flesh and blood are ingredients)
in a Saviour, whose doing, dying, and rising again brought in everlasting
righteousness, the man can say - " Every part of my nature has been thought
upon, and provision has been made for all my feelings and faculties, as well as
conscience: this is indeed meat and drink to me! His flesh is meat indeed! His
blood is drink indeed!"

Our purpose, then, is to enter into details whereby we may show that the Person
of Christ is, and has always been, the essence of the Gospel. The glad tidings
of great joy all cluster round that Person; invitations and calls draw us to
Him; and warrants for believing the Gospel are in reality testimonies, the drift
of which is mainly this - to fix our eye upon that Person's self, and assure us
of the capabilities of His heart and arm. And no wonder that it should be so;
for He is GOD manifest in the flesh. To see Him is to see GOD in the attitude of
redemption. To see him is to see the GOD of holy love putting Himself in a
position wherein He might be able, justly and honourably, to save sinners. To
see Him is to see Godhead finding a way of coming to sinners with open arms, and
yet remaining as holy, and just, and true, as from all eternity. To show that
this is the essence of the Gospel may be important alike to saints who already
fear the Lord, and to sinners who are only groping for Him. Both are thus led
directly to confront God, - " God manifest in the flesh," in "whom are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The saint finds that here he floats upon
an ocean of grace, and that the more constantly he abides here, the more is he
blessed. The seeking sinner finds that his perplexities are cleared away, when
he is dealing, not with abstract truth, nor with cold statements, but with a
Person, and that person full of grace and truth. "Come, now" (come, I pray you;
come, I beseech you), "let us reason together, saith the Lord" (Isa. i. 18).
Here are two parties before us - not one party dealing with the words and
declarations of another, but two parties confronting each other. It is a meeting
of spirit with spirit - the spirit of man with God who is spirit. It is the
living man coming to hear the living God tell His heart and ways. Bunyan, in his
"Pilgrim's Progress," represents Christian, when relieved of his burden at the
cross, singing with joy -

"Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be THE MAN that there was put to
shame for me."

And in his "Instruction for the Ignorant," the following dialogue occurs : -
Question. If such a poor sinner as I am would be saved from the wrath to come,
how must I believe? Answer. Thy first question should be, on whom must I
believe? John ix. 35, 36, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" "Who is He,
Lord, that I might believe on Him?" Q. On whom, then, must I believe? A. On the
Lord Jesus Christ. Q. Who is Jesus Christ, that I might believe on Him? A. He is
the only-begotten Son of God. Q. Why must I believe on Him? A. Because He is the
Saviour of the world. Q. How is He the Saviour of the world? A. By the Father's
designation and sending; for God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Q. How did He come into
the world? A. In man's flesh - in which flesh He fulfilled the law, died for our
sins, conquered the devil and death, and obtained eternal redemption for us. Q.
But is there no other way to be saved but by believing in Jesus Christ? A. There
is no other name given under heaven, among men, whereby we must be saved. And
therefore he that believeth not shall be damned. Acts iv. 12, "Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved." Mark xvi. 16, "But he that believeth not shall
be damned." John iii. 18, 36, "He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he
that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only-begotten Son of God." "He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him." Q. What is believing on Jesus Christ? A. It is the
receiving of Him, with what is in Him, as the gift of God to thee, a sinner.
John i. 12, "To as many as receive Him, even to them that believe on His name,
He gave power to become sons of God." Q. What is in Jesus Christ to encourage me
to receive Him? A. Infinite righteousness to justify thee, and the Spirit
without measure to sanctify thee. Q. Is this made mine if I receive Christ? A.
Yes, if you receive him as God offereth Him to thee. Q. How doth God offer Him
to me? A. Even as a rich man freely offereth an alms to a beggar - and so must
thou receive Him. John vi. 32, 33, 34, 35, "My Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven; for the bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth
life unto the world." Then said they unto Him, "Lord, evermore give us this
bread." And Jesus said unto them, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst."


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  CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 2
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THE GOSPEL, FROM THE FALL TO THE DAY OF THE APOSTLES, WAS FOUND IN THE PERSON OF
THE SAVIOUR. In the New Testament, the name of "Mystery" is often attached to
the truths that form the Gospel. The chief part of this mystery, or "truth
hidden from eternity in God" (Eph. iii. 9), concerned the Person of the Saviour.
When the real nature of this person was unfolded, other things which had been
dark began forthwith to emerge from their obscurity and appear distinct. It
could not but be plain now why blood should be the means of atonement, since the
blood is the out-poured life, and the out-poured life is the life of Him who is
the Son of God. The blood poured out in every sacrifice spoke of some one giving
his life; but the nature of the effect of this blood-shedding could be
understood only when the person, in his worth and dignity, became known. Hence
it was that all patriarchs and ancient saints were directed unceasingly to the
Living One as the well-spring of their bliss. Their hands were every day fully
employed in offering sacrifice, but yet all the while their eye was looking
beyond that sacrifice for some one yet to come, who was to cast light on this
service and make them "perfect as pertaining to the conscience" (Heb. ix. 9).
Their thoughts (however confusedly) passed from the types of the work of Christ
on to the expected Person of Christ. And hence Paul declares, the discovery of
who this coming one was, to be the "making manifest of the mystery." When
writing to the Romans (xvi. 23), he thus speaks, "According to my gospel, and
the preaching of (i.e., proclamation concerning) the Lord Jesus Christ;
according to the revelation of the mystery, which had been kept secret since the
world began, but now is made manifest." It seems that ancient saints were aware
that the Person of the Coming One was to cast light on all the ceremonials and
ordinances which they were taught to observe. For Peter, in telling of
"salvation," states that the prophets who inquired and searched diligently into
it, bent their chief attention toward "the sufferings of Christ and the glory
that should follow" (1 Pet. i. 10, 11). And the same is implied by the words of
our Lord to His disciples in reference to His being now at length among them in
the flesh, when turning to them He said, "Blessed are the eyes that see the
things which ye see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to
see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things
which ye hear, and have not heard them" (Luke x. 24). Onward from the hour when
first the announcement of a Saviour was made in the words, "The seed of the
Woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," the anxious inquiries of all saints
were directed toward this person, to know who and what He was to be. The case of
the Old Testament believers was like that of exiles, who had got the promise of
return from banishment, but who saw not the means by which they were to be
transported homeward from their dreary island of captivity. At length one whose
eye has looked through the telescope comes among them, points them to a speck in
the distant horizon, telling them that yonder is the vessel sent to carry them
home. They have had intimations of their sovereign's pardon and goodwill
already, but this is the most satisfactory proof of it. Accordingly, hour after
hour do they keep their eye fixed on that distant object, and their joy rises in
proportion as they are able distinctly to discern that yonder speck is indeed a
vessel, bearing colours that proclaim from what land it has come. Having in
their possession letters sealed with the king's seal, which speak of actual
deliverance to be brought them when such a vessel should touch their coasts,
they reckon its arrival to be their grand hope, and expect to find therein
everything needed for their immediate recall. This was the position of Old
Testament saints: they were gazing on this speck in the distant ocean. The
vessel was seen by Job a little more distinctly than by previous patriarchs,
when he sang, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He will stand on the
earth at the latter day;" and yet more plainly by those who heard that He was to
be "Abraham's seed," and "Shiloh" from the tribe of Judah, and "David's son," as
well as "David's Lord." A still clearer sight was gained when Isaiah stood and
cried, "To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God!" (Isa. ix. 6). And yet more, when
Zechariah declared that he heard the Almighty call Him "The Man that is My
Fellow!" (xiii. 7). The vessel was now seen with joyful distinctness, and the
hope of the Lord's banished ones grew brighter and brighter, as Malachi (iii. 1)
cried, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple." In revealing
salvation to men, in early ages, the Lord arranged His discoveries in such a way
as necessarily led them to give the Person of the Redeemer a prominent place in
all their thoughts. It was with them more the Redeemer than even redemption.
They did not well know how this Noah was to save them, or how he was to guide
the ark through floods, rushing from below and from above; and how, over these
strange billows, he was finally to land it in the strange harbour of Ararat. But
what of this, if they were really trusting themselves to this Noah, and were
identified with him in his undertaking? He knew, and he would accomplish all. It
was thus also, in great measure, with the disciples and followers of our Lord in
the days of His flesh. They knew amazingly little of His work in its details,
but truly they clung to His Person. Is there any hint of their loving any other
as they loved Him? They rested on the Shepherd's shoulder, and in so doing were
safe. They did not know how this Shepherd was to save them; how He was to
deliver them from the lion and the bear, and carry them over the burning desert
of wrath; but still, they were safe, because they rested on Him. They clung to
the right person, and committed themselves to His wisdom, and power, and love.
Was this not the essence of old Simeon's hope of salvation? Was he not the
traveller arrived at the sources of the Nile, surveying the fountain from which
living waters had flowed, and were yet to flow, to fertilise the earth? When he
took up the child Jesus in his arms, the aged saint exclaimed, "Now Thou art
letting Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have
seen Thy salvation" (Luke ii. 29, 30). What else but a message about His Person
was the gospel preached by the Angel at Bethlehem, which sent home the shepherds
"glorifying and praising God"? The words were, "A Saviour is born, which is
Christ the Lord" (Luke ii. 11). This is what the Angel calls "good tidings of
great joy." Let wise men and shepherds, let Mary and Joseph, let Zechariah and
Elizabeth, let Anna and Simeon, let all who hear this proclaimed, cling to this
Person, and in Him they shall find salvation. They may not see in what manner,
or by what process, He is to save them, but cling to this Person, and all shall
be well. The Baptist comes forth. His preaching is a constant pointing to "the
Lamb of God." His finger is ever directing men to Him. All good news is yonder,
and bliss is in that Person, "the Son of God," who stands among you. He saw the
Spirit descend on Him, and ever after bare record that "He was THE SON OF GOD"
(John i. 34). "Herein is great joy for all people! The Person we cling to for
salvation turns out to be 'SON OF GOD!' The promised Seed of Abraham, and the
Seed of the Woman, in whom all our hope is treasured up, is none other than the
SON OF GOD! What may we not expect of Him! How full may our cup now be!" Some
such must have been the feelings of those who first saw the glorious truth,
especially when the discovery burst fresh upon them.The news would fly from one
to another - "The Messiah is none other than God! GOD is manifest in flesh" * (1
Tim. iii. 16).

* Even as saints still feel, when the Holy Ghost sets it very vividly before
them. Howell Harris, in one of his letters, saith: "O the mystery! That this man
is God! He wept. He travelled, bore cold, rain, hunger, and thirst; all
reproach, shame, and all other sorrows for me. My loving, everlasting brother!
Sure this Lord is my love! My soul within me is lost in wonder, and melts like
wax. O this love! This mysterious, unfathomable love!" And little as they knew
of the mode of His working, or how He was to proceed in going forward to save
them, they clung to His Person closer than ever. As their fathers followed the
cloudy pillar, longing to see the face of Him who sat therein, so they followed
Jesus, longing to see what He would yet reveal of Himself and of His ways. And
they were right in so clinging to Him. Peter was asked, along with his
fellow-disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?" (Matt. xvi. 13),
obviously with the view of bringing out fully who this Saviour was who appeared
under that form. And his reply, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God,"
drew forth the declaration, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona! Flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." So great was
the discovery - He that is come to save is God! For such a one must be able to
save. He cannot but bring full salvation - a salvation that will have length and
breadth in it, height and depth, sufficient every way for a sinner.

It was thus also that Peter made a similar confession on another occasion (John
vi. 69) with great emphasis: "We believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God." He adheres to this Person; and yet so little does he
understand the work which that Person is to perform, that on the mention of
suffering, and reproach, and death (Matt. xvi. 21), "that He must suffer many
things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed," though
followed by resurrection, he peremptorily insists that the idea was utterly
inconsistent with his Lord's dignity and char- acter. We are ready to think that
ignorance of, or mistake regarding, the work of Christ is as hurtful and
dangerous as misunderstanding His Person. But the Lord Himself lays somewhat
greater stress upon our not mistaking His Person. That Person is the mine; His
work is one of the treasures which come to the surface when the mine is wrought.

It was not enough that a Jew confessed Jesus to be the Christ - the Messiah. He
might do this and yet be ignorant of the Saviour. He must know Messiah to be SON
OF GOD, if he was to know true salvation. For what could Messiah do for sinners
if (like the Christ of Socinians) He were only a superior, though extraordinary
man - and what could a Messiah do for such sinners as we are, if He were (like
the Christ of Arians) only at the top of the angelic scale? We needed a Messiah
who could "save to the uttermost," and none other than the SON OF GOD could
stretch the cords of salvation thus far. It is on this account that our Lord
Himself says most solemnly in John viii. 24, "If ye believe not that I am He, ye
shall die in your sins." He had declared Himself "from above" (ver. 23), and
"not of this world," and had said, "I am not alone, but I and the Father that
sent me" (ver. 16). And now, turning to the cavilling crowd of Pharisees, He
looked them in the face, and with awful seriousness and majesty in His tone,
assured them, "If ye believe not I am He (the Person whom I have said I am), ye
shall die in your sins." But did not the disciples falter oftentimes in their
views of His Person? And did not the ancient saints fall short of knowing the
Promised Seed to be GOD THE SON? So far this is true. But at least they expected
a Saviour from the Lord Jehovah, and were ready to welcome this Person without
faltering or hesitation. Perhaps there were none of those saints who had not
some idea, however dim, of God being somehow in the salvation promised; and
never certainly did any saved men, in any age, deny or slight the Godhead of the
Saviour, when revealed to his astonished gaze. Every saved soul has been too
glad to find God Himself the Saviour; "Behold God is my salvation," - and seeing
Him has said, "I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my
strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy will we
draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Isa. xii. 2, 3).

"Hidden from all ages past Was the Cross's mystery; Death a while a veil had
cast O'er that first dear family; But they saw Him and believed, And as Lord and
God received."

The saints' hopes have, in every age, revolved around "Him that cometh in the
name of the Lord." To have the heart fixed on the Lord, and on Him whom He was
to send, is the heart and kernel of ancient faith. It is the Old Testament form
of our Gospel that we hear when, in the "song of songs," the Spouse dwells upon
the Beloved, and repeats and reiterates His praises. Who this Beloved is seems
scarcely known; He has a veil on His Person; but, nevertheless, there is a
mysterious strength of feeling between this Beloved and those who sing of Him,
arising from the secret fact that GOD THE SON is the Beloved under the veil.

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved" (Song
viii. 5). This surely is a sketch of Patriarchal and Jewish faith - just as the
figure of the "Sheep on the Shepherd's shoulder," so often appearing on the
tombs in the catacombs at Rome, is the symbol of the same faith in New Testament
times.

When the Apostle John, in his first Epistle, thus writes (chap. v. 20) to the
saints: "And we know that the SON OF GOD is come!" he unquestionably is
uttering, and intending to utter, the full gospel-privileges of believers. He
says that this distinguished them from the world - viz., they know that the
promised Seed had come, and that He was the Son of God. By that time the Church
had arrived at clearer light; for John in his gospel (vi. 69) tells of Peter's
glowing animation as he confessed, Thou art Messiah, the Son of the living God;
and of Martha's unhesitating declaration, that, as a matter of course, she, a
disciple of the Lord Jesus, believed that He was "The Messiah, the Son of God,
who should come into the world." Nor was it otherwise when disciples were able
to give more precise details of the Person, as we see in the Ethiopian eunuch's
joyful confession, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God!" We may
conceive his feelings - he had journeyed far, many a hundred miles - risking the
favour of his queen, and caring little for his place of rank. He had sought rest
for his awakened soul in vain, even in Jerusalem at their solemn feasts. But a
stranger, a true evangelist, is sent to him, as his chariot rolls lazily and
silently over the sandy desert-road towards Gaza, and finds him reading in the
fifty-third of Isaiah concerning one "led as a Lamb to the slaughter." The
stranger tells him who this was, and how, and why, and when He had been led to
death; and proclaims the tidings, that "this Lamb was Son of God!" What a flash
of amazement and delight passes over the Ethiopian's countenance! He is under
the teaching of the Holy Ghost (for it was He who was hovering over him, v.
29-39), and saw in a moment what that fact implied. Here is room for my soul
now! Here my burdened spirit may repose.*

* "If you ask why I believe on the Son of God - if you intend what is the formal
reason, ground, and warranty, whereon I thus believe in Him, or place my
confidence in Him - I say it is only this, that ‘He is over all, God blessed for
ever.' And were He not so, I could not believe in Him. The divine nature is the
reason of it, but His divine Person is the object of it" (OWEN). The Person who
is the Lamb is Son of God! Here is not a narrow point of a rock, rising above
the surrounding water, but no more than barely sufficient for one to stand upon:
here is a broad continent to which the eye sees no limit! With what exultation
is he filled in confessing, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God!"

We are wrong, in our day, when we speak more of the work of Christ than of His
person - directing more attention to the shadow afforded by the great Rock than
to the Rock itself. This is not done in the Apostolic Epistles - there the work
is not separated from the worker, but ever kept beside him, and He beside the
work.*

* As Augustine (Confess., Book v. 1) says of the other works of God, "The soul
bending over the things thou hast made, and passing on to Thee who hast made
them, there finds its refreshment and true strength." In Romans iii. 22, the
righteousness is said to be, not "by faith in the work" of Christ, but "by faith
of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe." And again in verse
24, "Justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood."
Again, in chap. v. 1, "We have peace through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also
we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." Again, in chap. vi.
4, "We are buried with Him," or, verse 8, "we are dead with Him." Union to Him,
as our representative, is the very heart of the argument. Or, if the Apostle is
writing freely about Christian blessings, as in Eph. chap. i., we are told of
being "blessed with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ;" and
(verses 6, 7) of being "accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption."
These men of God, whom the Holy Spirit inspired, lead the sinner to the shade of
the Plant of Renown; but all the while they are occupying his attention by
pointing out the Plant itself - its majestic form, and glorious growth, and ever
green foliage, and the immense sweep of its branches; and while they are thus
engaged, the traveller is refreshed tenfold more effectually than if he had been
content merely to stretch himself along in motionless repose beneath the
spreading boughs. "We have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus,"
says the apostle; but forthwith he adds, "Having an High Priest over the House
of God" (Heb. x. 19, 21).

The Lord's Supper also, if it be rightly understood, cannot fail to fix our eye
on the Person. No doubt it speaks of the death, and of the New Covenant ratified
by that death, and so of pardon and holiness, and all other connected benefits.
But who can overlook the Benefactor amid his benefits? Are we not led directly,
at that holy ordinance, to His Person, inasmuch as union to Him is the truth
most remarkably exhibited therein? Union to Him who gives us His blood to ratify
the New Covenant, and who gives us Himself as the food of our souls, is surely
the very essence of the Lord's Supper. We show His "death," with our eye on "Him
who died." We show His sufferings of body and of soul, with our eye on the
suffering one. We think of our sins requiring such a remedy - our wounds needing
such balm - but still with our eye fixed on the Person whose stripes heal us.
"Till He come" fixes yet again our eye on Himself, so that its gaze passes from
the day of His agony onward to the day of His glory, and looks out for the "King
in His beauty," as well as looks back on His marred form.

The Holy Ghost delights in the Person of Christ. It was to honour not only His
work, but Himself, that He descended on the day of His baptism. It is not merely
the work, but the doer of it, that He delights to honour. The expressions, "He
will glorify Me" (John xvi. 14), and "He shall testify of Me" (xv. 26), do not,
of course, exclude His work; they necessarily imply it; only they do not mean
His work apart from Himself. The Holy Ghost will ever honour the setting forth.
of the Person who has given glory to God in the highest, and is Himself God over
all. We may expect Him to bless us most when we are rather dwelling on the
benefits as so many proofs of the Benefactor's heart, than stopping short at
these benefits, seeking no more than how to make them our own. The hospital,
with its ample accommodation, and its stores of medicine and nourishment, and
its supply of all that the sick, however many, can require, with access free to
all, at every hour of night or day, this is one thing - but how much better,
when besides, we have the presence of the founder and Physician Himself, passing
through every room - bending over every sick-bed - uttering words and beaming
forth looks of sympathy. Would you commend the place, and forget the physician?
And will the Holy Ghost commend the Saviour's benefits, if thereby you are to be
led to overlook Himself?


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  CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER 3
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THE HELP AFFORDED BY CHRIST'S PERSON TO A SOUL SEEKING TO KNOW SIN AND THE
APPLICATION OF SALVATION. Many of the early fathers use the word "theology," in
the sense of "A discoursing upon the Divinity of Christ," and they called the
apostle John "the Divine," or the Theologue," because he speaks so fully of the
Word made flesh. To these Fathers all knowledge of God seemed comprehended in
knowing Him who reveals the Father. And following their principles, we maintain
that all real knowledge of God's salvation is to be attained by becoming
acquainted with Him who is the Saviour sent of God.

In the days of the Reformation, we find Fox, the martyrologist, telling Roman
Catholics that, "as there is no gift of God given to man, no virtue, work,
merit, nor anything else, that is part or cause of salvation, but only this gift
of faith to believe in Christ Jesus" - so also "neither does faith, as it is
only a bare quality or action in man's mind, itself justify, unless it be
directed to the body of Christ crucified as its object, of whom it receiveth all
its virtue." *

* Oliver Cromwell, in his day, writes to General Fleetwood : - " Faith as an act
yields not perfect peace, but only carries us to Him who is our perfect rest and
peace." In all ages of the Church, to know "Whom we have believed" has been felt
to be all-important. In whatever light we view the matter, its importance will
appear.

1. It helps us to discover the malignity of sin. Right views of sin have a
tendency to lead us to right views of the Person of the Saviour. But the
converse also is true; right views of the Saviour's person lead to right views
of sin. Socinians and Arians have shallow views of sin. They do not see that it
deserves never-ending woe and infinite fierceness of wrath; nor do they feel
their conscience alarmed at the enormous depravity of nature, and at the
fearfully aggravated sins against God which they daily commit. Hence they see
not the need they have of a Divine Saviour - one able to bear infinite wrath for
the innumerable sins of a multitude whom no man can number.*

* The Elect - those given to Christ by His Father from eternity - His sheep -
are not few in number, but "many." God out of his mere good pleasure, looking on
a world where all alike were already ruined, elected "many" to everlasting life.
Isa. liii. 12, "He bare the sin of many." Matt. xx. 28, "Ransom for many;" xxvi.
28, "My blood shed for many." Rom. v. 15, "Many shall be made righteous."
Electing love has laid hold of an innumerable multitude, and drawn them out of
the many waters, putting every sin of every one of them on the Almighty's
Fellow, the man Christ Jesus, and imparting to them the grace given them in Him
before the world began. (1 Tim. i. 9.) They are conscious that if it required
the personal interposition of a divine surety to remove it, the sin must be very
great; that it must indeed be branded as hateful beyond conception, if, ere it
be forgiven, the Lawgiver himself must die. From these men, therefore, we learn
to judge thus ; - that if we would feel the enormity of sin aright, we must see
it calling for no less a satisfaction than what could be given by God Incarnate.
The Roman Catholic, whose eye turns oftener far to the Virgin Mary than to
Mary's Son, has not surely felt the true nature of sin, the rigour of the law,
or the terror of divine judgment. Hence, such men are content to seek pardon
through a creature's merits, and think that the intercession of a multitude of
such creatures may prevail for them. But did they see sin under the teaching of
the Spirit they would trust their pardon to no one but the God-man, Christ
Jesus. And in point of fact, when Romanists are awakened by the Holy Spirit to
deep sense of sin, they forthwith begin to feel how insufficient, how
unsatisfactory, how incomplete is any kind of peace that does not come from the
Incarnate Son of God. They begin to see sin to be such an evil as only God can
remedy. From these, therefore, let us learn to judge thus; - it is in Christ,
the Son of God, substituted for the sinner, that we see the abyss of evil in our
sin, and that we become aware that sin is so clamorous for wrath as to be
silenced only by the interposed Person of the Son of God. But turn aside again;
approach an infant newly born, drawing its first breath in this fallen world.
There is sin in that soul, and small as the sin may seem when compared with that
of sinners who have lived forty or seventy years, yet even the sin of that
infant is such an evil as nothing can remedy but the blood of the Son of God. If
the sin of that infant is to be forgiven, the Son of God must "pour out his soul
unto death" in its behalf. Set before you any one of your own acts of
disobedience, selecting those which may, in your judgment, appear the smallest
and slightest. Yet that act was sin; - such an act that, ere it can be forgiven
and you received into favour, Godhead must be moved! God the Son must rise from
His place on the Father's bosom and haste to your rescue. Less than this would
be insufficient; less than this would be entirely useless. For the abyss is
bottomless. No angel's strength could bear the burden of the wrath due to your
one sin, while certainly no angel's love could endure the trial of interposing
as your substitute. Sin is something that only God can deal with - a
mysteriously tremendous evil. These lessons are taught us when we fix our
attention not on the mere blessing of forgiveness, but also on the Person who
brings it. If we were to adopt another plan too commonly pursued, and merely
speak of salvation as a work done and finished well - or as a door opened at
which the vilest may come in - or as a free invitation to the chief of sinners -
we might in that case miss altogether the clear light cast on sin by the Gospel.
But on the other hand, connect all with the Person (and in this case with the
divine nature of the Person) - show that here is the work of God in our nature,
God occupying our law-room - that here is the door of access opened, but only in
consequence of Almighty love shedding the blood of the Beloved Son, heaven's
Isaac - that here is a free invitation to the vilest, but that it is thus free
only because the Saviour who came was Creator of all creatures, and therefore
able to fulfil all conditions, and pay the last mite - show all this, and
forthwith the light of the cross is cast on sin, and you see it to be an
infinite evil, an evil understood by God alone.*

* "Who can set forth the riches of His death, and the unfathomable abyss of His
sufferings? The inexpressible evil of sin appears here more clearly than if we
saw all the misery of the damned" (HOWELL HARRIS, Lett. 43). Such is the heat of
wrath against sin, that unless the "shadow" which interposed between me and that
heat had been the broad, far-extending shadow of a "Great Rock," the air around
me would have burnt as an oven still. Such is the burden of sin on my single
person, that never could I have been lifted up as a "lively stone," and my
weight borne by the foundation-stone, unless the foundation had been God the
Son. Surely, then, it was a gaping wound that sin had made, when such balm alone
could heal it. O my soul, thou wert sinking fast in the swelling stream, and
none could beat back the might of the wave but God, God in thy nature. A whole
Christ was needed by thee, and that Christ, God ! - "I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God" (Acts viii. 37.)

2. The application of Salvation. A sinner may see that there is none other to
whom we can go but Jesus only, and yet he may not go. He may imagine
difficulties, and magnify these into impossibilities. But it is remarkable how
many of these difficulties and apparent impossibilities flow down at the
presence of the Person of the Lord - the soul beholding a full Saviour in Him
who is God and man in one person. Clement of Rome (" whose name is in the Book
of Life," Phil. iv. 3), writes to the Corinthians,*

* In an Epistle still preserved and reckoned genuine. "Brethren, in our thoughts
of Jesus Christ we ought to conceive of Him as God, and the Judge of quick and
dead. We ought not to cherish low thoughts of Him who is our Saviour; for if our
thoughts of Him are low, we will hope for little at His hand." This truth admits
of wide application. A soul very deeply convinced of sin, or indeed convinced of
sin at all as an awful reality, will find no object fit for its necessities but
the person of God-man, associated with all he did. It was thus with a minister
who lies buried in Bunhill Fields, Mr. Bradford. He was for a time an Arian, but
was awakened to feel that he must be born again, while writing a. sermon on the
words of Christ to Nicodemus. He felt sin in its power; he saw his sins to be
innumerable, as well as inexpressibly heinous. "And now," says he, "the first
relief I felt was from the view that Jesus Christ was GOD. His deity I now saw
as the ground of all my confidence." No wonder! for it is there we see how the
atonement could be sufficiently precious to avail for sinners such as we; it is
only there we see how the Holy One could find a sacrifice for us pleasing and
acceptable, and admitting of the widest application. But, in cases where there
is a tacit assent to the doctrine of the Person of Jesus, there is often a real
and practical overlooking of it. Often the deeply exercised soul looks at all
else rather than the Living One Himself - thinking of his ways, purposes, work,
but shutting its eyes on Himself. Now, let that soul be led for a time to deal
with the Person, and the effect will be marvellous, if the Holy Spirit enable
him to see who this Person is. "How am I to cross that mountain ?" says an
anxious soul, pointing to the doctrine of electing love. "How am I to find
myself among the number of the elect?" "And," says another, "if you cannot
assure me that the blood of Christ was intended as much for me as for Peter or
Paul, Mary Magdalene or Mary of Bethany, how can I rest on it?" Another, yet
more bold, comes forward and declares that "if Christ did not die alike for all
men, and bear all sinners alike on His heart when He died, then there is no
truth sufficient for a sinner seeking salvation to rest upon." Now, to all those
travellers who would willingly (if they could) find out that there is no such
mountain as electing love, because they fancy it is an insuperable one, we say
at once, the Person of the Lord Jesus stands in front of that glorious mountain
whose top touches heaven; and you have to do with His Person ere you set a foot
on that mountain. Our warrant for believing in Christ is simply this, that He
cries to the children of men, "To you, O men, I call." And he bids them ALL come
in the first place to HIMSELF. Come and see this Person. (Prov. viii. 2.) "If
any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink" (John vii. 37). "Come unto Me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden" (Matt. xi. 28) - ye that are toiling up that
mountain with a load on your souls that almost crushes you at every step. All
your difficulties about election are thus set aside for the time - set aside
until you have found Christ Himself, "who will show you plainly of the Father"
in due time. All your difficulties about election are in this manner transferred
to Christ Himself, who it is (and not we) that must reconcile the universal call
with His special love to His elect. Well, be content to leave the difficulty
with Jesus; and meanwhile deal with a personal Saviour, not with words, and
doctrines, and propositions. Say, if you will, “Perhaps I am not elected, and if
so it will be in vain for me to expect a place among His redeemed “ - say this,
if you will, but only go and see. Go to the Person, of the Christ, and throw
thyself at His feet. Now, you do throw yourself at Christ’s feet, when, letting
alone for the time all these thoughts of election and the inquiry whether you
are or are not in the Book of Life, you allow your soul to think of Christ
Himself. Will Christ Himself refuse a coming sinner? He cannot; for it is
written, “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out” (John vi. 37). He
will not say that He has not a price sufficient to pay for you. He will not say
that the foundation is not broad enough for you to build on. He will not say
that he has not love sufficient to lead Him to have compassion on you. You may
not be able to make out from some of Christ's words whether or not there be room
for you; but try Christ’s heart - appeal to Him as one “who receiveth sinners “
- and tell Him that such a sinner are you. Never forget the Syrophenician
mother’s dealing with the Lord. It is a case recorded as if on very purpose for
such a state of soul as yours. This woman came, full of desire and hope, but was
told, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Was not this
confronting her at once with the darkest shadow of the highest height of the
mountain of Election? It seemed to say, “There is no place for you.” It did not
leave her an opening (as there is in your case) to say, “Possibly I am in the
number “ - it seemed to deny that she was thought of at all. If ever there was a
trying case it was here. But how did this woman act? She did not try to prove,
as some do in our day, that there was not, and could not be, such a thing as
special electing love - but she left that difficulty to be solved by the Lord
Himself, and threw herself upon the Person of Jesus. She renewed her appeal to
Himself “Lord, help me.” “Truth, Lord, but the dogs (and such am I) under the
table eat of the crumbs.” She probed His heart; she believed there were depths
of mercies there; and she found she was right! She has left us a proof that when
a sinner repairs to the Person of the living Saviour, that sinner is at once met
by Him; and the gracious colloquy begins - ”Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord” (Isa. i. 18); and it will end with nothing less than absolution,
“Though your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they have been red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Believest thou this? In
believing this, thy soul shall find acceptance with God; and in the same hour,
thy Lord will let thee know that He had thee in His heart from eternity. It is
thus that an anxious soul’s stumbling on the difficulty of election may become a
real advantage. It guides the soul away from a thing to a person. His first
question now is not, What does Christ think of me? But, What am I to think of
Christ? The traveller is confronted by the frowning mountain-height, and this
leads him at once to discover, ere he climbs even one height, the Person to
whose dwelling he imagined he must come by long and laborious efforts. Boldly
encounter the question, “Am I one of God’s elect? Am I one given to Christ by
the Father from all eternity?” It will lead you directly to the Person of Jesus,
as the only mode of reaching a true and sure solution. It will send you not to
the Book of Life, but to the Lamb who writes it; and in asking about Him, you
find that He has singular love to sinners, and that “He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him” (Heb. vii. 25).*

* It is thus in general that little children rest on Christ. With little
theology, they know and feel that this is He who died for sinners. Their faith
is like that of Old Testament saints; it is the sheep resting on the shepherd’s
shoulders, with little knowledge of how he saves them. Is this not enough? We
may here take occasion to observe that a fresh view of His Person, especially in
its human aspect, seems, from the Gospels, to be the Lord’s way of removing the
after fears of His own. We find that the Lord when on earth used to remove fear
by revealing Himself. On that memorable night of storm, when wind and waves
tossed the vessel, and darkness had spread its thickest veil over moon and
stars, Jesus walked on the waters and approached them. The thought that it was
“a Spirit” (Matt. xiv. 26), or angelic messenger (it might be some one of the “
ministering spirits “), was no consolation to men who at that hour were ready to
perish, and who felt worthy to perish. They saw nothing in an angel’s presence
but what might remind them, by contrast, of their own unholiness; and they knew
nothing of the depth of an angel’s compassion. But no sooner did Jesus speak,
“IT IS I,” than there was a calm in their souls, such as the after-calm on the
surface of the lake was but an emblem of: “It is I!” I am here! was all He said.
But they knew His heart as well as hand. They knew His love to them, unworthy as
they were. They knew His sinner-love - His love to men. And why should we not
have this same remedy for our anxieties? The living Jesus - Jesus full of human
sympathies and divine glories! It was so again after the Resurrection. In Luke
xxiv. 36-47, we read of the scene. The disciples had lately sinned, and were not
as yet altogether at rest. When, therefore, one enters the Upper Room who seemed
to be from the other side of the Veil, they are sore afraid - as if tidings from
that side must be evil tidings to them, and as if a holy angel, even a holy
ministering “spirit,” must have been sent on some errand of reproof or judgment.
But it was the Lord! and He lifted up His voice with the salutation, “Peace” -
man’s salutation taken up by the God-man’s lips into which grace is poured. And
then He drew all their attention to His Person, as not that of an angel, but of
one who had “flesh and bones - that is, who had man's nature. He showed them
“hands and feet; “ - the hands that had so often touched the sick to heal them,
and been laid on themselves to bless them ; - the feet that for them had been
weary on the highways of Judea and Galilee, and had got no rest till they
touched the cold stone of Joseph’s sepulchre. “Why are ye troubled?” said He, as
if to recall the night of the last supper: “Let not your hearts be troubled”
(John xiv. 1-26). “And why do thoughts arise in your minds ? “ - thoughts or
disputings as to who this was. He hastened yet farther to show them His true
humanity - that He was the God-man, the Lord of glory, who put on their very
nature; for He asked for fish and honey-comb, and did eat with them as a guest
at their board. No wonder that (v. 24) they were so full of joy at the very
possibility of His very self being there, so full that they could scarcely allow
themselves to believe it. But they show us in what manner immediate calm is to
be found; and true rest from anxiety; they show us the real removal of
questionings and troubles, and the simple means of being filled with joy
unspeakable. The streams from Lebanon furnish it all! The Person of the God-man
presents thoughts, and declares truths, and reveals feelings towards us, such as
may well cause a soul to cry, “All my springs are in thee!” He did not come
saying, “Peter, I love thee;” “Bartholomew, I love thee,” “And I love thee,
Thaddeus,” “And thee, Philip “ - but He took a way which made all of them feel
more than even if He had done and said this very thing, He presented among them
Himself in His humanity! Lo! (as if he had said) Lo! I am among you, the
Incarnate God, whose love has led me to be man’s Redeemer. Handle me and see!
Draw out of this well - wherein is love not only to you, Peter, and to you,
Bartholomew, and to you, Thaddeus, and to you, Philip - but to “a great
multitude whom no man can number,” out of every kindred, and tongue, and people.
Draw from this Well and thirst no more. "He that hath ears to hear let him
hear." To have rejected the Saviour - to have slighted Him - to have refused to
make Him welcome, on the pretext of imagined difficulties, will be as the “worm
that never dies” to your soul! And further we say, to have received less than
the Person of Him who died and rose again - to have been satisfied with mere
propositions and statements, with mere doctrines and truths, instead of
embracing in your heart the very Person to whom all these referred will be to
you the “worm that never dies” - a subject of endless regret in eternity, when
regret is unavailing. You are like a man laying himself to repose on the bosom
of a cloud, on the white down of the ocean’s foam. Oh, the misery of the soul
that is content with a shadow instead of substance ! - content with a vague
belief that there was a sort of general love and mercy to all, and a kind of
general vindication of righteousness and moral govern- ment, instead of taking
the full, ample soul-filling and conscience-filling atonement, - salvation. for
him by means of such a personal substitute as the Lord Jesus, the Son of the
Highest ! What is “Wrath to come,” if, to avert it from sinners, the Lord
Jehovah rose from His throne! But on the other hand, where is the possibility of
perishing if a sinner accept Him who has come ? Yonder is the baring of. the
Almighty’s bosom, proclaiming, “Yet there is room.” Yonder is an ocean-depth of
love, which even Manasseh has not yet fathomed - yonder is an atmosphere of love
to the height of which even Paul has never soared! And (herein indeed is love!)
we may taste it, each for ourselves! It is the bosom on which even we may for
ever rest.


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  CHAPTER 5: CHAPTER 4
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HOW LOOKING TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST TENDS TO PROMOTE THE PEACE THAT PASSES
UNDERSTANDING. No one could be supposed to have seen the Alps, if he tells you
that all he saw was some rocky ridges of hills which his eye felt no strain in
looking to. The Alps are not such hills; they tower to the clouds. Equally true
it is that no one can be considered as having really seen sin, who never saw it
to be very great; or to have got real rest to his soul, who has not seen the
Saviour to be very great. Indeed, very great salvation is needed in order to
give any true peace to a soul truly awakened; such salvation as is discovered
when the soul discovers the Person of the Saviour. Then it sings, "Jah Jehovah
is my strength and song, and has become my salvation" (Isa. xii. 2). "In Jah
Jehovah*

*These are the only passages where that particular combination occurs,
"Jah-Jehovah;" as if to gather up the fulness of Godhead-existence in one
clause, when singing of Him who is our salvation. He from whom every drop of
being came is mine! is the Rock of ages" (xxvi. 4). Even one sin makes peace
flee from the soul, as we see in the case of Adam and Eve. Even one sin fills
the soul with suspicions of God and suggestions of fear. Of course, then, the
conscience of every sinner abounds in materials for fear before God. Achan may
be secure for a time, while his wedge of gold and his Babylonish garment remain
hid in the tent; but let a hurricane from the howling wilderness shake the cords
and canvas of his tent, threatening to blow aside the covering of his theft, and
then he is full of alarm! Now, to the conscience of the sinner, every sin is
like Achan's theft. There may be a present calm in the air, but who can promise
that there shall not arise a stormy wind? a hurricane threatening to tear up the
stakes of his earthly tabernacle? Who can engage that every sin shall not be
laid bare? Who can give security that the sinner shall not in the twinkling of
an eye be sisted at the bar of the Holy One? It is a small matter to say that at
present all is at rest within. A city may be wrapt in slumber, and under the
calm moon may seem as quiet as a cemetery; and yet the first beams of the
morning sun may awake sleeping rebels, and witness the burst of revolutionary
frenzy. Every sin is secretly uttering to the man God's sentence of death;
insinuating uneasy forebodings regarding coming wrath. Every sin mutters to the
sinner something more or less distinct about having wronged God, and about God
being too holy and just to let it slip from remembrance. And when the quickening
Spirit is at work in the conscience, every sin cries loudly to the Lord for
vengeance against him in whose heart it has its abode. For such a state of soul
only one thing can avail - namely the discovery which the Spirit makes to the
man in conversion, the discovery of Christ's full sacrifice for sin. Therein may
be seen a propitiation as full and efficacious as conscience craves, because it
was wrought out by Him who is God-man. Therein may be seen the whole Person of
the Saviour presented to the soul as the object to be embraced, and that person
associated with the merit of all He has done and suffered. Nay more; every act
and suffering of that glorious Person confronts the case of every sinner. Not
only does he remedy the case of every individual sinner of all that "multitude
which no man can number," but besides He meets every individual sin, and applies
out-poured life to each stain, to blot it out. This is exactly what was needed.
If I see Him who is the atonement to be God-man, then I see an offering so vast,
and so extensive in its applications, that every crevice of the conscience must
be reached. He is our peace, not by His death only, but by His life of obedience
also, imputed to us. The more, therefore, we go into details with His Person
(the Person of Him whose every act and agony has an infinite capability of
application because of His being the God-man), then the more shall we see good
reason why our peace through Him should be peace "passing understanding" (Phil.
iv. 7). Let us exhibit some details of the kind we refer to - viz., His personal
acts and sufferings meeting my personal disobedience and my personal desert of
wrath.*

* "His humiliation expiates our pride; His perfect love atones for our
ingratitude; His exquisite tenderness pleads for our insensibility" (JOHN
NEWTON, Sermon I.). I confess the sin of my nature, my original sin; "Behold! I
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. li. 5). But I
see in Christ one who, while He was "that Holy One," was born to be holiness to
others (Luke i. 25). His dying was fully sufficient to remove the guilt of my
conception, and my connection with Adam; while His doing was holy from the womb.
Behold! then, here am I in my substitute! My infancy without iniquity, nay, with
actual purity, in the eye of Him who is well pleased with my Substitute. I
confess the sin of my childhood. My childhood and youth were vanity. But I find
in Christ, God-man and my Substitute, deliverance from all this guilt. "The
child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God
was upon him" (Luke ii. 40). I get all the positive merit of this childhood of
my surety, full as it was of holy wisdom, and free from every taint of folly and
thoughtlessness; and along with this I get the atoning merit of His death. And
thus I present to God both satisfaction for the trespasses I have done in my
childhood, and also obedience equivalent in full to what the law had right even
then to expect or claim from me. I confess more particularly the sin of my
thoughts, "Every imagination of the thoughts of my heart has been only evil
continually" (Gen. vi. 5). But I discover Him who not only by death perfected
the atonement for me, but who also obeyed my obedience in the thoughts of the
heart, saying, "Thy law is within my heart" (in midst of my bowels) (Ps. xl. 8).
I confess the sin of my words, my idle words, my evil words. For it is written
(Matt. xii. 36), "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment." But I find in this great atonement the penalty
paid for my every idle word. I find, at the same time, the rendering of the
obedience due by me, inasmuch as his mouth was a well of life, "grace was poured
into his lips" (Ps. xlv. 2), and men never heard him utter aught but words of
holiness. I confess the sin of my duties; for example, the sin of my careless
worship in the sanctuary. But I find my glorious Substitute worshipping for me
in the synagogue. (Luke iv. 16), "He came to Nazareth, and as His custom was He
went into the synagogue." I find Him vindicating the honour of His Father in the
temple-service. (John ii. 17), "Make not My Father's house an house of
merchandise. And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up." His songs of praise, His deep attention to the written
Word there read, His joining in the public prayers, all this He puts to my
account, as if I had done it acceptably and done so always, - while in the same
moment, by His shed blood, He blots out every accusation against me for
omissions and guilty acts. I confess my prayerlessness in secret. It has grieved
the Lord to the heart. But I find my Surety "rising a great while before day,
and departing to a solitary place to pray" (Mark i. 35); or, "continuing all
night in prayer to God" (Luke vi. 12). This He will impute to me, as if I had so
prayed every day and night; at the same time plunging my sins of omission into
the depths of the sea. I confess and deplore heart-sins of various kinds. I
lament instability of soul; my goodness is like the early dew. But He was "the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," both God-ward and man-ward (Heb. xiii.
8). I feel hardness of heart. But He imputes to me His own tenderness, and
reckons to my account His own yearnings of soul for the glory of His Father. I
am stubborn; but He can say, "The Lord God opened mine ear, and, I was not
rebellious, neither turned away backwards" (Isa. 1. 5). In me is guile; but "in
His mouth was no guile found" (1 Pet. ii. 22). And thus there is ready not only
the warp of satisfaction for transgression, but also the woof of rendered
obedience. Let me still go on a little in this application of my Lord's active
and passive righteousness. Do I feel my soul in anguish, because of indulging
ambitious projects, seeking to be somewhat? I find Him "not seeking His own
glory" (John viii. 50): and this fold of His robe He will cast over me, while by
His blood He washes me from all my self-seeking. I have pleased myself. But of
Him it is testified, "He pleased not Himself" (Rom. xiv. 2). I have sought my
own will. But He could declare before the Father and to men, "I seek not mine
own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John v. 30). And thus
has He fully given the very form of obedience that I have omitted to render. He
gave what I withheld; and He will give it for me, at the same time that my guilt
in withholding it is hidden in His blood. I have been worldly. I have loved "the
world and the things that are in the world" (1 John ii. 15); not only the
objects it presents, but the very place itself, in preference to place and
things wherein the direct presence of God might be enjoyed. But He did not. "He
was not of the world" (John xvii. 14). He never had any of its treasure; it is
doubtful if He ever possessed or handled any of its money; we are sure He had
nowhere to lay His head.. The world hated Him, "because He testified that the
works thereof were evil" (John vii. 7). And all this He has at hand to impute to
me, while He washes me from guilt. I have been often double-minded. His eye was
always single. "I have glorified Thee" (John xvii. 4) was always true of Him. I
have been inconsistent; but even Satan could find "nothing in Him" (John xvi.
30). And He could challenge His foes, "which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John
viii. 46). My pride and haughtiness have need of One who was "meek and lowly."
And such I find in Him; and I find Him calling me to come to Him as such, and
use Him (Matt. xi. 29). If I have backslidden, yet my Surety's course was truly
like "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov.
iv. 18). "He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man"
(Luke ii. 52). Instead of lukewarmness ever on any occasion appearing in Him ,
such was His zeal for men's salvation that at one time friends stood by and
said, "He is beside Himself" (Mark iii. 21); and at another, His disciples were
irresistibly led back to the words of the Psalmist, "The zeal of thine house
hath eaten me up" (John ii. 17). Now, all this active righteousness in Him is
for my use. He will throw over me this other fold of His robe, as well as apply
His infinitely precious death, - and thus no one shall ever be able to accuse me
of backsliding, God accepting my Surety's work for me. I have grieved the
Spirit. But oh, how Christ honoured Him! Such blessed things He said of Him!
"The Comforter," "the Spirit of truth," "the Holy Spirit," were names which He
applied to Him; and Himself had been led by Him in delighted acquiescence.
"Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness" (Luke iv. 1). He has something here to present
instead of my provocations; and what He has, He will use for me. Only let me
know the treasures hid in His Person, and my consolation must abound. I have
been unthankful; but oh! how my Surety abounded in thanksgivings, -
thanksgivings for food, - thanksgivings for the Gospel revealed to babes, -
thanksgivings for the communion table, because it proclaimed His dying for us.
Herein I find obedience to a law I broke, the law of gratitude - while in the
sacrifice of Calvary I find expiation for my guilty ingratitude. I think upon my
unconcern for souls. And I find the remedy for that iniquity in Him whose heart
burned "to seek and save that which was lost," and who plunged into the sea of
wrath in order to redeem - for every step in His atonement has in it something
of obedience as well as satisfaction. Oh, inconceivable fulness for us in Him!
whatever be the special sin which our conscience at any moment is feeling. Only
let us ever keep Christ Himself in view, Christ clothed to the foot in that
garment of active and passive righteousness.

It is thus we get the sea, with all its multitudinous waves*

* There is a wave of it for ministerial failures; for He never failed, but could
appeal to His Father, "I have declared thy faithfulness, and thy salvation" (Ps.
xl. 9,10). His Shepherd's heart and work cover over ours. And so let a teacher
repair to Him for the hiding of sins in teaching. "In the day-time He was
teaching in the temple" (Luke xxi. 37). "I ever taught in the synagogue and in
the temple" (John xviii. 20). (Isa. xlviii. 18, "righteousness like the waves of
the sea"), to flow up every creek and sweep round every bay. His Person being
such, His work completely fits into the soul's necessities. And all this is so
great, that not only does it affect us negatively, - not only does this full
view of Christ remove every tremor from the soul, - it works besides into the
heart a positive bestowal of bliss. It is as sometimes in nature when every
breath of wind is so lulled asleep that not a leaf moves on the bough of any
tree; the sun is shedding his parting ray on the still foliage; and the sea
rests as if it had become a pavement of crystal. This is peace in nature. Your
heart feels, amid such a scene, not only the absence of whatever might create
alarm or disquiet, but the presence also of some elements of positive enjoyment,
as if there were an infusion of bliss in the scene. Now, infinitely more is this
the case in the kingdom of grace. The presence of Christ in the heart (the
Spirit there testifying of Christ) lulls fear to sleep; and while He makes
disquiet almost an impossibility, never fails to bring in positive delight and
bliss. There is something in it to "keep the heart and mind" (garrison, and so
preserve secure) (Phil. iv. 7). And what is this positive element but the real
outbreathing of direct friendship and love for Him whose heart we now know? He
removes the barriers out of the way and out of sight, in order to bring in
Himself with all His love, - Himself rich in all affections and bowels of mercy.
And is not this the true "healing" of the "hurt"? Was not the "hurt," our
separation from the Holy One, caused by sin? Is not this the "healing," then,
our return to fellowship with Him? It is worth while asking, in every case of
apparent peace, whether or not this positive element exists. Is there not only
the absence of dread and a calmness in looking towards the Holy One, but, in
addition to this, is there direct enjoyment of Him who gives the peace? The work
of Christ, if seen apart from His Person, may give freedom from dread of wrath,
but it can scarcely impart that positive delight in His restored friendship,
which alone "keepeth the heart and mind." "HE is our Peace," says Paul, in Eph.
ii. 14. And when, in Phil. iv. 7 he spoke of His peace keeping the heart and
mind (" the thoughts"- in the original), he said it was "by Christ Jesus." Was
not Paul here directed by the Spirit to insert this clause in order to fix our
eye on the Person who is our peace - the true "Jehovah-shalom?" (Judges vi. 24).
And is not the reason of this to be found in the fact that in proportion as we
see the Person, our soul's peace spreads and deepens? Certainly, all who have
tried it find this to be the case. The more they know of Him, the more complete
is their souls' rest. It is shallow peace (if it be indeed the "peace of God" at
all), when the Person of the Peacemaker is not directly realised. And now,
seeing we have such advantages above Old Testament saints, who saw the Person so
dimly, are there not duties and responsibilities resulting? "The darkness is
past and the true light now shineth" (l John ii. 8). Therefore (says John) there
is for you "A new commandment." He seems to mean that the increase of light has
given force to every demand for obedience; and especially that the appearing of
this Light, the Person Jesus, has brought with it peculiar motives to obedience.
May we not say that if we get such peace in Jesus Christ, and have Himself to
calm our souls, the Lord may well expect at our hands a higher style of
obedience than in former days? Peace has its responsibilities - such peace
through such a Redeemer, has no common responsibilities. We are freed from
burdens in order to work for God - we are fully justified in order to be the
more fully sanctified. Carry this kind of peace with you everywhere, and you
cannot fail ever. where to show that you are with Jesus; for it is Himself
realised that gives it. Your claim to real peace implies your seeing Christ
Himself, and enjoying His fellowship. If so, then you may well be expected to
show likeness to Jesus; for "he that walketh with the wise men shall be wise ‘
(Prov. xiii. 20). Your peace will be characterised by purity, as all ever is
that comes from God (Jas. iii. 17), and as all must be that is the direct effect
of an eye fixed on "God manifest in the flesh." Your peace "in Jesus Christ"
will keep you daily at His side, engaged in His work, guided by His look,
satisfied with His smile, living to do His will. Who could have his eye on that
Saviour continually, and there see "peace in heaven" toward himself, and yet at
the same time turn his feet into the by-paths of unholiness? Were your peace
gotten or maintained by looking at an act of your own - viz., your having once
believed, or having done the thing called believing, then possibly you might be
at peace, and yet after all not walk with God. But in as much as true Scriptural
peace is gotten and maintained by the sinner's eye resting at the moment on the
Person of Him who is our peace - on the person of Jehovah-shalom*

* Judges vi. 24, "Jehovah is peace;" like John iv. 8, "God is Love." It is at
the altar of sacrifice that "Jehovah is peace." - it is not possible to be at
peace and yet at the same time willingly wander from fellowship with the Holy
One. Christ, our Peace-maker, walks among us wherever is to be found anything
"true, or honest, or just, or lovely, or of good report " - wherever is to be
seen "any virtue or any praise" (Phil. iv. 8). And he who has peace by having
his eye on Christ cannot enjoy this peace without being led at the same moment
to these walks of Christ. Hence it is that Paul writes to the Philippian Church
- to Lydia, and the Jailor, and Euodias, and Syntyche, and Clement - that "the
God of peace would be with them" while they pursued these objects (Phil. iv. 8,
9). If they were found at any time wandering from these holy paths, it would be
a sufficient sign to them (as it will be to us also), that they had for the time
taken off their eyes from Him who was their peace - and so, ere they were aware,
had lost the enjoyment of that deep, profound peace, which "keepeth the heart
and mind."


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  CHAPTER 6: CHAPTER 5
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HOW LOOKING TO THE PERSON TENDS TO ADVANCE HOLINESS IN THE SOUL. "SANCTIFY them
by the truth" was our Lord's prayer; but it is truth in connection with Himself.
For, separate from Him, doctrines "have no living power, but are as waters
separated from the fountain; they dry up, or become a noisome puddle, or as a
beam interrupted from its continuity with the sun is immediately deprived of
light." (Owen on Person of Christ.) There is an expressive type in the old
economy that bears on this subject. The cherubim (emblems of the redeemed) stood
upon the mercy-seat or lid of the Ark - that lid, or mercy-seat, on which the
blood was seventimes sprinkled every atonement day. In this manner is set forth
the soul's resting on the work of Christ; for here is His shed blood, and the
feet of the cherubim touch that blood. But, at the same time, notice that they
stood not on the blood alone, but on the mercy-seat - a part of that Ark which
altogether was typical of Christ Himself, the depositary or treasure-chest of
all our blessings. Thus they exhibited rest on the Person as well as on the work
of Christ. Again; the cherubim looked down upon the blood that lay on the
mercy-seat; but their look was not less fully directed towards the mercy-seat
itself, and the Ark too. Once more; these symbolic figures of the redeemed
spread out their wings over the blood, but not over that alone, but at least as
fully over the mercy-seat and Ark - a significant action, expressive of their
regarding it as worthy of care - nay, as being to them what to the mother-bird
her brood is in the nest. The wings were spread forth on either side, as if
purposely to show that the whole of the Ark was their care, the object of their
solicitude and their delight. Perhaps there was still more signified in their
connection with that Ark. They not only stood upon it, and leant their whole
weight on it, but they were also joined to it. For they formed one piece with
the mercy-seat, which was the upper part of the Ark, and which was all of gold.
Not content with representing them as ever gazing on this object, the Lord set
forth their union to Himself who is the mercy-seat - union to Him in His
glorified state (for they and it were of gold), sharing in all the fruits of His
finished work and begun glory. Union to Christ's Person is a fact in the case of
every believer, and ought therefore to be a constant subject of meditation to
every believer. Now, this union realised leads to a realising of the Person.
Hence, in the Lord's Supper, it is always important for the communicant to ask,
with Paul, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body
of Christ? (1 Cor. x. 16). That ordinance, so rich in blessing and in blessed
suggestions, is fitted always to bring us back to a fresh and present realising
of the Person of Jesus, by bringing us to a remembrance of our union to that
Person. Can we think of union to Him, and not go on to ask, Who is this to whom
I am united? Who is this that is my husband? Who is this that is far more mine
than the husband is the wife's? What is His heart? What is His hand of might?
Where are His possessions? Where are the proofs of His love? Are His glories
bursting on my view? The great truth, which the Ark in the Old Testament, and
the Lord's Supper in the New, is so well fitted to keep before us, has been the
object of endeavour and pursuit (if not always of attainment) to all believers
who have been found growing in holiness. In the latter days of the life of
Howell Harris, of Wales, the intent gaze of his soul on the Person of Jesus is
as remarkable, as was his intent look to the terrors of Sinai in earlier days.
He writes to a friend (Let. 43), "One view of Him, in His eternal Godhead, and
so of the infinity of His Person, love, obedience, and suffering, is worth
millions of worlds." In another (Let. 52), "How is it with all you? Doth the
veil wear off, and doth the glory of a crucified Saviour appear brighter and
brighter? Oh, my brother, that Man is indeed the eternal God. What views doth He
give vile me of Himself! He shines brightly like the sun at noon! Oh, what heart
of stone would not melt to see the eternal God lying in a manger, sweating and
tired, wearing His thorny crown, not opening His mouth, because He bare our sin
and shame? Go on, my dear brother, and be bold in the great mystery of God
become man." Undoubtedly it mellows and matures the character of saints to be
much occupied with their Lord's Person; but as undoubtedly it quickens their
sense of obligation, and keeps alive love and gratitude, to be thus ever in
contact with a personal Saviour. Ideas, however noble, may leave our souls
comparatively dry, and they will always leave us infinitely less affected in our
conscience, than when we meet our God in His personality.*

* Trench, in one of his Hulsean Lectures, puts the case thus: "Oh, how great the
difference between submitting ourselves to a complex of rules, and casting
ourselves upon a beating heart" (P. 122). Now, while all believers do in some
measure deal with a personal Christ, yet all do not seek to extend their
experience of it; although the more this is done, the more fervent, and mild,
and calm will all holiness be in their souls; for then they take it fresh from
the spring, and that spring is the calm, deep soul of Jesus. There will be a
difference in the tone of, their life, and the fulness of their conformity to
the image of their Lord, in proportion as their eye rests more or less
frequently on His Person. Indeed, so much is this the case, that we are inclined
to think that Peter referred very specially to this style of experience, when he
was inspired to write, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour ~ Jesus Christ" (2 Peter iii. 18). Many saints seem to be little aware
how much of grace there is in the knowledge of the Person of Jesus. It would
singularly benefit some of these, who have lived much on what they know about
Jesus, to try for a week the more blessed and fruitful way of dealing directly
with Himself. There are treasures in the Person of Him whose doctrines they
believe, if only they could use them. A great philosopher says, on another
subject, what we may accommodate to this : - " A man may believe in the work and
Person of Christ for twenty years, and only in the twenty-first - in some great
moment - is he astonished at the rich substance of His belief - the rich warmth
of this naphthaspring." He adds to his ideas a person, and exchanges knowledge
about a truth for knowledge of Him that is true - yes, exchanges opinions for a
deep joy in the Living One, a joy which nothing earthly gave nor can destroy.

By this looking to the Person, the believer's holiness, or growth in grace, is
advanced in a threefold way. For this looking to the Person leads - 1. To
communion; 2. To a realising of His life for us; 3. To imitation ; - all which
conform the soul to His likeness. 1. Communion with Him is one result, and a
sanctifying result. When we dwell on the Saviour's Person, we are in His
company. Faith places us by His side, and shows us His glory, until what we see
makes our heart burn within us. We are virtually put in the position of
disciples walking by His side, witnessing His excellences, basking in the
radiance of grace and truth from His countenance, hearing His words. Now, this
contemplation of Him is transforming in its effects; "Beholding the glory of the
Lord, we are changed: into the same image" (2 Cor iii. 18) This is the plan
which the Holy Spirit takes in conforming us to Christ's image. In this way He
daguerreotypes on our prepared hearts the likeness of Him whom we look to. This
communion was carried on very constantly by Samuel Rutherford while in exile,
hour after hour. The day seemed short while so engaged; and thus it was he
exhorted a friend: "I urge upon you a nearer communion with Christ, and a
growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ that we never
saw, and new foldings of love in Him. I despair that ever I shall win to the far
end of that love; there are so many plies in it. Therefore, dig deep - and set
by as much time in the day for Him as you can - He will be won by labour." But
is it not intimated to us, by there being such a book as "the Song of Songs,"
that the Lord desires far more of our communion with Him than we generally
relish? Was not that Song of Songs written to teach us this dealing with
Himself? It was given to the Church in Old Testament days, when His Person as
yet was dimly seen; for so great was His desire for this personal converse with
us, He would teach it even then. How much more now should it be our occupation,
when we see the Bridegroom, and know Him as revealed by Himself. Is there much
of that tender love in the present day? Are there many of His own who are saying
to Him, "Let me kiss Him with the kisses of His love" (Song i. 1) - using that
figure for want of any other adequate terms? Are many telling Him , "I am sick
of love. If ye find my beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love ?" (Song v. 8).
Have we at all adequately realised our privilege of holding "fellowship" with
Him, as a man speaketh to His friend? "Truly," said John, "our fellowship is
with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3). There was here
personal intercourse, the soul of disciples with the soul of the master. There
was no doubt, in spirit, all the reality of the converse exhibited in the Song
of Songs, and realised by each disciple in the Upper Room. 2. Thus living on the
Son of God personally leads us to realise His life for us. By His life for us is
meant His manner of spending for us the three-and-thirty years He lived on
earth, as well as His continually using for us "the power of his endless life,"
now in heaven. All that is associated with that Person, we cannot but seek to
call to mind. Every notice of His former walk on earth we eagerly read, that we
may thereby know His heart, He being "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
All the records of His sympathy with us in our misery, every trait of His tender
pity, whatever indicates His thoughts, we peruse with untiring fondness -
returning to the meditation again and again with as engrossing an interest as at
first. On this account the four gospels possess indescribable attractions; for
there it is we glean the finest wheat - glimpses of His glory and grace, human
and divine. What He did, what He said, what He suffered, what He felt, what He
thought; how He was silent, how He spoke; His journeyings, His places of rest;
the words He used in healing, the look, the prayer, the touch, the command, the
call - all have an engrossing interest, because God-man is there. And then, not
less, the outgushings of grace and truth, in the outpouring of His soul unto
death, and in the resurrection-victory, and in the discoveries of the same heart
toward us when His exaltation was begun, and His robe of righteousness had been
waved with acceptance before the Father. But still more. We follow Him as "He
feeds among the lilies." We try to feel His heart beating for us in heaven; and
just as one walking with Aaron, the High Priest, could not but see the
breast-plate with its names, so we cannot fail to see that this Jesus bears the
names of His own on His heart. We find it written, "We shall be saved by His
life" (Rom. v. 10). We go up to Him, and find His love as intense, and His merit
as fresh, as when He rose from the tomb. We realise Him as "every moment
watering His vine " - interceding and obtaining daily grace for us. His life
above is a life of love, no less than was His life below. Behold, how He thinks
upon us night and day! Not content with putting into our hand the cup of
blessing on the day of our conversion He takes care to keep it in our possession
and to keep us from spilling its new wine. He remembers still how he hid us in
the cleft on that day when we flew as trembling doves to the rock; and he keeps
us as safely hid as ever. Not only did He once blot out our sins, but he is
employed in seeing that the writing never reappear. He once put on us a robe of
righteousness: he every hour continues to keep it on us, in spite of blasts from
earth and hell. He once plunged all our sins in the depth of the sea. He still
appears for us in the presence of God, keeping the deep tide that buries these
sins from ever ebbing. He once acquitted us and gained us honour far greater
than was gained by Mordecai before Ahasuerus: He is every day still engaged in
preventing us ever falling into disgrace. In this manner we feel our acceptance
and the communication of blessing to us fresh each day, through Him who is our
life; and so nothing in our religion grows old, and none of our reasons for
close dependence on Him are past and out of date; nay, our every-day life is in
a manner a daily repetition of the day of our first conversion. By this view a
daily impulse is given to our walk with God. Is not this what we need for
continual progress? And is not this the Spirit's manner of watering the roots of
the plants of grace? And at the same time, as a man much in Aaron's company
would see on His person and garments the anointing oil, so in our interceding
Lord we see the Holy Spirit dwelling without measure. We see Him with the "seven
Spirits of God," and this all for us. Our eye, resting on the Person of Jesus,
discovers therein a reservoir of all holiness for our souls, inasmuch as he has
the Spirit without measure. And so we learn to take from Him "that other
Comforter," who delights to glorify the Saviour, and who is Himself infinite
love and loveliness. What a sight for a soul like ours! "The Spirit of wisdom
and revelation," dwelling in Him whom we long to know more and more. We read, in
a manner, on His vesture and on His thigh, "Thou hast received gifts for men,
yea, for the rebellious also!" (Psalm lxviii. 18).

3. But further, there is Imitation - imitation of Him we look upon. Long ago
Origen (Neander's Ch.Hist., vol ii.p.283) wrote : - " Faith brings with it a
spiritual communion with Him in whom one believes; and hence a kindred
disposition of mind which will manifest itself in works - the object of faith
being taken up into the inner life." We do not look only on His wounds, but also
on His holy steps; and we not only look, but by the sure leading of that Spirit
who shows us what we see, we at the same moment seek to imitate. For the inmost
soul is moved.*

* The soul whose sight all-quickening grace renews Takes the resemblance of the
good she views; As diamonds stript of their opaque disguise Reflect the noonday
glory of the skies (C0WPER). Looking much to Jesus in His person, we
instinctively (so to speak) copy what we see. Indeed, real holiness is simply
the "Imitation of Christ," after He has washed us, and in the depth of His
atoning grace left us without guilt. It is grateful imitation, not the imitation
of those who are working for life. Much in the presence of our Benefactor who so
loved us, we would fain resemble him in our character and state of mind, and so
we seek to copy what is imitable in His ways, and in all He manifested of
Himself while redeeming us. We are led to desire (as Paul recommends in Phil.
ii. 5) to be filled with the "mind that was in Christ," that mind which shone
out so attractively as He bore the cross and drank the cup to the dregs - for
the Apostle Peter (ii. 22-24) exhorts us to observe even His example while
hanging on the cross as containing some matter for imitation, some footsteps for
us to walk in. In this same way true and steady looking to Christ's Person
would, by the Spirit's teaching, lead us into the experience of that "charity"
which is described in 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5, 6, 7. It is said to have these fourteen
qualities, each one of which is best learned by beholding it in Christ, the
original. 1. "Charity suffereth long." Where was this love illustrated if not in
our Lord when He refused to bring down fire on the rejecters of His grace -
stretched out His hands all day to rebels - bore mockery, blasphemy, wrong, the
scourge, the crown of thorns, the reed, the blindfolding napkin, and the cross
itself? 2. Charity is "kind" And who so truly kind as Jesus, crying with loud
voice, "It is finished," and bringing us life in the moment of His own death -
proclaiming the sweetest news with the vinegar at His lips! When was Joseph so
kind to his brethren? Who ever so heaped coals of fire upon an enemy's head? 3.
If ever we are to learn the love that "envieth not," we must see it in Him who
desired nought for Himself, but disinterestedly and unceasingly sought to make
our condition better, happier, greater. If our Priest, who wore the robe without
a seam, had worn the priestly mitre on His brow, on it would have been written,
"More blessed to give than to receive." He interfered with none of our comforts,
not even in thought: it was only with our miseries. Let us drink in His
unenvious, unselfish love, leaving our fellow-men all the true good they have,
anxious only to make them have as much as ourselves. 4. Looking to His Person
again, we see "charity vaunteth not itself." In Him is no ostentation, no parade
of His doings. We read all the gospels through, and never find His love put
itself forward for show. He does not clothe the naked and tell that He has done
it; or relieve a Lazarus, and then remind the man that He has done him a favour;
or heal, and proclaim His rare skill. Even His redeeming love is rather set
within our view in His actions and agonies, as in so many wells whence we may
draw, than pressed on us in words. Nor did He upbraid, or taunt, or shout
haughty triumph over a soul subdued and forgiven - so little of parade had He.
His is a Father's love to a prodigal son, too glad to gain the opportunity of
pouring out itself on its object. Where shall we learn unostentatious love, if
not here? 5. Or are we to learn the love that "is not puffed up " - that has no
inward self-gratulation, no self-complacent thought of its own magnanimity in
the deed so kindly done? It is to be learned surely by looking to Him who was
satisfied in gaining His gracious object, in finding scope for love. No look or
tone of His ever made His benefactions disagreeable to those who received them;
for His was a charity that despised none, being the great love of God (Job
xxxvi. 5). If we will learn holy love to others, let us learn it at Christ's
holy love to us; as painters take for models the masterpieces of the best
artists and copy them line by line. 6. Behold His love, and see how charity
"doth not behave itself unseemly." You see a delicate propriety and a fine
attention to the feelings in Christ's dealings of love. No rudeness, no
harshness, no indiscretion; nothing mean, nothing unpolite; time, place, and
persons were all consistently and tenderly considered. Even in this, the
Righteous Servant "dealt prudently." With what tender delicacy, and yet
determined love, did He deal with the woman of Samaria, till at last He had
withdrawn the veil and confronted her conscience with her five husbands and the
one that bore that name still! Even to Judas, in the hour of dark treachery,
love could say, "Friend, wherefore art thou come ?" Never was there extravagant
demonstration; never the shadow of affectation. There is seemly love to be
learned in its perfection here, but only here, only in Jesus Himself. 7. And
need we dwell on the charity "that seeketh not her own"? In the life and death
of Him, who "was servant of all," we see this love to the full - the seeking
love of God - the love that sought us and ours. 8. The same love is seen "not
easily provoked." See it personified in Him who stands there and groans over the
city, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children
together!" (Matt. xxiv. 37). No bitter wrongs ever drew forth a hasty word, or
angry look, or revengeful blow. They spat in His face, they plucked off His
hair, they smote Him with the palms of their hand, they put on the purple robe -
but it drew forth only love. 9. His love was charity that "thinketh no evil" -
that never had a passing thought of injuring its worst foes, nor imagined them
worse than they showed themselves to be. His were thoughts of peace, and not of
evil, towards the men that crucified Him. "If thou hadst known, even thou!"
(Luke xix. 42). 10. It is at His side we see and learn "love rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." The good of those whom He loved He sought
not to advance by any unholy gratification. His love was such as felt grieved at
seeing its objects seeking happiness in ways not good and true. It had no joy in
seeing iniquity anywhere, far less seeing it have place in the hearts of
friends, however pleasing and fascinating that iniquity might be. The truth was
what His love rejoiced in. Hence His love led him to protest and war against
sinful pleasures and pursuits: for His love was no Eli-like fondness. It was
love that would not give to those whom it embraced a cup in which one drop of
gall was mingled, however much they thirsted. Where else shall we learn charity
like this? 11. And then in Him we see love which "beareth all things " - endures
trouble for others, and takes on itself the task of covering from view what is
wrong. 12. This love, too, is love that" believeth all things." Yes, His love
was a love ever ready to confide in its objects, ready to trust Matthew as soon
as he was called, making him an Apostle, and then an Evangelist - ready to trust
Peter, after his fall, bidding him "feed His sheep " - not suspicious and
distrustful. Oh, to learn from Him such generous love ! Surely it is well for us
to keep much company with Him in whom it dwells. 13. His love "hoped all
things." It was like the love of a friend, who, sitting by the death-bed of one
whom he loves, hopes on still, even when all physicians have given up hope -
hopes because he loves so much and wishes what he hopes for. Such was the love
of Jesus; not easily giving up its object - not soon cutting down its barren
fig-trees (Luke xiii. 8). More of His love would make our life more
perseveringly devoted to the good of others, however slight were the symptoms of
success. And it is this we need in our day! And once more: 14. His, indeed, was
the charity that "endured all things," which did not faint in its pursuit, nor
was baffled by difficulties. "Many waters could not quench His love, nor could
the floods drown it." Oh, to drink in this love - this holy charity! finding it
all in the Saviour's Person.

Such was the portrait an Apostle drew, The bright original was one he knew;
Heaven held his hand - the likeness must be true (COWPER). But the tendency to
imitate the person whom we love, and with whom we oft personally converse,
extends to the feelings as well as actions. We drink deep into his sorrows and
his joys.

The Spirit of truth shows us "The Man of Sorrows;" and lifting up a little of
the veil from such an hour as that which heard the cry, "Eli ! Eli!" discovers
to us the unknown anguish which was borne as the wrath due to us. This woe, of
course, we are not asked to bear, though into it we are ever to desire to look;
but in His other sorrows there is much by sympathising with which we may be made
to drink in His holiness. One of the sorrows that made Him cry, "Oh, that I had
wings like a dove" (Ps. lv. 4-6), was the sight of a man's corruption. Into this
feeling the soul that walks by the side of Jesus tries to enter. If, again,
another source of sorrow to Christ was man's misery, so that He groaned in
spirit at the sight (John xi. 33), into this the companion of Jesus tries to
enter. If another was the prospect of the doom overhanging sinners, with this,
too, the believer sympathises, seeking to climb the Mount of Olives, and to
stand with Jesus weeping over the guilty city (Luke xix. 42). If Jesus is seen
grieved over the fewness of the coming ones, "Where are the nine?" (Luke xvii.
17), or is heard expressing sorrowful surprise at the slow progress of His own
(Luke I xxiv. 25), or if He watches like a sparrow alone (Psalm cii. 6, 7), or,
"as an owl in the desert, as the pelican in the wilderness," content with His
Father's sympathy - in all this the soul that loves the cormpany of "the Man of
Sorrows" seeks to share. And by this means the Holy Ghost pours the melted soul
into the mould of Christ's heart. Or, if it be the joys of the Man of Sorrows
that he is tracing out, in these, too, he seeks to be like Him. One of Christ's
joys - one brook by the way, of which He drank - was the certainty that the
Father's will was done (Luke x. 21) ; a second was the consciousness that He
Himself was doing the Father's will (John iv. 34); a third was the presence of
the Father felt around Him (Acts ii. 25, 26) ; a fourth, the conversion of
sinners (Luke xv.); a fifth, the growth of faith in His own (Matt. viii. 10);
and a sixth, the hope of the reward (Heb. xii. 2, 3). In all these the growing
believer, making Christ Himself his friend and divine companion, seeks to
sympathise. He would fain be like Him whom he so loves. There is something
pleasant in noticing how Peter learnt to imitate his Lord by being so much in
His company. When he goes to heal Dorcas (Acts ix. 40, 41) he put all out that
wept and wailed, just as his Master did (Mark v. 37), and then the words, "
Tabitha, arise," are brief, yet authoritative as his Master's "Talitha, cumi"
(Mark v. 41). So also he lifts up the lame man at the Beautiful Gate by the
right hand (Acts iii. 7), just as he had seen his Lord do (Mark i. 31) at
Capernaum to his relative in her fever. Even so in greater things, the disciple
falls into his Master's way and manner. Read his Epistles, and you see that,
walking with the wise, he becomes wise; walking with the Gracious One, he
becomes gracious; walking with Him who is holy, he becomes holy; walking with
incarnate love and mercy, he becomes loving and merciful. Among the friends of
Alexander the Great, there was one named Hephaestion. It was said in regard to
this man that he was "A lover of Alexander; " - none could doubt that man's
personal affection for him. There was at the same time another friend, Oraterus,
who seemed equally warm in heart and devotedness. It was, however, more because
of the benefits conferred on him by one so exalted and great than from personal
attachment - and hence he was said to be "A lover of the King." Which of these
two most resembled their master in character? All history tells us it was
Hephaestion, he who so loved the Person. And even so shall it be with the saint
who dwells more on the Person of Immanuel than upon his gifts. The latter will
be what was said of Peter (somewhat deprecatingly) by some of the ancients, "A
lover of Christ," while the former will be what was said most truly of John, "A
lover of Jesus " - and, like John, will bear close resemblance to his Lord in
every peculiar trait.


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  CHAPTER 7: CHAPTER 6
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HOW THIS LOOKING TO THE PERSON AFFECTS OUR VIEWS OF DEATH AND OUR HOPE OF THE
LORD'S SECOND COMING. IN proportion as the soul advances in grace, its state
coincides with that of the apostle, 'I am in a strait betwixt two, having a
desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to
abide in the flesh is more needful for you' (Phil. i. 25). But at the same time
that soul, if truly apostolic in its holiness, can add, 'Not that we would be
unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life' (2
Cor. v. 4). It desires resurrection-bliss most of all, while, at the same time,
it yearns after the lesser bliss of immediately passing into glory.

I. The main, and, indeed, the only, attraction of the intermediate state is this
- there the redeemed see the Lord Jesus. He Himself is with them, and this is
their heaven. In Rev. vi. 9, the 'souls under the altar' are, undoubtedly, in
this state; they are not represented in the glory of their resurrection state,
as chap. vii. 15, 16, 17, and some passages may seem to set forth. These souls
are at the altar, where they have taken up their station in order to cry for
justice being done on the earth, as well as in order to show that justice is
satisfied as to themselves; and there they are met by one who gives them 'white
robes,' and who tells them they are to 'rest for a season;' leading them away to
recline in their white robes on those couches of rest of which Isaiah (lvii. 2)
has told us. This is all we see of their outward bliss; but we cannot fail to
notice that the 'rest' here, and in chap. xiv. 13, is the continuation of the
same 'rest' that their Lord from the very first spoke of giving (Matt. xi. 28).
It seems to be, like Lazarus in Abraham's bosom (Luke xvi. 22), a reclining with
the Lord Jesus in view - reclining at a feast with the eye fixed on Jesus in the
midst. The moment a saint departs, he is 'with Christ.' This we read in Phil. i.
23, and, as we have already said, this 'being with Christ' is the essence of the
bliss of that intermediate state, and is really all we know about it. The spirit
of the departing one is received by Jesus (Acts vii. 59); angels may receive it
as it leaves the body (Luke xvi. 22), but they are not long of delivering it
safe to their Lord. In His presence it rests, the sum of all its employments and
its enjoyments being the sight and fellowship of the Lord Jesus. Nothing more is
told us; for it would appear to be the design of the Lord to keep our eye on the
Person of the beloved Son, as much on entering that unseen world as while here,
and as much when arrived there as at entering. 'Blessed are the dead that die in
the Lord.' They rest with Him, and see His face. They are gone to that 'mountain
of myrrh and hill of frankincense'(Song iv. 6), where Jesus Himself sits - the
right hand of the Father - and on the slopes of that hill they rest most
pleasantly, beholding Him, and enjoying fellowship with Him, and waiting with
Him for the daybreak and the flight of shadows. They are said to be 'in
Paradise' (Luke xxiii. 43), the name appropriated to some part of the glorious
heavens where the throne of God is seen - appropriated to it because of being
the special spot where the children of the Second Adam are gathered together. As
paradise was an inner part of Eden (Genesis ii. 8), so is this abode of the
redeemed an inner part of heaven. Perhaps it is the same as New Jerusalem. (Rev.
xxi. 10) But at any rate, does not that name tell us of a place where God, as
before the Fall, once more communes with men? It seems to say that the happy
souls that dwell there, in light and love, are like unfallen Adam in his
paradise - their chiefest joy being to hear the voice of the Lord God, to hear
Him who is The Word of God. We infer, then, that love to the Person of Jesus,
and delight therein, is the state of mind nearest to that of those who have
departed and are with Him. We are never more in sympathy with the saints
departed than when rapt in intense meditation on the Lord's Person - examining
the unspeakable gift, even Him 'in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily.' Never are we ourselves in a better frame for departing than when
enabled by the spirit of wisdom and revelation to gaze on the Lord Jesus, and
claim that Mercy-seat, and that Ark with all its contents, as our own. Never do
we realise so well what it is to be separate from earth and enter the suburbs of
heaven as when thus engrossed with Him who is our Plant of Renown, with all its
fruit and foliage, freshness and fragrance, beauty and shade. Sitting, in such
an hour, at the feet of Him who has 'the keys of death and the invisible world,'
we are almost already ushered over the threshold.

II. But our attention is fixed more directly still upon the Person of the Lord
Jesus, when we turn to the blessed hope, His Second Coming. The glories of that
day are such, in themselves and in their influence on us, as to guide our eye to
Him personally, and keep it resting on Him. When a believer is enabled to
meditate much and often on 'that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of Him
who is the Great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ,' his soul catches from afar
something of the glory yet to be revealed - not unlike to what poetry has sung
of the cheerful bird, 'the messenger of day,' which in the early dawn pours out
its melody, soaring all the while higher and higher

-'until the unrisen sun Gleams on its breast.' The believer, rapt into the
future in his earnest anticipations, catches beams of that Better Sun which is
yet to rise with healing on his wings. If the redeemed may say at death, 'As for
me, I will behold thy face in righteousness' (Ps. xvii. 15), much more may they
add, in hope of that resurrection day, 'I shall be satisfied when I wake with
His likeness', as if the rays of that morning were already shining on them with
transforming power. It shall be the Lamb Himself that shall lead each believer
up from his quiet grave : - ' The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God.'
(John v. 25.) As in the hour of conversion, awakening from their wordly dreams,
they saw that stupendous sight, the Son of Man lifted up on the cross (John iii.
3-14), so in the hour of the First Resurrection, they shall see His face again,
not now marred, but become the seat of majesty, glory, beauty, as well as holy
love. The Lamb Himself shall then lead them to living fountains and feed them as
a shepherd (Rev. vii. 17); and this will keep the thoughts of the glorified for
ever on Himself. He is still their sun, whence beam forth light, and life, and
joy - light, life, joy, worthy of the sore travail of His soul, worthy of His
strong cries, worthy of His endless merits.

Why is it that we hope for That Day ? Let John reply, 'When He shall appear we
shall be like Him (1 John iii. 2), for we shall see Him as He is.' Or let Paul
tell how he, and Clement, and Epaphroditus, and the saints of Caesar's
household, and all the believers whom he knew, anticipated that day. He says
that it was the Lord Himself they delighted to look for. It was not so much the
triumphs of that day, nor its palms, and crowns, and white robes, and shouts of
Hallelujah over sorrows for ever vanished; but it was the thought of the Lord
Himself being there that made that day so joyful. 'Our conversation is in
heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil. iii.
21). And when they associated their own blessedness with these anticipations, it
was in this form - 'We shall be LIKE HIM.' 'He shall change our vile body that
it may be fashioned LIKE UNTO HIS GLORIOUS BODY!' What is this that Isaiah
promises? 'The Lord shall be unto her an everlasting light, and thy God thy
glory!' (Isa. lx. 19). No stretch of thought can conceive the amount of honour
and bliss expressed in these few words. And what is this that the same prophet
promises to each one that now walks with God? He says, happy soul, 'Thine eyes
shall see the King in His beauty' (Isa. xxxm 17). This is the highest hope He
can hold out to thee; this is the greatest of His rewards; this is His best joy.
Thine eyes shall see, and not be dim ; thine eyes shall see, and not be dazzled
into blindness; thine eyes shall see, and gaze with calm and constant delight on
'the King in His beauty' This is a promise of a true Transfiguration-day to
thee. What was it that led the astonished multitude at the foot of the hill to
run the Son of Man as He descended from the scene of His brief Transfiguration?
(Mark. ix. 15). What caused that assembly to salute Him with such reverence? Was
it not the impression produced on them by even a few lingering beams of glory,
that hung on His form as the brightness did on Moses after his forty days'
interview with God ? And if that were so then, while He was seen under the
returning clouds of sorrow, and while they who saw had not been fully anointed
with the eye-salve that they might discern His real beauty, what may we not
expect to enjoy on that day when the prophet's words are realised, 'Thine eyes
shall see the King in His beauty!' Are you a disciple whose eyes are often
wistfully turned to the heavens, like the men of Galilee on the day of His
ascension? You shall not always gaze in vain: 'Thine eyes shall see the King in
His beauty.' Thou shalt see Him who is 'The fellow of the Almighty,' and yet
also 'Man' (Zech. xiii. 7); who can tell of 'men being His fellows' at the very
moment that the Father proclaims him 'God' (Heb. i. 9); whose human countenance,
lighted up now with the 'joy unspeakable and full of glory,' tells what ecstasy
is found in the Father's love; who is the brightness of the Father's glory, the
express image of His person, revealing Godhead to the very sense of the
creature, in a manner so attractive and heart-satisfying that the song of
rapturous delight never has a pause. Art thou a weary pilgrim? Walk on a little
longer with thine eye still toward the Right Hand of the Majesty on high; for
soon thou shalt see 'the King in His beauty.' Hast thou been vexed, like
righteous Lot, from day to day, in seeing and learning earth's wickedness? hast
thou been saddened by witnessing death ravaging families, and removing some of
thine own dearest ones? hast thou but dimly descried amid thy tears the form of
Him who walked on the sea at midnight to reassure His dejected and trembling
disciples? hast thou often been disappointed when thou didst think thou hadst
got a look of things within the veil that would for ever turn thine eyes from
beholding vanity ? - be of good cheer, ' Thine eyes shall see the King in His
beauty.' Thy heaven shall consist in seeing Him as He is - knowing Him as He
knoweth thee. Among all the rewards offered to those who overcome, by the
Captain of Salvation (when, after a sixty years' absence, He visited His
suffering disciple in Patmos face to face), none is so magnificent, none so
soul-filling, as that wherein He offers Himself in His glory. In this promised
reward He may be said to offer us to Himself at the time when all His own reward
has been bestowed, and when Himself has been anointed with the oil of gladness
above His fellows. He writes, 'To him that overcometh and keepeth My works unto
the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with
a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even
as I received of My Father.' Is not this enough? No, not yet; one thing more and
better still by far, 'And I will give him the Morning Star' (Rev. ii. 28). That
is, I will give him Myself at the time I appear as 'Bright and Morning Star'
(Rev. xxii. 16), rising in our sky after a night of gloom, the harbinger of an
endless day. The great bliss of that day is this, the gift of Christ Himself at
a time when joy, peace, love, and glory, and the holiness, wisdom, power, and
majesty of Godhead, are the beams that radiate from His person, and bathe those
on whom He shines. If, believer, you love much that Person of whom we have all
along in these pages been speaking, then press on to the day of His coming, for
then it is you are to get Him in His fullest glory. Then it is you are to get as
your Redemption Him who has been your Wisdom, your Righteousness, your
Sanctification. That 'Tower of David' was long ago gifted to you, with all its
armoury; but your time for entering on the possession of it is now when it is
furnished with whatever is magnificent, and royal, and heavenly, and divine;
creation's riches being stored up therein. You shall see the Lord Jesus as yours
at a time when His own and the Father's glory, and the glory of His angels, all
combine to set forth His person. 'And your look that day shall be (says one)
that of an owner, not the shy gaze of a passer-by.' That Christ, on yonder
throne, is mine! With all His glory He is mine! That King of Kings, that Lord of
Lords in His royal apparel, is mine! That beloved Son, whom the Father
delighteth to honour for evermore, is mine! All that He is, all that He has, is
mine! Does not this prospect make a present life seem dull? It pours contempt on
earth's fairest scenes! It mocks ambition. It makes coveteousness appear folly
and infatuation. It renders trial light and duty easy! Christ Himself ours! ours
on that day when 'His peace' and 'His joy' are at their height! Our life is
discovered to be 'Christ' (Col. iii. 4). Oh what a Christ that day reveals! The
more intently we pore over what is to arrive on that day, we do the more
intently gaze on the Person of the Son of God. We are kept in the very posture
in which the Gospel of His First Coming placed us. On the one hand, we find that
His coming to die and overcome death sends us forward to the coming again of Him
who so overcame ; but on the other, no sooner are we in His presence, amid His
own and the Father's glory, than, in grateful remembrance, we go back to him as
He appeared to us in His low estate - these two views of Him so act and react on
each other, combining to keep us ever in the attitude of beholding Himself.
There is to be no new Gospel for ever; and can there be need of any? The coming
of the Lord shall fully unveil His Person, in whom all the Gospel is stored up.
The feast of fat things full of marrow, in Isa. xxvi. 6, is the visible, as well
as inward, discovery of His matchless person, in the day of His glory, when the
pure canopy of the New Heavens, and the beauty shed over a Restored Creation,
with all the teeming luxuriance of its hills and plains, and the melody of
attendant harpers harping on the harps of heaven, shall be all but forgotten,
because of the presence of the 'King in His beauty.' Called in from the hedges
and highways (Matt. xxii. 1-10), we feast even at present on fragments of this
greater feast; but we get as yet little more than the crumbs - for little indeed
do we see of the real glory of the Lord. The Holy Spirit then, even as now, will
continue to glorify Christ. There will be a fully unveiled Christ before us, and
also there will be in us the Holy Spirit (unresisted by us and no longer
grieved), springing up to eternal life, showing us His beauty. One difference
only will there be - at present He gives us but drops, then He will pour upon us
the horn of oil; and so shall we enter into the full joy of the Lord, not a
scale left on our eye, nor one film left of the earthly mist that used to
prevent our seeing Him who is the Image of God. The days of eternity shall pass
on, and our eye shall never weary of looking on Him, but 'shall gaze upon His
glories, as the eagle is said to do upon the meridian sun.' Ages upon ages pass,
and still He is to us all in all. We admit the light from His Person freely now;
never did Moses so eagerly survey the goodly land from Pisgah, as we now survey
the glories of the Lamb. We get looks into that heart where love has dwelt from
everlasting, and where love shall dwell to everlasting. Eternity is in its full
course! Long, long ago, we lost sight of the shores of time, and still He is the
unexhausted and inexhaustible fountain to us of 'Good tidings of Great Joy!'
Eternity only serves to let in upon our souls the fulness of the blessing given
to us in the day when we received Him, and began to have fellowship in His
Gospel. The Gospel is still 'THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL;' for Christ is its
substance; Christ is its essence; Christ is its Alpha and Omega; and the life it
has brought us is out of 'Christ our life,' and must be 'Life Everlasting.'
Henceforth, then, this one thing I do: 'I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. I do count them but dung
that I may win Christ, and that I may know Him. I follow after if that I may
apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. I forget those
things which are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before - I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus'
(Phil. iii. 8, 9, 10, 12, 14). Dr. Owen spent some of the best years of his life
in writing the 'Treatise on the Person of Christ,' and some of his last days in
preparing for the press his 'Meditations on the Glory of Christ.' On the very
day he died, a friend came to tell him that his book was now in the press, at
which he expressed satisfaction. 'But, O Brother,' said he, 'the long looked for
day is come at last, in which I will see that glory in another manner than I
have ever done yet, or was capable of doing in this world !' O Holy Spirit,
grant that all of us may be found by the Lord when He calls, or when He comes,
thus occupied in meditation on His Person and Glory, ready to start up at the
call, saying to one another, 'O Brother, the looked for day is come at last !'


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  CHAPTER 8: APPENDIX
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EXTRACTS FROM OLD AUTHORS. "God would have us pitch our faith upon The Person of
His Son, and not barely upon the Promise. And therefore, He has so ordered
things in His divine wisdom that the Promises should all hold on Christ, and be
Yea and Amen in Him." - TILLINGHAST's Six Sermons, p. 9.

"Saving faith is in the nature of it not a mere assent to a testimony, but a
receiving and resting upon The Person of Jesus Christ alone, for salvation both
from sin and wrath, and unto all the grace and glory of God." - CUDWORTH's
Experience, p. 10.

"Those Divines who in their Catechetical Systems have made the formal object of
Faith to be the Promise, rather than The Person of Christ, have failed in their
expressions, if not in their intentions." - SPURSTOW on Rom. vi. 1.

"Folk must go first to Christ's Person before they can get good of His offices.
Folk must make a direct address to the Person of the Mediator before they reap
His purchase. Pardon is sweet, adoption is sweet, grace is sweet, heaven is
sweet; but Christ is sweeter. " - WEBSTER'S Sermons, p. 88.

"Faith does not marry the soul to the portion, benefits, and privileges of
Christ, but to Christ Himself. I don't say that the soul may not have an eye to
these, and a respect to these in closing with Christ; yea, usually these are the
first things that faith has in its eye. But the soul does, and must go higher;
he must look at and pitch upon The Person of Christ, or his faith is not so
right and complete as it ought to be. It is The Person of Christ that is the
great fountain of all grace and of all manifestations of God to us; and faith
accordingly does close with His Person." - PEARSE's Best Match, p. 160.

Such delight had Samuel Rutherford in The Person of Christ that he writes to his
friends such things as the following : - " Holiness is not Christ; the blossoms
and flavours of the Tree of Life are not the Tree itself" (Lett. 335). "He, He
Himself, is more excellent than heaven. Oh, what a life were it to sit beside
this Well of Love, and drink and sing, sing and drink!" (Lett. 288). "My
greatest pain is want of Him; not of His joys and comforts, but of a near union
and communion." "I have casten this work upon Christ, to get in Himself" (Lett.
187; Lett. 112). "I would be farther in upon Christ than at His joys, in where
love and mercy lodgeth - beside His heart !" (Lett. 286). "Oh, if I could doat
as much upon Himself as I do upon His love!" (Lett. 160). "I would fain learn
not to idolise comfort, sense, joy, and sweet-felt presence. All these are but
creatures, and nothing but the kingly robe, the golden ring, the bracelets of
the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom Himself is better than all ornaments that are
about Him" (Lett. 168). "If the comparison could stand, I would not exchange
Christ with heaven itself" (Lett. 111).

Once more. A century ago, Romaine (Life of Faith, p. 159) thus wrote in
expounding the verses 1 John ii. 13, 14, - " Many continue little children and
weak in faith, because they do not presently attain a solid acquaintance with
The Person of Christ."

The sum of the matter is this. There is a vast difference between, on the one
hand, believing day by day in a living Saviour, and on the other, resting
satisfied with the salvation He brings, as if that were all.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/the-gospel-pointing-to-the-person-of-christ/
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