{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29557/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29557","id":"gutenberg_29557","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29557","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Jesus Christ -- Meditations","Jesus Christ -- Person and offices"],"text":"Produced by Keith G. Richardson\n\n\n\n\nThe Lord of Glory\n\n\nMEDITATIONS ON THE PERSON, THE WORK\n\nAND GLORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST\n\nBY\n\nA. C. GAEBELEIN\n\nPUBLICATION OFFICE OF \"OUR HOPE,\"\n\n456 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y.\n\n  PICKERING & INGLIS,      L. S. HAYNES,\n  GLASGOW,                 502 Yonge Street,\n  SCOTLAND                 TORONTO, CANADA\n\nCopyright 1910 by A. C. Gaebelein.\n\nPrinting by\n\nFrancis Emory Fitch\n\nof New York\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n  Preface\n  Dedication\n  The Lord of Glory\n  Jehovah.  The \"I am\"\n  That Worthy Name\n  The Doctrine of Christ\n  The Pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ\n  Ye are Christ's--Christ is God's\n  The Wonderful\n  Honor and Glory unto Him\n  Christ's Resurrection Song\n  The Glory Song\n  The Firstborn\n  The Waiting Christ\n  A Vision of the King\n  The Fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord\n  Out of His Fulness,\n  The Twenty-second Psalm\n  The Exalted One\n  A Glorious Vision\n  My Brethren\n  The Patience of Christ\n  He Shall Not Keep Silent\n  The Love of Christ\n  The Joy of the Lord\n  This same Jesus\n  The Wondrous Cross\n  His Legacy\n  What Have I to do with Idols\n  The Never Changing One\n  Be of Good Cheer\n  Make Haste\n\n\n\nPreface.\n\n\nFor a number of years the first pages of each issue of \"Our Hope\"\nhave been devoted to brief meditations on the Person and Glory of\nour adorable Lord Jesus Christ. Three reasons led the Editor to do\nthis:  1. He is worthy of all honor and glory, worthy to have the\nfirst place in all things.  2. The great need of His people to have\nHis blessed Person, His past and present work, His power and glory,\nHis future manifestation constantly brought before their hearts.  3.\nThere is an ever increasing denial of the Person of our Lord. In the\nmost subtle way His Glory has been denied. It is therefore eminently\nnecessary for those who know Him to tell out His worth. Long and\nlearned discussions on the Person of the Lord have been written in\nthe past, but are not much read in these days. We felt that short\nand simple meditations on Himself would be welcomed by all\nbelievers.\n\nAll these brief articles were written with much prayer and often\nunder deep soul exercise. It has pleased the Holy Spirit to own them\nin a most blessed way. Hundreds of letters were received telling of\nthe great blessing these meditations have been and what refreshing\nthey brought to the hearts of His people. Weary and tired ones were\ncheered, wandering ones restored and erring ones set right. Many\nwrote us or told us personally that the Lord Jesus Christ has become\na greater reality and power in their lives after following this\nmonthly testimony.\n\nSuggestions were made to issue some of these notes in book form so\nthat these blessed truths may be preserved in a more permanent form.\nWe have done so and send this volume forth with the prayer that the\nHoly Spirit, who is here to glorify Christ, may use it to the praise\nand glory of His worthy Name. We are confident that such will be the\ncase.\n\nA. C. G.\n\nNew York City, October 1, 1910.\n\n\n\nDedication.\n\n\n\"Unto Him who loveth us and washed us from our sins in His own\nblood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God His Father; to\nHim be glory and dominion forever.\"--Rev. i: 5-6.\n\n\"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and\nwisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.\"--Rev. v:\n12.\n\n\"Then they that feared the Lord spake one to another: and the Lord\nhearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before\nHim for them that feared the Lord and that _thought upon His Name_.\"\n--Mal. iii: 16.\n\n\"Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp bearing His\nreproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to\ncome. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God\ncontinually, that is the fruit of our lips, _confessing His Name_.\"\n--Hebrews xiii: 13-15.\n\n\"Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so. Come Lord Jesus.\"--Rev.\nxxii: 20.\n\n\n\nThe Lord of Glory.\n\n\n1 Cor. ii:8.\n\n\nOUR ever blessed Lord, who died for us, to whom we belong, with whom\nwe shall be forever, is the Lord of Glory. Thus He is called in 1\nCor. ii:8, \"for had they known they would not have crucified the\n_Lord of Glory_.\" Eternally He is this because He is \"the express\nimage of God, the brightness of His Glory\" (Heb. i:3). He possessed\nGlory with the Father before the world was (John xvii:5). This Glory\nwas beheld by the prophets, for we read that Isaiah \"saw His Glory\nand spake of Him\" (John xii:41). All the glorious manifestations of\nJehovah recorded in the Word of God are the manifestations of \"the\nLord of Glory,\" who created all things that are in heaven, and that\nare in earth, visible and invisible, who is before all things and by\nwhom all things consist. He appeared as the God of Glory to Abraham\n(Acts vii:1); Isaac and Jacob were face to face with Him. Moses\nbeheld His Glory. He saw His Glory on the mountain. The Lord of\nGlory descended in the cloud and stood with him there (Exod.\nxxxiv:5). How often the Glory of the Lord appeared in the midst of\nIsrael. And what more could we say of Joshua, David, Daniel,\nEzekiel, who all beheld His Glory and stood in the presence of that\nLord of Glory.\n\nIn the fulness of time He appeared on earth \"God manifested in the\nflesh.\" Though He made of Himself no reputation and left His\nunspeakable Glory behind, yet He was the Lord of Glory, and as such\nHe manifested His Glory. In incarnation in His holy, spotless life\nHe revealed His moral Glory; what perfection and loveliness we find\nhere! We have the testimony of His own \"We beheld His Glory, the\nGlory as of the only begotten of the Father\" (John i:14). \"They saw\nHis Glory\" (Luke ix:32) when they were with Him in the holy\nmountain. They heard, they saw with their eyes, they looked upon,\ntheir hands handled the Word of life, the life that was manifested\n(1 John i:1-2). In His mighty miracles the Lord of Glory manifested\nHis Glory, for it is written \"this beginning of miracles did Jesus\nin Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His Glory\" (John i:11).\n\nAnd this Lord of Glory died. The focus of His Glory is the cross. He\nwas obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He gave Himself for\nus. Without following here all the precious truths connected with\nthat which is the foundation of our salvation and our hope, that the\nLord of Glory, Christ died for our sins, we remember that God\n\"raised Him up from the dead and _gave Him Glory_\" (1 Pet. i:21). He\nwas \"received up into Glory\" (1 Tim. iii:16). \"Ought not Christ to\nhave suffered these things and to enter into _His Glory_\" (Luke\nxxiv:26). The risen Lord of Glory said: \"I ascend unto my Father and\nyour Father; to my God and your God.\" He is now in the presence of\nGod, the Man in Glory, seated in the highest place of the heaven of\nheavens \"at the right hand of the Majesty on high.\" He is there \"far\nabove all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and\nevery name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that\nwhich is to come\" (Eph. i:21). He is highly exalted, the heir of all\nthings. In that Glory He was beheld by human, mortal eyes. Stephen\nbeing full of the Holy Spirit \"looked up steadfastly into heaven and\nsaw the _Glory of God_, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God\"\n(Acts vii:55). This was the dying testimony of the first Christian\nmartyr. Saul of Tarsus saw this Glory; he \"could not see for the\nGlory of that light\" (Acts xxii:11). John beheld Him and fell at His\nfeet as dead. And we see Him with the eye of faith. \"But we see\nJesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering\nof death _crowned with Glory and Honor_\" (Heb. ii:9).\n\nBut this is not all. The unseen Glory of the Lord and the unseen\nLord of Glory will some day be visible, not to a few, but to the\nwhole universe. He will come in the Glory of His Father and the holy\nangels with Him (Matt. xvi:27). The Lord of Glory will be \"revealed\nfrom heaven with His mighty angels\" (2 Thess. i:7). He will come in\npower and Glory, come in His own Glory (Luke ix:26) and sit on the\nthrone of His Glory (Matt. xxv:31). His Glory then will cover the\nheavens (Hab. iii:3) and \"the earth will be filled with the\nknowledge of the Glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea\"\n(Hab. ii:14). The heavens cannot be silent forever and He who now is\nthe object of the faith of believers, and the One whom the world has\nrejected, will come forth in all His Majesty and Glory and every eye\nshall see Him. Then every knee must bow at the name of Jesus and\nevery tongue confess Him as Lord. In that manifestation of the Lord\nof Glory and the Glory of the Lord we His redeemed will be\nmanifested in Glory. He will then be glorified in His saints and\nadmired in all them that believed (2 Thess. i:10). He will bring His\nmany sons to Glory (Heb. ii:10). We are \"partakers of the Glory that\nshall be revealed\" (1 Pet. v:1). The God of all Grace hath indeed\ncalled us unto His eternal Glory by Jesus Christ. \"And when the\nchief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of Glory that\nfadeth not away\" (1 Pet. v:4). \"But rejoice inasmuch as ye are\npartakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His Glory shall be\nrevealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy\" (1 Pet. iv:13).\n\nBut ere this visible Glory is manifested over the earth and on the\nearth and He comes forth as the King of kings and Lord of lords His\nown will be gathered unto Him and be caught up in clouds to meet Him\nin the air. Then we shall see Him as He is and be like Him. The\nGlory which the Father has given Him as the head of the body will be\nbestowed upon the whole body; for thus He prayed \"the Glory, which\nthou hast given me I have given to them\" (John xvii:22). And in the\nFather's house where He is, in the Holy of Holies we shall behold\nHis Glory. We shall be changed into the same image \"that He might be\nthe first born among many brethren\" (Rom. viii:29).\n\nAnd now, dear reader, joint heir with the Lord of Glory, called by\nGod unto the fellowship of His Son, in meditating on these wonderful\nfacts given to us by revelation, does not your heart burn within\nyou? What a blessing, what a place, what a future is ours linked\nwith the Lord of Glory, one with Him! What a stupendous thought that\nHe came from Glory to die for us so that He might have us with Him\nin Glory!\n\nAnd these blessed truths concerning the Lord of Glory and the Glory\nof the Lord we need to hold ever before our hearts in these dreary\ndays when darkest night is fast approaching. To walk worthy of the\nLord, to be faithful to the Lord, to render true service, to be more\nlike Him and show forth His excellencies, we but need one thing, to\nknow Him better and to behold the Glory of the Lord. It is written\n\"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the\nLord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as\nby the Spirit of the Lord.\" Guided by the Spirit we can look on the\nLord of Glory and His Glory, mirrored in all parts of the Word of\nGod. And then as we look on this wonderful person and His relation\nto us and ours to Him, as we behold His glory both moral and\nliteral, in humiliation and exaltation, past, present and future, we\nare changed into the same image. Our path will be from Glory to\nGlory! And some day there will come that supreme moment when we\nshall be _suddenly_ changed \"in a moment, the twinkling of an eye.\"\nOh child of God see your need! It is Christ, the Lord of Glory set\nbefore your heart; all worldly mindedness, all insincerity, all\ndiscouragement, all unbelief, all unfaithfulness must flee when we\nfollow on to know the Lord and daily behold \"as in a glass the Glory\nof the Lord.\"\n\n\"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present\nyou faultless _before the presence of His Glory_ with exceeding joy,\nto the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and\npower, both now and ever.  Amen.\"\n\n\n\nJehovah. The \"I Am.\"\n\n\nWHEN Moses in the desert beheld the burning bush God answered his\nquestion by the revelation of His name as the \"I Am.\" \"And God said\nunto Moses, I am, that I am: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto\nthe children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you\" (Exod. iii:14).\nHe who spake thus out of the bush to Moses was the same who in the\nfullness of time appeared upon the earth in the form of man. Our\nLord Jesus Christ is no less person, than the I AM. If we turn to\nthe fourth Gospel in which the Holy Spirit pictures Him as the Son\nof God, one with the Father, we find His glorious title there as the\nI AM. In the eighth chapter of that blessed Gospel we read that He\nsaid to the Jews, \"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham\nwas, I am\" (v:58). And the Jews took stones to cast them upon Him.\nIn the fifth chapter we read that they wanted to kill Him, not only\nbecause He had violated the Sabbath, but also said that God was His\nFather, making Himself equal with God (v:18). They wanted to stone\nHim because in saying that word \"Before Abraham was, I am\" He had\nclaimed that holy name for Himself, which was revealed to Moses. The\nJews then, as the orthodox Jews do still, reverenced that name to\nsuch a degree that they did not even pronounce it, but substituted\nin its place the word \"Adonai.\" Little did they realize that the\nsame \"I am\" who spoke to Moses out of the bush, saying, \"I am;\" who\ndescended before Moses later in a cloud and proclaimed the name of\nthe Lord (Exod. xxxiv) was standing in their midst in the form of\nman. And this is not the only time He used this word. We find it in\nthe xviii chapter of John. When the band and officers of the chief\npriests and Pharisees came with lanterns, torches and weapons, Jesus\nstepped majestically into their presence with the calm question:\n\"Whom seek ye?\" When they had stated that they were seeking Jesus\nthe Nazarene He answered them with one word \"I AM.\" What happened?\nThey went backward and fell to the ground. What a spectacle that\nmust have been. The dark night, a company of people, all on the same\nsatanic errand, with their lanterns, torches and different kinds of\nweapons. And then the object of their hatred steps before them and\nutters one word and they fall helpless to the ground. What warning\nit should have been to them. Once more He asks the question; again\nHe answers with the \"I am\" and with the understanding that His own\nshould be free, He allows Himself to be bound.\n\nHe likewise called Himself \"I am\" in talking with the Samaritan\nwoman. In John iv:26 we read, \"Jesus saith unto her, I that speak\nunto thee am he.\" This does, however, not express the original. This\nreads as follows: \"I AM that speaks to thee.\" After this mighty word\nhad come from His lips the woman had nothing more to say, but left\nher waterpot and went her way back to the city. The I AM had spoken\nto her. In chapters vi:20 and viii:28 we find Him using the same \"I\nam\" again. In the former passage \"It is I\" should read \"I am.\"\n\nBesides these passages in which He speaks of Himself as the\nself-existing Jehovah, the great \"I am,\" He saith seven times in this\nGospel what He is to His own. I am the Bread of life (chapter\nvi:35.) I am the Light of the world (chapter ix:5). I am the Door\n(chapter x:7). I am the Good Shepherd (chapter x:11). I am the\nResurrection and the Life (chapter xi:25). I am the Way, the Truth\nand the Life (chapter xvi:6); and I am the true Vine (chapter xv:1).\nBut this does not exhaust at all what He is and will be now and\nforever to those who belong to Him. In the Old Testament there are\nseven great names of the \"I AM\" which are deep and significant. In\nthem we can trace His rich and wonderful Grace. _Jehovah.--Jireh_\n--The Lord provides. The lamb provided (Genesis xxii). _Jehovah\nRophecah_--I am the Lord that healeth thee (Exodus xv). _Jehovah\n--Nissi_--The Lord is my banner, He giveth the Victory (Exod. xvii).\n_Jehovah shalom_, the Lord is Peace. He is our Peace (Judges vi).\n_Jehovah Roi_--The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm\nxxiii). _Jehovah-Tsidkenu_, the Lord is our righteousness (Jeremiah\nxxiii). _Jehovah shammah_, the Lord is there (Ezek. xlviii).\n\nBut this does not exhaust what He is. I AM--what? Anything and\neverything what we need in time and eternity.\n\n   \"When God would teach mankind His name\n   He called Himself the great, I AM,\n   And leaves a blank--believers may\n   Supply those things for which they pray.\"\n\nHappy indeed are we, beloved reader, if we know Him, who died for us\nas the I AM, if we learn more and more to trust Him as the all\nsufficient One and know that the I AM will supply all our need. In\nthese days in which the person of Christ is so much belittled,\nattacked; He as the Holy One, the great Jehovah rejected, not by the\noutside world alone, but by those who call themselves after His own\nblessed name, let us have for an answer to all these attacks of the\nenemy a closer walk with Him, a more intimate fellowship with the I\nAM; a better acquaintance with our Jehovah-Jesus, our gracious Lord.\nOh what a union is ours, One with Him the I AM, what a happy,\nglorious lot.  Hallelujah.\n\nI am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,\nwhich is, and which was, and which is to come (Rev. ii:8). I am the\nbright and morning star (Rev. xxii: 16). What, oh what will He be\nfor His own in all eternity!\n\n\n\nThat Worthy Name.\n\n\nJames ii:7.\n\n\nIN the second chapter of the Epistle of James the Holy Spirit speaks\nof our ever blessed Lord as \"that worthy Name.\" Precious Word!\nprecious to every heart that knows Him and delights to exalt His\nglorious and worthy Name. His Name is \"far above every Name that is\nnamed, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.\"\n(Ephes. i:21.) It is \"as ointment poured forth\" (Song of Sol. i:3);\nyea, His Name alone is excellent (Psalm cxlviii:13). But according\nto His worth that blessed Name is far from being fully known and\nuttered by the Saints of God. \"Thou art worthy\" and \"Worthy is the\nLamb\" shall some day burst from the glorified lips of redeemed\nsinners, brought home to be with Him. In that blessed day when at\nlast we see Him face to face, forever with the Lord, we shall begin\nto learn the full worth and glory of that Name, the Name of the Lord\nJesus Christ. In a feeble way here below we get glimpses of His\nprecious, worthy Name, of His beauty and loveliness, and then only\nthrough the power of the Holy Spirit. The aim of the Spirit of God\ndwelling in our hearts will always be to tell us more of Himself.\nLike Abraham's servant who had so much to say to the elect bride\nabout Isaac, so the Holy Spirit ever delights to show us more of\nChrist, the Christ of God. Oh! how He is eager to tell us more of\nHis worth, of His glory, of His grace and of all He is and all He\nhas. How it grieves Him when our hearts do not respond to the great\nmessage He has for us and when instead we turn to something else to\ngive us joy and comfort. Only Christ can give joy and comfort, peace\nand rest to the hearts of those who are His. The days are evil and\nthe time is short. Is your heart increasingly attracted to that\nworthy Name? Do you have a greater burning desire in your heart for\nHimself? Does He, that worthy Name, become more and more day by day\nthe absorbing object of your heart and life? Do you often weep over\nyour coldheartedness, your lack of real devotion to Him and\ncommunion with your Lord? Do you appreciate Him more than ever\nbefore? Is the Apostle's longing cry \"that I might know Him\" coming\nalso from your heart? Dear reader, these are searching questions. A\nbetter knowledge of our blessed Lord, a deeper acquaintance with\nthat worthy Name and greater devotion to Him, is the only true\nspiritual progress which counts. If you live but little in the\nreality of all this you lack that joy and rest which is true\nChristian happiness and the Spirit is grieved. Oh let Him unfold to\nyour heart that worthy name and show you from His Word, His\nwonderful person, then His power will attract your heart more and\nmore. This is what all God's people need. \"That worthy Name,\" the\nLord in all His blessed fulness and glorious reality is what we\nneed.\n\nAnd what the written Word has to tell us of \"that worthy Name\"! Oh,\nthe titles, the attributes, the names, the glories, the beauties of\nHimself. And we have discovered but so few of these blessed things.\nPerhaps a few hundred of the descriptions of that worthy Name are\nknown to God's Saints; but there are hundreds, still hidden, we have\nnever touched. Yes, God's Spirit is ever willing to make them known\nto our hearts.\n\nJust for a few moments think of some of the familiar titles and\nnames of that Name which is above every other name. How these titles\nof our blessed Lord, what He is and what we have in Him should fill\nour hearts with praise and our lips with outbursts of praise, lift\nus above present day conditions and give us courage and boldness.\n\"That worthy Name\"; who is He?\n\nThe Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, the living God, the\neternal Life; Emmanuel, the God of Glory, the Holy One; Jehovah, the\neverlasting God, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord of Peace, the\nLord our righteousness, the Upholder of all things, the Creator, the\nAlpha and Omega, the express image of God. He is the Word, the Word\nof God, the Word of Life, the Wisdom of God, the Angel of the Lord,\nthe Mediator of the better covenant. The good Shepherd, the great\nShepherd, the chief Shepherd, the Door, the Way, the Root and\noffspring of David, the Branch of Righteousness, the Rose of Sharon,\nthe Lily of the valley, the true Vine, the Corn of Wheat, the Bread\nof God, the true Bread from heaven. He is also the Light of the\nworld, the Day dawn, the Star out of Jacob, Sun and Shield, the\nBright and Morningstar, the Sun of Righteousness. Thus we read of\nthat worthy Name, that He is, the Great High-priest, the Daysman,\nthe Advocate, Intercessor, Surety, Mercy Seat, the Forerunner, the\nRock of Salvation, the Refuge, the Tower, a strong Tower, the Rock\nof Ages, the Hope of Glory, the Hope of His people, a living Stone.\nAnd what else? the Gift of God, the Beloved, the Fountain of Life,\nShiloh, He is our Peace, our Redeemer, He is precious, the Amen, the\nJust Lord, the Bridegroom, the Firstborn from the Dead, Head over\nall, Head of all principality and power, Heir of all things. He is\nCaptain of the Lord's Host, Captain of their salvation, Chiefest\namong Ten Thousand, the Leader, the Counsellor, the Lion of the\ntribe of Judah, the Governor, Prince of Peace, the Prince of Life,\nthe Prince of the Kings of the earth, the Judge, the King, the King\nof Israel, King of Saints, King of Glory, King over all the earth,\nKing in His Beauty, King of Kings and Lord of lords.\n\nAll these names and attributes of that worthy Name are familiar.\nWhat dignity, what power, what grace and blessing for us for whom He\ndied and shed His precious blood they express. Who can fathom these\nnames? Who can tell out His worth? And hundreds more could be added,\nand many, many more, which are still undiscovered in the Word of\nGod. What a Lord He is! We worship and adore Thee, Thou worthy One.\nDraw us O Lord and we will run after Thee. What a joy and delight it\nought to be to follow Him, to exalt Him, to be devoted to such a\nOne! Oh! our failures! And still He carries us in kindness and\npatience. And He also has a Name, which expresses the fulness of His\nwork and glory. No one knows what _that_ is. \"He had a name written,\nthat no man knew, but He Himself\" (Rev. xix:12). That unknown Name\nmay never be made known.\n\nBut oh! the blessedness which is before us His redeemed people. Of\nus it is written \"They shall see _His face_\": That blessed, blessed\nface of that worthy Name, we shall behold at last. We shall see His\nface! Oh the rapture which fills the heart in the anticipation of\nthat soon coming event. \"And His Name shall be on their foreheads\"\n(Rev. xxii:4). We shall be like Him, we shall be a perfect\nreflection of Himself.\n\n\n\nThe Doctrine of Christ.\n\n\n2 John 9-11.\n\n\n\"WHOSOEVER transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,\nhath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath\nboth the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring\nnot this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him\nGod speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil\ndeeds\" (2 John 9-11). What then is the doctrine of Christ? It is the\nrevealed truth concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that\nHe is the Son of God, whom the Father sent into the world. \"God so\nloved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever\nbelieveth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\" This\nis the doctrine of Christ. Anyone who does not hold the doctrine of\nChrist that He is absolutely God, one with the Father come into the\nworld, hath not God. He is without God and hope in the world. He is\nan Anti-christ. \"Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is\ncome in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not\nthat Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is\nthat spirit of Anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should\ncome; and even now already is it in the world\" (1 John iv:2-3). Such\na denier of the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is no christian at\nall and all fellowship even to the greeting must be denied to him.\nThis seems severe and intolerant. But it is not if we consider what\nthe denial of the Person of our holy and blessed Lord means. God\ngrant unto us, who hold the doctrine of Christ, a divine jealousy\nfor His honor and glory, manifested by separation from all who in\nany way deny the doctrine upon which all Christianity rests.\n\nBut how blessed to faith to see in the first Epistle of John the\ndoctrine of Christ revealed and the blessings and comforts brought\nforth, which are for those who abide in this doctrine. In the Gospel\nof John the beloved disciple writes by the Holy Spirit about the Son\nof God, how He came from the Father and was in the world and how He\nleft the world to go back to the Father. The Son of God is also the\ntheme of the Holy Spirit in the first Epistle of John. \"Our\nfellowship is with the Father, and with His _Son_ Jesus Christ\"\n(i:3). This fellowship means that we share the Father's thoughts\nabout His Son and to enjoy with the Son His own blessed and eternal\nrelationship with the Father. In the measure our faith enters into\nthe doctrine of Christ in that measure we shall have deeper\nfellowship with the Father and His Son. Is your cry, dear reader,\nfor more reality in this fellowship? There is one way only which\nleads to this. It is an increase in the knowledge of the Son of God\nand as you abide there, you _have_ the Father and the Son.\n\nAnd now we shall call to our remembrance other passages in the first\nEpistle of John in which our blessed Lord as the Son of God is\nmentioned. They are sweet and precious to faith and if read in the\nSpirit they will bring the joy, the blessing, the peace and the\ncomfort of the doctrine of Christ to our hearts.\n\n\"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin\" (i:7).\nThat precious blood, His own blood, has cleansed us once and for\nall. \"For this purpose the _Son of God_ was manifested that He might\ndestroy the works of the devil\" (iii:8). \"And this is his\ncommandment, that we should believe on the name of His _Son_ Jesus\nChrist and love one another as He gave us commandment. And he that\nkeepeth His commandments (which are: believing on Him and loving one\nanother) dwelleth in Him and He in him. And hereby we know that He\nabideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us\" (iii:23-24).\n\"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God\nsent His _only begotten Son_ into the world that we might live\nthrough Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He\nloved us, and sent _His Son_ into the world to be the propitiation\nfor our sins.\" \"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love\none another\" (iv:9-11). \"And we have seen and do testify that the\nFather sent _the Son_ to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever\nshall confess that Jesus is _the Son of God_, God dwelleth in him\nand he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath\nto us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God\nand God in him\" (iv:14-16). \"Who is he that overcometh the world,\nbut he that believeth that Jesus is _the Son of God?_\" (v:5) \"If we\nreceive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this\nis the witness of God which He hath testified of His _Son_. He that\nbelieveth on the _Son of God_ hath the witness in himself; he that\nbelieveth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the\nrecord that God gave to _His Son_. And this is the record that God\nhath given to us eternal life, and this life is _in His Son_. He\nthat hath _the Son_ hath life; he that hath not the _Son of God_\nhath not life\" (v:9-12). \"These things have I written unto you that\nbelieve on the name of _the Son of God_, that ye may know that ye\nhave eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of _the Son\nof God_. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we\nask anything according to His will, He heareth us\" (v:13-14). \"And\nwe know that the _Son of God_ is come, and hath given us an\nunderstanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him\nthat is true, even in _His Son_ Jesus Christ. This is the _true God_\nand eternal life\" (v:20).\n\nMay our faith lay hold anew of these simple yet deep and precious\nrevelations. They are the doctrine of Christ. Into this we must\nenter constantly and manifest in our lives the fruits of this\ndoctrine, love and righteousness. The increasing rejection of the\ndoctrine of Christ demands the increased appreciation of that\ndoctrine. The more the enemy attacks the Person of Christ, the more\nthe Holy Spirit demands of us, who belong to Christ, that we exalt\nHim. Everything in the present time seems to be aimed at the setting\naside of the doctrine upon which our Hope rests. Higher Criticism,\nthe evil doctrines, which reject the eternal punishment of the\nwicked, the spurious gospels, ethical teachings and every other\nfalse doctrine strikes at the blessed Person of our Lord. The shadow\nof _the_ Anti-christ is cast in our days. Let us heed God's Word.\nLet us be separated from those who deny Christ or we are partakers\nof their evil deeds. The path of the true believer becomes narrower.\nIt must be so. But Christ becomes more precious, more real to our\nsouls.\n\nWhat awful times are coming upon this age according to God's Word!\nWith the rejection of the doctrine of Christ this age sides\ncompletely with Satan and that wonderful being is both blinding his\nvictims and using them for his own sinister purposes. The blindness\nis fearful. It will be worse before long. The rush into complete\napostasy and from there into the delusion with the lying wonders and\non into the darkness forever will come next. Let us praise God for\nthe doctrine of Christ, which is our salvation, and may God give us\nfaith and courage to walk according to that doctrine. What day of\njoy awaits us, when we shall see him as He is and know the depth of\nthe Love of God by being like Him!\n\n\n\nThe Pre-Eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n\nWHAT a blessed theme the Person and Glory of our Lord! How\ninexhaustible and unsearchable! How refreshing to the souls of His\nredeemed people as well as to the heart of our heavenly Father, who,\nloveth the Son! To meditate on Him, to behold the Glory of the Lord\nunder the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God, means\nspiritual growth and spiritual enjoyment. This only can make the\nunseen Person a blessed reality in our daily walk. We pray that all\nour beloved readers are drawn closer to Himself through these brief\nmeditations. Can we truly say the Lord is more precious to our\nhearts and that we are living more in His presence than ever before?\nHas He become the absorbing object of our hearts and lives? Are we\nmore devoted to Him? God grant that this may be the case with all of\nus. It is the great need we have. It is the good part, which Mary,\nresting at His feet, had chosen.\n\nIn the great chapter which begins the Epistle to the Colossians,\nafter that blessed description of the Son of God, stands this word\n\"_that in all things He might have the pre-eminence_\" (Col. i:18).\nBut who can tell out what a pre-eminence, the pre-eminence of the\nLord Jesus Christ is? Some day we shall see Him in all His Glory. He\nHimself will lead us into the Holiest of the third heaven to behold\nthe Glory the Father has given Him (John xvii:24); then we shall\nknow His pre-eminence fully. And yet from Scripture we can learn\neven now the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nIn all eternity the Son of God was the object of Love and Glory.\n\n   \"Son of God the Father's bosom\n   Ever was Thy dwelling place.\"\n\nHe ever subsisted in the form of God. In all creation He has the\npre-eminence. This is made known to us, as man could not discover\nit, by revelation. We accept this in faith. \"Through faith we\nunderstand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that\nthings which are seen were not made of things which do appear\" (Heb.\nx:3). And all which was called into existence was created by Him and\nfor Him. \"For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven,\nand that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be\nthrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were\ncreated by Him and for Him\" (Col. i:16). What a marvellous survey!\nWhat power and glory belongs to the blessed Son of God! \"All things\nwere made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was\nmade.\" \"The world was made by Him\" (John i:3, 10).\n\nHe has the pre-eminence in sustaining His creation. All things\nconsist by Him. He upholds all things by the Word of His power (Heb.\ni:3).\n\nIn the Revelation of God He has the pre-eminence. Both books, the\nbook of Nature and the Book of all books, the written Word of God,\nthe Bible, tell out His Glory. The Bible may be compared to a living\norganism, like the human body. Every book in the Bible has a\nspecific place and service like the members of the body; the life in\nthat marvellous divinely constructed organism of the revelation of\nGod is the Son of God. Apart from Him there is no revelation from\nGod and no manifestation of God. He reveals God throughout the\nBible, in every part, He holds the pre-eminence. Greater still is\nHis pre-eminence in redemption. Redemption would be an eternal\nimpossibility without Him. He came from the Father's bosom to redeem\nus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the\nFather but by Him. He gives eternal life. Furthermore as the first\nborn from the dead He is the head of the body. That body is the\nchurch and every believing sinner is a member in that body. Each is\nunited to Him and possesses His life. This body with its many\nmembers He keeps, nourishes, builds up, sanctifies and ultimately\nglorifies. In all the great and glorious redemptive work He has the\npre-eminence.\n\nAs the glorified Man He is the Heir of God and as such He holds the\npre-eminence in heaven. He has been made so much better than the\nangels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name\nthan they. Far above all the angelic beings, higher than the\narchangel is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man in Glory.\n\nThere is a future pre-eminence for Him. The day of His visible Glory\nand power is approaching. Now He is rejected, then He will be\nenthroned. Upon the holy hill of Zion He will be the King of Glory.\nHis Glory will cover the heavens and His Majesty the earth. He will\nbe King of kings and Lord of lords. He will rule as the only\npotentate and every knee must bow before Him. The song must at last\nrise in heaven and on earth \"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to\nreceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and\nglory and blessing.\" Such is, briefly sketched, the pre-eminence of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, in all things He hath the pre-eminence.\n\nCan we do anything less than to give Him the first place in all\nthings? He is worthy of it. He died for us. He drank the cup of\nwrath in our stead. His own self bare our sins in His own body on\nthe tree. How great has been and still is His love for us, the love,\nwhich passeth knowledge. He is worthy of the first place every\nmoment of our lives. He is worthy to possess all we have and are. We\nare bought with a price, we are not our own. We belong to Him.\n\nWhat unspeakable grace from God the Father, that He has brought us\ninto fellowship with Him to whom He has given the pre-eminence. We\nplease the Father as we delight ourselves in the Son and walk in\nthat blessed fellowship. We must honor Him whom the Father has\nhonored, and as we serve the Lord Jesus Christ and accord Him the\nfirst place, the Father will honor us (John xii:26). Our hearts too\ncan never fully know the blessed peace of God and rest of faith till\nwe give our Lord the first place. Anything less than that will mean\ndishonor to Him. \"Not I--but Christ\" must be the constant cry of\nour hearts. Not I--but Christ in our daily walk; Not I--but Christ\nin our service. Oh! that we might realize our great and holy\ncalling, our wonderful privilege, a privilege which is ours for but\na little while longer to live Him, live for Him, who has in all\nthings the pre-eminence.\n\n   Nothing save Him, in all our ways,\n   Giving the theme for ceaseless praise;\n   Our whole resource along the road,\n   Nothing but Christ--the Christ of God.\n\n\n\n\"Ye are Christ's--Christ is God's.\"\n\n\nONLY a few words, yet how blessedly full of peace and joy! How\nprecious they are to faith! If we, to whom they apply, would\nremember them daily, how happy in Him we would be. In all our ways,\nin good and evil days, yea, every moment the truth contained in\nthese words ought to be real to the true believer. Is not all our\nfailure due to the fact that we live not sufficiently in the\nconsciousness and reality of this wonderful fact, that we belong to\nChrist, that we are one with Him? Before these words in the third\nchapter of First Corinthians we find the statement \"all things are\nyours.\" And after these words it is written \"Christ is God's.\" We\nare Christ's and Christ is God's; all things are ours because Grace\nhas brought us into this marvelous relationship. \"Christ is God's\"\ngives us once more the whole story of God's Love and Grace. As the\nOnly Begotten He ever subsisted in the form of God, the Image of\nGod, one with Him, absolutely God. But He came down, took upon Him\nthe form of a servant, taking His place in the likeness of man. In\nthe form of man He wrought the great work of redemption on the cross\nand now after His resurrection, by which He is proven Son of God and\nHis presence as the glorified Man in the highest heaven, He is the\none in whom and through whom, God the God and Father of our Lord\nJesus Christ gives all blessing. \"Christ is God's,\" then, means what\nwe learn from the following scriptures: \"The Father loveth the Son,\nand hath given all things into His hands\" (John iii:35). \"Whom He\nhath appointed heir of all things\" (Heb. i:2). \"Christ is God's\" is\na word which tells us that He who is the Creator of all things, the\nvisible and the invisible, came in incarnation, redeemed us and is\nnow, the beginning, the first-begotten from the dead and the Head of\nHis Body, which is the Church. This is how God has brought us to\nHimself in the person of His own Son by whom he has redeemed us, in\nwhom He has exalted us and with whom He has given us all things.\n\nTo that wonderful person, Christ, the Christ of God, we belong. We\nare His, who is One with God, by whom and for whom all things were\ncreated. The Son of God for such as we are, became poor, even to the\npoverty of the cross. There He took our place and in His own body He\nbore our sins and died for us. He saw us then the travail of His\nsoul. We can look back to the cross and say, as His Apostle said:\n\"Who love me and gave Himself for me.\" We belong to Him, who has all\npower in heaven and will have all power before long, as King of\nKings and Lord of Lords on earth. We are Christ's, whom God has\nappointed as the second Man, the head of the new creation as Heir of\nall things. We are Christ's, who is the Head of the Body, to which\nwe belong. In Him and with Him we are the Heirs of God. God and\nChrist are inseparable and so are Christ and we who have trusted in\nHim and have His life. All Christ has belongs to us; all Christ is\nwe shall be; where Christ is there we shall be in all eternity.\nReader! Child of God, pause! Does your faith lay hold of this? Do\nyou read it only and enjoy it just for a moment or is this great\nfact of your union with Christ and God becoming daily a greater\nreality in your life? Is it really so that you enter deeper and\ndeeper into that love which passeth knowledge? Oh! that it may be so\nwith the writer and each believer who reads these feeble words on so\ngreat a theme.\n\n\"Ye are Christ's.\" Then we are _not our own_. That is exactly what\nis elsewhere stated in First Corinthians. \"Ye are not your own; we\nare bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in\nyour spirit, which are God's\" (1 Cor. vi:20). Our hearts occupied\nwith Himself, increasingly attracted by the glorious Person of our\nadorable Lord, realising by the power of His Spirit our glory and\ndestiny with the Lord of Glory, we shall act and walk as such, who\nare Christ's. Every step of the way it will resound in our hearts\n\"ye are Christ's.\" In all we do we shall always remember we are\nChrist's. Cares, anxieties, worldly ambitions, all manner of\ntemptations, will fall before the fact grasped in faith \"I am\nChrist's.\"\n\nWe are convinced that _only_ the Person of Christ put before the\nheart of the believer through the Word of God and the power of His\nSpirit can keep the Christian in these awful days of apostasy from\ngoing along with the fearful current of the last days. If Christ and\nour blessing in Him become more real to us we will be beyond the\nreach of the god of this age with his wiles and sinister purposes.\n\nFurthermore the demand of the hour is for us to exalt Christ. How He\nis dishonored is a dread reality. The rejection of Christ was never\nso marked and never so satanic as in these days. God, the God and\nFather of our Lord Jesus Christ expects from us His children that we\nexalt Him in the days of His rejection and thus share His reproach.\nLet us do it!\n\nAnd lastly, if we ever have the Person of Christ before our hearts,\nwe shall walk in obedience to Him as our Lord. Then if we exalt\nChrist and are obedient to Himself we have the fullest assurance\nthat the Holy Spirit will be with us, upon us and fill us. There is\nno need to seek \"the power\" as some express it, nor a baptism of the\nSpirit. He will be with us and in us in the measure as we exalt\nChrist and walk in Him.\n\n   O gracious Lord, when we reflect\n      How apt to turn the eye from Thee,\n   Forget Thee, too, with sad neglect,\n      And listen to the enemy,\n   And yet to find Thee still the same--\n   'Tis this that humbles us with shame.\n\n   Astonished at Thy feet we fall,\n      Thy love exceeds our highest thought,\n   Henceforth be Thou our all in all,\n      Thou who our souls with blood hast bought;\n   May we henceforth more faithful prove,\n   And ne'er forget Thy ceaseless love.\n\n   \"Him will I make that overcomes\n      And stems the advancing flood,\n   A pillar of might, with glory light,\n      In the temple of my God.\n   On him shall the blest Name divine,\n      And my new name be graven;\n   And the City's name, Jerusalem,\n      That cometh down from heaven.\"\n\n\n\nThe Wonderful.\n\n\nIsaiah ix:6.\n\n\nHIS name shall be called \"Wonderful\" (Isaiah ix:6). And long before\nIsaiah had uttered this divine prediction the angel of the Lord had\nannounced his name to be Wonderful. As such He appeared to Manoah.\nAnd Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that\nwhen thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor. And the angel of\nJehovah said unto Him \"why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it\nis Wonderful\" (margin, Judges xiii:17-18). This angel of Jehovah,\nthe Person who appeared repeatedly in Old Testament history is an\nuncreated angel. Of this Being we read that He is the Redeemer, for\nJacob speaks of Him \"the angel which redeemed me from all evil\"\n(Genesis xlviii:15). He is the angel whose voice must be obeyed, who\nhas power to pardon transgressions, in whom the name of God is\n(Exodus xxiii:20-23). He is the angel of His Presence who saved them\n(Isaiah lxiii:9) and Exodus xxxiii:14 must refer to this Being \"My\npresence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest.\" This angel\nof Jehovah speaks in the Book of Judges and declared, \"I made you to\ngo up out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which I sware\nunto your fathers; and I said I will never break my covenant with\nyou\" (Judges ii:1). He appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire out of\nthe midst of the bush and He spoke to Moses as the I am! (Ex. iii.)\nThe same One appeared before Joshua and he worshipped in His\npresence. With Him Jacob wrestled, with Jehovah, the God of hosts\n(Hosea xii:4-6). Malachi iii:1 shows that the Lord Himself is this\nAngel, the Angel of the Covenant, who also visited Abraham in the\nform of Man (Genesis xviii).\n\nAnd after all these manifestations, seven hundred years after Isaiah\nhad announced Him, as the Wonderful, He appeared in human form in\nthe midst of His people. And now we know by divine Revelation in the\ncompleted Word of God that He is wonderful in His Person and in his\nwork; but no mind can fathom, no heart can grasp, no pen can\ndescribe, how wonderful He is.\n\nHe is wonderful if we think of Him as the Only Begotten of the\nFather. \"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,\nand the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All\nthings were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that\nwas made\" (John i:1-3). \"By Him were all things created that are in\nHeaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be\nthrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were\nmade by Him and for Him; and He is before all things and by Him all\nthings consist\" (Col. i:16-17). He is the image of the invisible\nGod, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His\nPerson. How wonderful such a One, who ever was, with no beginning,\nOne with God!\n\nHow wonderful His humiliation. \"Who being in the form of God,\nthought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no\nreputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in\nthe likeness of men, and being in fashion as a man He humbled\nHimself\" (Phil. ii:6-8). \"For verily He took not on Him the nature\nof Angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham\" (Hebrews ii:16).\nWonderful condescension that He who created the angels should be\nmade lower than the angels and lay His Glory by, to appear in the\nform of man on earth.\n\nWonderful is He in His incarnation, \"that holy thing\" as the angel\nannounced Him, truly God and Man. Born of the woman, resting on the\nbosom of the virgin as a little child and yet He is the One who ever\nis in the bosom of the Father.\n\nWonderful that blessed life He lived on earth of which the beloved\ndisciple bears such a beautiful witness. \"That which was from the\nbeginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,\nwhich we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of\nLife. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear\nwitness and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the\nFather, and was manifested unto us\" (1 John i:1-2). Wonderful are\nthe blessed words which came from His lips, wonderful is His moral\nglory, His untiring service, His love, His patience and everything\nwhich the Holy Spirit has been pleased to tell us of His earthly\nlife. The more our hearts contemplate Him the more wonderful He\nappears. But still greater and more wonderful is it that He went to\nthe cross to give His life as a ransom for many, that the Just One\nshould die for the unjust, that He who knew no sin was made sin for\nus and pay the penalty of sins on the cross. He is the Wonderful in\nHis great work on the cross, the depths of which have never been\nfathomed. And what can we say of His wonderful Glory, His wonderful\nPlace, His wonderful Power, His wonderful Grace! How wonderfully He\nhas dealt with us, with each one of us individually. How wonderful\nit is that He knows each of His sheep, that He guides each, provides\nfor, loveth, succors, stands by, restores, never leaves nor forsakes\neach who has trusted in Him and belongs to Him. How wonderful are\nHis ways with us, that He guides with His eyes and that His loving\npower and omnipotent love is on our side. In His coming\nmanifestation He will be wonderful. Wonderful He will be when we\nshall see Him and stand in His presence. What a day it will be when\nwe see Him face to face! Then we shall know all the loveliness and\nwonderfulness of His adorable Person and His wonder ways with us.\nWith what wonderment we shall then behold Him. And when He comes\nwith His Saints, when the Heavens are lit up with untold glory, when\nHe comes to judge, to establish His Kingdom, to speak peace to the\nnations, to restore creation to its right condition, when He reigns\nand all His redeemed ones with Him--Oh how wonderful it all will\nbe!\n\nHe is altogether lovely and he is altogether wonderful. Glory to His\nname! Well has one said: \"He pervades the whole of the New Testament\nwith His presence, so that every doctrine it teaches, every duty it\ndemands, every narrative it records, every comfort it gives, every\nhope it inspires, gathers about His person and ministers to His\nglory.\" So dear does He thus become to the heart of the believer,\nthat Luther may well be excused for exclaiming, 'I had rather be in\nhell with Christ, than in heaven without Him.'\n\n\"We believe in Him as our Saviour, Acts vi:31; confess Him as our\nLord, Rom. x:9; we have redemption through His blood, Eph. i:7; we\nlook to Him as our Leader, Heb. xii:2; we follow Him as our Teacher,\nEph. iv:20, 21; we feed upon Him as our Bread, Jno. vi:48; we go to\nHim in our Thirst, Jno. vi: 37; we enter by Him as our door, Jno.\nx:9; we are in Him as our vine, Jno. xv:5; we find in Him our rest,\nMatt. xi:28; we have in Him our example, Jno. xiii:15; He is our\nrighteousness, 2 Cor. v:21; we are succored by Him in temptation,\nHeb. ii:18; we turn to Him for sympathy, Heb. iv:15; we obtain\nthrough Him our victory, 1 Cor. xv:57; we overcome by Him the world,\n1 Jno. v:5; we have in Him eternal life, 1 Jno. v:11, 12; we gain by\nHim the resurrection, Phil. iii:20, 21; we appear with Him in glory,\nCol. iii:4, we exult in His everlasting love, Rev. i:5, 6.\"\n\nMay the Holy Spirit fill our hearts and eyes with Himself and reveal\nto us through the written Word more of the matchless beauty of the\nwonderful Person of our Saviour and Lord. We honor and adore Thee,\nblessed, blessed Lord, and while Thou art rejected we thy feeble\npeople would know more of Thyself and keep closer at Thy feet. Amen.\n\n   \"We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen\n      Over this little landscape of our life,\n   We would see Jesus, our weak faith to strengthen,\n      For the last weariness, the final strife.\n   We would see Jesus, this is _all_ we're needing;\n      Strength, joy and willingness come with the sight;\n   We would see Jesus, dying, risen, pleading;\n      Then welcome day, and farewell mortal night.\"\n\n\n\nHonour and Glory Unto him.\n\n\nIN Revelation V, that great worship scene, beginning some day in\nheaven and going on into future ages, we read of the Lamb to whom\nhonor and glory are due. He alone is worthy. And every heart who\nknows Him rejoicing in His love, cries out, \"Thou art worthy!\" Yea,\nthe sweetest song for the redeemed soul is the outburst of praise,\nwhich we find on the threshold of His own Revelation. \"Unto Him that\nloveth us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and hath made\nus kings and priests unto God and His Father; _to him_ be glory and\ndominion forever and ever. Amen.\" Soon the great worship John beheld\nprophetically may become reality.\n\nAs long as we His people are here in this present evil age it is\nGod's call to us to honor and glorify His Son. This surely is God\nthe Father's expectation from His children, who are begotten of Him.\nThis is His call to us in the last days of this rapidly closing age.\n\nIt was on the mountain of transfiguration that the Father bore\nwitness to His Son. \"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well\npleased.\" The Father bore not alone this witness, but He vindicated\nthe honor of His Son, whose glory flashed forth on that mountain.\nPeter had spoken; in fact, he was still speaking when the Father's\nvoice was heard. \"Lord, it is good to be here; if Thou wilt let us\nmake here three tabernacles, one for Thee and one for Moses and one\nfor Elias.\" These were Peter's words. At the first glance they\nappear harmless. Indeed, they are generally used in spiritual\napplication of having a good time here. But they have a far\ndifferent meaning. Peter had spoken once more in the impulsiveness\nof the flesh. By putting the Lord of Glory alongside of Moses and\nElias, he had lowered the dignity of Him. The One whom he had but\nrecently confessed as the Christ, the Son of the living God, he now\nput into the same position and place with Moses and Elias. He lost\nsight of the wonderful and glorious person of Christ. When he\nuttered this human suggestion the Shekinah cloud appeared and its\nglorious splendor covered them. Out of that cloud came the Father's\nvoice vindicating the honor of His Son. Who is Moses? Who is Elias?\nSinful men they were, man of failure and weakness. But here is\nanother. This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear Him.\nAnd how that beloved Son is in our day dishonored!\n\nHe was in all eternity the beloved Son. When God created all things,\nfor Him and by Him, He was the delight of God. This is the\nfoundation of our faith. When he spoke of coming into the world, as\nwe read in Hebrews X, to do the Father's will, the Father's love and\ndelight was upon Him. In humiliation beginning there in Bethlehem He\nwas the beloved Son of God. In all He did, every step of the way,\nthe Holy One had above Himself the loving Father. And then He went\nto the cross, putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. In the\nawful suffering on the cross, in the hours of darkness, when as the\nsubstitute of sinners He tasted death, God's holy hand rested upon\nthat beloved One in judgment, so that He uttered that never to be\nforgotten cry \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" And God\nin His mighty power opened the grave and brought Him forth. He\nraised Him from the dead. He was received up in the Glory, exalted\ninto the highest position. He is the heir of all things, the\nupholder of all things, all things consist and exist by Him. God has\ngiven Him the pre-eminence in all things.\n\nAnd this blessed One, the beloved Son of God is denied, He is\nrejected, dishonored and refused. God speaks in Him, by Him, and he\nwho has made known God, in whom redemption for man was procured is\ndishonored. But how is He dishonored and robbed of His Glory? And\nwhere is He dishonored? Not in the world as such so much but in\nChristendom. The harvest of this destructive and evil criticism of\nthe Bible, rejecting the Bible as the inspired Word of God is being\nreaped. After the written Word has been attacked and lowered the\nenemy who stands behind \"Higher Criticism\" in a disguised form has\nthrown off the mask and bluntly strikes at the Person of the beloved\nSon of God. First the devil in the garb of \"reverend criticism\"\ndenied Isaiah vii:14, the promise of the virgin bringing forth a\nson, as having anything to do with Christ, and now the harvest, the\ndenial of the virgin birth of our Lord. It would take many pages to\nmention all how our ever beloved Lord is robbed of His Glory, how\nHis Person is dishonored. This denial of the Person of Christ is the\napostasy. It is the very breath of the personal antichrist, the man\nof sin, which we feel in these last days.\n\nThe Father's voice is not heard in these days as it was heard on the\ntransfiguration mountain. The heavens are silent to all the dishonor\nheaped upon Him, who is in the heaven of heavens. But God the Father\nlooks to His people in whom the Holy Spirit dwells to honor and\nglorify His Son. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to stand as bold\nwitnesses for Himself and to contend earnestly for the faith once\nand for all delivered unto the Saints. The Father expects us that we\nstand up for the honor of His Son. His voice to us is \"_Honor my\nSon!_\"\n\nWe feel deeply impressed with this great call of God to us at the\npresent time of increasing darkness and apostasy. Let each child of\nGod act accordingly. Honor your Lord wherever you are. \"Be thou not\nashamed of the testimony of our Lord\" (2 Tim. i:8). If you cannot\npublicly stand up and honor Christ then honor Him, speak well of\nHim, in the home circle or wherever you are. O child of God, walk\nclose to Him! Sit more at His feet! Cast yourself more upon Him! Let\nHim be your all in all! And as He is the sole object of your heart\nyou will honor Him in the day when He is rejected.\n\nBut this will mean something else. It means separation. God's call\nto His people is to stand aloft from all which dishonors His Son.\nThis means much in our days. How can we honor the Beloved One if we\nhave fellowship with that which dishonors Him? No child of God\nshould go on with any institution, school or church where the\nwritten Word is set aside or belittled. The second Epistle of\nTimothy, which has special reference to our times is very clear on\nthis separation. No one needs to wait for a special call from God to\nact and separate from the corruption of Christendom. It is all given\nbefore hand by the Holy Spirit. \"From such turn away\" (2 Tim.\niii:5). And those from whom God commands us to separate are persons\nwho have the form of godliness and deny the power thereof. Again it\nis written: \"But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold\nand of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and\nsome to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he\nshall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's\nuse, prepared unto every good work\" (2 Tim. ii:20-21). Hear the Word\nof the Lord! Hear His call! Be faithful to Him! Keep His Word and do\nnot deny His Name! Honor and glorify Him who is our Lord whom we\nsoon shall see face to face.\n\n\n\nChrist's Resurrection Song.\n\n\nWHEN the blessed Lord appeared in the midst of His disciples and\nthey beheld the risen One in His glorified body of flesh and bones\nand He ate before them, He told them that all things which were\nwritten in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets and _in the Psalms_\nconcerning Him, had to be fulfilled (Luke xxiv:44). While on the way\nto Emmaus He said to the two sorrowing and perplexed disciples\n\"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into\nHis glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded\nunto them all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.\" It\nseems to us He must have then spoken much of the Psalms, these\nwonderful prayers and songs of praise, with which His Jewish\ndisciples were so familiar. In the Psalms the richest prophecies\nconcerning Christ are found. There we behold Him in His divine\nperfections as well as in His true humanity; in His suffering and in\nHis glory; in His rejection and in His exaltation. Oh that we, the\nLord's people, might read the Psalms more, so that the Holy Spirit\ncan reveal Christ more to our hearts. In many unexpected places we\ncan find Him in these songs. There is for instance the xxxvii Psalm,\nso much enjoyed by the Saints of God. It contains such precious\nexhortations to faith, to be patient and to hope. But in taking the\ncomfort of these blessed exhortations and their accompanying\npromises, we are apt to overlook some verses which tell us of our\nLord. Verses 30-33 apply to Him. \"The mouth of the righteous\nspeaketh wisdom and His tongue talketh of judgment. The law of His\nGod is in His heart; none of His steps shall slide. The wicked\nwatcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay Him. Jehovah will not\nleave Him in his hand, nor condemn Him when He is judged.\" Our Lord\nis this righteous One. Words of wisdom and judgment, mercy and truth\nflowed from His lips while righteousness in heart and life, and\nperfect obedience were manifested in Him. Then His death and\ndeliverance are indicated in these words. However, care must be\ntaken not to apply all the experiences of the Psalms to Christ. We\nsaw recently an exposition of Psalm xxxviii:7. The words \"For my\nloins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness\nin my flesh\" were applied to Christ. This is a very serious mistake.\nHe knew no sin and therefore no loathsome disease could fill His\nloins. Such exposition is evil.\n\nMany joyous expressions of praise to God are found in the Psalms\nwhich properly belong first to Him, who is the leader of the praises\nof His people (Heb. ii:12). One of these sweet outbursts of praise\nis contained in the opening verses of the xl Psalm. The first three\nverses may be called \"the resurrection song of Christ\":\n\n   \"I waited patiently for the Lord,\n   And He inclined unto me\n   And heard my cry.\n   He brought me up also\n   Out of an horrible pit,\n   Out of the miry clay;\n   And set my feet upon a rock,\n   Established my goings.\n   And He has put a new song in my mouth;\n   Praise unto our God;\n   Many shall see it and fear,\n   And shall trust in the Lord.\"\n\nIt is the experience of our Saviour, which must here first of all be\nconsidered. Patiently He had waited for Jehovah. Himself Jehovah He\nhad taken the place of dependence under God His Father and patiently\nHe endured. He was obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He\nendured the cross, despising the shame. He cried to God. \"Who in the\ndays of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications\nwith strong crying and fears unto Him that was able to save Him from\ndeath, and _was heard_ in that he feared; though He were Son, yet\nlearned He obedience by the things which He suffered\" (Heb. v:7-8).\nThe place of death is given in this Psalm: \"the horrible pit and the\nmiry clay.\" Who can describe all what is meant by these words!\n\"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we\ndid esteem Him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. But He was\nwounded for our transgressions, the chastisement of our peace was\nupon Him; and with His stripes we are healed\" (Isa. liii:45). He\nwent into the horrible pit, or as it reads literally, the pit of\ndestruction, the place which belongs to fallen man by nature, so\nthat we might be taken out of it. He went into the jaws of death and\nthere the billows and waves, yea all the billows and waves of the\njudgment of the holy God passed over Him. In another Psalm the Holy\nSpirit describes His agony. (Ps. lxix). There we read His cry \"Save\nme, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep\nmire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where\nthe floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried;\nmine eyes fail while I wait for my God.\" And deeper He went for our\nsakes. The miry clay has a special meaning. Any one who sinks into a\npit filled with miry clay cannot help himself. All his struggling\ndoes not help; the more he labors the deeper he sinks. One who is in\nthe miry clay cannot save himself. And does this not remind us of\nthe Lord and of what was said of Him \"He saved others, Himself He\ncannot save.\" He was in the miry clay. He might have saved Himself\nbut He would not. His mighty love it was, that love which passeth\nknowledge, which brought Him from Heaven's Glory down to the\nhorrible pit, the miry clay.\n\nBut the sufferings of our adorable Lord are not so much before us in\nthis Psalm as the fact of His resurrection. His cry was heard. The\nprayers and supplications with strong crying and tears were\nanswered; His resurrection from the dead was God's blessed answer.\nWhile in other Scriptures it is stated that Christ Himself arose,\nhere His resurrection is seen as an act of God. \"He brought me up.\"\nThis act of God bears witness to the completeness and perfection of\nthe accomplished salvation. \"We believe in Him who raised up Jesus\nour Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offences and was\nraised again for our justification\" (Rom. iv:24-25). But we read\nalso that His feet were set upon a rock. \"And set my feet upon a\nrock.\" He is the first born from the dead. Sin and death are\nabolished by His mighty work. \"Knowing that Christ being raised from\nthe dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in\nthat He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He\nliveth unto God\" (Rom. vi:9-10). Upon that rock the feet of every\nbelieving sinner securely rest.\n\nBut His ascension is likewise mentioned in this resurrection song.\n\"And established my goings.\" He \"whose goings forth have been from\nold, from everlasting\" (Micah v:2) and who came from everlasting\nglory to walk in obedience to the cross and the grave has gone back\ninto heaven. He was received up into glory; He ascended on high and\nled captivity captive.\n\nAnd the mighty victor sings now a _new song_. It is the triumphant\nsong of redemption, to the praise of God. On account of Him, what He\nhas accomplished in His death on the cross and Who is raised from\nthe dead and in glory \"many shall see it and fear and shall trust in\nthe Lord.\" But this wonderful resurrection song the Lord sings not\nalone. We, who have trusted in Him and know Him have part in this\nsong. Believing in Him we are taken out, yea forever, from the\nterrible pit and the miry clay. There is no more death and no more\nwrath for us. We are also risen with Him, our feet are planted upon\nthe rock, our goings are established. We belong to the heavenlies\nwhere He is. We sing praises in His name unto our God, His God and\nour God, His Father and our Father, the God and Father of our Lord\nJesus Christ. Oh! that our hearts may enter deeper into this song of\naccomplished redemption \"praise unto our God;\" the loving God who\nspared not His only Begotten.\n\nAnd indeed \"many shall see and fear and trust in the Lord.\" This\nreaches into the future. Israel too will be taken from the place of\nspiritual and national death, and raised to life to join the new\nsong. Nations will see it and fear and trust Jehovah. At last the\ngreat new song of resurrection and the new creation will swell in\nits divinely revealed length and breadth, heighth and depth. Now He\nsings the song, and His co-heirs sing it too in feebleness, yet by\nHis Grace and through His Spirit. Ere long in His presence all the\nRedeemed will praise in Glory with glorified lips. Heavenly beings\nwill utter their praise and in a wider circle down on earth, every\ncreature will join in.\n\n\"And they sung a _new song_ saying, Thou art worthy to take the book\nand to open the seals thereof; for thou was slain, and hast redeemed\nus to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue, and people,\nand nation. And hast made us unto _our_ God, Kings and priests, and\nwe shall reign over the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice\nof many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and\nthe elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten\nthousand, and thousands of thousands. Saying with a loud voice,\nWorthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and\nwisdom, and strength and honor, and glory and blessing. And every\ncreature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth,\nand such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I\nsaying, blessing, and honor, and glory and power, be unto Him that\nsitteth on the throne, and unto the lamb forever and ever\" (Revel.\nv:9-13). That song will never end. Oh may we learn to sing it now,\nand in His Name sing praises unto our God.\n\nMay we follow the great leader of Praise, Him who is anointed with\nthe oil of gladness above His fellows. May the path He followed down\nhere become more and more ours. May we serve, be obedient, give up,\nwait patiently for the Lord, after His own pattern, suffer with Him,\nbe rejected with Him, bear His reproach and through it all rejoice\nin Him and sing \"the new song.\" How happy we ought to be as linked\nwith Him, the blessed Christ of God. And as we walk in His\nfellowship the heart longs to see Him as He is. Even so; come Lord\nJesus.\n\n\n\nThe Glory Song.\n\n\nRev. i:5-6.\n\n\n\"UNTO Him who loveth us and washed us from our sins in His own blood\nand hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: To Him\nbe glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen\" (Rev. i:5-6). This\ngreat outburst of praise may well be called \"the Glory Song.\" It\nglorifies the Lord Jesus Christ; it reveals also the Glory of those\nHe has redeemed and will be heard throughout eternity. There will\nnever be a moment in the countless ages of eternity when this Glory\nsong will be hushed or forgotten. We begin to sing it here on earth.\nThe more we know the Christ of God and His great love for us, the\nmore we delight to praise and to worship Him. Such worship of the\nheart in the power of the Spirit is the atmosphere of heaven upon\nearth. And some day we shall see Him whom we worship and adore in\nfaith. In that glorious moment, when we shall see Him as He is we\nshall realize for the first time the length and breadth, the heighth\nand depth of His love and know the Glory to which He has brought us.\nThen we and all the redeemed will sing this song in a better and\nmore perfect way than we have ever done here. \"Thou art worthy * * *\nfor Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of\nevery kindred, and tongue, and people and nation; and hast made us\nunto our God kings and priests and we shall reign over the earth\"\n(Rev. v:9, 10).\n\nThis blessed Word of Praise is placed by the Holy Spirit in the\nforeground of the book which bears the name, the Revelation, or,\nUnveiling of Jesus Christ. In it is found the great unveiling of the\nfuture, the great coming tribulation and judgment period through\nwhich the earth must pass, events which precede the glorious\nmanifestation of the Lord. But in this last great Bible book there\nis also a complete unveiling of the Person, the Glory and the\ndignity of Him to whom all judgment is committed. Not alone are in\nthis book many of the prophecies, given of old by the holy men of\nGod, rehearsed, but all He is, His Name, His power, His Glory, His\nwork, and many of his titles are restated. Think of what He is\ncalled and how He is described in this book. We find Him called the\nSon of God, the Son of Man, the Almighty, the Lord, the Alpha, the\nOmega, the First, the Last, the Beginning of the Creation of God,\nthe Amen, the faithful Witness, the First begotten from the dead,\nthe Word of God, the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the\nmighty Angel, He that liveth, He that was dead, He that is alive\nevermore, the Root and Offspring of David, the bright and Morning\nstar, the Prince of the kings of the earth, the King of kings, the\nLord of lords. What an array of titles. On earth great ones, kings\nand princes, have numerous titles. They concern only earthly\nglories; they are but for a moment. But His titles concern the earth\nand the heavens. They belong to Him because He is God, while others\nare acquired through His great work of redemption. His Glory and His\ndignity are indescribable. One who reads the Book of Revelation and\nreads it again will be increasingly impressed with the Glory of Him,\nwhom John beheld in all His Majesty.\n\nBefore the Spirit of God records this Glory song, the utterance of\npraise to be used and to be enjoyed by redeemed sinners, He mentions\nthree titles of our Lord. The faithful Witness; the First begotten\nfrom the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. These three\ntitles take in His earthly life, His redemption work and His future\nGlory. On earth He was the faithful witness. He glorified the\nFather. He had come into the world to bear witness unto the truth.\nHe was faithful and nothing marred His witness. He came as the Only\nbegotten of the Father and the faithful witness, the Son of God went\nto the cross to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The open\nand empty tomb is the witness that it was perfectly and righteously\naccomplished. Now He is the First begotten from the dead as well as\nthe First fruits. His death and His resurrection are, therefore, in\nview in this second title. His glorious future is beheld in the\nthird title, the Prince of the kings of the earth. The kingdoms of\nthe earth belong to Him; He has a perfect right and title to the\nearth and its government. Now still the god of this age rules, but\nere long He comes \"whose right it is\" and claims His inheritance. In\nthese three wonderful titles we behold all the Son of God as Son of\nMan has accomplished in His mighty work. He lived the path of faith\nand obedience on earth, as the faithful witness. He has put away sin\nand conquered death and the grave as well as him who has the power\nof death, that is the devil. In the future He will be King of kings\nand Lord of lords.\n\nAnd then follows this outburst of Praise. The Holy Spirit, who is\nhere on earth to glorify Him, breaks forth at once into singing and\ndirects the heart to worship Him. Beloved readers if the Holy Spirit\nis ungrieved in us He will lead our hearts into such praise and\nadoration of the Lord; nothing grieves the Holy Spirit more than\nwhen a believer does not appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ and\nmanifest this appreciation by praise and worship.\n\nThree things are stated in this blessed doxology:\n\n_He loved us._\n\n_He washed us._\n\n_He hath made us._\n\nThese three things correspond to the three titles which precede this\ndoxology. Love it was, which brought Him down from the Glory to walk\nupon this earth in humiliation, the faithful witness, and that love\nknew and saw the cross. Love led Him there to die for such as we\nare. What love it was! Who can ever declare it!\n\nThe true translation is not \"who loved us,\" but \"who _loveth_ us.\"\nHis love is an abiding love. He does nothing but love those who\nbelong to Him, who have trusted Him and are the Beloved of God. Our\nsins, our weaknesses, our infirmities and failures can never affect\nor diminish His love. Never, oh child of God, doubt His abiding\nlove. Yea, whatever our circumstances are, in trials, in the hard\nplaces, in troubles, burdened with cares and full of anxiety, in all\nour failures we can look up and say, \"He loveth me.\" It is an ever\npresent and eternal love. Never, oh child of God, measure that love\nby your changing feeling or by your experience. And this love He\nmanifested by dying for us. He has washed us from our sins in His\nown blood. To this His title as \"The First begotten from the dead\"\nrefers. \"Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree,\nthat we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by\nwhose stripes ye are healed\" (1 Pet ii:24). The precious blood of\nChrist has washed us from our sins. They can never come up again. Oh\nblessed knowledge! Cleansed by His own blood, the precious blood of\nthe Lamb without spot and blemish! And the blessedness of all that\nis connected with this!\n\n   Oh, the peace forever flowing\n      From God's thoughts of His own Son!\n   Oh, the peace of simply knowing\n      On the cross that all was done!\n\n   Peace with God, the blood in heaven\n      Speaks of pardon now to me:\n   Peace with God! the Lord is risen!\n      Righteousness now counts me free.\n\n   Peace with God is Christ in glory;\n      God is just and God is love;\n   Jesus died to tell the story,\n      Foes to bring to God above.\n\nBut more than that \"He hath made us kings and priests unto God and\nHis Father.\" This belongs also to His mighty love. His future of\nGlory as the Prince of the Kings of the earth, the King of kings and\nLord of lords, His fathomless love leads Him to share with those for\nwhom He died, whom He purged and fitted by His own blood. He hath\nmade us kings and priests. It is all His work. A more correct\ntranslation is \"He hath made us a Kingdom.\" This, however, does not\nmean that He has linked us with a Kingdom in which we are to be\nsubjects and governed by Him. We are not subjects of a Kingdom, but\n_are_ a Kingdom, partakers of it in rule with Himself. We shall rule\nand reign with Him over the earth. And because He will be \"a priest\nupon _His_ throne\" (Zech. vi:13) we, too, will be priests. What it\nall includes, what glories await us, what enjoyment with Him, what\nriches and blessings, power and honor, no mind can grasp and no\ntongue nor pen can describe.\n\n\"To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.\" All glory and\ndominion to Him! Thou art worthy! Thou art worthy! This is the\nheart's cry, which really knows Him and is devoted to Him. \"Thou art\nworthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.\" Our crowns we\ncast before Thy throne. Amen and Amen.\n\nReader can you add your \"Amen\"--your, \"be it so\" to all this? Do\nyou sing this Glory song? In a day when He, who is worthy, is but\nlittle praised, do you praise Him thus? Do you live in the daily\nenjoyment of His love? Do you give Him the pre-eminence to whom God\nhas given the pre-eminence in all things? Amen! And oh the happy\nthought, which helps us so in these evil days, that soon He, who\nloveth us, who washed us, who hath made us a Kingdom and priests,\nmay call us into His own glorious presence.\n\n\n\nThe Firstborn.\n\n\n\"THE Firstborn\" or \"The Firstbegotten\" is one of the names of our\nblessed Lord. It is applied to Him after His resurrection from the\ndead. As the Only Begotten He came into this world, the unspeakable\ngift of God to a lost and ruined world; after the accomplishment of\nHis work on the cross He left the earth, He had created, as the\nFirstborn. As the Firstbegotten He is now in the highest heaven and\nas the Firstbegotten the Man of Glory He will be sent back to this\nearth and rule in power and glory. Paul wrote to the Philippians \"to\nwrite the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous but for\nyou it is safe\" (Phil. iii:1). Peter's preaching in the opening\nchapters of the Acts might have been called monotonous, for he knew\nbut one theme. The Spirit of God filling him gave but one message\nand that was, the rejected Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead. In\nthe Gospel of the Glory of the blessed God (1 Tim. i:11), as\nrevealed to the Apostle of the Gentiles we have one theme, one\nabiding, ever satisfying, eternal object and that is Christ who died\nfor our sins, risen from the dead, as Firstborn in Glory and our\nblessed union with Him. Paul who knew Him as the Firstborn so well\nfound it not grievous to write the same thing. Indeed the more He\nknew Him the more His heart cried out \"that I may know Him\" (Phil.\niii:10). There is an attraction in Him which is supernatural. Every\nchild of God will increasingly enjoy the contemplation of this old\nyet ever new and blessed theme, the Firstborn from the dead. Only in\nthis our hearts can find perfect rest and abiding joy. And if your\nheart, dear reader, is not attracted and absorbed by Himself, it is\nbecause there is a broken communion between you and your Lord. Oh,\nreturn unto thy rest, my soul! The drifting masses of Christendom\nhave no use for such a theme. The words written in 2 Cor. iv:3-4\nfind a fearful application in our time. \"But if our gospel be hid,\nit is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this age hath\nblinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the\nglorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto\nthem.\"\n\nHow little of the Gospel of the Glory is preached! It is not wanted.\nAll the present day preaching of ethics, of doing good, self\nimprovement and self culture is anti-christian. The preaching which leaves\nout the cross of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the Glory of\nChrist, differs not in the least from the ethical-philosophical\njumble of Buddhistic and other oriental heathen teachers. It\nis an awful thing which is done in Christendom today, this\nrejection of the Lord, the Firstborn. Some day and that soon,\nGod will judge those who have rejected that Gospel and deal with\nthem for the sin of all sins which is unbelief (John xvi:9). But our\nhearts, beloved in the Lord, must turn more and more to Him and find\ntheir delight in Him, who is the Firstbegotten. And this we shall do\nnow by meditating on a few Scriptures which tell us of Him. \"He is\nthe _Firstborn_ from the dead\" (Col. i:18). \"Jesus Christ, who is\nthe faithful witness, the _Firstbegotten_ of the dead, and the\nPrince of the Kings of the earth\" (Rev. i:5). What blessed\ndeclarations these are! In the first chapter of Colossians it is\nfully revealed who He is, who was dead and who is alive for\nevermore. Not a creature but the Creator, the one who images forth\nGod, because He is God. By Him were all things created, \"that are in\nheaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or\ndominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by\nHim and for Him.\" And such a One made peace through the blood of His\ncross. Such a One took our place on the cross of shame, tasted death\nin our stead and all the billows of wrath and judgment passed over\nHis holy head. Because He wrought out our redemption it is complete\nand perfect. Raised from the dead, not held by death but bursting\nforth, leading captivity captive, He is the Firstborn and to Him\nbelongs all Glory and Power. \"But now is Christ risen from the dead,\nand become the _Firstfruits_ of them that slept\" (1 Cor. xv:20). By\nHis glorious resurrection He became the Firstfruits. All who believe\nin Him will rise too by virtue of being one with Him, who is the\nResurrection and the Life. The mighty power of God which raised Him\nfrom the dead and seated Him in the highest place, at His own right\nhand, that exceeding greatness of His power is towards us, who\nbelieve. That power has quickened us with Christ, raised us up\ntogether and seated us in the heavenly. In some future day that\nmighty power, which raised Him so that He became the Firstfruits\nwill raise all the saints to meet Him in the air.\n\n\"And again, when He bringeth in the _Firstbegotten_ into the world,\nHe saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him\" (Heb. i:6).\n\nGod will bring the Firstbegotten back to this earth again. This is a\nvery strong passage revealing the second coming of Christ to this\nearth. The same blessed Person, who walked on this earth as man, who\nis Emanuel, God with us, who died on the cross for our sins, who\nbecame the Firstbegotten from the dead, the Firstfruits of them that\nslept, He who is now as Man in Glory, the same Person, the\nFirstbegotten, will be brought back to this world by the power of\nGod. Then worshipping angels will be His attendants and He will\nbring His Saints with Him.\n\n\"For whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate, to be conformed to\nthe image of His Son, that He might be the _Firstborn_ among many\nbrethren\" (Romans viii:29). Conformed to the glorious image of God's\never blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the destiny of all, who\nhave cast themselves as lost sinners upon Christ and have been saved\nby Grace through faith. It is true even now by beholding as in a\nglass the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from\nglory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. iii:18).\nIt is true if we abide in Him, we shall walk even as He walked (1\nJohn ii:6). The exhortation in our great salvation Epistle is, not\nto be conformed to this age, but to be transformed, or as it might\nbe translated, transfigured (Rom. xii:2). _But_ to be fully\nconformed to the image of His Son is never to be expected in this\nworld, where sin is ever present; When the Firstbegotten calls us\ninto His own presence, when the Heir of God summons His beloved\nco-heirs to meet Him and to enter with Him into the blood-bought\ninheritance, then each saved sinner will be conformed to the image\nof Himself. Each will shine forth the excellencies of the\nFirstbegotten. _We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is._\nHallelujah! This is why God gave up His Son, that He might be able\nto lift those who are His enemies by wicked works into the Sonplace\nand make them like His Son in Glory.\n\n\"Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare\nthe degree; the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art my _Son_; this day\nhave I begotten Thee\" (Ps. ii:6-7). In this prophecy He is likewise\nseen as the Firstbegotten. It does not mean the eternal Son of God,\nfor as such He had no beginning, but the day in which He was\nbegotten is the third day when He was raised from the dead. Paul\ngives us this truth when He spoke to the Jews in Antioch and said:\n\"God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath\nraised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm,\nThou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee\" (Acts xiii:33). Up\nto this time He is not yet enthroned upon the holy hill of Zion.\nWhen He returns as the Firstbegotten and finds the nations of the\nearth not converted, but in opposition to Him (Ps. ii:1-3), He will\nbecome the King and take His throne.\n\n\"Also I will make Him my _Firstborn_, higher than the Kings of the\nearth\" (Ps. lxxxix:27). This reveals the exalted station, which He\nwill assume, when His blessed feet touch this earth again. He will\nbe the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.\n\nThis is the Glory of the Firstborn, the loving Sinbearer who endured\nthe cross and despised the shame. He is the Heir of God, the Heir of\nall things, the Head of all principality and power, the Head of His\nredeemed people, the church. He that filleth all in all, the\nFirstborn, will share His glorious title and possessions with His\nredeemed. The church to which God's marvelous Grace has brought us\nis the church of the _Firstborn_. (Heb. xii:23), because the\nFirstborn is the Head and beginning and those who are begotten again\nby the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead have their portion\nwith the Firstborn. Oh! glorious future we have as His redeemed\npeople! God our Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nby Thy Holy Spirit, keep the Glory of Thy Son, the Firstborn, before\nour hearts, that we may be changed into the same image and overcome\nin these dark and evil days. Amen.\n\n   Soon shall our eyes behold Thee\n      With rapture, face to face;\n   And, resting there in glory,\n      We'll sing Thy pow'r and grace:\n   Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,\n      The wonders of Thy love,\n   Shall be the endless story\n      Of all Thy saints above.\n\n\n\nThe Waiting Christ.\n\n\nWAITING for the coming of the Lord is one of the blessed\ncharacteristics of true Christianity. In the parable of the ten\nvirgins the three great marks of a true believer are stated by our\nLord. These are: _Separation_, indicated by the virgins having gone\nforth. _Manifestation_, they had lamps, which are for the giving of\nlight, and _Expectation_, they went forth to meet the Bridegroom.\nWith five of them it was only an outward profession. The foolish\nvirgins are the type of such who are Christians in name only and do\nnot know the reality of these characteristics. The Lord knew them\nnot. These three characteristics are seen in Paul's first epistle to\nthe Thessalonians. That model assembly was composed of such members\nwho possessed these three things. They had turned to God from\nidols (separation); they served the true and the living God\n(manifestation); they waited for His Son from heaven (expectation),\n1 Thess. i:9, 10. The same is revealed in the epistle to Titus. \"For\nthe Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.\"\nThat Grace accepted separates unto God.\n\n\"Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should\nlive soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world.\" This is\nmanifestation. The Grace of God enables us to live thus. \"Looking\nfor that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God\nand our Saviour Jesus Christ.\" Here we have expectation. Other\nsimilar passages could be quoted. If we divide the New Testament\nScriptures into three parts we have the same order. In the Gospels\nthe Grace of God in the Son of God appeared. In the Epistles we are\ntaught how to manifest Him by walking in the Spirit. The great New\nTestament prophetic book, the Revelation, looks on towards His\nComing. And how His Coming is forgotten! How few of His people truly\nwait for Him! How few pray that important and almost forgotten\nprayer, Even so, Come Lord Jesus! But we must also remember that our\nLord is likewise waiting. Innumerable multitudes of disembodied\nspirits who are saved by Grace are waiting in His own presence for\nthe moment when they will receive their resurrection bodies, which\nwill be when He descends from Heaven and comes into the air. The\nfaithful remnant of His people on earth wait for His Coming. Israel\nand all creation wait for Him as well as the unseen beings in the\nHeavenly. _But He Himself is waiting._ This is the testimony of the\nWord of God. First it is the subject of prophecy. In the brief but\ngreat 110th Psalm that waiting is predicted. The Christ, who is so\noften seen in the Psalms and in the Prophets as King, ruling in His\nearthly kingdom, whose glories in that rule are so blessedly\ndescribed, is seen in the beginning of that Psalm seated at the\nright hand of God; this heavenly place will be occupied by Him till\nHis enemies are made His footstool. How the Holy Spirit witnessed to\nthis fact at once after His descent on the day of Pentecost is more\nfully revealed in the second chapter of Acts. In Hebrews x:13 we\nread of His waiting attitude in heaven. \"But _this man_, after He\nhad offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right\nhand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His\nfootstool.\" The better word for expecting is \"waiting.\" We may well\nemphasize the word \"Man.\" Our blessed Lord is not in the presence of\nGod as a Spirit Being, but He is there in the form of Man. The\nblessed body He had on earth, which He gave on the cross and which\nlaid in the tomb could not see corruption. He was raised on the\nthird day. He ascended in that glorified body into heaven and He is\non the right hand of God as Man, in Him dwells the fullness of the\nGodhead bodily. Just one Man is there in Glory. But oh! what it\nmeans! He is the Head of His body, the church and in the future all\nHis redeemed people will possess glorified bodies, like unto His\nglorious body. No wonder the enemy ever aims at the denial of the\nLord's bodily presence. From many pulpits it is declared to be \"too\nmaterial.\" The denial of this great truth, the _Man_ in glory, is a\ndenial of the entire Gospel. It is at this the enemy strikes.\n\nAs the glorified Man on the Father's throne He is waiting till His\nenemies are made His footstool. This does not mean, as so many\nbelieve and teach, that the Lord Jesus Christ is waiting till His\nenemies are gradually overcome, till the church on earth succeeds in\nconverting the whole world. It does not mean that. His enemies will\nbe made His footstool in a far different way. It will be a sudden\nevent. All His enemies will be humbled, all things will be subjected\nunder His feet at the time of His second Coming. As there was an\nappointed time by the Father for His first Coming, so is there an\nappointed time for His second Coming, when the power of God and His\nown power will triumph over all His enemies. As He is in His\nredemptive work subject to the Father, therefore is He waiting for\nthat hour. Then the Father will bring in the firstbegotten into the\nworld (Heb. i:6) and He will receive the nations for His inheritance\n(Psalm ii).\n\nHe is waiting for this great event. But He is also waiting for His\nco-heirs, which constitute the church. The church, His body, must be\nfirst completed as to numbers before the hour can come in which His\nenemies are made His footstool.\n\nHe is patiently waiting for that moment. John speaks of that when he\ncalls himself \"a companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and\n_patience_ of Jesus Christ\" (Rev. i:9). Centuries have come and gone\nsince He took that place upon the Father's throne, unseen by human\neyes, and during all this time, while the calling out of the church\nproceeded, He has waited patiently. Some day His waiting will come\nto an end. His church will be completed and then He Himself arises\nfrom His seat and descends to that place in the air, where He will\nmeet His own, for whom His loving heart yearns so much. What a\nmoment that will be at last! Then His waiting as well as His\npatience will be ended and He will receive His kingdom and be\ncrowned Lord of lords and King of kings. No longer will He then be\nunseen, but His Glory will flash out of heaven and He Himself will\nbe manifested in Glory. Then the world can reject Him no longer but\nmust accept His righteous rule in which His redeemed people will\nshare. What child of God does not wish this to be soon, very soon.\nOh that we might cry more earnestly, more in the Spirit, yes,\nincessantly, \"Come Lord Jesus.\"\n\nBut while He waits and the hour has not yet come we must wait as He\nwaits on the throne. To the Thessalonians who had listened to\nteachers who judaized the blessed hope, fearing they were facing the\nday of the Lord with its tribulation and wrath, the Apostle wrote:\n\"And the Lord direct your hearts in the love of God, and into the\npatient waiting for Christ\" (2 Thess. iii:5). But we must not only\nwait patiently _for_ Him but also wait _with_ Him. He is the\nrejected One. The world cast Him out. As the rejected One He waits\nin patience for the hour of His triumph and His Glory. This place of\nrejection is our greatest privilege to share. And where is He more\nrejected than in that which calls itself by His Name! To bear His\nreproach in these closing days of this present age is our blessed\nopportunity. To suffer with Him, if not for Him, should be that for\nwhich our hearts should long, yea, pray. And we will be glad to be\nrejected with Him, to be nothing at this present time, to have\nfellowship with His sufferings, if He as the patient waiting Lord is\never before our hearts.\n\nAt the close of the one hundred and tenth psalm stands a word, which\nwe should also remember.\n\n   \"He shall drink of the brook in the way,\n   Therefore shall He lift up the head.\"\n\nIt has puzzled many readers what this saying might mean. It speaks\nto our hearts of His humiliation and exaltation. One thinks at once\nof the three hundred of Gideon and how they stooped down to drink.\nThe brook is the type of death. He drank of the brook in the way.\nHis way was from Glory to Glory, and between were His sufferings.\nAnd, therefore, He shall lift up the head. Wherefore, God has highly\nexalted Him. May we all, dear readers, follow in His path and suffer\nwith Him; ere long in His triumph and glory we shall triumph and\nglory.\n\n\"And if children then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with\nChrist; if so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified\ntogether. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are\nnot worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in\nus\" (Rom. viii:17-18).\n\n\n\nA Vision of the King.\n\n\nONE of the most blessed occupations for the believer is the\nprayerful searching of God's holy Word to discover there new glories\nand fresh beauties of Him, who is altogether lovely. Shall we ever\nfind out all which the written Word reveals of Himself and His\nworthiness? This wonderful theme can never be exhausted. The heart\nwhich is devoted to Him and longs through the presence and\nindwelling of the Holy Spirit to be closer to the Lord, to hear and\nknow more of Himself, will always find something new and precious.\nThe Holy Spirit can do this and reveals to our hearts from the\ninexhaustible Word of God the Glory of Him, whom to exalt the Spirit\nhas come. Much depends on how we desire just Himself. And Christ\nalone and the heart knowledge of Himself can satisfy the believer,\nwho has His life and is one Spirit with the Lord\n\n   \"O Christ Thou art enough\n   The heart to satisfy.\"\n\nSoon we shall see Him, whom we contemplate now in faith. Soon we\nshall be in His own glorious presence and look upon that face, which\nwas once marred and smitten, but which now shines out Heaven's and\nthe Father's Glory.\n\nThe kingly Glory of our blessed Lord is one of the great themes of\nthe Bible. The Man of humiliation, who here on earth walked in\ndependence on God, who did His will, suffered and died is now in the\nFather's presence and on the right hand of the Majesty on high.\nThere He sat down with His Father in His throne, waiting for the\nmoment when His work as the Priest and Advocate of His beloved\npeople on earth is accomplished, and when the Father will establish\nHim as King, when He will receive the kingdom. Alas! that all this\nglory, which belongs to Him and which is still future, His Kingship,\nHis kingly glory and rule, as it must be some day, is so unknown and\neven disowned in Christendom. It is but the uncovering of the\ncondition of the heart of the great majority of professing\nChristians. They may talk of religion, of great reform movements, of\nservice to mankind, world progress, but the Christ of God in all His\nGlory, past, present and future, has little attraction. Far\ndifferent it is with the heart which knows Him and has given Him the\nplace He is worthy of, the first place. That heart delights to\nmeditate on all His Glory and longs for the time when He will\nappear, and when at last, crowned with many crowns, He will assume\nHis righteous rule. Great is our joy and delight when we follow\nthrough the Scriptures His earthly life so full of His moral Glory.\nOr when we think of Him as He died for us and bore in His own body\non the tree our sins; we praise Him for His mighty Love. But what\njoy to think of Him as coming at last into that which belongs to Him\nthe Lord of Glory, by right of redemption, when He will take\npossession of this earth and claim its Satan ruled kingdoms for His\nown. Then it will be true, \"The earth is the Lord's and the fulness\nthereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.\" Then the Seraph's\nsong will be realized, \"The whole earth is full of His Glory.\"\n\nHow much the Word has to say about the King and His Glory; and we\nhave never yet taken hold of it with our dull hearts! Take the Book\nof Psalms, for instance, that book which has been so belittled by\nthe destructive criticism. While we read so much in those precious\nproductions of the Holy Spirit of Christ's sufferings, His\nhumiliation, His prayers, His death, we may find there much more\nabout Him as King and His coming manifestation.\n\nThe tumult of the nations, as predicted in the _Second_ Psalm, and\nabout to be realized in our own times, the tumult of the nations\nagainst the Lord and His Anointed, will be silenced by the coming of\nthe King. \"I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion;\" this is\nwhat God declares. The God-man Christ Jesus, the Man, who is with\nHim now is, His King. His destiny is the government of the nations,\nwith a rod of iron.\n\nThe entire _Twenty-first_ Psalm tells out the Glory of the King.\nChristian expositors have rarely discovered this. But Jewish\nexponents always knew it. Saith a leading Jewish authority of the\nmiddle ages: \"Our old teachers have always applied this Psalm as\nmeaning the King Messiah.\" Read its stanzas:\n\n   \"The King shall joy in Thy strength, Jehovah;\n   And in Thy salvation, how greatly shall He rejoice.\n   Thou hast given Him His heart's desire,\n   And hast not withholden the requests of His lips.\n   For Thou hast met Him with the blessings of goodness;\n   Thou hast set a crown of pure gold on His head.\n   He asked Life of Thee;\n   Thou gavest Him length of days forever and ever.\n   His Glory is great through Thy salvation;\n   Majesty and splendor hast Thou laid upon Him.\n   For Thou hast made Him to be blessings forever;\n   Thou hast filled Him with joy by Thy countenance.\n   For the King confideth in Jehovah.\n   Through the loving kindness of the Highest\n   He shall not be moved.\"\n\nThen comes His future action, when He whom faith sees now crowned\nwith Majesty and Splendor, who rejoices in the Presence of God,\nappears to execute the judgments of God.\n\n   \"Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies;\n   Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee.\n   Thou shalt make them as a fiery furnace\n   In the time of Thy presence.\n   Jehovah shall swallow them up in his anger,\n   And the fire shall devour them.\n   Their fruit shall Thou destroy from the earth,\n   And their seed from among the children of men.\n   For they intended evil against Thee,\n   They imagined a mischievous device,\n   Which they could not execute.\n   For Thou wilt make them turn their back,\n   Thou wilt make ready Thy bowstring against their faces.\n   Be Thou exalted Jehovah in Thine own strength;\n   We will sing and celebrate Thy power.\"\n\nAnd in the _Twenty-fourth_ Psalm we have prophetically that\ntriumphant shout, which will be heard when the King comes\nback to enter His City, Jerusalem, again.\n\n   \"Lift up your heads, ye gates\n   And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors;\n   And the King of Glory shall come in.\n   Who is this King of Glory?\n   Jehovah strong and mighty,\n   Jehovah mighty in battle.\"\n\nThe _Forty-fifth_ Psalm is a song of the Beloved, touching the King.\nHe is described as coming in His Majesty and Splendor, how He deals\nwith His enemies and that He will be surrounded by His own redeemed\nones.\n\nThe Glory and dominion of His Kingdom He will receive is described\nin the _Seventy-second_ Psalm. \"He shall have dominion from sea to\nsea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.\" And other\nPsalms enlarge upon these glorious visions, which will all be true\nwhen the King comes. Then Jerusalem will be a praise in the earth.\n\"Also I will make Him, my Firstborn, higher than the kings of the\nearth\" (Ps. lxxxix:27).\n\nAnd how rich are the prophets in telling us of the Glory of the King\nand the glories of His kingdom. \"Behold a King shall rule in\nrighteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment\" (Isaiah xxxii:1).\n\"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the\nland that is afar off\" (Isaiah xxxiii:17). \"A King shall reign and\nprosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth\"\n(Jerem. xxiii:5). \"And there was given Him dominion and glory, and a\nkingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve Him;\nHis dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,\nand His Kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed\" (Dan. vii:14).\n\"The King of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee (the earthly\nJerusalem); thou shalt not see evil any more\" (Zeph. iii:15). \"And\nthe Lord shall be King over all the earth\" (Zech. xiv:6).\n\nThese and many, many more utterances of God's blessed prophets give\nus a vision of the King, of the Glory of Him, who was crowned with a\ncrown of thorns, the thorns of man's curse, and over whose cross it\nwas written, \"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.\"\n\nAnd the New Testament fully brings out the same Glory of Him as\nKing. He is \"King of Peace\" (Heb. vii:2); \"King of saints\" (Rev.\nxv:3); \"The Lord of lords and King of kings\" (Rev. xvii:14).\n\nAt last the unfulfilled message of Gabriel will be gloriously\nfulfilled. \"The Lord God shall give unto Him the Throne of His\nfather David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever;\nand of His kingdom there shall be no end\" (Luke i:32).\n\nBut nowhere is He called \"King of the church,\" nor are we authorized\nas believers to address Him \"Our King.\" He will be King, but then He\nwill not be our King, but we shall _be Kings with Him_. He is not\nKing of the church, but the Head of the Body, the church; Head and\nBody together, Christ and His church, will rule and reign over the\nearth. Glory to His Name! In loving tenderness He looks upon us, who\npossess His life, He is not ashamed to call us \"brethren,\" for He is\nMan, the second Man, and He beholds in us those, who will ere long\nshare His Kingly Glory, His Kingly rule.\n\nOh, Beloved readers! does it not warm our hearts! Does it not make\nus feel like falling down on our faces and confess to Him our\nindifference and our nothingness, and humble ourselves in the dust.\nHow little, oh how little we enter into all this. The Lord help us\nto have through His Word and in the power of His Spirit a greater\nvision of the King and our blessed, eternal lot with Him.\n\n   They crown Him King on high;\n      Shall we not crown Him here,\n   The blessed Christ of Calvary,\n      To ransomed sinners dear?\n\n   They worship Him above,\n      Shall we not worship too,\n   The Son of God, the Lord of love,\n      To whom all praise is due?\n\n   Up there they see His Face,\n      The Lamb who once was slain,\n   And in a new song praise His Grace;\n      Shall we not join the strain?\n\n   Yonder His servants still\n      Serve as their Lord commands;\n   Oh may we also do His will\n      With loving hearts and hands.--M. F.\n\n\n\nThe Fellowship of His Son.\n\n\n\"GOD is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of His\nSon Jesus Christ our Lord\" (1 Cor. i:9). A blessed word this is. By\nnature the Corinthians were in another fellowship. The same Epistle\n(vi:9-11) tells us what some of them were. Like ourselves by nature\nthey were in the fellowship of sin and death and in fellowship with\nhim, who is the author of sin and the enemy of God, Satan. But a\nfaithful God called them and has called us by the Gospel into the\nfellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. If we have obeyed the\nGospel and accepted the gift of God we are brought through the Grace\nof God into the fellowship of the Son of God. All believers are in\nthe same fellowship, one with the Lord.\n\nBut that is a truth and a blessed revelation far deeper than our\nmind can fathom or our pen could describe. No saint has ever sounded\nthe depths of this wonderful call of God nor can God's saints fully\nknow what that fellowship all means, until the blessed day comes\nwhen we shall see Him as He is and when joined to Him we shall be\nlike Him.\n\nAnd yet we can remind ourselves of the little we know and through it\nencourage our hearts. Faith loves to dwell upon the blessed Person,\nwhom faith alone through the Spirit's power can make a living\nreality. And God, the faithful God, loves to hear His children speak\nmuch of Him, whom He loves, the Son of His Love, the Lord Jesus\nChrist.\n\nFellowship means to have things in common. And that is what God has\ndone. He has taken us through His Grace out of the fellowship in\nwhich we are by nature, the things we have in common as enemies and\nchildren of wrath and has called us into the fellowship of His Son.\nAnd now called of God into this fellowship we have things in common\nwith His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. This brings before us once more\nthe old story, which never grows old, but is eternally new and\nbecomes more blessed the more we hear it. The Son of God, He who is\nthe true God and the eternal Life, came to this earth and appeared\nin the form of Man. \"The Life was manifested; and we have seen, and\nbear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with\nthe Father, and was manifested unto us\" (1 John i:2). And He who is\nthe true God and the eternal life, by whom the worlds were made,\ngave Himself for our sins. He came to give His life as a ransom for\nmany, to make propitiation for the whole world. He who knew no sin\nwas made sin for us and on the Cross peace was made. There in His\nown body on the tree He bore our sins. All who believe on Him, who\nhave accepted Jesus as their Saviour, are taken out of that in which\nthey are by nature and are brought into Christ. And here we can with\npraising hearts and full assurance sing of our blessed position in\nHim.\n\n   Lord Jesus, are we one with Thee?\n      Oh height, oh depth, of love!\n   And crucified and dead with Thee,\n      Now one in heaven above.\n\n   Such was Thy grace, that for our sake\n      Thou didst from heaven come down;\n   With us of flesh and blood partake,\n      And make our guilt Thine own.\n\n   Our sins, our guilt, in love divine,\n      Confessed and borne by Thee;\n   The gall, the curse, the wrath, were Thine,\n      To set Thy ransomed free.\n\n   Ascended now, in glory bright,\n      Life-giving Head Thou art;\n   Nor life, nor death, nor depth, nor height\n      Thy saints and Thee can part.\n\nBut the fellowship of His Son into which the Grace of God has\nbrought us means more than this blessed new relation and the\npositional truth that as believers we have been crucified with\nChrist and that we are risen with Him. The life we possess as born\nagain is His own life. We possess the life of Him, who died in our\nstead. Christ is our life. This means fellowship of His Son, we are\none with Him. We also possess His Spirit. The Spirit of Christ\ndwelleth in us and we are \"one Spirit with the Lord.\"\n\nThis oneness with Christ, the fellowship of His Son, that we belong\nto Him and He to us, that we have an inheritance in Him and He has\nan inheritance in us, is a great truth. Like every other revealed\ntruth it must be a reality in our lives. We are called by God to\nwalk in this fellowship. We know we are in Him, and through Grace we\nabide in Him. But it is also written, \"He that saith he abideth in\nHim ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.\" His own life\nmust be manifest. In this fellowship of His Son we have the strength\nto walk as He walked, because we have His life and His Spirit. There\nis no need to walk after the flesh, but we can always walk in the\nSpirit and walking thus we walk as He walked. And this spiritual\nwalk becomes possible as our hearts dwell in faith on the fact that\nwe are called into the fellowship of His Son. We must have this\nwonderful fact constantly before our hearts as a real thing. Then\nall we do will be governed by it.\n\nIf this is real how can we be conformed to this world? The world in\nall its aspects is the enemy of God. In that fellowship we walked\nonce \"according to the course of this world.\" Should we then turn\nback to it and enjoy its pleasures and ambitions? If we do, we walk\nin the flesh and then we do not know the joy and peace of the\nfellowship of His Son, but are joyless and miserable. But if the\nfact of the fellowship of God's Son is a reality in power, it will\nkeep us from being conformed to this world.\n\nWe believe the Spirit of God presses this home to the consciences of\nHis people and calls us to a separated walk.\n\nAnd this must lead to another phase of the fellowship of His Son\nJesus Christ. It is written \"always bearing about in the body the\ndying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made\nmanifest in our body\" (2 Cor. iv:10). This stands in connection with\npersecution and suffering. Walking in the fellowship of His Son\nJesus Christ the Apostle had one great desire, \"That I may know Him,\nand the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His\nsufferings, being made conformable to His death\" (Phil. iii:10). To\nthe Colossians he wrote \"who now rejoice in my sufferings for you,\nand fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my\nflesh for His body's sake, which is the church\" (Col. i:24). He\nsuffered and bore His reproach. His heart in the enjoyment of the\nfellowship desired the fellowship of His sufferings. We know little\nof these because we are conformed to this world and not loyal to our\nLord and God's calling. But if we walk in conscious fellowship with\nHim and are loyal to Him we too will know a little of the fellowship\nof His sufferings. Then our hearts long that we may \"bear His\nreproach.\" The blessed One of God is rejected, can our hearts be\nsatisfied with anything less than being rejected too? Perhaps if we\nwere to lift up our voices now against the Christ dishonoring\nthings, both in doctrine and practice, which are the leading\nfeatures of the present-day religious world, we would know a little\nmore of this fellowship.\n\nCalled into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord means\nalso to share His work. We are called to serve. He was here as One\nthat serveth, and we are \"to serve one another in love.\" \"Whosoever\nwill be great among you let him be your minister; and whosoever will\nbe chief among you, let him be your servant\" (Matt. xx:26-27). We\ncan be servants with Him. He is intercessor and burden-bearer and we\nhave a share in this likewise.\n\nAnd there is the fellowship of His Son in its eternal aspect. God's\ncalling is to be like His Son. \"For whom He did foreknow, He also\npredestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might\nbe the firstborn among many brethren\" (Romans viii:29). We shall be\nwith Him forever and like Him.\n\n   And is it so--I shall be like Thy Son?\n   Is this the grace which He for me has won?\n   Father of glory, (thought beyond all thought!)--\n   In glory, to His own blest likeness brought!\n\n   Oh, Jesus, Lord, who loved me like to Thee?\n   Fruit of Thy work, with Thee, too, there to see\n   Thy glory, Lord, while endless ages roll,\n   Myself the prize and travail of Thy soul.\n\n   Yet it must be: Thy love had not its rest\n   Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest.\n   That love that gives not as the world, but shares\n   All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.\n\nMay the Holy Spirit hold these great truths before our hearts and in\nHis power may we be consciously and constantly enjoying the\nfellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, till we are called by\nHimself to be with Him.\n\n\n\nOut of His Fulness.\n\n\nJohn i:16.\n\n\n\"AND of His fulness have all we received, and grace upon grace\"\n(John i:16). This precious word was not spoken by John the Baptist.\nIt must be looked upon as an outburst of praise, similar to the one\nwhich stands in the beginning of Revelation (Rev. i:5-6). It is the\nadoring utterance of all believers acknowledging the reception of\nthat unfathomable and never failing grace, which flows from the\neternal fountain, the Son of God. Out of the fulness of Himself\nbelieving sinners receive grace upon grace. His own fulness is the\nsource, which supplies all the need of those, who by Him believe on\nGod, that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory (1 Pet. i:2).\nThat exhaustless fulness is always ready to sustain, to help, to\ncomfort, to strengthen and to fill those, who are in Christ, one\nwith Him.\n\nBut what is this fulness of which we receive and receive so\nabundantly? The blessed Son of God possessed in all eternity\nfulness. The Holy Spirit in this chapter bears a testimony to this\nfact by a great revelation. \"In the beginning was the Word, and the\nWord was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the\nbeginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was\nnot anything made 'that was made.' In Him was life; and the life was\nthe light of men\" (John i:1-4). What a wonderful revelation this is!\nThe Word which was in the beginning, which ever _was_ God, by whom\nall was made, without whom nothing came into existence, is the Son\nof God. The fulness of the Godhead was His before the world was\nmade, for He is God. Then we read in this chapter, \"and the Word was\nmade flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as\nof the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\" He\ncame to this earth, He took on the form of man, the eternal Word was\nmade flesh, God manifested in the flesh. And as He walked on the\nearth the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him (Col.\ni:19). But before we could ever receive out of His fulness grace\nupon grace, the Son of God had to die. If He had not died and\naccomplished the great work for which He came into the world, His\nfulness would have been forever inaccessible to sinners. But He went\nto the cross and finished there the great work. Christ died for us;\nHe who knew no sin was made sin for us. And now it is written of\nHim, the glorified One, the Man in Glory. \"For in Him dwelleth all\nthe fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which\nis the head of all principality and power\" (Col. ii:9-10). He, who\npossessed eternally all fulness, who came to this earth and in whom\nthe fulness of the Godhead dwelt, who died on the cross the just for\nthe unjust, who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the\ntree, is now as Man in glory and there dwelleth in Him bodily the\nfulness of the Godhead. It is all for us; we can now receive grace\nupon grace, because of Him who is the Second Man, the Head of the\nnew creation and with whom God has made us, who believe, one. This\nis the deep and yet simple Gospel. God gave His blessed Son, who was\nforever one with Him, that through Him we might receive of the\nfulness of the Godhead, grace upon grace. Brought to God in such a\nway, washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,\nand by the Spirit of our God, we are receiving all we need. We\nreceive it not on our merit, because we labor or agonize for it, but\nwe _receive of His fulness_. But who can begin to tell out what that\nis, grace upon grace? Pages upon pages might be written and filled\nwith the good things, the spiritual blessings, the joy, the peace,\nthe comfort, the power and the wisdom and many other things, which\nare included in \"grace upon grace.\" And after we mentioned all these\nprecious things, we would have to put the pen down and confess our\ninsufficiency to tell out the riches, the fulness and vastness of\n\"grace upon grace.\"\n\nThis expression brings a great cataract like Niagara to our mind.\nHere we stand and behold the mighty waters rushing down. Oh! the\nmighty rushing waters, who can measure them! What a vast,\ninexhaustible supply! Water upon water dashing down. For ages this\nhas gone on. Hundreds of years, more than that, thousands of years\nhave witnessed the same mighty waters. Every day, every hour, every\nminute, every second, every fraction of a second--incessantly\nmighty rushing waters upon waters!\n\nIn the same way there is pouring forth out of His fulness, the\nfulness of the Lord in Glory--grace upon grace. There is an\nunlimited, inexhaustible supply of the water of life from Him who is\nthe life. For ages the saints of God, saved by grace, have received\ngrace upon grace. A never ceasing stream of grace has been flowing\nforth and it has not impoverished the marvellous eternal supply.\nStill it flows undiminished--still there is grace upon grace. Yea\nit is grace upon grace by which God's people live. Every hour, every\nminute, every second, every moment it is His grace, grace upon grace\nwhich keeps us, surrounds us, flows upon us and overshadows us. And\nthe more we take and enjoy the more we learn to sing.\n\n   More and more, more and more,\n      _Always_ more to follow!\n   Oh, His matchless, boundless _Grace_,\n      Still there's more to follow!\n\nWill it ever stop? No, never! We shall keep on singing in all\neternity \"still there's more to follow!--still there's more to\nfollow.\" Hallelujah! \"That in the ages to come He might show the\n_exceeding_ riches of His Grace in His kindness toward us through\nChrist Jesus\" (Eph. ii:7). _Always more to follow!_ Still there's\nMORE to follow. All Praise to Him who died to have it so for us poor\nlost sinners, whose lot should have been, as it is the lot of all\nwho reject this marvellous grace--always more to follow--in\neternal darkness and despair.\n\nAnd how simple it is to receive \"of His fulness grace upon grace.\"\nLook at this never ceasing spring of pure water, it never fails. You\napproach it a weary, thirsty, dustladen traveler. You need to be\nrefreshed. You need the cooling drink. You need washing. What then\nis necessary? Oh! to fill your cup. Just to take for it is for you.\nAnd so this wonderful grace which flows out of His fulness. It is\nfor you, just come and take. Fill your cup, fill it again! Drink oh\ndrink! \"Of His fulness have all we received, grace upon grace.\"\n\n\n\nThe Twenty-second Psalm.\n\n\nThe Cross of Christ.\n\n\nTHE Twenty-second Psalm contains a most remarkable prophecy. The\nhuman instrument through whom this prophecy was given is King David.\nThe Psalm does not contain the experience of the King, though he\npassed through great sufferings, yet the sufferings he speaks of in\nthis Psalm are not his own. They are the sufferings of Christ. It is\nwritten in the New Testament that the prophets searched and enquired\ndiligently about the coming salvation. The Spirit of Christ, which\nwas in them testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter\ni:10-11). David was a prophet, and in this great prophecy the Spirit\nof Christ testified of the sufferings of Him, who is both David's\nLord and David's son.\n\nThe book of Psalms, so rich and full of Himself, so inexhaustible in\ndescription of our ever blessed Lord, is divided into five books,\nwhich correspond to the five books with which the Bible begins, the\nPentateuch. The first book (Psalm i-xli) contains some of the great\nprophecies about the Christ of God; these prophecies are in the\nso-called messianic Psalms. Perfect and divine is the order in which\nthey are revealed. _Son of God_--The Second Psalm. _Son of Man_\n--The Eighth Psalm. _Obedient One_--The Sixteenth Psalm. _Obedient\nunto Death_, the Death of the Cross--The Twenty-second Psalm.\n_Highly exalted by God_--Revealed in each of these Psalms. This is\nthe order in which the Holy Spirit describes the path of the Lord in\nPhil. ii:6-11. How perfect the Word of God is!\n\nThe Twenty-second Psalm, the center of the first part of the book of\nPsalms, the Genesis portion, corresponds to the twenty-second\nchapter in the book of Genesis. There we see Isaac bound upon the\naltar having been led there and put upon the altar by his Father\nwhile he opened not his mouth. Here we behold the true Isaac on the\ncross. Everything in this Psalm speaks of our blessed Lord; in the\nfirst part of His sufferings, in the second part of His Glory and\nexaltation.\n\nAnd we must not overlook the two Hebrew words the Holy Spirit has\nput over this Psalm: _Aijeleth Shahar_. The margin tells us they\nmean \"the hind of the morning.\" This has a beautiful, though hidden\nmeaning. Some have thought of the innocent suffering of a wounded\nhind and the dawn of the morning brings relief. They have applied\nthis to the death and resurrection (in the morning dawn) of the\nLord. But the meaning is better still. The oldest Jewish traditions\ngive us the key. They take the expression \"Aijeleth Shahar\" to mean\nthe Shechina, the glory cloud, which was visible among His people\nand they speak of \"the hind of the morning\" as being the dawning of\nredemption. The dawning of the morning is compared by them with the\nhorns of the hind, on account of the rays of light appearing like\nhorns. According to their tradition the lamb was offered as the\nsacrifice in the morning as soon as the watcher on the pinnacle of\nthe temple cried out \"Behold the first rays of morning shine forth.\"\n\nBut what pen can describe the predictions and the fulfilment of His\nsufferings, the sufferings of the Holy One! Here we behold what it\ncost Him to redeem us. Here we have the full description of what His\natoning work meant. Here we see the full meaning of the sin-offering.\n\nWell may we bow our heads and hearts here and worship as we gaze\nupon this picture. The opening word of the Psalm expresses the\nconsummation of all the sufferings of Christ, that word which came\nfrom the darkness, which surrounded the cross and in which we are\nface to face with the unsearchable depths of His atoning work. \"My\nGod, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me.\" He who was ever with the\nFather, one with Him in all eternity, who could say on earth \"I am\nnot alone\" was left alone. He was forsaken of God. But more than\nthat. Jehovah bruised Him; He put Him to grief. The spotless One\nbore the wrath of God alone. It was then that He who knew no sin was\nmade sin for us. How significant it is then that the Holy Spirit\nputs that word of the Lord Jesus Christ before the predictions of\nHis physical sufferings. They tell us what our redemption cost Him\n--the awful price, forsaken of God. The Psalm also emphasizes what\nman under the terrible instigation of Satan did unto Him. We glance\nat some of these sufferings as expressed by His own Spirit.\n\n\"But I am a worm, and not man; a reproach of men, and despised of\nthe people\" (verse 6). This is His own complaint. No longer a man\nbut writhing on the ground like a worm, the substitute of sinners,\nthus the Holy One felt when He was numbered among the transgressors.\nThe Hebrew word \"worm\", means the small insect, the coccus, from\nwhich the scarlet color is obtained by death of this worm, that\ncolor which was used in connection with the tabernacle. Thus He died\nas our substitute that our sins though they are as scarlet might be\nwhite as snow. Men reproached Him; His own people despised and\nrejected Him. Then we read how He was mocked and scoffed at. They\n\"laugh me to scorn,\" they \"shoot out the lip,\" they \"shake the\nhead.\" The very language of the leaders of the people as they\nsurrounded the cross is given by the Spirit of God. \"He trusted on\nthe Lord that He would deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him\"\n(verse 7). What depths of the depravity of the human heart they\nreveal! And in all this, while He suffered thus from man His sole\ntrust was in God (verses 9-10). His whole life was to trust in the\nLord to lean upon Him, till that moment came when God could no\nlonger know Him as His own, when the sword, the sword of judgment\nawoke against the Man, the fellow, the companion of the Lord of\nhosts (Zech. xiii:7). What that sword did to Him is expressed by the\ncry of the forsaken One.\n\nAnd what else do we find here? We can follow the whole story of the\ncross in the first part of this Psalm. His enemies are described,\nthe bulls and the ravening and roaring lion.--\"I am poured out like\nwater.\"--\"All my bones are out of joint.\"--\"My heart is like wax;\nit is melted in the midst of my bowels.\" Like fire melteth wax so\nHis heart melted in the fire of wrath against sin. The strength of\nthe mighty One, who fainteth not and knows no weariness, failed. His\ntongue cleaves to His jaws. \"Dogs\" and \"the assembly of the wicked\"\n--Gentiles and Jews were there. \"They pierced my hands and feet;\"\ncrucifixion, unknown among the Jews when David lived, is here\npredicted by the Holy Spirit. \"I may tell all my bones\" as well as\nthe words \"all my bones are out of joint\" refer to His suffering on\nthe cross. Then after they hung the Prince of Glory at that cross we\nread \"they look and stare upon Me\" (verse 17). \"They parted my\ngarments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.\" What man did to\nHim, what He suffered from man and from Satan's power is here\ndescribed. Yet it was God who bruised Him. Concerning man the\nsufferer spoke what \"they\" did unto Him; but He also addresses God\n\"THOU hast brought me into the dust of death.\"\n\nAnd thus He suffered and died for us. Our sins were laid upon Him\nand He bore them in His own body on the tree. At what an infinite\ncost we have been redeemed! What a price has been paid! The Father\ndid not spare His only begotten Son, but delivered Him up for us\nall. The Son of God, was made sin for us, smitten, stricken and\nforsaken of God.\n\n   Jehovah bade His sword awake--\n      O Christ, it woke 'gainst thee!\n   Thy blood the flaming blade must slake;\n      Thy heart its sheath must be--\n   All for my sake, my peace to make;\n      Now sleeps that sword for me.\n\n   The Holy God did hide His face--\n      O Christ, 'twas hid from thee!\n   Dumb darkness wrapt thy soul a space--\n      The darkness due to me.\n   But now that face of radiant grace\n      Shines forth in light on me.\n\nWonderful Love! But how unable we are to realize adequately these\nblessed facts! How little after all we think of these marvellous\nthings and how weak is our devotion to that blessed, loving Lord,\nwho loved us thus!\n\nAnd what do we behold about us? An ever increasing darkness; a\nturning away from the blessed Gospel of the Son of God as it centers\nin the Cross; a greater rejection and neglection of the great\nsalvation which God has so graciously provided in the great\nsacrifice. It is fearful to see the enemies of the cross increasing\nand rushing on to their coming doom. What is to be our attitude? It\nis for us to glory more and more in the cross of Christ. We must\nexalt and magnify the Person and Work of our blessed Lord as never\nbefore. The more He is rejected by the world, His blessed work on\nthe cross disowned in such latter day delusions as the new theology,\nChristian Science and the numerous other systems, the more we must\ngive Him the pre-eminence.\n\nBut it means also for us if we are faithful to Him the fellowship of\nHis sufferings. God has called us into the fellowship of His Son\nJesus Christ our Lord. This includes the fellowship of His\nsufferings. Never, of course, suffering from God as He did. But as\nHe is rejected and despised so are we called to share His rejection\nand take upon us His reproach. He suffered without the gate and the\nWord exhorts us \"Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the\ncamp, bearing His reproach.\" In these last days we must like Moses\n\"esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of\nEgypt (the world).\" And if we are faithful to Him, if we walk in\n_separation from the world_, including the great \"religious world\"\nwith its Christ and the Cross rejecting schemes and tendencies, we\nshall know something of the reproach of Christ and the fellowship of\nHis sufferings. Oh! that we might know more of that in these easy\ngoing days. Such a precious Word of God as contained in 1 Peter\niv:13-14 ought to make us long for bearing His reproach and for\nsufferings with Him. \"But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of\nChrist's sufferings that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be\nglad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of\nChrist, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth\nupon you; on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is\nglorified.\"\n\nBe true to Christ and to the cross of Christ. Live out the doctrine\nof the cross \"crucified with Christ\"--dead to the things here\nbelow, then you will have some suffering from the side of men and\nSatan as well.\n\nAnd what will be the awful judgment for the multitudes, the ever\nincreasing multitudes who reject the Cross of Christ, who are either\nopposing it by their ethical gospel, to whom the preaching of the\ncross is foolishness, or who are indifferent? The Holy Spirit has\ntold us that where the Gospel, the Cross of Christ is rejected or\nperverted the Anathema, the curse of God must follow (Gal. i:9; 1\nCorinth. xvi:22). Well has one said \"Distance from God was the\nclimax of the Lamb's dying sorrow.\" It is a fearful solemn thought\nthat the world while with heedless selfconfidence it still pursues\nits way, is no nearer now to God than Jesus was when, under the\nburden of the world's iniquity, He cried, \"My God, my God, why hast\nThou forsaken me?\" How solemn this is! May we learn to say more\nfully with Paul, \"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the\ncross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto\nme, and I unto the world.\"\n\n\nThe Glory of Christ.\n\n\nThe first twenty-one verses of this Psalm describe the sufferings of\nChrist. This part closes with an appeal to Jehovah for deliverance.\n\"But be thou not far from me, O Lord; O my strength, haste thee to\nhelp me. * * * Save me from the lion's mouth.\" Then comes the joyful\nstatement that He has been heard. The answer He received to His cry\nis resurrection. We find therefore that the second part of this\ngreat Psalm, which reveals so fully the Cross of Christ, is taken up\nwith the Glory of the forsaken One. God raised Him from the dead,\nand so we hear at once in this Psalm the notes of triumph coming\nfrom the lips of Him who is dead and now liveth. His triumph and His\nGlory are revealed. All for whom He died, the Church, Israel, the\nends of the earth, the nations are mentioned. He is seen in the\nmidst of the church as well as in the midst of the future great\ncongregation. All the ends of the earth are yet to remember and turn\nunto the Lord. The nations will come to worship before Him; His will\nbe the Kingdom, He will rule among the nations. But we must look at\nsome of these precious predictions a little closer. We need to\nconsider them as much as the Sufferings, the Cross of Christ.\n\nThe day of His Resurrection is first mentioned.\n\n\"I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren\n\n\"In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.\"\n\nIt is a joyous word which stands at the head of the glory section of\nthis Psalm. Raised from the dead He met His own with an \"All hail\"\n--rejoice. In the Gospel of John we see Him meeting her who sought\nthe living One among the dead and telling her \"Go and tell my\nbrethren.\" How literally this prediction has been fulfilled. And\nwhat He tells her of \"my Father and your Father, my God and your\nGod\" declares that intimate relationship which is the result of His\ndeath on the cross. Brought through Him to God, we are Sons of God\nand Heirs of God. \"He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified\nare all of one, therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren\"\n(Heb. ii:11). Precious truth! He owns us as brethren. He is the\nFirstborn among many brethren. The congregation mentioned here is\nthe church. In the midst of the church His praise is heard (Heb.\nii:12). It is true the church is not revealed in the Old Testament\nbut it is anticipated. And as we, saved by Grace, in possession of\nHis life, approach God in His worthy Name His own voice is heard; He\nis the leader of our prayers and our praises. That new and intimate\nrelationship brought about by His atoning death at the cross is\nmentioned first. He gave Himself for the church (Eph. v:25). In the\nnext place we hear Israel praising Him. \"All ye the seed of Jacob\nglorify Him; and reverence Him all ye the seed of Israel.\" They who\nrejected Him, His people who despised Him and had such a part in the\nsuffering of Christ, now own Him. They acknowledge Him, whom they\nthought afflicted of God, as having been heard of God.\n\nThat time will come when He returns in power and glory, when Israel\nwill see the Man in Glory, the First begotten coming in the clouds\nof Heaven. Then they will realize the full truth of Isaiah liii. The\nblessed Lord will then have the travail of His soul and be\nsatisfied. But there is more glory still for Him.\n\nA _great_ congregation is mentioned; there too His praises will be\nheard. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn unto the\nLord. Nations will worship before Him.\n\n   \"For the Kingdom is Jehovah's\n   And He ruleth among the nations\" (verse 28).\n\nThe great congregation are the nations of the millennial age. Then\nthe ends of the earth will remember Him while He ruleth among the\nnations. What Glory awaits Him! Now we behold Him, who was made a\nlittle lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned\nwith glory and honor. It is a spiritual vision; we see Him there by\nfaith. But a little while longer and He will appear in the Glory of\nHis Father bringing His co-heirs with Him, the Son bringing many\nsons to glory, the sons He is not ashamed to call brethren, for whom\nHe was forsaken on the cross. What a procession of triumph and glory\nthat will be when the Heavens open and He is coming forth, bringing\nHis church with Him! What will be His Glory when Israel at last owns\nHim and nations submit under His rule, when His visible Glory will\ncover the earth as the waters cover the sea! All hail! Oh blessed,\nblessed Lord!\n\nAnd we do need to consider all these precious predictions, so\nnumerous in the Scriptures, the prophecies of His Glory. The God of\nthis age Satan is unfolding the glories of this present age which is\nalmost at the end, with a skilful master hand. He knows how to blind\nthe eyes not only of those who believe not, but of many who are\nChristians. He makes everything so attractive and many of God's\npeople have fallen into his snares. We need to look through the Word\nof God upon the brightness of His Glory, the glorious things to\ncome, so that our eyes may be blinded to the miserable playthings of\nthe dust, which the fire of God's vengeance will ere long consume.\nWe need these glorious visions of the great realities so that we can\ngo forward with joyfulness to suffer, be rejected of men and bear\nthe bright and blessed testimony, the Father expects from His\nbeloved children. Take up the watchword of the last days! _True to\nChrist--all in Christ--all for Christ--Onward to Glory._ Soon He\nwill call us into His glorious presence.\n\n\"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not\nworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us\"\n(Rom. viii:18).\n\n\"For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh a far\nmore exceeding and eternal weight of glory\" (2 Cor. v:17).\n\n   Oh what will be the day when won at last\n      The last long weary battle, we shall come\n   To those eternal gates the King hath passed,\n      Returning from our exile to our Home;\n   When earth's last dust is washed from off our feet;\n      The last sweat from our brows is wiped away;\n   The hopes that made our pilgrim journey sweet\n      All met around us, realized that day!\n\n   Oh what will be the day, when we shall stand\n      Irradiate with God's eternal light;\n   First tread as sinless saints the sinless land,\n      No shade nor stain upon our garments white;\n   No fear, no shame upon our faces then,\n      No mark of sin--oh joy beyond all thought!\n   A son of God, a free-born citizen\n      Of that bright city where the curse is not!\n\n\n\nThe Exalted One.\n\n\nHebrews i.\n\n\nSOME thirty-five years ago, when the so-called \"Higher Criticism\"\nhad begun its destructive work, a believer living in England,\npredicted that within thirty years the storm would gather over one\nsacred head. How this has come true! Satan's work of undermining the\nauthority of the Bible, a pernicious work still going on, is but the\npreliminary to an attack of the Person of Christ. To-day as never\nbefore the glorious Person of our Lord is being belittled in the\ncamp of Christendom. This is done not only in the out and out\ndenials of His Deity but also in more subtle ways. It is for us who\n\"deny not His Name\" (Revel. iii:8), whose desire is to exalt Him,\never to remind ourselves of the Blessed One and His Glory. At this\ntime we desire to look briefly at the teachings of the first chapter\nin Hebrews.\n\nThis chapter is divided into two parts. In the first part we find\nanother great description of our adorable Lord, and in the second a\ndescription of His exaltation. The beginning of the chapter gives us\nthat solid assurance that God has spoken and that the Old Testament\nis His Word. \"God having spoken in many parts and in many ways\nformerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days\nhas spoken to us in (the person of the) Son.\" The Old Testament\nScriptures are the inspired Word of God; at last God spake in Son,\nas it is in the Greek. The Old Testament announced that God would\nspeak in the person of the Son. For this reason it is impossible to\ndeny the authority of the Old Testament without denying the\nauthority of Lord Jesus Christ. The written and the living Word\nstand and fall together.\n\nThis is followed by a description of Himself. Seven things are\nmentioned concerning our Lord.   1. Heir of all Things.   2. By whom\nHe made the worlds.   3. The Brightness of God's Glory.   4. The\nExpress image of His Person.   5. The Upholder of all Things.   6.\nHe has purged our sins.   7. He sat down at the right hand of the\nMajesty on high. What wonderful seven things these are! Oh that we\nwould meditate more on each, how it would strengthen our faith and\ndeepen our fellowship with Him. It would give us victory when the\nhosts of the enemy press upon us. Our defeat is the result of losing\nsight of the object of our faith, Christ.\n\nWe also can divide the description of our Lord in the first chapter\nof Hebrews into three parts.   1. He is the Son of God in eternity;\nOne with the Father, essentially and absolutely God. This is found\nin these great statements \"By whom He made the worlds; who being the\nbrightness of His Glory and the express image of His person, and\nupholding all things by the Word of His power.\" This could never be\nsaid of a creature of God. Our Lord is the Creator Himself, the\nexpress image of the person of God, the one who upholds all things.\nWhat it all means! What a Lord we have! All this harmonizes with the\ndescription of His Person in Colossians.\n\n2. He is the Son of God in incarnation. This is found in the\nfollowing sentence \"When He had Himself purged out sins\" or as it is\nliterally \"Having made by Himself the purification of sins.\" For\nthis great purpose He entered His own world. The mighty Creator, the\neternal Son of God, the Holy One is our Redeemer. As Son of God He\nwalked on the earth in the Spirit of holiness, the holy, spotless\nOne, God manifested in the flesh. And this wonderful Being was made\nSin for us, went as the willing sacrifice to the cross. Oh what a\nrecord! \"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who\nwhen reviled, reviled not again: when suffering threatened not; . .\n. . . . . who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, . . . .\nby whose stripes ye have been healed.\" What a foundation for our\nfaith, what assurance! He Himself has accomplished the work for us\nand has made peace in the blood of His cross. He only could do it.\n\n3. The Son of God in resurrection. \"He sat down on the right hand of\nthe Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels as He\nhath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.\" And\nin verse 2 we read \"Whom He (God) hath appointed heir to all\nthings.\"\n\nAll this is spoken of Him who had died on the cross and who raised\nfrom the dead as glorified Man is at the right hand of the majesty\non high. What He is in that resurrection Glory we shall be with Him.\nHis Love does not stop short of this. The Glory the Father gave to\nHim, He has given to us. He is the image of the invisible God,\nbecause He is God. His redeemed people shall be transformed into His\nimage, that He might be the first born among many brethren. What a\nthought this is! We shall image Him forth in all eternity, as He\nimages the invisible God. Into what depths we gaze!\n\nThen in the second part of this chapter we find a description of His\nexaltation and Glory. The Holy Spirit shows this marvelous theme\nfrom His Word. He quotes from seven Psalms, that book which is one\nof the most attacked in the present day. The Holy Spirit gives us a\nkey in these quotations how we should look for Christ in the Psalms.\nWhat wickedness in face of such Scriptures to deny the messianic\nprophecies contained in the Psalms. The Psalms quoted are the\nfollowing: \"The ii; lxxxix (2 Sam. vii:14); xcvii; civ; xlv; cii and\ncx.\" They reveal His Glory and in what His future Glory will exist.\nAnd we shall share that exaltation with Him. We are destined to be\nHis Co-heirs. We shall rule with Him and shall be priests with Him.\nHe is higher than the angels in His resurrection Glory. He was made\na little lower than the angels that He could take us with Himself\ninto that place above the angels. All Glory and Praise to His Holy\nName. We worship and adore Thee, Thou Son of God, our Saviour and\nLord! What Glory awaits us! What dignity is ours! Oh, child of God,\nyou need just this one thing, to know Him better, to have the Holy\nSpirit make Christ and the things of Christ, the future Glory more\nreal to your souls. Let Him do it. And soon we shall be with Him.\n\n   Lamb of God, Thy faithful promise\n      Says, \"Behold, I quickly come;\"\n   And our hearts, to Thine responsive,\n      Cry, \"come, Lord, and take us home.\"\n   Oh, the rapture that awaits us\n      When we meet Thee in the air,\n   And with Thee ascend in triumph,\n      All Thy deepest joys to share!\n\n\n\nA Glorious Vision.\n\n\nTHE Epistle to the Hebrews, this profound and blessed portion of the\nHoly Scriptures, unfolds a most wonderful vision of the Person, the\nGlory and the great Redemption work of our adorable Lord. The\nportion of the Epistle which is the richest in this respect is the\nSecond Chapter. Here is a vista for the eyes of faith which is\nsublime. Our Lord in His Person, in His humiliation and exaltation,\nin His suffering and glory, stands out in a way which makes the\nbelieving heart rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of Glory. What\nHe has accomplished for us, His present place in Glory and\nintercessory work, His future and dominion over the earth, all are\nmentioned by the Holy Spirit in this brief chapter. His humiliation\nby incarnation is mentioned in these words \"Thou madest Him a little\nlower than the angels.\" \"Forasmuch, then as the children are\npartakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of\nthe same.\" And He is the One \"by whom are all things\" (verse 10).\n\nHis suffering and death and its blessed results are given in this\nchapter. \"By the grace of God He should taste death for every man.\"\n\"That through death He might destroy him that had the power of\ndeath, that is the devil.\" He made \"reconciliation for sins of the\npeople.\"\n\nWe read of the gracious relations into which all believing sinners\nare brought in virtue of His work on the cross. \"For both He that\nsanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which\ncause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.\" It is that blessed,\ndeep, eternal relationship of being One with Him and One with God.\nThen we find here His presence as Man in Glory. \"But we see Jesus,\nwho was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of\ndeath crowned with glory and honor.\"\n\nIn that attitude He is now \"the merciful and faithful high Priest.\"\n\"For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to\nsuccor them that are tempted.\"\n\nThe ultimate result of His work is also stated. He is \"bringing many\nsons unto glory.\" And that glory will be His own glory. Not only now\nbut in that future day of glory He will declare \"Behold I and the\nchildren, which God hath given me.\"\n\nFurthermore we have the fact of His earthly dominion, that He is to\nhave possession of the earth. \"The world to come,\" that is the\nhabitable earth, not heaven, is to be put in subjection under Him.\n\"Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet.\" All these\nblessed truths are stated in this chapter of Hebrews.\n\nIn regard to a subdued earth we read: \"But now we see not yet all\nthings put under Him.\" That was true when the Holy Spirit penned\nthese words. This is still true and it will be true until the Father\nbringeth in the First begotten into the world, when not alone all\nthe angels of God will worship Him (Heb. i:6), but when God will\nmake His enemies the footstool of His blessed feet (Psalm cx:1).\n\nHowever this coming triumph for Him who was made a little lower than\nthe angels is not the glorious vision of this chapter. It is time by\nfaith we may behold the glorious consummation as revealed in the\nprophetic Word, but here another vision for our present rejoicing\nand present help is put before us. While we see not yet all things\nput under His feet \"we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than\nthe angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor.\"\n\nThis is the great vision for the present. This is what the Holy\nSpirit wants us to behold more than anything else. Of Stephen it is\nwritten: \"He being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly\ninto heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the\nright hand of God\" (Acts vii:55). And whenever the Holy Spirit fills\nus He will direct the vision of the eyes of our heart to Him who was\nmade a little lower than the angels and who is now in heaven crowned\nwith glory and honor. And only the _power_ of the Holy Spirit\nfilling us can make this great fact and vision a reality.\n\nBut what does this glorious vision mean to _us?_ What does it teach\nus? Oh, much more than the weak pen of the writer can tell out.\n\nThe blessed One who is there crowned with glory and honor is the One\nwho was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of\ndeath; He bore our sins on the cross and died for us. What a\nblessed, blessed proof then it is, as we behold Him there, that our\nsins are completely and forever gone!\n\nBut more than that. In seeing Him there we behold ourselves. The\ndeliverer of our souls at the right hand of God, the second man,\ncrowned with glory and honor, is the pattern and forerunner of all\nwho belong to Him and whom He is not ashamed to call brethren. Grace\nhas raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the\nheavenlies in Christ Jesus (Eph. ii:5, 6).\n\nOur eternal destiny, beloved in the Lord, is to be like Him, with\nHim and to share His marvelous inheritance as His co-heirs. That\nglorious vision is the evidence of our coming glory, when we shall\nbe transformed into His image that He might be the firstborn among\nmany brethren. As we gaze in the Spirit on Him who is crowned with\nglory and honor we can see ourselves.\n\nAnd as the age darkens, as the Laodicean state becomes more\nprevalent, temptations and snares increase, the enemy's powers and\nactivities more marked, we need to open our eyes and hearts wider,\nto take in the vision of our blessed head in Glory. Only in this way\ncan we be kept in these evil days. The only way of spiritual\nprogress, spiritual enjoyment, spiritual worship is to \"behold as in\na glass the glory of the Lord,\" and beholding that glorious vision\nwe \"are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by\nthe Spirit of the Lord\" (2 Cor. vii:18).\n\nThis glorious vision will keep us in the place of separation. It\nwill make us heavenly-minded and produce in our lives the practical\nresults of the cross of Christ \"crucified unto the world and the\nworld crucified unto me.\" Why do real Christians, who know the truth\nand even know and speak of His Second Coming go along with the world\nand delight in its ways? It is because the heart is departed from\nChrist and has lost sight of the blessed and glorious vision. Years\nago a saint of God, who is now present with the Lord, made the\nfollowing statement:\n\n\"It sometimes happens that Christians have got so far away from\nChrist in heart, that they become engrossed in the affairs of this\nlife, and some can even visit and enjoy the poor empty, tinselled\nshows of this world's vanity. What could be more lamentable? They\nforget that _death's stamp_ is deeply graven on everything this side\nof resurrection. But such actions clearly prove that the heart must\nhave been away from Christ for some time.\"\n\nReader! if this means you return unto thy rest. Arise now and seek\nHis face and behold your Saviour, who was made a little lower than\nthe angels crowned with glory and honor.\n\nMay all our hearts, dear children of God, cry out with him, who knew\nHim so well, the prisoner of the Lord \"That I may know _Him_, and\nthe power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,\nbeing made conformable unto His death\" (Phil. iii:10). Soon we shall\nknow Him and all His glory.\n\n   I see a Man at God's right hand,\n      Upon the throne of God,\n   And there in seven-fold light I see\n      The seven-fold sprinkled blood;\n   I look upon that glorious Man,\n      On that blood-sprinkled throne;\n   I know that He sits there for me,\n      The glory is my own.\n\n   The heart of God flows forth in love,\n      A deep eternal stream;\n   Through that beloved Son it flows\n      To me as unto Him.\n   And, looking on His face, I know--\n      Weak, worthless, though I be--\n   How deep, how measureless, how sweet,\n      That love of God to me.\n\n\n\nMy Brethren.\n\n\nOUR Lord Jesus Christ calls those for whom He died and who have\nbelieved on Him \"_My Brethren_.\" What a word it is! The Brethren of\nthe Man in Glory! Brethren of Him who is at the right hand of God,\nthe upholder and heir of all things! Pause for a moment, dear\nreader. Let your heart lay hold anew of this wonderful message of\nGod's Grace; Brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ! What depths of love\nand grace these words contain! What heights of glory they promise to\nus, who were bought by His own precious blood! His Brethren now; His\nBrethren forever. One with Him, one with His Father and His God.\nSharers of His life, sharers of His Spirit, sharers of His glory and\nHis inheritance. Blessed, glorious truth, He calls us His Brethren.\n\nIt is in the twenty-second Psalm where we find this truth revealed\nprophetically for the first time. That Psalm begins, as we have seen\nbefore, with the utterance of the deepest distress. It closes with\nthe shout of victory and of triumph. He who was forsaken of God on\nthe cross, the blessed sin bearer, has received glory. In the midst\nof the congregation, His redeemed people, He praises God, who has\ndelivered Him and who gave Him Glory. In God's own time, in the\ncoming day of His visible manifestation, all the ends of the world\nshall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the\nnations shall worship before Him. Then the Kingdom will be the\nLord's.\n\nHe who suffered on the cross was heard \"from the horns of the\nunicorn\" (Ps. xxii:21). Resurrection was the answer from God; the\npower of God raised Him from the dead. At once, after the great work\nhad been accomplished, there follows the triumphant declaration of\nHim whose voice had cried so bitterly in death, \"I will declare Thy\nName unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I\npraise Thee.\" And blessed was the fulfilment on that day of joy,\nwhen the tomb was empty and He had come forth, the risen Christ. To\nMary Magdalene He said on that glorious resurrection morning, \"But\ngo and tell _my brethren_, and say unto them, I ascend unto my\nFather and your Father, and to my God and your God\" (John xx:17).\nWhat joy must then have filled His loving heart. From His gracious\nlips there bursts forth a message such as He never gave to His own\nbefore His resurrection.\n\nThe great work on the cross had been accomplished, sin had been put\naway by the sacrifice of Himself. The Only Begotten of the Father,\nGod's holy Son, one with God, became Man; then passing through\ndeath, in which He fully glorified God, God raised Him from the\ndead. And now He gives the blessed results of His own work for those\nwho believe on Him. He has brought us into the same relationship\nwith His Father and His God, which He Himself holds, as the Man\nChrist Jesus, raised from the dead. His Father, the Father of our\nLord Jesus Christ, is our Father; His God is our God. And again we\npause as we write this. Let our hearts repeat it: \"My Father, your\nFather; my God, your God.\" He has brought us into fellowship with\nHis Father; He has brought us to God and the place He has with the\nFather and with God, is the place God's fathomless Grace has given\nto us. How little our hearts take it in! How little reality we\npossess of all this! And yet He wants us to enjoy it as He enjoys\nthe fulness of joy in His Father's and His God's own presence. May\nthe Holy Spirit work in us unhindered, that through His power we may\nlay hold in faith of this mighty truth and have it as a _practical\npower_ in our daily lives. My Father, your Father; my God, your God\nand Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me, Christ, who loveth\nus, is with His Father and His God. In such relationship, brought to\nthe Father and to God through the Lord Jesus Christ and kept there\nby His own Grace and Power, how happy we should be.\n\nAnd because we possess now in virtue of Christ's work this blessed\nrelationship, He owns us joyfully as His brethren. Hebrews ii:11-12\nputs this more fully before our hearts: \"For both He that\nsanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one; for which\ncause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Saying, I will\ndeclare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I\nsing praise unto Thee.\" The Lord Jesus Christ is He that sanctifieth\nand they that are sanctified by His great work and are in Him, are\nbelieving sinners, reconciled to God by His blood. Both He that\nsanctifieth and we are all of One and this One is God, the Father.\nTherefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. It is true we\npossess this relationship with the Man in Glory, the Lord Jesus\nChrist, because we are born of God. We have eternal life, His own\nlife, and that makes us One with Him. But this is not the truth in\nview here. It is the truth that He has identified Himself with us\nand through His death and resurrection we are identified with Him.\nAnd what it means \"in the midst of the church will I sing praises\nunto Thee\" we shall not follow at this time.\n\nBut let us keep it before our hearts a little while longer. The Lord\nof Glory calls us \"My Brethren.\" He who is there in the Father's\nhouse, in the Father's presence and on the Father's throne is not\nashamed to call us brethren. He knows all about us. He knows all the\ndepths of sin in which we are by nature; that by nature we were\nenemies by wicked works and children of wrath, but He took it all\nupon Himself and has taken it out of the way and now He looks upon\nus and all who have accepted Him by personal faith as being one with\nHim and one with His Father; therefore He is not ashamed to call us\nbrethren. What a comfort it should be to our hearts! What joy it\nshould create in our souls! He Himself received from God, His\nheart's desire and the request of His lips (Ps. xxi:2). And all His\ndesire and request was in our behalf, that He might bring us, His\nmany sons, to glory. And now He rejoices in us, for we are His\ninheritance. He wants us to rejoice in Him and with Him in an\nunspeakable joy and full of glory. Our souls entering into all this\nand rejoicing with Him in His salvation, enjoying the comfort of it;\nthis honors Him and honors God.\n\nIt should end the discouragement and unbelief from which we so often\nsuffer. Though we are weak and erring, imperfect in all our ways,\nyet He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Such a fellowship and\nrelation into which we are brought once and, for all by the Son of\nGod, should, if accepted in faith, dispel any doubt about ourselves\nand free us from all gloom and discouragement. Alas! how dull we are\nnot to enter fully into the joy and comfort Grace has bestowed upon\nus!\n\nAnd then think of the dignity and honor which is ours. Sons of God\nwith Him; Heirs of God with Him; one with Him, perfectly identified\nwith the blessed One in God's presence. Therefore He is not ashamed\nto call us brethren. To walk worthy of the Lord is our calling; and\nworthy of the Lord we shall walk if we have the great fact of our\nfellowship with the Son of God as a reality before our souls. It is\na sad state to speak theoretically of our position in Christ, to\nknow all this with our intellects and not to manifest it in our\nlives and show forth the excellencies of Him, who has called us from\ndarkness into his marvellous light.\n\nHe is not ashamed to call us brethren. It should strengthen the love\nfor the brethren. Love one another. The weakest, the most imperfect\nbeliever, that one who appears to us so unlovable and so ignorant,\nis nevertheless owned by him. Just let us remember in looking upon\nall believers, that he is not ashamed to call them brethren, that no\nmatter where they belong, what their knowledge in the Scriptures\nmight be, they belong to Christ, and are equally beloved of God. How\nwe need it in a day when Satan goes about dividing the people of\nGod. Love for the brethren, a deep, real heart love, will possess us\nas our hearts feed upon the fact of our oneness with him and with\nHis Father and His God.\n\nHe is not ashamed to call them brethren. It will be an incentive to\nwitness for Him. Dishonored as He is, it falls upon us to honor Him\nby our personal witness. While in the Father's presence He sings and\nis the leader of the praises of His people, we must sing of Him here\nand utter His praise on earth. He is not ashamed of us; _how could\nwe ever be ashamed of Him?_ What an honor to speak His worth, to\ntell out, though in feeble way, His glory and exalt His name. And\nyet we must beware of an unscriptural familiarity with Him, which\nthe Holy Spirit does not sanction in the Scriptures. We must not\naddress Him, as it is so often done, as \"my brother,\" or other\nsentimental terms, which our pen is reluctant to repeat. In all this\nwe must not forget His dignity and glory. While He thus identified\nHimself with us and is not ashamed to call us brethren, He is\nnevertheless the holy Son of God, the Lord of all. As such we must\nadore and worship Him. Some blessed day we shall be just like Him.\nWe are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that\nHe might be the first born among many brethren (Rom. viii:29). That\nwill be in the glorious day when we shall meet Him face to face. \"We\nknow that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall\nsee Him as He is\" (John iii:2). What it all will mean? What day of\njoy and triumph for Him, when He stands as the leader of all whom\nthe Father has given unto Him, when all according to His prayer will\nbe the sharers of His Glory. Then He will be glorified in His saints\nfor they will bear His image and reflect His glory. What a destiny!\nLike Him and with Him. And this future of perfect conformity to the\nLord Jesus Christ and possession of the wonderful inheritance,\nwhich, in its riches we cannot grasp now with out finite minds, is\nrapidly approaching. How soon it may burst upon us!\n\nOh, friends, beloved in the Lord! Do we all enjoy this now in faith?\nIs it so that the Lord Jesus Christ becomes daily more real and\nprecious to us? Do we live in the power of all this?\n\n\n\nThe Patience of Christ.\n\n\n\"BUT the Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and into the\n_Patience of Christ_\" (2 Thess. iii:5). With these words Paul\nexhorted the Thessalonian believers. They had many trials and\ndifficulties. They suffered persecutions and were troubled. False\nalarms had affected their patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.\nThe inspired exhortation puts before their hearts the Patience of\nChrist. Comfort and joy, encouragement and peace, would surely come\nto their hearts and strengthen them, if they remembered and entered\ninto the Patience of Christ.\n\nAnd who can describe or speak fully and worthily of the Patience of\nour blessed Lord! It includes so much. All His moral Glory and\nDivine perfections are concealed and revealed in this Word. The word\npatience has a wide meaning. It means more than we generally express\nby it. Submission, endurance in meekness, waiting in faith,\nquietness, contentment, composure, forebearance, suffering in\ncalmness, calmness in suffering; all and more is contained in the\none word, Patience. And such patience in all its fulness and\nperfection the Son of God exhibited in His earthly life. Whenever we\nlook in the Gospels, we behold this calm, quiet, restful patience.\nHis whole life here on earth is but a continued record of patience.\nIn patience His childhood was spent, and when in His twelfth year\nthe Glory of His Deity flashed forth we read \"He went down with\nthem, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them.\" In patience,\nHe whose mighty power had called the universe in existence, toiled\non, content in Nazareth, submissive to the Father, till after many\nyears the day would come, when the work He had come to do should be\nbegun and finished. To describe that Patience during His public\nministry from Nazareth, where He had been brought up, to Golgotha,\nwould necessitate a close scrutiny of every step of the way, every\nact and every utterance which came from His holy lips. What\ndiscoveries of His Grace and moral Glory we make, if under the\nguidance of His Spirit we meditate on His life here below. Humility\nand submission under God, patient waiting on Him, utter absence of\nall haste, perfect calmness of soul and every other characteristic\nof perfect patience, we can trace constantly in that wonderful life.\nWhat patience is revealed in the forty days in the wilderness, when\nHe hungered and was with the wild beasts (Mark i:13). When Satan\ntempted Him and asked for stones to be made bread, He exhibited\nstill His patience. In His service, that marvellous service rendered\nby the perfect servant, no ambitiousness or ostentatiousness can\never be discovered. He pleased not Himself but Him who sent Him. He\nwas constantly going about doing the Father's will. His kindness and\nlove were rewarded by rejection and insults, yet no complaint or\nmurmur ever came from His lips. He was always trusting in God,\nperfectly calm, perfectly satisfied.\n\nAnd how His patience shines out in dealing with men. What patience\nHe had with His disciples and how He bore with them in love. They\nwere slow learners. What patience and tenderness in his conversation\nwith her, whom He had sought, the woman at Samaria's well. And\ngreatest above all His patience in suffering. He endured the cross.\nWhen He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He\nthreatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth\nrighteously. (1 Pet. ii:23). He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,\nyet He opened not His mouth; He was brought as a lamb to the\nslaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened\nnot His mouth. All the buffetings, shame, dishonors, griefs, pains\nand sorrows He patiently endured. Oh! the patience of Christ, who\nfor the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame!\n\nAnd into this patience of Christ our hearts are to be directed. It\nis to be the object of our contemplation and to be followed by us,\nwho belong to Him. The patience of Christ must be manifested in our\nlives. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also\nsuffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His\nsteps. His humility, submissiveness, contentment, calmness, patience\nin endurance, in doing and suffering the will of God, must be\nreproduced in our lives. But how little we know of it in reality.\nImpatience is the leading characteristic of the closing days of this\npresent evil age. It is alas! but too prominently seen among God's\npeople who are influenced by the present day currents. How little\ntrue waiting on the Lord and for the Lord is practiced! How much\nreaching out after the things which are but for a moment and which\nwill soon perish! In consequence there is but little enjoyment of\nthat which is the glorious and eternal portion of the Saints of God.\nHow great the haste and hurry of present day life! How little\nquietness and contentment! In suffering and loss, murmurings,\nfault-finding and words of forced resignation are more frequently heard\nthan joyful songs of praise. Unrest instead of rest, discontent\ninstead of contentment, anxiety instead of simple trust, self\nexaltation instead of self abnegation, ambitiousness instead of\nlowliness of mind are found on all sides among those who name the\nname of Christ and who carry His Life in their hearts. And why? Your\nheart, dear reader, is so often out of touch with Christ. You lose\nsight of Him. His Spirit is grieved and in consequence there is\nfailure and the impatience of the flesh. Return, oh my soul, unto\nthy rest! Direct, O Lord, our hearts into the Patience of Christ.\n\nThe Patience of Christ. He is still the patient Christ. Rejected by\nthe world He has taken His place upon the Father's throne. There He\nwaits until His enemies are made His footstool. Long ago, in our\nhuman reckoning, He entered there. Long ago the Father said to Him,\n\"Ask of Me and I will give Thee the heathen for thine inheritance,\nand the uttermost part of the earth for Thy possession\" (Ps. ii:8).\nUp to now He has not yet asked the Father. When He asks it will mean\njudgment for this world. In infinite patience He has waited and\nwaited in the presence of God. And all this time He has carried on\nHis work as the Priest and Advocate of His people who live on earth.\nWith what tenderness and patience He has dealt with all who lived in\nthe past centuries. His mighty power kept them and now they are at\nhome with Him. The same patience He manifests towards us. How often\nwe have failed Him and walked in the flesh instead of walking in the\nSpirit. We came to Him and confessed and then we found Him so loving\ntowards us. But ere long we failed again and in His loving patience\nHis arms were again around us. And thus a hundred times. He changeth\nnot. He is the same loving, patient Lord towards His own in Glory as\nHe was on earth. \"He shall not be discouraged,\" the prophet\ndeclared. Even so His Patience knows no discouragement.\n\nIn all the dishonor done to His holy, worthy Name, He endures\npatiently. He is silent to all what is done by His enemies. The\nPatience of Christ. May the Lord grant us His Patience. John said to\nhimself, \"I am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the\nkingdom and _patience_ of Jesus Christ\" (Rev. i:9). To that kingdom\nand Patience of Jesus Christ of which John speaks of belonging we\nbelong. The martyrs belonged to it. Afflictions, persecutions and\nsufferings were their part. They are ours. In humility, in\nendurance, unflinching courage, in the patience of Christ, let us\nsuffer with Him, share His reproach until His Glory is revealed.\n\n\n\nHe Shall Not Keep Silent.\n\n\nTHE heavens have long been silent. It is one of the leading\ncharacteristics of this present age, the closed, the silent heavens.\nBut they will not be silent forever. \"Our God shall come and shall\nnot keep silence\" (Ps. i:3). In His divine Patience the Lord has\nbeen at the right hand of God for nearly two thousand years. He will\nnot occupy that place forever. It is not His permanent station to be\nupon the Father's throne. He has the promise of His own throne,\nwhich He as the King-Priest must occupy. Nearly two thousand years\nhave gone since He passed through the heavens and during that time\nHe has been rejected by the world. Every possible dishonor, insult\nand shame has been heaped upon His holy head through the\ninstrumentality of the enemy, the devil. Never before has the\nrejection of the Man in Glory been so pronounced, so radical, so\nblasphemous as now. Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ are\nconstantly seized by an unspeakable grief on account of these awful\ndenials of the Christ of God and an horror as well. And still He\npatiently waits. But He will not always wait. His Patience will some\nday be exhausted. He will pray His unprayed prayer in Glory and ask\nof the Father the nations and the uttermost parts of the earth. The\nFather will then send the Firstborn back to this earth. When He\ncomes in visible Glory to this earth it will mean the day of\nvengeance. The vengeance of God will fall upon His enemies. All the\nChrist rejecters, the wicked men and women who received not the love\nof the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, the enemies of\nthe cross of Christ, though they lived amiable lives (one of Satan's\npet phrases), will meet Him not as the patient lamb, but the Judge,\nthe lion of the tribe of Judah. What will it be when His Patience is\nended? What will it be when the kingdom and the Patience of Jesus\nChrist give way to the kingdom and Glory of Jesus Christ? Rapidly\nthe day is nearing when the Lord Jesus Christ will be completely\nrejected. As long as the true church is still here this complete\nrejection is an impossibility. But the church will some day leave\nthis earth. Then conditions are ripe for the complete rejection of\nthe Christ and the reception of Antichrist who will then appear. And\nwhen the beast is worshipped (Rev. xiii) and the world defies God\nand His anointed as never before, when the nations of apostate\nChristendom stand in battle array (Rev. xix:19), then He will come\nas the King whose patience is ended and claim His Kingdom. What will\nit mean when His Patience is ended? Who can describe it? What\njudgments will fall then upon a wicked world and be meted out upon\nthe enemies of Christ? The day of vengeance is rapidly approaching.\nIt is the day of vengeance for the world. It is the day of the Glory\nof Christ. It is the day of the Glory of the Saints. It is the day\nof your Glory as a believer.\n\nLet us suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Let\nus be patient as long as He is patient. \"Be ye also patient;\nestablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.\nGrudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned;\nbehold the Judge standeth before the door\" (James v:8, 9).\n\nIn His Patience pray for the unsaved. Preach the Gospel, give out\nthe Gospel, send the Gospel, give for the Gospel, live the Gospel. A\nlittle while longer and His patience will end.\n\n   Trusting in the Lord thy God,\n         Onward go.\n   Holding fast His faithful word,\n         Onward go.\n   Not denying His worthy name,\n   Though it brings reproach and shame,\n   Spreading still His wondrous fame,\n         Onward go.\n\n   Has He said the end is near?\n         Onward go.\n   Serving Him with holy fear,\n         Onward go.\n   Christ thy portion, Christ thy stay--\n   Heavenly bread upon the way,\n   Leading on to glorious day--\n         Onward go.\n\n\n\nThe Love of Christ.\n\n\nTHE Patience of Christ was recently the object of our meditation in\nthese pages. Blessed and inexhaustible it is. And now a still\ngreater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart\nalmost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless,\nunfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints\nof God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never\ntold out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. \"The\nLove of Christ which passeth knowledge\" (Ephesians iii:19). And yet\nwe _do_ know the Love of Christ. While we cannot fully grasp that\nmighty, eternal Love our hearts can enjoy it and we can ever know\nmore of it. And He Himself whose Love is set upon us wants us to\ndrink constantly of the ocean of His never-changing Love and receive\nnew tokens, new glimpses of it. Surely His own blessed Spirit,\nthough one feels so insufficient for such an object, will guide us\nin our meditation. He is with us and in us to glorify Him and take\nof the things of Christ to show them unto us. The Love of Christ,\nthe Holy Spirit ever longs to make known and to impart to our poor\nand feeble hearts.\n\nThe Love of our Lord is an eternal Love. It is not a thing of time.\nIt antedates the foundation of the world.\n\n   \"His gracious eye surveyed us\n   Ere stars were seen above.\"\n\nHe as the Son of God in the bosom of God was the object of Love.\n\"Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world\" (John xvii:\n24). And then He knew us and His Love was even then set upon us,\nbefore we ever were in existence. He knew our sinfulness, our\nenmity, our vileness, and in Love which passeth knowledge He looked\nforward to the time, when He would manifest this Love to us His\nfallen creatures. \"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is\nhigh I cannot attain unto it\" (Psalm cxxxix:6).\n\nIt was Love which brought Him down from the Glory, which He had with\nGod. What Love to come into this dark, sin-cursed world, a world\nfull of enemies. What Love to leave that bright and glorious home\nand appear as man, made of a woman entering this world He had called\ninto existence. And there was no room for Him in the inn. It passeth\nknowledge.\n\nAnd then that life, which He lived on earth, was lived in that\nmighty Love.\n\n   \"A love that led Thee here below\n   To tread a lonely path in grace,\n   To pass through sorrow, grief and woe,\n   The portion of a ruin'd race.\"\n\nWhat Love we see in Him, in every step of that lonely path! What\ncompassion, what tenderness in every action in every word we\ndiscover, ever new and fresh, in that blessed life of God's\nunspeakable gift. Wherever we look we behold that Love. Loving\ncompassion rested upon the multitudes; with Love He compassed the\npoor, the sinful, the oppressed, the heartsick and the outcast. Love\ncarried the weak and failing men, who had believed on him, His\ndisciples. A blessed word it is, which stands in the beginning of\nthe thirteenth chapter in the Gospel of John. \"Having loved His own\nwhich were in the world, He loved them unto the end.\" His Love for\nHis own was expressed by serving them. He pleased not Himself but\nhad come to minister. He then girded Himself and began to wash the\ndisciples' feet. What humiliation! Yet it was the fruit of Love. All\nHe did was born of Love. His was on earth a constant, a never-tiring,\nan enduring Love. All the selfishness of His disciples could\nnot quench that Love. Nothing could quench His Love for His own.\nNothing will ever quench it. Peter denied Him. \"And the Lord turned\nand looked upon Peter\" (Luke xxii:61). Was it a look of reproach?\nWas it a frown of displeasure which Peter saw in that beloved face?\nFar from it. Love in its divine perfection shone out of the eyes of\nthe Son of God. And after His resurrection that Love was still the\nsame. There was no reproach connected with the restoration of Peter\nto service. In the greatest tenderness and Love He committed to His\ndisciple, who had so shamefully denied Him, the lambs and sheep so\ndear to His own loving heart.\n\nAgain we say, that Love passeth knowledge. How could man's\nimagination and invention ever have produced such a loving Person as\nour Lord, revealing the perfection of divine Love!\n\nBut there is greater Love than the Love which we behold in His\nblessed Life on earth. The greater Love is manifested when He laid\ndown His life. He came into the world to die, to be the propitiation\nfor our sins. He came to take our place on the cross. He came to\ndrink the cup of wrath in our stead and suffer the awful penalty of\nour sins.\n\n\"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for\nthe ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet\nperadventure for a good man some would even dare to die. _But God\ncommendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,\nChrist died for us_.\"\n\nGod in Love gave thus His Son, and He gave Himself in Love. From\nshame to shame, from suffering to suffering, from pain to pain and\nagony to agony that Love went on to plunge into the deepest sorrow,\nto reach at last the place where His loving lips had to cry \"My God,\nMy God, why hast Thou forsaken me?\"\n\n   \"To death of shame Thy love did reach,\n      God's holy judgment then to bear;\n   Ah, Lord, what human tongue can teach\n      _Or tell the love that brought Thee there_.\"\n\nAh! what human tongue can teach or tell the Love that brought Thee\nthere! It passeth knowledge. But with loving, praising hearts, in\nworship and adoration we can look up to that cross on which the\nPrince of Glory died and say with Paul, \"He loved me, He gave\nHimself for me.\" And again we join with the innumerable hosts of His\nown redeemed in the Glory song. \"Unto Him that loveth us and washed\nus from our sins in His own blood and hath made us Kings and priests\nunto God and His Father, to Him be Glory and dominion forever.\nAmen.\" And beloved reader, that Love which knew you and us all\nbefore we ever existed, that Love which came from Glory for you,\nthat Love which went into the jaws of death, endured the cross and\ndespised the shame, that Love which gave so willingly, gave as we\ncan never give, that Love is still the same. It changes not. His\nLove knows no fluctuations. That perfect Love cannot grow cold or\nindifferent. We all had our first love; when first we saw Him with\nthe eyes of faith, how our hearts were enraptured. How soon that\nLove began to grow cold and decreased instead of increased. Then our\nwalk and service became affected for thus it must ever be when the\nheart is not responding to His Love and not in living, loving touch\nwith Himself. Oh! the weeks and months and years of our Christian\nexperience spent without the full enjoyment of His Love and\nPresence. But has this changed His Love? Has our unfaithfulness, our\nwaywardness, our failure and backsliding affected His Love? No. He\nis the same loving Lord, the same loving Christ who has borne us and\nyearned over us, who has prayed for us and kept us. Whenever we turn\nto Him with broken hearts, confessing our sins, when in shame we\nhide our faces and tell Him all our failures, we find Him still the\nsame loving Lord as He was when His loving eyes rested upon Peter.\nOh! how He must love us! How He must love us, with that Love which\npasseth knowledge. What treasures that Love contains! Exhaustless it\nis ever flowing full and free towards His own.\n\nHow it must grieve Him to see us so indifferent, neither hot nor\ncold. How it must grieve Him that we enjoy this Love so little that\nwe permit that Love so little to serve us and give Him so little\nopportunity to manifest His mighty Love towards us. Alas! We even\nmistrust that Love. When suffering and loss overtake us, when\ninstead of prosperity adversity is our lot, we doubt that Love.\nFears and anxieties are nothing less than an impeachment of the\nLove, which passeth knowledge. His Love will never fail. He will see\nus safe home. Let the forces of the enemy roar, let trials and\ntroubles come, His Love will keep us. His Love is our eternal\nportion.\n\n\"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor\nprincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,\nnor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to\nseparate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our\nLord.\"\n\nAnd soon He will have us with Himself. The church He loved, for\nwhich He gave Himself, the church He sanctified by the washing of\nwater, this church He will present to Himself a glorious church\n(Eph. v:24-27). Even while on earth He made known His loving\npurpose, for He prayed, \"The Glory, which Thou hast given me I have\ngiven to them.\"\n\nIt is His Love which will make us sharers of His own Glory and\nInheritance. What that Love will do then! How we shall drink deeper\nof that Love, than we ever could drink here! Oh the depths of the\nLove to be fathomed in all eternity! Oh the length and breadth and\nheight to be measured! It can never, no never be exhausted.\n\nO, child of God, is not thy poor wandering heart beginning to be\nwarmed? Is the warmth of His Love, the Love of Christ refreshing\nyour soul? Thank God for it. It is but a demonstration of His Love.\nAnd do we not want more of it? Do we not need it?\n\nAll our indifference, our cold heartedness, our prayerlessness, our\nself indulgences, our inactivity and all else which mars our\nChristian lives, is because we do not have the Love of Christ before\nour hearts. If we were constantly enjoying His Love and this mighty\nLove would constrain us, what self-sacrificing lives we would live!\nHow we would love one another and in love serve one another. What\npeace there would be among those of like precious faith. With a\nbetter heart knowledge of the Love of Christ, what joy would be ours\nin all trials and suffering and with what boldness we would approach\nthe throne of Grace and make constant use of our God-given\nprivilege, prayer.\n\nThe Love of Christ would lead us on and on in love for souls, in\nservice untiring, and yet the same Love too will make us long and\npray for His coming. Oh God our Father, grant unto us all and to all\nThy people throughout this world a greater, a deeper, a more real\nknowledge of the Love of thine ever blessed Son, the Love of Christ,\nand fill us through it with all the fulness of God.  Amen.\n\n\n\nThe Joy of the Lord.\n\n\nIT is written \"the joy of the Lord is your strength.\" Every child of\nGod knows in some measure what it is to rejoice in the Lord. The\nLord Jesus Christ must ever be the sole object of the believer's\njoy, and as eyes and heart look upon Him, we, too, like \"the\nstrangers scattered abroad\" to whom Peter wrote shall \"rejoice with\njoy unspeakable and full of glory\" (1 Pet. i:8). But it is upon our\nheart to meditate with our beloved readers on the joy of our\nadorable Lord, as his own personal joy. The Blessed One when His\nfeet walked on the earth spoke not only of \"My Peace,\" but He also\nspoke of \"My Joy.\" While He imparts peace and joy and is the peace\nand joy of our hearts, He also possesses His own Peace and His own\nJoy.\n\n\"The Joy of the Lord.\" There was a time \"when the morning stars sang\ntogether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy\" (Job xxxviii:7).\nIt was in the beginning when the heavens and the earth were created\nby Him, who is before all things and by whom all things consist, the\nSon of God. With what joy He must have beheld what was called into\nexistence by Him and for Him (Col. i:16). But even before the\nfoundation of the world He had joy. With God, in the bosom of the\nFather Love, Glory and Joy were His eternal portion. All was known\nto Him from the beginning. The fall of Satan, the fall of man\nthrough Satan, the entrance of sin with all its results, the cost\nprice of redemption, the suffering in the flesh on the cross for the\nredemption of the creature, the multitudes, whom no man can number,\nredeemed through His work, believing in Him, brought to God, united\nwith Him, Sons and Heirs with Him, the ultimate victory over all\nenemies, so that God would be \"all in all\"--all was known to Him.\n\nWhat joy must have filled Him when at His incarnation He announced,\n\"Lo I come to do Thy will O God\" (Heb. x:5, 6). And then He came and\ntook upon Himself the form of a servant, the first word the heavenly\nmessenger spoke, sent to the virgin to announce the incarnation, was\na word of joy. Never before had Gabriel been sent with such a\nmessage. \"Hail\" our English version has it; but the greeting means\n\"Joy\" or \"Oh the joy!\" And the angel later announced \"good tidings\nof great joy.\" And that blessed life which was lived upon earth to\nthe Glory of God, was a life which knew joy. All along the way from\nBethlehem to Golgotha He had joy before His heart. It is true He\nwept, He had sufferings, He was tempted, He was ill-treated, cast\nout, maligned, accused of evil and rejected, but joy filled His\nheart. His God and Father was His joy, yea, His exceeding joy. To do\nHis will, who had sent Him was His constant joy. His joy was to walk\nin confidence, in dependence on Him. His Father's love and delight,\nwhich rested upon Him were His joy. \"Whom have I in heaven but Thee?\nand there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee\" (Ps.\nlxxiii:25). This beautiful word must have been His constant\ndeclaration; and that is joy. \"I have set the Lord always before me\"\n(Ps. xvi:8) is another utterance of God's Spirit concerning the holy\nlife of God's well beloved Son. And that meant joy. The seventy He\nhad sent forth had returned again with joy, because the demons were\nsubject unto them. That is sinful man in carnal rejoicing! some\npower manifested, some great success fills our proud hearts with\njoy. But His words told them of a different joy. They were not to\nrejoice that the spirits submitted to them, but that their names\nwere written in heaven. \"In that hour Jesus _rejoiced_ in spirit,\nand said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that\nThou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and\nhast revealed them to babes; even so Father; for so it seemed good\nin Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no\nman knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is,\nbut the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Him\" (Luke x:21, 22).\nThus _He_ rejoiced. In the parable of the treasure in the field He\nspeaks of His joy. The man who has found the treasure, for joy\nthereof goeth and selleth all he hath, and buyeth that field ( Matt.\nxiii:44). The man in the parable is the Lord Himself and the field\nis the world. With joy He gave up all and came down here to buy us\nback. And all His suffering from man and from Satan, the\npersecutions He suffered from His own people to whom He came were\nborne by Him with joy. He told out His own blessed character in the\nbeatitudes and in speaking of those who are reviled and persecuted,\nHe said, \"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.\" Thus He must have borne\nit all with joy. And then the cross. The cross in which He who knew\nno sin was made sin for us. He was troubled in His holy soul when He\nlooked towards the cross (John xii:27). In the garden He saw the\ncross. \"And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His\nsweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the\nground\" (Luke xii:44). And yet it is written \"who for the joy that\nwas set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is\nset down at the right hand of the throne of God\" (Heb. xii:2). All\nthe suffering put upon Him by man, acting under satanic impulses and\nthe shame connected with the cross, He despised, the cross itself He\ncould not despise, but He endured that. The joy was that He saw and\nknew the full and glorious result of all His work He had come to do.\nHe saw then the travail of His soul and was satisfied. But in that\ncross there was that suffering, which is unfathomable. God's own\nhand rested upon Him. All His sorrowful complaints as predicted by\nHis own Spirit were then fulfilled. \"_Thou_ hast laid me in the dust\nof death.\" \"All _Thy_ waves and billows go over me.\" \"_Thine_ hand\nhas pressed me sore.\" \"_Thy_ wrath lieth hard upon me.\" \"_Thy_\nfierce wrath goeth over me.\" \"_Thou_ hast laid me in the lowest\npit.\" Thus He suffered from God--smitten and afflicted of God. It\npleased the Lord to bruise Him. Then from that cross there came that\nloud and triumphant cry when He gave His life \"It is finished!\" Oh!\nwhat joy must have filled then His soul, when He knew the work is\ndone, all is accomplished. And with equal joy God answered the cry\nof His well beloved Son, when He rent the veil from top to bottom.\n\nThe risen Lord in meeting His disciples greeted them, with the\ngreeting of joy, which Gabriel had used. \"All Hail\"--literally, _Oh\nthe joy!_ (Matt. xxviii:9.) What joy must then have filled His\nloving heart as He met His own again. Oh the joy! thus they had\nmocked Him when they crowned Him with a crown of thorns and bowed\nthe knee and in derision shouted \"All hail\"--\"Rejoice\"--\"King of\nthe Jews.\" But in the resurrection He shouts \"Oh the Joy!\" The\nvictory is won. Satan, Sin, Death and the Grave are vanquished. And\nwhat joy is His now! What joy will be His ere long! With a shout He\nwent up (Ps. xlvii:5). What a joy when He passed through the heavens\nand as the glorified man He entered the Holy of Holies! What a joy\nwhen the Father had the well beloved with Him again, and He took His\nseat at His own right hand. What joy for Him and the heavens when\nGlory and Honor was put upon Him and He was proclaimed throughout\nthe depths of the universe as Heir of all things! What joy! All\npower in heaven and on earth is His. Oh the joy! as sinners are\nsaved by Grace, whom He redeemed by His blood. And as His body is\nbuilding He rejoiceth as the bridegroom over the bride. In\nunspeakable joy He carrieth on His loving, tender, priestly work in\nbehalf of those for whom He died. His joy and delight, as well as\nHis love and His power is with them, who are His.\n\nBut there is greater joy in the future for Him, the Man in Glory.\nThough even now He _is_ \"anointed with the oil of gladness above all\nHis fellows.\" His joy will increase and be full in the future.\nAnother glad shout will be heard when he leaves the Father's throne\nand descends into the air. A shout of triumph and joy it will be,\nwhich will open the graves of the Saints, which will summon those\nwho remain to meet Him in the air. Oh the joy at last the travail of\nHis soul will be brought into His presence. Oh the joy! He will have\nus then and we will be with Him. With _exceeding joy_ He will\npresent us faultless before the presence of His Glory (Jud. 24). In\njoy and a glorious triumph He will bring many sons to glory. What\njoy it will be when He leads forth from heaven's glorious mansions,\nthose who are \"God's workmanship created by Christ Jesus!\" Then all\nthe world will know and angels shout once more for joy in the full\nand glorious revelation of the new creation.\n\nOh! the Joy for Him! when Israel cries out \"Blessed is He that\ncometh in the name of the Lord!\" Oh the joy! when creation sings her\nsongs of praise to Him, whose pierced hands have removed the curse.\nOh! the joy! when nations hear war no more but sing the worth of the\nKing of Kings and lay their gifts at His feet.\n\nIf we could measure all which was accomplished on Calvary's cross,\nthen we could also measure His joy, the joy of the Lord.\n\nReader! If you are saved by Grace, one with the Lord, then all this\nis yours. The joy in the Lord and the joy of the Lord is to be your\nportion now and in the day of His joy and glory. Murmuring,\ndiscouraged, tempted, complaining, bereaved, downhearted,\nhalfhearted child of God, ponder over these words. Let God's Spirit\nlead you into them. The joy of the Lord is to be your portion. It\nwill dispel your gloom. It will end your discouragement. It will\ngive you songs in the night. It will lift you into a holy walk. The\njoy of the Lord can do this. He wants you to possess His joy. \"These\nthings have I spoken unto you, and that your joy might be full\"\n(John xv:11). Let the Holy Spirit, who is given to you of God, make\nthe Lord Jesus Christ a greater reality in your life. Let the joy of\nthe Lord be your joy. Rejoice in God, the God and Father of our Lord\nJesus Christ. Let your joy be to do His will. Accept all from His\nhands. Rejoice in all things. \"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again\nI say, Rejoice\" (Phil. iv:4). Rejoice and glory in tribulation.\n\"Count it all joy when ye fall in divers temptations\" (James i:2).\nHaving Christ, brought nigh to God, a perfect access into His\npresence, yea the right to come with boldness, a rejoicing and\npraising spirit should be manifested by us.\n\nAnd look at the joy which is set before us. How it ought to lift us\nover all the present day trials and temptations and give us victory\nover the cares and anxieties, the pleasures and deceitful riches of\nthis present evil and fast closing age. \"Enter thou into the joy of\n_Thy_ Lord.\" This _is_ our blessed and glorious future. We shall\nshare His future joy as we shall share His glory. And it is but a\nlittle while longer and weeping, which endured for the night, will\ngive way to the _joy of the morning_.\n\n\n\n\"This Same Jesus.\"\n\n\n\"AND He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His\nhands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them,\nHe was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they\nworshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were\ncontinually in the temple, praising and blessing God\" (Luke xxiv:50-53).\nSomething else is reported in the first chapter in the book of\nActs in connection with the Return of our blessed Lord to the\nFather. \"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went\nup, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said,\nYe men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? _This same\nJesus_, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in\nlike manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven\". (Acts i:10-11).\nThis blessed message must have been the reason why they returned to\nJerusalem with _great_ joy. Instead of tears and sorrow at that\nparting there was joy, because they knew and believed that He who\nhad said \"I will come again and receive you unto myself,\" this same\nJesus would come for them. What a blessed truth it is that the same\nJesus, the same Lord who walked on earth, who spoke such words of\ninfinite love and tenderness, who wept, healed the sick, raised the\ndead and commanded the demons, who calmed the storm, who had gone to\nthe cross to die that awful death in our stead--that this same\nJesus, raised from the dead, is now in the presence of God for us\nand our Advocate with the Father. It is the same loving, tender,\ncaring, mighty Lord and Saviour, who is there and this same Jesus,\nnot another, will come again. The reality of this filled the\ndisciples with joy. They knew He had left them, they knew He lived\nand that He would come again. This knowledge gave them power to\nwitness and to walk in holiness. The reality of this fills still the\nbelieving heart with joy and leads as well as keeps in the blessed\nfaith life of fellowship with Himself, into which we have been\ncalled by the Grace of God. The heart of the believer under the\ncontrol of the Holy Spirit has but one desire. It is to know Him and\nknow Him better. Other desires for blessings may come up, but that\nlife which is in the believer ever reaches out after Himself who is\nour life. \"That I may know Him\" was the passion of that wonderful\nman, who knew Him so well (Phil. iii:10). And it is just heart\nknowledge of this same Jesus in His loveliness, His patience, His\npower, His glory, in all His blessed fullness, which we need the\nmost and through this all other needs are met.\n\nLook up then in faith, child of God, He who is altogether lovely,\nwhose perfect ways of love and grace, were so blessedly made known\nin His life down here, this same Jesus, with all the tenderness of\ninfinite love, the love that never grows cold, is with the Father.\nJesus Christ, the same, yesterday, to-day and forever. The disciples\nheard Him pray His great prayer before He went to the cross (John\nxvii). As they listened to His words addressed to the Father, they\nlearned as never before, how dear they all were to Him. How He loved\nthem, cared for them, what He had done for them, would continue to\ndo and what their future would be. And whenever we read these words\nin His high priestly prayer, we can hear Him still pray. We know\nthat love for us cannot change; that prayer to keep does not fail;\nthat concern, so deep and gracious, in all who belong to Him is\nunchanged, for it is \"this same Jesus,\" who intercedes for us, whose\nloving eyes watch our going in and our going out, our walk down\nhere.\n\nOh! for the reality of this! This same blessed Lord is with us, for\nus, above us. We can count on His unchanging love. We can count on\nHis power. The reality of the Person of our exalted Lord keeps us\ndown here. Oh, draw near, beloved reader, for it is your privilege,\nyour calling, to know Him and to enjoy Him. His heart is never\nsatisfied unless you drink deep of His love and you lie in blessed\ndependence at His feet. Have you failed Him? Are days, weeks,\nperhaps months of wandering your past, days in which you grieved\nHim? Return, oh return! it is \"this same Jesus\" who at the lake of\nTiberias so tenderly restored Peter and who waits for thy return.\n\nAnd \"this same Jesus\" comes again. If the joy was so great when He\nleft, because the heavenly messengers gave the good news that this\nsame Jesus is coming again, what will be the joy when he _does_\ncome! He comes as Saviour, which is the meaning of His blessed name.\n\"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the\nSaviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of\nhumiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body\"\n(Phil. iii:20-21). The glorious appearing of the great God and our\nSaviour Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us, will some day take\nplace. And when He comes into the air and gives the shout, He will\nbe \"this same Jesus.\" When we are caught up in clouds to meet Him in\nthe air we shall meet _Him_, the same blessed Person, who walked on\nthis earth, who died on the cross, who in His unchanging love kept\nand carried us and called us home. We shall see Him as He is. He\ncomes, this same Jesus, to take us to be with Him. What will be His\njoy then when all His blood-washed, redeemed people are at last with\nHim! Then this same Jesus who bore our sins in His own body on the\ntree will bestow upon us His glory, the glory the Father has given\nHim.\n\nReader! Is it even now before you such a living reality, this same\nJesus--is coming again; coming to take us all into the Father's\nhouse with its many mansions, to the place whose portals were opened\nwith His own blood! And how soon it may be that we shall see Him and\nbe with Him!\n\nIf an angelic message were brought to-day to all Christians, we said\nrecently in a meeting, and that message would state in terms\nunmistakably, one week more and the Lord Jesus Christ comes, one\nweek more and we shall see Him; what would be the result? We can\nimagine the eagerness with which all would begin to serve and reach\nout after the unsaved; what self-denials and boldness we would\nbehold! How all the earthly things, the childish things, the\nplaythings of the dust, would lose their attractiveness. Then\nheaven's glory would break upon us. But such a message is not\npromised to us. It is nowhere said that it will take place. No angel\nwill come to announce the time when \"this same Jesus\" comes to call\nus home. The fact is God has told us in His Word, that His ever\nblessed Son will come and that He will come suddenly. He may come\n_to-day_. He may call us home before another morning comes. And if\nwe believe it we shall walk in expectation and in separation. The\nLord graciously revive the blessed Hope in our hearts and through it\nmake us holy in our lives, zealous for the Gospel, untiring in\nservice and loving towards all the Saints.\n\n\n\nThe Wondrous Cross.\n\n\nWHO can tell out the story of the cross! There was a time when we\nthought we knew much of it; but oh! the depths, the wonderful depths\nof the cross and the work accomplished there, which constantly break\nin upon the heart, as one meditates on the cross. One who knew the\ncross, whose eyes were filled with all its glory, because He beheld\nHim, who hung on the cross, in highest glory has told us \"But God\nforbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the\nworld.\" Crucified unto the world. Dead to the world and to sin are\nthe blessed effects of the cross.\n\nSome time ago while remembering the Lord on the Lord's Day we sang a\nfamiliar hymn:\n\n   When we survey the wondrous cross\n      On which the Lord of glory died,\n   Our richest gain we count but loss,\n      And pour contempt on all our pride.\n\nHow true!--contempt must be poured on all our pride when one\nbeholds that sight, the cross on which the Lord of glory died. But\nis it so, \"and pour contempt on all our pride?\"\n\nAnd when we sang the second verse its truth came home still more to\nthe conscience:\n\n   Forbid it, Lord, that we should boast,\n      Save in the death of Christ, our God;\n   All the vain things that charm us most,\n      We'd sacrifice them to His blood.\n\nHow true! If such a one died to deliver us out of this present evil\nage then the vain things that charm us most, not the sinful things,\nmust be relinquished. But is it really so--all the vain things that\ncharm us most--we'd sacrifice them to His blood?\n\n   There from His head, His hands, His feet,\n      Sorrow and love flowed mingled down;\n   Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,\n      Or thorns compose so rich a crown?\n   Were the whole realm of nature ours,\n      That were an off'ring far too small;\n   Love that transcends our highest powers\n      Demands our soul, our life, our all.\n\nAnd then once more the heart said, How true! Marvelous sight the\nLord of Glory on that cross for me! Forsaken of God, paying the\npenalty of my sins, drinking the cup of wrath, untasted by me. Such\nlove surely demands our soul, our life, our all. But is it so? How\noften we sing these blessed truths and our lives are strangers to\nthem. God grant that we may live out the truth of the cross in our\nlives. May the deliverance, the victory, the power of His cross be\nmanifested in our lives. Dead to the world and the world dead to me.\n\n\n\nHis Legacy.\n\n\nBLESSED and ever precious are the words, which came from the lips of\nour loving Lord, before he went to the cross. His own were gathered\naround Him; before He ever comforted them and poured out His loving\nheart, He manifested that love by serving them. He arose from the\nsupper, laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.\nWhat a sight the Son of God girded! \"After that He poureth water\ninto a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe\nthem with the towel wherewith he was girded\" (John xiii:5). It was a\ngreat symbolical action. He who stooped so low to wash the feet of\nHis sinful creatures is the same who declared in the Old Testament\n\"Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with\nthine iniquities\" (Isaiah xliii:24). The washing typifies the\nservice our beloved Lord renders to His saints in cleansing them\nfrom defilement; it is \"the washing of water by the Word.\" And thus\nHe continues in loving service till at last all His redeemed people\nare brought home into the presence of the throne and \"the sea of\nglass like unto crystal\" (Rev. iv:6) where no more defilement is\npossible and no more washing is needed.\n\nMany and blessed are the words, which then flowed from His lips,\nafter Judas had gone out into the dark night. Only He could speak\nthus. Thousands upon thousands, countless multitudes have been fed\nupon His gracious, comforting words and have been strengthened and\nupheld. Their careful and refreshing power is undiminished. Like\nHimself His Words are eternal and inexhaustible. The Father's house\nwith its many mansions, the fact of His personal return, the gift of\nthe other Comforter, who came to abide with and in His own, the\npromises concerning prayer and assurance that the Father Himself\nloves them and many other precious truths were spoken by Him ere He\nleft the world to go to the Father. At that time He gave His blessed\nlegacy. \"_Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you_\" (John\nxiv:27). And the last word He spoke to His disciples before He\nuttered that marvelous high priestly prayer, contains also the\nassurance of peace. \"These things have I spoken unto you, that _in\nMe_ ye might have _peace_. In the world ye shall have tribulation;\nbut be of good cheer I have overcome the world\" (John xvi:33).\n\nThe adorable Lord came to this poor sin cursed earth, a world of\nsinners and enemies of God by wicked works to make peace. The great\nwork of reconciliation was effected on the cross. By His death on\nthe cross the enemies of God, believing in Him, became reconciled to\nGod. He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. i:20). As\nbelieving sinners we are justified and _have_ peace with God through\nour Lord Jesus Christ. Not our walk or service, not our faith or\nrepentance or anything we have done or are doing is the ground of\npeace with God, but what Christ has done for us. Yea He Himself is\nour peace. And because _He_ is our peace, it is a peace which can\nnever be undone or unsettled.\n\n   Oh, the peace forever flowing\n      From God's thoughts of His own Son!\n   Oh, the peace of simply knowing\n      On the cross that all was done!\n\n   Peace with God, the blood in heaven\n      Speaks of pardon now to me:\n   Peace with God! the Lord is risen!\n      Righteousness now counts me free.\n\nWhen all was finished, the mighty victory over sin, Satan, death and\nthe grave had been gained, when every foe had been met and fully\nconquered, the blessed victor appeared in the midst of His beloved\ndisciples. It was on \"the same day\" the day when He arose, when the\nmighty power of God opened the grave, on the same day, He suddenly\nstood in their midst. The doors were shut. The disciples were full\nof fears and doubts. Thomas was not there at all. All at once their\neyes beheld Him once more who had been crucified, had died and was\nburied. \"Peace be unto you!\" This heavenly greeting came from His\nlips and soothed their sorrows, cleared their doubts and dispelled\ntheir fears. And He who stood thus in their midst was the same whom\nGideon had seen and who answered His fears with \"Peace be unto you;\nfear not\" (Judges vi:23). Jehovah is peace; He is our peace. On the\nglad and glorious resurrection day the gracious Lord appeared in\ntheir midst and proclaimed peace to them. But He also showed them\nHis hands and His side. The marks of the nails and of the spear were\nseen there. They are the evidences of His death for His people. But\nHe who was dead is risen and lives evermore. Ah! that is peace! The\nChrist who died for our sins, who is risen and is in God's own\npresence is our peace. Would we enjoy that peace in a greater sense\nand have it more real, then let us just have Himself, the Person as\nthe object of our hearts. \"Then were the disciples glad, when they\nsaw the Lord.\" Nothing could make them glad aside from the Lord\nHimself. Alas! that some of God's people try to find joy and peace\nin their service, experiences, knowledge of truth. Dear souls, it is\nthe Lord only, who gives us peace and gladness.\n\nBut the blessed legacy of our Lord is not so much the peace with\nGod, as it is \"His own peace.\" The peace which He possessed while on\nearth, that peace like a majestic river, ever flowing on in silence\nwith not a moment's interruption. His own peace, He bequeathed to\nHis own. What a peace was His! What restfulness the divinely\nreported scenes of that blessed life breathe! We have written before\non His patience, His joy and His love, the love which passeth\nknowledge. How much might be written too on \"His peace.\" But not\nhalf could ever be told. What calmness we see wherever we look. The\nthreatening multitudes did not disturb Him, nor did the fierce storm\non the Galilean sea; peacefully He rested in sleep, while the angry\nwaves tossed the little ship aside and the terror-stricken disciples\nawoke Him. They cried \"Lord, save us; we perish.\" And then His eyes\nopened and in loving tenderness He said unto them, \"Why are ye so\nfearful, O ye of little faith?\" _Then_ He arose and rebuked the\nwinds and the sea and there was a great calm. Ah! poor human heart!\nhow canst thou ever doubt with such a Lord at thy side!\n\nAnd this peace which was His constant portion, was the result of a\nconstant communion with God. His meat and drink was to do the will\nof Him that sent Him. That calm, unruffled peace was the fruit of\nHis constant trust in God and dependence on Him. And this peace He\nwants us to enjoy. In a world full of tribulation, anxiety and care,\na world full of increasing evils, conflicts and sufferings, He wants\nus to have His own peace. The enjoyment of this peace of our Lord\nJesus Christ depends on our communion with God and the realization\nof our union with Him. On that blessed evening of the resurrection\nday the Lord spoke a second time, \"Peace be unto you.\" Why should He\nrepeat the same greeting? The words which follow explain this. \"As\nmy Father hath sent me, even so send I you\" (John xx:22). As\nChristians saved by grace and in Christ we are sent by Him as He was\nsent by the Father. As we realize this and walk under Him, as we set\nthe Lord always before our eyes and our life's aim is to do _His_\nwill and not our own, to please Him and not ourselves, to serve Him\nand not man, to let Him plan and not we ourselves, to be nothing\ninstead of something, to be in the dust instead of exalted, then\nshall we enjoy His legacy \"His own peace.\" He wants us to have it.\nHe wants us to be kept in perfect peace. Are we willing to have it?\nAnd what else honors our absent Lord more than a life which\nmanifests His peace. What pleases the Father more than to behold His\nchildren reminding Him by their lives of dependence and peace, the\nresult of the rest of faith, of His own blessed Son. And the Holy\nSpirit, who produces all this in us will ever lead us on in the\nfuller enjoyment of the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nWe must expect in the coming days greater tests of faith, greater\nconflicts, greater trials. It cannot be otherwise in these perilous\ntimes. We must not expect anything else. But He can and will keep\nus. \"Thou wilt keep him in _perfect peace_, whose mind is stayed on\nThee, because He trusteth in Thee.\" And ere long the God of peace\nwill bruise Satan completely under our feet. What joy--oh what joy\nawaits us when we shall see Him face to face, who is our peace.\n\n   \"They that trust Him wholly\n   Find Him wholly true.\"\n   \"Our God is able.\"\n\n\n\nWhat have I to Do With idols?\n\n\nMUCH is said in reproof of Ephraim by the prophet Hosea. All the\nwicked dealings and defilement of Ephraim is uncovered--and the\nLord said: \"I will be unto Ephraim as a lion.\" Again Jehovah said:\n\"Ephraim is like a cake not turned.\" \"Ephraim is like a silly dove\nwithout heart.\" \"Ephraim hath made many altars to sin.\" \"Ephraim is\njoined to idols, let him alone.\" But all reproof and chastisement\ndid not bring Ephraim back. Nothing seemed to be able to draw\nEphraim's heart away from the idols. At the close of the Prophet\nHosea, however, Ephraim is made to speak and a significant word it\nis. \"Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I\nhave heard Him, and observed Him; I am like a green fir tree. From\nme is thy fruit found\" (xiv:8).\n\nA familiar yet blessed truth is contained in this statement. Ephraim\ndealt with by judgments after the severe rebukes of the Lord could\nnot let go the idols. Joined to idols, the Lord said, \"Let him\nalone.\" But the day was to come when Ephraim would willingly forsake\nall idols and cry out, \"What have I any more to do with idols?\" And\nwhat brought about Ephraim's conversion? Ephraim heard Him and\nobserved Him. The sight of the Lord, His love and tenderness, His\npatience and kindness beheld in faith, was enough for Ephraim to\nforsake all idols and cleave to Him alone. Thus Ephraim became like\na green fir tree.\n\nAnd this is still true to-day. There is no other way to be separated\nfrom idols and walk wholly with the Lord than Ephraim's way. Why are\nGod's people joined to idols? Why are Christians half-hearted,\nconformed to this present evil age, given to covetousness, which is\nidolatry (Col. iii:5)? There is but one answer. Our hearts do not\nlisten to that blessed voice, which delights to speak to those who\nbelong to Him. Our eyes do not look upon Him in all His glory and\nbeauty. We lose sight of Him who is altogether lovely. Our minds\ninstead of being occupied with the things of Christ are centered\nupon earthly things. Our thoughts are so little brought into\ncaptivity to the obedience of Christ and are controlled by our own\nimaginations and the spirit of the times. There is no other way of\nbeing delivered from idols, from everything which would draw us\naway from Himself and all which hinders from giving to Him the\npre-eminence. That way is heart occupation with our Lord, conscious\ncommunion with Him through His Word in the power of His Spirit. We\nmust hear Him, we must observe Him. Then He appears to our hearts in\nall His lowliness, in all His majesty and glory, and that vision\nwill be enough to disgust us with the playthings of the dust and He\nwill become the supreme object of our lives. There is no other way\nto practical holiness than hearing Him and observing Him.\n\n   Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?\n      Is not thine a captured heart?\n   \"Chief among ten thousand\" own Him,\n      Joyful choose the better part.\n\n   Idols once they won thee, charmed thee,\n      Lovely things of time and sense;\n   Gilded, thus does sin disarm thee,\n      Honey'd lest thou turn thee thence.\n\n   What has stript the seeming beauty\n      From the idols of the earth?\n   Not the sense of right or duty,\n      But the sight of peerless worth.\n\n   Not the crushing of those idols,\n      With its bitter void and smart,\n   But the beaming of His beauty,\n      The unveiling of His heart.\n\n   Who extinguishes their taper\n      Till they hail the rising sun?\n   Who discards the garb of winter\n      Till the summer has begun?\n\n   'Tis that look that melted Peter,\n      'Tis that face that Stephen saw,\n   'Tis that heart that wept with Mary.\n      Can alone from idols draw--\n\n   Draw, and win, and _fill completely_,\n      Till the cup o'erflow the brim;\n   What have we to do with idols,\n      Who have companied with Him?\n\nReader! Gaze afresh in that lovely face of transcendent beauty.\nThink of His great love for you, His never-changing love, His\neternal love. Follow the dictates of that new nature Grace has given\nto you and have the Lord constantly before your eyes and heart.\nAnything less will lead you to idols. What have I to do any more\nwith idols? I have heard Him and observed Him.\n\n\n\nThe Never Changing One.\n\n\n\"JESUS Christ the same yesterday, and to-day and forever\" (Heb.\nxiii:8). Blessed truth and precious assurance for us poor, weak\ncreatures, yea, among all His creatures the most changing; _He_\nchangeth not. \"For I am the Lord, I change not\" (Mal. iii:6). \"Of\nold hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are\nthe work of Thy hands. They shall all perish, but Thou shalt endure:\nyea all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt\nThou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same,\nand Thy years shall have no end\" (Psalm cii:25-27 and Heb. i:10-12).\nThe above blessed statement puts Him before our hearts as the\nunchanging Son of God, the solid rock of ages. It is a verse which\nis like Himself, infinite, inexhaustible. Our adorable Lord is here\nmentioned as having a past, a present and a future, a yesterday,\nto-day and a forever. This Epistle at the close of which we find this\nword gives us a definition of the yesterday, the today and the\nforever of the Son of God. He is the true God; He had never the\nbeginning of days, a yesterday, a past without a beginning. By Him\nthe worlds were made. He is the effulgence of His glory and the\nexpression of His substance (Heb. i:3). His yesterday is Eternity;\nHis goings forth are from old, from everlasting (Micah v:2). And in\nthat yesterday, in the bosom of the Father, the great plan of\nredemption was blessedly known. Oh! what a love that knew all and\nwas ever ready to give all to carry out that wonderful scheme.\n\"Wherefore coming into the world, He says, sacrifice and offering\nThou willedst not; but Thou hast prepared me a body. Thou hadst no\npleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, Lo,\nI come, in the roll of the book it is written of me, to do, O God,\nThy will\" (Heb. x:5-7). And then He came to manifest the eternal\nlove of God. He came in the form of a servant; He, whose yesterday\nis eternity, was made a little lower than the angles (Heb. ii:9).\nAnd while on earth He was the same as in eternity. He showed His\npower as the Creator, over nature, disease and death. Though in\nhumiliation, the Son of God had Glory, yet it was hidden. How\nblessed it is to trace His way while on earth and what love, mercy,\npatience, meekness, humility, peace and much more we find here. And\nthen His great work of redemption. It behooved Him in all things to\nbe made like unto \"His brethren, that He might be a merciful and\nfaithful high priest in things relating to God to make propitiation\nfor the sins of the people (Heb. ii:7). Who in the days of His flesh\nhaving offered up both supplications and entreaties to Him, who was\nable to save Him out of death; with strong crying and tears (having\nbeen heard because of His piety); though He were Son yet learned\nobedience from the things He suffered; and having been perfected,\nbecame to all of them that obey Him, author of eternal salvation\"\n(v:7-10). In His yesterday He made purification of sins; He put away\nsin by sacrificing Himself. He fulfilled the eternal will of God, by\nwhich will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body\nof Jesus Christ once for all.\n\nAnd this Epistle likewise speaks of His \"today,\" the Present of\nHimself. His \"to-day\" began with the opened tomb, that blessed,\nglorious resurrection morn. He is the great shepherd of the sheep\nbrought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ (xiii:20). He is\nthe appointed heir of all things, on the right hand of the majesty\non high, taking a place so much better than the angels, as He\ninherits a name more excellent than they (Heb. i:3-5). He is\naddressed by God as high priest according to the order of\nMelchisedec (v:10). We gaze into the opened heavens and we see Jesus\nwho was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of\ndeath, crowned with glory and honor (ii:9). Now a summary of the\nthings of which we are speaking is: We have such a one high priest\nwho has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in\nthe heavens; minister of the holy places and the true tabernacle,\nwhich the Lord has pitched and not man (vii:1). He has a priesthood\nunchangeable. Whence also He is able to save to the uttermost those\nwho approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them\n(viii:25). For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with\nhands, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in\nthe presence of God for us (ix:24). But, He having offered one\nsacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God,\nwaiting from henceforth until His enemies are made His footstool\n(x:12). Such and much more is His \"to-day.\" All power in heaven and\non earth is given to Him.\n\nHis \"forever\" will begin when He leaves the Father's throne and when\nHe is brought into the world again, when all things are to be\nsubjected under His feet and He will be in the fullest exercise of\nHis Melchisedec priesthood, a priest upon His throne. And in all,\nyesterday, in the days of His humiliation, to-day upon the Father's\nthrone as our advocate and priest, in His glorious future, upon His\nown throne He is the same, the mighty Jehovah, who changeth not, the\nAlpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. He is the unmovable\nrock, no storms, no changes can move the rock upon which we stand,\nand though heaven and earth pass away neither He, the living,\neternal Word, nor His written Word will change.\n\nHis power, His grace, His love, His patience, is kindness, His\nsympathy is ever the same towards His own beloved people, who have\ntrusted in Him and share His life. Having loved His own, who are in\nthe world, and loved them to the end (John xiii:1); and that end is\neternity. In the beginning of the last book of the Bible, we hear\nthe voice of the Holy Spirit in the church, worshipping Him, in that\nmatchless outburst \"Unto Him that loved us and has washed us from\nour sins in His own blood.\" But it does not say \"loved,\" but it\nreads \"Unto Him that _loveth_ us.\" The love He has for His own is an\nabiding, an unchanging love. Oh to think more of that love, that\nchangeless love, which passeth knowledge! And how true it is what a\nsaint has sung long ago:\n\n   \"Oh! I am weary of my love,\n      That doth so little t'wards Thee move;\n   Yet do I constantly groan,\n      To know the depth of all Thine own.\n\n   That groan, sweet Spirit, is from Thee,\n      Nor self-begotten e'er can be;\n   No natural heart, oh Lord, of mine\n      Could long to lose itself in Thine.\n\n   O love of loves, for me that died;\n      The love of Jesus crucified!\n   Who lowly took His part with me,\n      That I as _one_ with Him might be.\n\n   Loved, and for ever on Thy throne\n      Adored, and loved, Thou changeless One;\n   Thou wilt thro' one eternal day,\n      The height and depth of all display.\"\n\n   Meanwhile, Thou precious, wondrous Lamb\n      Content--at least with this I am,\n   To count my love too mean to own,\n      And know but Thine--\"_Thy love alone_.\"\n\nAnd yet how often we doubt that love and by fear, when we have come\nshort or fallen in sin, insult that mighty changeless love. How\noften, too, when trials are upon us and we suffer, we lose sight of\nHim, the unchanging One, who loves His own to the end, and deep down\nin the heart there is unrest, anxiety, as if some evil could come\nupon us. Our weakness, our imperfections, our failures and our sins\ndo not change His love and His grace.\n\nAs He was yesterday with His own and kept them, carried them, was\ntheir strength, their help, their refuge and their safe hiding\nplace, their peace and their comfort, so is He to-day, so will He be\nforever. And in faith we can bring it stiller nearer to our hearts.\nHe is for each the same loving, sympathizing, caring, interested\nSaviour, Friend and Lord. He who helped you yesterday, whose love\nwas about you in the past, who has not left you since He found you\nfor a single moment, is the same to-day, and will never be anything\nless. He will keep each member of His body, He will carry, He will\nlead onward, and with His unchanging love and power deal with each,\nas it pleases Him. Oh that we might cast ourselves more upon Him and\nspend the remainder of our days here (how few indeed!) in a more\nutter dependence upon Him, trusting Him, the changeless One. Oh for\na closer walk with Him in these evil days and to taste more of His\nlove, His unchanging love. How happy, restful, without care and\nanxiety God's people _might_ be if only their hearts were fixed upon\nHim who is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Alas! how often\nthe things seen are more real to us as the real things, the things\nunseen. What a joy it ought to be to our hearts to follow Him now,\nto learn over and over again that He is the same, who changeth not,\nto find His power and strength as of old manifested in behalf of His\nbeloved people.\n\n\n\nBe of Good Cheer.\n\n\n\"BE of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid\" (Matthew xiv:27).\n\n\"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God believe also in\nMe. In my father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I\nwould have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to\nprepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto\nmyself; that where I am, there ye may be also\" (John xiv:1-3).\n\n\"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world\ngiveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let\nit be afraid\" (John xiv:27).\n\n\"In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I\nhave overcome the world\" (John xvi:33).\n\n\"Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me\nwhere I am\" (John xvii:24).\n\n\"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age\" (Matthew\nxxviii:20).\n\n\"He hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee\" (Hebrews\nxiii:5).\n\n\"Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth and was\ndead and behold I am alive forevermore, amen; and I have the keys of\nhades and of death\" (Rev. i:17, 18).\n\n\"Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man\ntake thy crown\" (Rev. iii:11).\n\n\"Surely I come quickly. Amen\" (Rev. xxii.20).\n\nThese precious words of comfort and cheer came from His loving heart\nand lips. May we take hold of them. How well it is to remember His\nwords and Himself. How worthy He is; the mighty, the loving, the\nadorable Lord! How He loveth us His own, how He careth for us, is\nmindful of us and carrieth us, no heart can fully understand, no pen\ndescribe. How He came from heaven's glory long ago, how He the One,\nwho was rich, became poor for our sakes and died on the cross, that\nwe might share eternal riches and glory with Him, is the old story,\nwhich never grows old. It is as fresh and new to the believing heart\nas it ever has been. And He who bought us with His own blood, loveth\nand carrieth us His poor, weak and sinning people with such love and\ninfinite patience. The past years of our Christian lives, so all of\nus must confess, have been filled with many failures. But as we come\nto Him with our failures, our sins, our burdens, we find Him the\nsame loving, tender Saviour. Ah! who can measure the depths of His\nlove! He will never cease loving those, who have accepted him as\ntheir Saviour and whom He has accepted as His own. In His gracious\nhands we are and all His people. The hands which were pierced for us\non the cross are over us and about us. They carry us, guide us, hold\nus and keep us. We are His and nothing can separate us from Him in\ntime and in eternity. With a joyful heart we can say \"I am my\nBeloved's and His desire is toward me.\"\n\n   O Lord! 'tis sweet the thought\n      That Thou art mine!\n   But brighter still the joy\n      That I am Thine.\n\nOh, dear Christian readers, how happy we might be if only all this\nwere constantly real to our hearts and our minds were occupied with\nthat blessed, glorious One. What joy and blessing we will have, if\nwe walk closer with the Lord and live that life to which we have\nbeen called, live by the faith of the Son of God.\n\nAnd the words He left us are just like Himself, Love, Hope and\nComfort. There is nothing to fear for one who is in Him. He would\nhave His beloved people free from all fear, anxiety and care. Twice\nHe has told us \"Let not your heart be troubled.\" \"Fear not!\" \"Be not\nafraid!\" How much these words mean if we consider Him who spoke\nthem. They must calm every fear and lift the trusting child of God\nover all the dark and difficult things on the way. The blessed words\nwe have quoted are the never failing comfort for His people till\nthey are gathered in His own presence.\n\nThe greatest anodyne, however, He has given to us, the anodyne for\nall pains and sorrows, griefs and perplexities is the blessed Hope.\n\"I will come again and receive you unto myself\" was spoken long ago,\nand yet it is still unfulfilled. Almost the last petition of His\ngreat high-priestly prayer is the petition to have His own with\nHimself in the Father's house. \"Father, I will that they also, whom\nThou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.\" This prayer is still\nunanswered. \"Behold I come quickly\" are His own words in the third\nchapter of Revelation, words so full of meaning for us, exhorting us\nto hold fast what we have. And in the very end of the Book, almost\nthe last word of the Bible is the last word He ever spoke. \"_Surely_\nI come quickly. Amen.\" He has not spoken again after this last\nutterance, so full of assurance. The next time His blessed voice\nwill speak will be when He comes into the air and gives the mighty\nshout (1 Thess. iv:16) which will call the saints from their graves\nand ourselves from earth's sorrow together with them to meet Him in\nthe air. That blessed Hope is the great anodyne, the soothing as\nwell as inspiring truth of the Bible, which stands next to and in\nclosest relation with the Gospel. That blessed Hope is an imminent\nHope. How cheerless it would be to think that the Lord cannot come\nfor many years, that He cannot fulfill His blessed promise. How\ncheerless, yea, how depressing and discouraging it would be if it\nwere true that the true believers must pass through the great\ntribulation, suffer under Antichrist, taste of the wrath, which will\nthen be poured out. Such an expectation would not be a blessed Hope,\nbut a depressing outlook. But blessed be God this is not the\nteaching of the Word, but only the invention of man. We are not to\nwait for the apostasy, the great tribulation, great earthquakes and\ndisasters, but for Himself. He may come at any time and call us into\nHis presence. To wait daily for Him is the true Christian attitude,\nwhich is a mighty power in the Christian life, walk and service. How\nwe shall be weaned away from the passing things of this age, how we\nshall look upon all in its true light and be faithful witnesses for\nour Lord, if we walk in this daily expectation of meeting Him. And\nthis we need. The Lord Jesus Christ must become more real to our\nhearts. Our fellowship with Him, our trust in Him, our walk in Him,\nour waiting for Him, all must become more real. The Holy Spirit in\nHis power will accomplish this in our lives. In the awful darkness,\nwhich is settling upon this age, only such can abide faithful who\ncling closer to the Lord and who wait for His coming. The Lord grant\nthis to all His people.\n\n      He'll come again,\n      And prove our hope not vain;\n   We wait the moment, oh, so fair;\n   To rise and meet Him in the air;\n   His heart, His home, His throne to share--\n      O wondrous love!\n\n\n\nMake Haste.\n\n\nTHE little book called Solomon's Song, in the Hebrew \"the Song of\nSongs,\" because it exalts and describes the Bridegroom, closes with\nthat longing cry, \"Make Haste my Beloved.\" How this applies\ndispensationally we do not follow here. It is the same desire for\nHimself, which is found almost the last thing in the Bible, the\ngreat prayer, \"Even so come Lord Jesus.\" The soul which knows Him,\nfollows closely after Him, and gets daily more of Himself will ever\nlong for Him and for His Coming. The desire and prayer will arise\nmany times each day from such a heart, \"Make Haste my Beloved\"\n--\"Even so, come Lord Jesus.\" The Holy Spirit ungrieved and unhindered\nin the believer will not alone produce this desire, but keep it\nalive in the soul and make it more intense. One may hold the Second\nComing of Christ in a mere intellectual way; there is no profit in\nthat. The blessed Hope must have its seat in the heart and\naffection. It is therefore a good test of our spiritual state. If\nour hearts are crying more for Him, longing to be with the Beloved,\nand we daily sigh for Himself to come and take us home, we are then\ncertainly walking in the Spirit. Such a desire will also lead us\ninto holiness of life and true service for Him. And as we look about\nus at the condition of things, surely only the Coming of our Lord\nappears to be the remedy. Nothing less than that event can arrest\nthe dreadful conditions and bring the long promised deliverance.\n\"The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until\nnow. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first\nfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,\nwaiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body\" (Rom. viii:22-23).\nWhat a day it will be when at last He descends into the air to\ncall His own, His Beloved together! What a day it will be when\ntogether with those who are raised from their graves we shall be\ncaught up in clouds to meet HIM in the sky! What a day when He\npurges the earth by fire and comes with all His Saints to reign.\nMake haste! Even so, come Lord Jesus!\n\n            Lord Jesus, come!\n         And take Thy people home;\n      That all Thy flock, so scattered here,\n      With Thee in glory may appear.\n         Lord Jesus, come!\n   \"Soon the day-dawn will be breaking\n      And the shadows flee away;\n   Now, by faith, in joy and gladness,\n      I await the coming day,\n   For I know my soul is safely\n      Hidden in His wounded side;\n   And anon He sweetly tells me\n      I shall soon be satisfied.\n\n   Lo! He tells me _now_ His secret,\n      Cheering with His heavenly smile;\n   Telling me, in love's low whisper,\n      It is but 'a little while;'\n   Yes, for soon, to brightest glory,\n      He will fetch away His bride;\n   Then I'll shine in His own likeness,\n      And be ever satisfied!\"","title":"The Lord of Glory: Meditations on the person, the work and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":43767}