We must expect in the coming days greater tests of faith, greater conflicts, greater trials. It cannot be otherwise in these perilous times. We must not expect anything else. But He can and will keep us. "Thou wilt keep him in _perfect peace_, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusteth in Thee." And ere long the G.o.d of peace will bruise Satan completely under our feet. What joy--oh what joy awaits us when we shall see Him face to face, who is our peace.
"They that trust Him wholly Find Him wholly true."
"Our G.o.d is able."
What have I to Do With idols?
MUCH is said in reproof of Ephraim by the prophet Hosea. All the wicked dealings and defilement of Ephraim is uncovered--and the Lord said: "I will be unto Ephraim as a lion." Again Jehovah said: "Ephraim is like a cake not turned." "Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart." "Ephraim hath made many altars to sin." "Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone." But all reproof and chastis.e.m.e.nt did not bring Ephraim back. Nothing seemed to be able to draw Ephraim"s heart away from the idols. At the close of the Prophet Hosea, however, Ephraim is made to speak and a significant word it is. "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard Him, and observed Him; I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found" (xiv:8).
A familiar yet blessed truth is contained in this statement. Ephraim dealt with by judgments after the severe rebukes of the Lord could not let go the idols. Joined to idols, the Lord said, "Let him alone." But the day was to come when Ephraim would willingly forsake all idols and cry out, "What have I any more to do with idols?" And what brought about Ephraim"s conversion? Ephraim heard Him and observed Him. The sight of the Lord, His love and tenderness, His patience and kindness beheld in faith, was enough for Ephraim to forsake all idols and cleave to Him alone. Thus Ephraim became like a green fir tree.
And this is still true to-day. There is no other way to be separated from idols and walk wholly with the Lord than Ephraim"s way. Why are G.o.d"s people joined to idols? Why are Christians half-hearted, conformed to this present evil age, given to covetousness, which is idolatry (Col. iii:5)? There is but one answer. Our hearts do not listen to that blessed voice, which delights to speak to those who belong to Him. Our eyes do not look upon Him in all His glory and beauty. We lose sight of Him who is altogether lovely. Our minds instead of being occupied with the things of Christ are centered upon earthly things. Our thoughts are so little brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and are controlled by our own imaginations and the spirit of the times. There is no other way of being delivered from idols, from everything which would draw us away from Himself and all which hinders from giving to Him the pre-eminence. That way is heart occupation with our Lord, conscious communion with Him through His Word in the power of His Spirit. We must hear Him, we must observe Him. Then He appears to our hearts in all His lowliness, in all His majesty and glory, and that vision will be enough to disgust us with the playthings of the dust and He will become the supreme object of our lives. There is no other way to practical holiness than hearing Him and observing Him.
Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
"Chief among ten thousand" own Him, Joyful choose the better part.
Idols once they won thee, charmed thee, Lovely things of time and sense; Gilded, thus does sin disarm thee, Honey"d lest thou turn thee thence.
What has stript the seeming beauty From the idols of the earth?
Not the sense of right or duty, But the sight of peerless worth.
Not the crushing of those idols, With its bitter void and smart, But the beaming of His beauty, The unveiling of His heart.
Who extinguishes their taper Till they hail the rising sun?
Who discards the garb of winter Till the summer has begun?
"Tis that look that melted Peter, "Tis that face that Stephen saw, "Tis that heart that wept with Mary.
Can alone from idols draw--
Draw, and win, and _fill completely_, Till the cup o"erflow the brim; What have we to do with idols, Who have companied with Him?
Reader! Gaze afresh in that lovely face of transcendent beauty.
Think of His great love for you, His never-changing love, His eternal love. Follow the dictates of that new nature Grace has given to you and have the Lord constantly before your eyes and heart.
Anything less will lead you to idols. What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard Him and observed Him.
The Never Changing One.
"JESUS Christ the same yesterday, and to-day and forever" (Heb.
xiii:8). Blessed truth and precious a.s.surance for us poor, weak creatures, yea, among all His creatures the most changing; _He_ changeth not. "For I am the Lord, I change not" (Mal. iii:6). "Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall all perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end" (Psalm cii:25-27 and Heb. i:10-12).
The above blessed statement puts Him before our hearts as the unchanging Son of G.o.d, the solid rock of ages. It is a verse which is like Himself, infinite, inexhaustible. Our adorable Lord is here mentioned as having a past, a present and a future, a yesterday, to-day and a forever. This Epistle at the close of which we find this word gives us a definition of the yesterday, the today and the forever of the Son of G.o.d. He is the true G.o.d; He had never the beginning of days, a yesterday, a past without a beginning. By Him the worlds were made. He is the effulgence of His glory and the expression of His substance (Heb. i:3). His yesterday is Eternity; His goings forth are from old, from everlasting (Micah v:2). And in that yesterday, in the bosom of the Father, the great plan of redemption was blessedly known. Oh! what a love that knew all and was ever ready to give all to carry out that wonderful scheme.
"Wherefore coming into the world, He says, sacrifice and offering Thou willedst not; but Thou hast prepared me a body. Thou hadst no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, Lo, I come, in the roll of the book it is written of me, to do, O G.o.d, Thy will" (Heb. x:5-7). And then He came to manifest the eternal love of G.o.d. He came in the form of a servant; He, whose yesterday is eternity, was made a little lower than the angles (Heb. ii:9).
And while on earth He was the same as in eternity. He showed His power as the Creator, over nature, disease and death. Though in humiliation, the Son of G.o.d had Glory, yet it was hidden. How blessed it is to trace His way while on earth and what love, mercy, patience, meekness, humility, peace and much more we find here. And then His great work of redemption. It behooved Him in all things to be made like unto "His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to G.o.d to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Heb. ii:7). Who in the days of His flesh having offered up both supplications and entreaties to Him, who was able to save Him out of death; with strong crying and tears (having been heard because of His piety); though He were Son yet learned obedience from the things He suffered; and having been perfected, became to all of them that obey Him, author of eternal salvation"
(v:7-10). In His yesterday He made purification of sins; He put away sin by sacrificing Himself. He fulfilled the eternal will of G.o.d, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And this Epistle likewise speaks of His "today," the Present of Himself. His "to-day" began with the opened tomb, that blessed, glorious resurrection morn. He is the great shepherd of the sheep brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ (xiii:20). He is the appointed heir of all things, on the right hand of the majesty on high, taking a place so much better than the angels, as He inherits a name more excellent than they (Heb. i:3-5). He is addressed by G.o.d as high priest according to the order of Melchisedec (v:10). We gaze into the opened heavens and we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor (ii:9). Now a summary of the things of which we are speaking is: We have such a one high priest who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens; minister of the holy places and the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched and not man (vii:1). He has a priesthood unchangeable. Whence also He is able to save to the uttermost those who approach by Him to G.o.d, always living to intercede for them (viii:25). For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of G.o.d for us (ix:24). But, He having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of G.o.d, waiting from henceforth until His enemies are made His footstool (x:12). Such and much more is His "to-day." All power in heaven and on earth is given to Him.
His "forever" will begin when He leaves the Father"s throne and when He is brought into the world again, when all things are to be subjected under His feet and He will be in the fullest exercise of His Melchisedec priesthood, a priest upon His throne. And in all, yesterday, in the days of His humiliation, to-day upon the Father"s throne as our advocate and priest, in His glorious future, upon His own throne He is the same, the mighty Jehovah, who changeth not, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. He is the unmovable rock, no storms, no changes can move the rock upon which we stand, and though heaven and earth pa.s.s away neither He, the living, eternal Word, nor His written Word will change.
His power, His grace, His love, His patience, is kindness, His sympathy is ever the same towards His own beloved people, who have trusted in Him and share His life. Having loved His own, who are in the world, and loved them to the end (John xiii:1); and that end is eternity. In the beginning of the last book of the Bible, we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in the church, worshipping Him, in that matchless outburst "Unto Him that loved us and has washed us from our sins in His own blood." But it does not say "loved," but it reads "Unto Him that _loveth_ us." The love He has for His own is an abiding, an unchanging love. Oh to think more of that love, that changeless love, which pa.s.seth knowledge! And how true it is what a saint has sung long ago:
"Oh! I am weary of my love, That doth so little t"wards Thee move; Yet do I constantly groan, To know the depth of all Thine own.
That groan, sweet Spirit, is from Thee, Nor self-begotten e"er can be; No natural heart, oh Lord, of mine Could long to lose itself in Thine.
O love of loves, for me that died; The love of Jesus crucified!
Who lowly took His part with me, That I as _one_ with Him might be.
Loved, and for ever on Thy throne Adored, and loved, Thou changeless One; Thou wilt thro" one eternal day, The height and depth of all display."
Meanwhile, Thou precious, wondrous Lamb Content--at least with this I am, To count my love too mean to own, And know but Thine--"_Thy love alone_."
And yet how often we doubt that love and by fear, when we have come short or fallen in sin, insult that mighty changeless love. How often, too, when trials are upon us and we suffer, we lose sight of Him, the unchanging One, who loves His own to the end, and deep down in the heart there is unrest, anxiety, as if some evil could come upon us. Our weakness, our imperfections, our failures and our sins do not change His love and His grace.
As He was yesterday with His own and kept them, carried them, was their strength, their help, their refuge and their safe hiding place, their peace and their comfort, so is He to-day, so will He be forever. And in faith we can bring it stiller nearer to our hearts.
He is for each the same loving, sympathizing, caring, interested Saviour, Friend and Lord. He who helped you yesterday, whose love was about you in the past, who has not left you since He found you for a single moment, is the same to-day, and will never be anything less. He will keep each member of His body, He will carry, He will lead onward, and with His unchanging love and power deal with each, as it pleases Him. Oh that we might cast ourselves more upon Him and spend the remainder of our days here (how few indeed!) in a more utter dependence upon Him, trusting Him, the changeless One. Oh for a closer walk with Him in these evil days and to taste more of His love, His unchanging love. How happy, restful, without care and anxiety G.o.d"s people _might_ be if only their hearts were fixed upon Him who is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Alas! how often the things seen are more real to us as the real things, the things unseen. What a joy it ought to be to our hearts to follow Him now, to learn over and over again that He is the same, who changeth not, to find His power and strength as of old manifested in behalf of His beloved people.
Be of Good Cheer.
"BE of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid" (Matthew xiv:27).
"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in G.o.d believe also in Me. In my father"s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John xiv:1-3).
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John xiv:27).
"In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John xvi:33).
"Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am" (John xvii:24).
"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age" (Matthew xxviii:20).
"He hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews xiii:5).
"Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore, amen; and I have the keys of hades and of death" (Rev. i:17, 18).
"Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. iii:11).
"Surely I come quickly. Amen" (Rev. xxii.20).
These precious words of comfort and cheer came from His loving heart and lips. May we take hold of them. How well it is to remember His words and Himself. How worthy He is; the mighty, the loving, the adorable Lord! How He loveth us His own, how He careth for us, is mindful of us and carrieth us, no heart can fully understand, no pen describe. How He came from heaven"s glory long ago, how He the One, who was rich, became poor for our sakes and died on the cross, that we might share eternal riches and glory with Him, is the old story, which never grows old. It is as fresh and new to the believing heart as it ever has been. And He who bought us with His own blood, loveth and carrieth us His poor, weak and sinning people with such love and infinite patience. The past years of our Christian lives, so all of us must confess, have been filled with many failures. But as we come to Him with our failures, our sins, our burdens, we find Him the same loving, tender Saviour. Ah! who can measure the depths of His love! He will never cease loving those, who have accepted him as their Saviour and whom He has accepted as His own. In His gracious hands we are and all His people. The hands which were pierced for us on the cross are over us and about us. They carry us, guide us, hold us and keep us. We are His and nothing can separate us from Him in time and in eternity. With a joyful heart we can say "I am my Beloved"s and His desire is toward me."