MY CHILD IS DEAD. 255 possibly near, and might possibly be sudden. He felt sure of heaven. "Thou hast made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." He was conscious of divine forgiveness and favour, and held fast the promise of eternal life. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." He felt sure of meeting his child in the better land. "I shall go to him." He is not lost, but gone before. He has only got the start of me, but I shall join him in heaven. I shall recognize him there. He shall welcome me there, and we shall join together in singing the lofty songs of heaven, and we shall part no more. "We shall be ever with the Lord." JUNE 3. The Happy Look. "They looked unto him, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed."-Psalm xxxiv. 5. HERE we have the object of faith-the act of faith-the inward effect-and the outward effect. The object of faith is Christ. Peter in his first epistle quotes five verses of this psalm, and gives us good reason to believe that the person spoken of throughout is Christ. He is a divine person, having the names and attributes of Deity, performing the works, and receiving the worship of Deity, and therefore a glorious object on which to fix our faith. A human arm may fail, but an omnipotent arm cannot. He has made a complete atonement for sin, and laid a sure foundation for pardon and acceptance; and therefore he is a suitable object on which to fix our faith. And he is the only object. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." O my soul, if thou wilt build for eternity, the only safe foundation is here; if thou wilt have relief in distress, it can only be found here. The act of faith is "looking." We must look away from ourselves, for we are sinful and miserable, poor and helpless; and have nothing in us, or about us, to commend us to God. If we always think of ourselves, and look to ourselves, we can have no consolation, and will go mourning without the sun; but if we look to Christ with a simple, earnest, depending look, our peace shall be as a river, and our righteousness as the waves of the sea. Like the serpent-bitten Israelites who looked to the serpent of brass, and were immediately cured, let us look to Jesus lifted on the cross, and our burden of sin will fall off, and immediate relief satisfy our souls. The inward effect.-"They were lightened." If there was darkness before, there is now light in the Lord. If there was a burden before, it is now gone. This inward effect includes a consciousness of forgiveness, a feeling of acceptance with God, sensible relief from the load of sin and guilt, conscious reception of the blessings for which Jesus died, and a blessed hope of eternal glory. What unspeakable comfort! drawn not from faith or looking, but from Christ the object looked at, the fountain-head of all blessedness. The outward effect is, "Their faces were not ashamed." They were not ashamed to confess Christ before men. He owned them and received them, and now they are not ashamed to own him as their Saviour and their all. They were not ashamed to be numbered among his followers. The church needed their countenance and support, and they willingly gave both. They were not ashamed to witness for Christ, and testify to others the great things he had done for their souls. THE LAST EXPEDIENT. 257 JUNE 4. The Last Expedient. "Having yet, therefore, one son, his well beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son."-Mark, xii. 6. LET us think of the person sent-his mission the last expedient and the treatment expected. The person sent.-" One son, his well beloved." He was superior to all other previous messengers--superior in wisdom, superior in authority, superior in the number and publicity of his miracles, and superior in his love to the lost and perishing. All other messengers were but like stars-even John the Baptist was nothing more than the morning-star-but Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, eclipsing all the stars of heaven, and swallowing up their brightness in his splendour. He also possessed high personal dignity, being God manifest in the flesh, having the names and attributes of Jehovah; while, at the same time, he was clothed in our nature. He was dear to the Father, only begotten and well beloved; and the Father testified this at his birth, at his baptism, and at his transfiguration. His mission the last expedient.-God had sent many messengers before to save men, and reform the world. He had sent his prophets in every age, but they had been badly treated, and rejected. Now, he resolves to make one last great effort to save a perishing world. "Last of all, he sent his son.' "" No further, no greater proof of divine love could be expected after this; no other messenger from heaven could be looked for after him; no further revelation of mercy and grace could be enjoyed after the peerless light of the Sun of Righteousness; no other offer of salvation to Jew and Gentile could be anticipated; and no other way to heaven would ever come within the reach R 258 THE LAST EXPEDIENT. of fallen men. "He that despised Moses' law, died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God." The treatment expected.—“They will reverence my son." God expects us to worship Christ. He was worshipped by the wise men from the east, he was worshipped by his disciples, and he is worshipped by all the angels of God. Reader, he is thy Lord, worship thou him. God expects us to believe in him. He is a divine Saviour, a suitable Saviour, and the only Saviour; and we must believe in him, and accept of him as God's greatest gift to men. Why should we resist his claims, and disown his cause, saying, like the Jews, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him?" God expects us to obey his commandments, and arrange ourselves on his side. He that is not with Christ, is against him. If we would honour the Son, we must do what he requires, and identify ourselves with his cause on earth. JUNE 5. Christ's Friends and Enemies. "He that is not with me, is against me."-Matt. xii. 30. HERE we have the friends of Christ-the enemies of Christ and the impossibility of neutrality. The friends of Christ.-They believe in him. The great requirement of the gospel is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." The Father sent him, the Son came, and the gospel is published, that men may believe in him. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” However good otherwise any one may be, if he neglect this, he is guilty of the condemning sin. They avow themselves on the Lord's side. "With the mouth CHRIST'S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 259 confession is made unto salvation." The world is divided into two great armies-the army of Christ, and the army of Satan; and all the friends of Jesus are openly on his side, and fight under his banner. They exert themselves to help forward his cause. By personal efforts, contributions, and prayers, they work for Christ, and the advancement of religion. They see two great heaps in the world-a heap of happiness, and a heap of misery-and they constantly strive to lessen the heap of misery, and add to the heap of happiness. The enemies of Christ.-Those are his enemies who are openly opposed to him. The infidel makes reason his guide, when he cannot tell whether it is his own reason, or the reason of some other person. The practical atheist does not deny the truth of revelation, but he lives as if he had no soul to be saved or lost, and he lives as if there were no day of reckoning. Those are his enemies whose conduct is inconsistent with their profession. A professed friend, with an unchanged heart, is dangerous to the cause of Christ. An Achan in the camp does more injury to religion than a hundred open foes. Those are his enemies who are undecided. They halt, it may be, between two opinions, or they put off religion to a convenient season; and hence the weight of their influence is on the side of sin, and not on the side of Christ. The impossibility of neutrality.-Reason as well as Scripture teaches this. How can a man be both in the light and in the dark at the same time? How can a man love sin, and love Christ at the same time, when sin was the very thing which Christ came to destroy. All, then, who let religion alone, are the enemies of Christ. In the light of the cross, neutrality is impossible. On the cross Jesus gave the greatest display of his love to men: that love demands all our hearts, and it cannot take less; and if that love does not conquer us, nothing else will. Neutrality |