"Friend, go up
higher." - Luke 14:10 |
When first the life of grace begins
in the soul, we do indeed draw near to God, but it is with
great fear and trembling. The soul conscious of guilt, and
humbled thereby, is overawed with the solemnity of its
position; it is cast to the earth by a sense of the grandeur
of Jehovah, in whose presence it stands. With unfeigned
bashfulness it takes the lowest room.
But, in after
life, as the Christian grows in grace, although he will never
forget the solemnity of his position, and will never lose that
holy awe which must encompass a gracious man when he is in the
presence of the God who can create or can destroy; yet his
fear has all its terror taken out of it; it becomes a holy
reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread. He is called up
higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus. Then the man
of God, walking amid the splendours of Deity, and veiling his
face like the glorious cherubim, with those twin wings, the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, will, reverent and
bowed in spirit, approach the throne; and seeing there a God
of love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize rather the
covenant character of God than his absolute Deity.
He
will see in God rather his goodness than his greatness, and
more of his love than of his majesty. Then will the soul,
bowing still as humbly as aforetime, enjoy a more sacred
liberty of intercession; for while prostrate before the glory
of the Infinite God, it will be sustained by the refreshing
consciousness of being in the presence of boundless mercy and
infinite love, and by the realization of acceptance "in the
Beloved. " Thus the believer is bidden to come up higher, and
is enabled to exercise the privilege of rejoicing in God, and
drawing near to him in holy confidence, saying, "Abba, Father.
"
"So may we go from strength to strength, And
daily grow in grace, Till in thine image raised at
length, We see thee face to face."
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"The night
also is thine." - Psalm 74:16 |
Yes, Lord, thou dost not abdicate thy
throne when the sun goeth down, nor dost thou leave the world
all through these long wintry nights to be the prey of evil;
thine eyes watch us as the stars, and thine arms surround us
as the zodiac belts the sky. The dews of kindly sleep and all
the influences of the moon are in thy hand, and the alarms and
solemnities of night are equally with thee. This is very sweet
to me when watching through the midnight hours, or tossing to
and fro in anguish. There are precious fruits put forth by the
moon as well as by the sun: may my Lord make me to be a
favoured partaker in them.
The night of affliction is
as much under the arrangement and control of the Lord of Love
as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the
tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle,
but to the eye of faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise.
From the first watch of the night even unto the break
of day the ete rnal Watcher observes his saints, and overrules
the shades and dews of midnight for his people's highest good.
We believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for
the mastery, but we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, "I
create light and I create darkness; I, the Lord, do all these
things. "
Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and
social sin are not exempted from the divine purpose. When the
altars of truth are defiled, and the ways of God forsaken, the
Lord's servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they may not
despair, for the darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and
shall come to their end at his bidding. What may seem defeat
to us may be victory to him.
"Though enwrapt in gloomy
night, We perceive no ray of light; Since the Lord
himself is here, 'Tis not meet that we should fear."
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