The iniquity
of the holy things." - Exodus 28:38 |
What a veil is lifted up by these
words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be humbling and
profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight. The
iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality,
lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart and
forgetfulness of God, what a full measure have we there! Our
work for the Lord, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness,
slackness, unbelief, what a mass of defilement is there! Our
private devotions, their laxity, coldness, neglect,
sleepiness, and vanity, what a mountain of dead earth is
there! If we looked more carefully we should find this
iniquity to be far greater than appears at first sight. Dr.
Payson, writing to his brother, says, "My parish, as
well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the
sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my
desires for the melioration of both, proceed either from pride
or vanity or indolence. I look at the weeds which overspread
my garden, and breathe out an earnest wish that they were
eradicated. But why? What prompts the wish? It may be that I
may walk out and say to myself, 'In what fine order is my
garden kept!' This is pride.
Or, it may be that my
neighbours may look over the wall and say, 'How finely your
garden flourishes!' This is vanity. Or I may wish for the
destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of pulling them
up. This is indolence."
So that even our desires after
holiness may be polluted by ill motives. Under the greenest
sods worms hide themselves; we need not look long to discover
them. How cheering is the thought, that when the High Priest
bore the iniquity of the holy things he wore upon his brow the
words, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD:" and even so while Jesus bears
our sin, he presents before his Father's face not our
unholiness, but his own holiness. O for grace to view our
great High Priest by the eye of faith!
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"Thy love is
better than wine." - Song of Solomon 1:2 |
Nothing gives the believer so much
joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment as others have
in the common mercies of life, he can be glad both in God's
gifts and God's works; but in all these separately, yea, and
in all of them added together, he doth not find such
substantial delight as in the matchless person of his Lord
Jesus. He has wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; he
has bread which all the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring
forth.
Where can such sweetness be found as we have
tasted in communion with our Beloved? In our esteem, the joys
of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with
Jesus, the heavenly manna. We would rather have one mouthful
of Christ's love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole
world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat?
What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a
dream to the glorious reality? What is time's mirth, in its
best trim, compared to our Lo rd Jesus in his most despised
estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will
confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must
be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the
Paradise of God.
No spring yields such sweet water as
that well of God which was digged with the soldier's spear.
All earthly bliss is of the earth earthy, but the comforts of
Christ's presence are like himself, heavenly. We can review
our communion with Jesus, and find no regrets of emptiness
therein; there are no dregs in this wine, no dead flies in
this ointment.
The joy of the Lord is solid and
enduring. Vanity hath not looked upon it, but discretion and
prudence testify that it abideth the test of years, and is in
time and in eternity worthy to be called "the only true
delight. " For nourishment, consolation, exhilaration, and
refreshment, no wine can rival the love of Jesus. Let us drink
to the full this evening.
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