Chapter 3
"My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."--Matt. xi. 30.
The Joyful Servitude.
Can the same be said of Satan, or sin? With regard to _them_, how faithfully true rather is the converse--"my yoke is _heavy_, and my burden is _grievous_!" Christ's service is a happy service, the _only_ happy one; and even when there is a cross to carry, or a yoke to bear, it is His own appointment. "_My_ yoke." It is sent by no untried friend. Nay, He who puts it on His people, bore this very yoke Himself. "He _carried_ our sorrows." How blessed this feeling of holy servitude to so kind a Master! not like "dumb, driven cattle," goaded on, but _led_, and led often most tenderly when the yoke and the burden are upon us. The great apostle rarely speaks of himself under any other title but _one_. That _one_ he seems to make his boast. He had much whereof he might glory;--he had been the instrument in saving thousands--he had spoken before kings--he had been in Caesar's palace and Caesar's presence--he had been caught up into the third heaven,--but in all his letters this is his joyful prefix and superscription, "The _Servant_ (literally, _the slave_) of Jesus Christ!"
Reader! dost thou know this blessed servitude? Canst thou say with a joyful heart, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant?" He is no hard taskmaster. Would Satan try to teach thee so? Let this be the refutation, "He loved me, and gave _Himself_ for _me_." True, the yoke is the appointed discipline he employs in training his children for immortality. But be comforted! "It is His tender hand that _puts_ it on, and _keeps_ it on." He will suit the yoke to the neck, and the neck to the yoke. He will suit His grace to your trials. Nay, He will bring you even to be in love with these, when they bring along with them such gracious unfoldings of His own faithfulness and mercy. How His people need thus to be in heaviness through manifold temptations, to keep them meek and submissive! "Jeshurun (like a bullock unaccustomed to the harness, fed and pampered in the stall) waxed fat, and kicked." Never is there more gracious love than when God takes His own means to curb and subjugate, to humble us, and to prove us--bringing us out from ourselves, our likings, our confidences, our prosperity, and putting us under the needed YOKE.
And who has ever repented of that joyful servitude? Among all the ten thousand regrets that mingle with a dying hour, and oft bedew with bitter tears a dying pillow, who ever told of regrets and repentance here?
Tried believer, has He ever failed thee? Has His yoke been too grievous? Have thy tears been unalleviated--thy sorrows unsolaced--thy temptations above that thou wert able to bear? Ah! rather canst thou not testify, "The word of the Lord is tried;" I cast my burden upon Him, and He "sustained me?" How have seeming difficulties melted away! How has the yoke lost its heaviness, and the cross its bitterness, in the thought of whom thou wert bearing it for! There is a promised rest in the very carrying of the yoke; and a better rest remains for the weary and toil-worn when the appointed work is finished; for thus saith "that same Jesus,"
"TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU, AND LEARN OF ME, ... AND YE SHALL FIND _REST_ UNTO YOUR SOULS."
16TH DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you."--John xv. 9.
The Measure of Love.
This is the most wondrous verse in the Bible. Who can sound the unimagined depths of that love which dwelt in the bosom of the Father from all eternity towards His Son?--and yet here is the Saviour's own exponent of His love towards His people!
There is no subject more profoundly mysterious than those mystic intercommunings between the first and second persons in the adorable Trinity before the world was. Scripture gives us only some dim and shadowy revelations regarding them--distant gleams of light, and no more. Let one suffice. "_Then_ I was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him."
We know that earthly affection is deepened and intensified by increased familiarity with its object. The friendship of yesterday is not the sacred, hallowed thing, which years of growing intercourse have matured. If we may with reverence apply this test to the highest type of holy affection, what must have been that interchange of love which the measureless lapse of Eternity had fostered--a love, moreover, not fitful, transient, vacillating, subject to altered tones and estranged looks--but pure, constant, untainted, without one shadow of turning! And yet, listen to the "words of Jesus," As the Father hath loved _me_, _so_ have I loved _you_! It would have been infinitely more than we had reason to expect, if He had said, "As my Father hath loved ANGELS, so have I loved you." But the love borne to no finite beings is an appropriate symbol. Long before the birth of time or of worlds, that love existed. It was coeval with Eternity itself. Hear how the two themes of the Saviour's eternal rejoicing--the _love of His Father_, and His _love for sinners_--are grouped together;--"Rejoicing always before HIM, _and_ in the habitable part of His _earth_!"
To complete the picture, we must take in a counterpart description of the _Father's_ love to us;--"_Therefore_ doth my Father love me," says Jesus in another place, "_because_ I lay down my life!" God had an all-sufficiency in His love--He needed not the taper-love of creatures to add to His glory or happiness; but He seems to say, that so intense is His love for us, that He loves even His beloved Son _more_ (if infinite love be capable of increase), because He laid down His life for the guilty! It is regarding the Redeemed it is said, "He shall _rest_ in His love--He shall rejoice over _them_ with singing."
In the assertion, "God is love," we are left truly with no mere unproved averment regarding the existence of some abstract quality in the divine nature. "Herein," says an apostle, "perceive we THE LOVE,"--(it is added in our authorised version, "of God," but, as it has been remarked, "Our translators need not have added _whose_ love, for there is but one such specimen")--"_because_ He laid down His life for us." No expression of love can be wondered at after _this_. Ah, how miserable are our best affections compared with His! "_Our_ love is but the reflection--cold as the moon; _His_ is as the Sun." Shall we refuse to love Him more in return, who hath _first_ loved, and so _loved us_?
"NEVER MAN SPAKE LIKE THIS MAN."
17TH DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"Only believe."--Mark v. 36.
The Brief Gospel.
The briefest of the "words of Jesus," but one of the most comforting. They contain the essence and epitome of all saving truth.
Reader, is _Satan_ assailing thee with tormenting fears? Is the thought of thy sins--the guilty past--coming up in terrible memorial before thee, almost tempting thee to give way to hopeless despondency? Fear not! A gentle voice whispers in thine ear,--"_Only believe._" "Thy sins are great, but my grace and merits are greater. 'Only believe' that I died for thee--that I am living for thee and pleading for thee, and that 'the faithful saying' is as 'faithful' as ever, and as 'worthy of all acceptation' as ever."--Art thou a _backslider_? Didst thou once run well? Has thine own guilty apostacy alienated and estranged thee from that face which was once all love, and that service which was once all delight? Art thou breathing in broken-hearted sorrow over the holy memories of a close walk with God--"Oh that it were with me as in months past, when the candle of the Lord did shine?" "_Only believe._" Take this thy mournful soliloquy, and convert it into a prayer. "Only believe" the word of Him whose ways are not as man's ways--"Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding."--Art thou beaten down with some heavy _trial_? have thy fondest schemes been blown upon--thy fairest blossoms been withered in the bud? has wave after wave been rolling in upon thee? hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious? Hear the "word of Jesus" resounding amid the thickest midnight of gloom--penetrating even through the vaults of the dead--"Believe, _only believe_." There is an infinite _reason_ for the trial--a lurking thorn that required removal, a gracious lesson that required teaching. The dreadful severing blow was dealt in love. God will be glorified in it, and your own soul made the better for it. Patiently wait till the light of immortality be reflected on a receding world. Here you must take His dealings on trust. The word of Jesus to you now is, "_Only believe._" The word of Jesus in eternity (every inner meaning and undeveloped purpose being unfolded), "Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest _but_ BELIEVE, thou shouldst SEE the glory of God?"--Are you fearful and agitated in _the prospect of death_? Through fear of the last enemy, have you been all your lifetime subject to bondage?--"_Only believe._" "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be." Dying grace will be given when a dying hour comes. In the dark river a sustaining arm will be underneath you, deeper than the deepest and darkest wave. Ere you know it, the darkness will be past, the true Light shining,--the whisper of faith in the nether valley, "Believe! believe!" exchanged for angel-voices exclaiming, as you enter the portals of glory, "No longer through a glass darkly, but now face to face!"
Yes! "Jesus Himself had no higher remedy for sin, for sorrow, and for suffering, than those two words convey. At the utmost extremity of His own distress, and of His disciples' wretchedness, He could only say, 'Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.' 'Believe, only believe.'"
"LORD, I BELIEVE, HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF."
18TH DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"Be of good cheer: It is I; be not afraid."--Mark vi. 50.
The Great Calm.
"It is I," (or as our old version has it, more in accordance with the original), "I AM! be not afraid!" Jesus lives! His people may dispel their misgivings--Omnipotence treads the waves! To sense it may seem at times to be otherwise; wayward accident and chance may appear to regulate human allotments; but not so: "The Lord's voice is upon the waters,"--He sits at the helm guiding the tempest-tossed bark, and guiding it well.
How often does He come to us as He did to the disciples in that midnight hour when all seems lost--"in the fourth watch of the night,"--when we least looked for Him; or when, like the shipwrecked apostle, "for days together neither sun nor stars appeared, and no small tempest lay on us; when all hope that we should be saved seemed to be taken away,"--how often _just at that moment_, is the "word of Jesus" heard floating over the billows!
Believer, art thou in trouble? listen to the voice in the storm, "Fear not, _I_ AM." That voice, like Joseph's of old to his brethren, may _seem_ rough, but there are gracious undertones of love. "It is I," he seems to say; It _was_ I, that roused the storm; It is I, who when it has done its work, will calm it, and say, "Peace, be still." Every wave rolls at My bidding--every trial is My appointment--all have some gracious end; they are not sent to dash you against the sunken rocks, but to waft you nearer heaven. Is it _sickness_? I am He who bare your sickness; the weary wasted frame, and the nights of languishing, were sent by Me. Is it _bereavement_? I am "the Brother" born for adversity--the loved and lost were plucked away by Me. Is it _death_? I AM the "Abolisher of death," seated by your side to calm the waves of ebbing life; it is _I_, about to fetch My pilgrims _home_--It is My voice that speaks, "The Master is come, and calleth for thee."
Reader, thou wilt have reason yet to praise thy God for every one such storm! This is the history of every heavenly voyager: "_So_ He bringeth them to their desired haven." "_So!_" That word, in all its unknown and diversified meaning, is in _His_ hand. He suits His dealings to every case. "_So!_" With some it is through quiet seas unfretted by one buffeting wave. "_So!_" With others it is "mounting up to heaven, and going down again to the deep." But whatever be the leading and the discipline, here is the grand consummation, "_So_ He bringeth them unto their desired haven." It might have been with thee the moanings of an eternal night-blast--no lull or pause in the storm; but soon the darkness will be past, and the hues of morn tipping the shores of glory!
And what, then, should your attitude be? "Looking unto Jesus" (literally, looking _from unto_); looking away from self, and sin, and human props and refuges and confidences, and fixing the eye of unwavering and unflinching faith on a reigning Saviour. Ah, how a real quickening sight of Christ dispels all guilty fears! The Roman keepers of old were affrighted, and became as dead men. The lowly Jewish women feared not; why? "_I know that ye seek Jesus!_" Reader, let thy weary spirit fold itself to rest under the composing "word" of a gracious Saviour, saying----
"I WAIT FOR THE LORD, MY SOUL DOTH WAIT, AND IN _HIS WORD_ DO I HOPE."
19TH DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you."--John xiv. 27.
The Dying Legacy.
How we treasure the last sayings of a dying parent! How specially cherished and memorable are his last looks and last words! Here are the last words--the parting legacy--of a dying Saviour. It is a legacy of _peace_.
What peace is this? It is His own purchase--a peace arising out of free forgiveness through His precious blood. It is sung in concert with "Glory to God in the highest"--a peace made as sure to us as eternal power and infinite love _can make it_! It is _peace_ the soul wants. Existence is one long-drawn sigh after repose. _That_ is nowhere else to be found, but through the blood of His cross! "Being justified by faith, we _have_ peace with God." "HE giveth his beloved _rest_!"
How different from the false and counterfeit peace in which so many are content to live, and content to die! The world's peace is all well, so long as prosperity lasts--so long as the stream runs smooth, and the sky is clear; but when the cataract is at hand, or the storm is gathering, where is it? It is _gone_! There is no calculating on its permanency. Often when the cup is fullest, there is the trembling apprehension that in one brief moment it may be dashed to the ground. The soul may be saying to itself, "Peace, peace;" but, like the writing on the sand, it may be obliterated by the first wave of adversity. BUT, "Not as the world giveth!" The peace of the believer is deep--calm--lasting--_ever_lasting. The world, with all its blandishments, cannot give it. The world, with all its vicissitudes and fluctuations, cannot take it away! It is brightest in the hour of trial; it lights up the final valley-gloom. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." Yes! how often is the believer's deathbed like the deep calm repose of a summer-evening's sky, when all nature is hushed to rest; the departing soul, like the vanishing sun, peacefully disappearing only to shine in another and brighter hemisphere! "I seem," said Simeon on his deathbed, "to have nothing to do but to wait: there is now nothing but _peace_, the _sweetest peace_."
Believer! do you know this peace which passeth understanding? Is it "keeping (literally, '_garrisoning_ as in a citadel') your heart?" Have you learnt the blessedness of waking up, morning after morning, and feeling, "I am at peace with my God;" of beholding by faith the true Aaron--the great High Priest--coming forth from "the holiest of all" to "bless His people with peace?" Waves of trouble may be murmuring around you, but they cannot touch you; you are in the rock-crevice athwart which the fiercest tornado sweeps by. Oh! leave not the making up of your peace with God to a dying hour! It will be a hard thing to smooth the death-pillow, if peace be left unsought till then. Make sure of it _now_. He, the true Melchisedec, is willing _now_ to come forth to meet you with bread and wine--emblems of peaceful gospel blessings. All the "words of Jesus" are so many rills contributing to make your peace flow as a river;--"These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace."
"I WILL HEAR WHAT GOD THE LORD WILL SPEAK, FOR HE WILL SPEAK PEACE UNTO HIS PEOPLE AND TO HIS SAINTS."
20TH DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."--Matt. xxviii. 18.
The Supreme Investiture.
What an empire is this! Heaven and earth--the Church militant--the Church triumphant--angels and archangels--saints and seraphs. At His mandate the billows were hushed--demons crouched in terror--the grave yielded its prey! "Upon his head are many crowns." He is made "head over _all things_ to His Church." Yes! over _all things_, from the minutest to the mightiest. He holds the stars in His right hand--He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, feeding every candlestick with the oil of His grace, and preserving every star in its spiritual orbit. The prince of Darkness has "a power," but, God be praised, it is not an "all power;" _potent_, but not _omnipotent_. Christ holds him in a chain. He hath set bounds that he may not pass over. "Satan," we read in the book of Job, "went out (_Chaldee paraphrase_, 'with a licence') from the presence of the Lord." He was not allowed even to enter the herd of swine till Christ permitted him. He only "_desired_" to have Peter that he might "sift him;" there was a mightier countervailing agency at hand: "_I_ have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."
Believer, how often is there nothing but this grace of Jesus between thee and everlasting destruction! Satan's key fitting the lock in thy wayward heart; but a stronger than the strong man barring him out;--the power of the adversary fanning the flame; the Omnipotence of Jesus quenching it. Art thou even now feeling the strength of thy corruptions, the weakness of thy graces, the presence of some outward or inward temptation? Look up to Him who has promised to make His grace sufficient for thee; "all power" is His prerogative; "all-sufficiency in all things" is His promise. It is power, too, in conjunction with tenderness. He who sways the sceptre of universal empire "gently leads" His weak, and weary, and burdened ones:--He who counts the number of the stars, loves to count the number of their sorrows; nothing too great, nothing too insignificant for _Him_. He puts every tear into his bottle. He paves His people's pathway with love!
Blessed Jesus! my everlasting interests cannot be in better or in safer keeping than in Thine. I can exultingly rely on the "_all-power_" of Thy Godhead. I can sweetly rejoice in the _all-sympathy_ of Thy Manhood. I can confidently repose in the sure wisdom of Thy dealings. "Sometimes," says one, "we expect the blessing in _our_ way; He chooses to bestow it in _His_." But His way and His will must be the best. Infinite love, infinite power, infinite wisdom, are surely infallible guarantees. His purposes nothing can alter. His promises never fail. His word never falls to the ground.
"HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY, BUT _MY WORDS_ SHALL NOT PASS AWAY."
21ST DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."--John xvi. 14.
The Divine Glorifier.
The Holy Spirit glorifying Jesus in the unfoldings of His person, and character, and work, to His people! The great ministering agent between the Church on earth and its glorified Head in Heaven,--carrying up to the Intercessor on the throne, the ever-recurring wants and trials, the perplexities and sins, of believers; and receiving out of His inexhaustible treasury of love,--comfort for their sorrows--strength for their weakness--sympathy for their tears--fulness for their emptiness,--and _this_ the one sublime end and object of His gracious agency,--"_He shall glorify Me._" "He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." My words of sympathy--My omnipotent pleadings--the tender messages sent from an unchanged Human Heart,--all these shall He speak. "He shall tell you," says an old divine, commenting on this passage, "He shall tell you nothing but stories of My love" (_Goodwin_). He will have an ineffable delight in magnifying Me in the affections of My Church and people, and endearing Me to their hearts; and He is all worthy of credence, for He is "the Spirit of truth."
How faithful has He been in every age to this His great office as "the glorifier of Jesus!" See the first manifestation of His power in the Christian Church at the day of Pentecost. What was the grand truth which forms the focus-point of interest in that unparalleled scene, and which brings three thousand stricken penitents to their knees? _It is the Spirit's unfolding of Jesus_--glorifying _Him_ in eyes that before saw in Him no beauty? Hear the key-note of that wondrous sermon, preached "in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power,"--"HIM hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to His people, and forgiveness of sins."
Ah? it is still the same peerless truth which the Spirit delights to unfold to the stricken sinner, and, in unfolding it, to make it mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. All these glorious inner beauties of Christ's work and character are undiscerned and undiscernible by the natural eye. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." "No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." He is the great Forerunner--a mightier than the Baptist--proclaiming, "Behold the Lamb of God!"
Reader! any bright and realising view you have had of the Saviour's glory and excellency, is of the Spirit's imparting. When in some hour of sorrow you have been led to cleave with pre-eminent consolation to the thought of the Redeemer's exalted sympathy--His dying, ever-living love; or in the hour of death, when you feel the sustaining power of His exceeding great and precious promises;--what is this, but the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of His all-gracious office, taking of all things of Christ, and showing them unto you; thus enabling you to magnify Him in your body, whether it be by life or death? As your motto should ever be, "_None BUT Christ_," and your ever-increasing aspiration, "_More OF Christ_," seek to bear in mind who it is that is alone qualified to impart the "excellency of this knowledge."
"THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH WHICH PROCEEDETH FROM THE FATHER, _HE_ SHALL TESTIFY OF ME."
22D DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"Your sorrow shall be turned into joy."--John xvi. 20.
The Joyful Transformation.