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The grand duty of the believer!
(adapted from Octavius Winslow's, "The Glory
of the Redeemer in His Second Coming")
The grand duty of the believer is to live
above the world. He is not of the world,
even as Christ was not of it.
The very name of a Christian implies his
crucifixion to the world. In his profession,
his joys, his pursuits, his hopes, he seems
to say, with the soaring eagle, "I was born
on the earth, but I live in the sky."
But we require powerful motives to influence
us to this. We are moved by motive, and the
religion of Jesus is preeminently a religion of
motive. The certain and speedy coming of Christ
to glorify His Church, oh, what a motive is here!
Were you to rise in the morning impressed with
this truth, how sweetly would it carry you through
your day! How effectually would it....
dim the luster of the world's pomp,
deaden its joys,
soothe your sorrows,
dry your tears,
lighten your burdens,
reconcile you to poverty, to crosses, to losses,
yes, to whatever your Lord ordains!
You would feel, "What have I to do with the world's
vanities, its smiles, and its glories? I am waiting,
expecting, looking, hoping, praying, for that blessed
hope, the appearing of my Redeemer."
Oh what an eminent Christian would you be!
What a burning and shining light!
What vigorous faith, what lively hope, what fervent
love, what a holy living for God, for Christ, and for
eternity, would henceforth distinguish you!
Belief in the Lord's coming reduces all worldly glory
into the emptiness and nothingness; and gives the
believer a holy elevation above all sublunary enjoyments.
Surely, if our affections were supremely fixed on Jesus;
were He to us the "chief among ten thousand;" and did
we really feel in our hearts the sentiment which our lips
so often utter, "Whom have I in heaven but You? and
there is none upon earth that I desire besides You;"
the return of our Lord would be to us a matter of most
delightsome expectation and joyous desire.
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