WALKING WITH JESUS by Mary Winslow
Spiritual meditations for pilgrims in a weary land on
their way to glory!
Part 5
Oh, the comfort, the
inexpressible comfort of a throne of grace! It is the only verdant,
refreshing spot in this world's wide wilderness. To have the sensible
presence of God, the heart of a loving Father to confide in, who is able
to do all and more than we require; to have Him always near, His hand ever
stretched out; Oh, the comfort! This is my sweetest spot and chief comfort
in earth's wild wilderness, where I carry all my cares and troubles, and
am ever sure to receive a welcome in the face of a reconciled Father. Oh,
the loving heart of Christ! Although He knows our ten thousand
infirmities, He does not turn a deaf ear to our poor supplications, but
with His own blood blots out all their imperfections.
Why does God discipline His own children but to
teach them their own weakness and helplessness, and to make them cling all
the closer to Himself. All our trials and afflictions are to wean us
from the creature, the world, and self; to find all we need or can
wish in the fulness of Jesus. "From among all the families on the earth, I
chose you alone. That is why I must punish you for all your sins." Our
chastisement is one proof of God's love for us.
Oh, what poor creatures are we, and how needful to
have One all mighty and all love to keep us in the way, in spite of our
wretched proneness to wander far from our best Friend! How often, had He
left us to our own way, we would have ruined ourselves, soul and body,
have made shipwreck of our faith, and have been lost forever! Oh, the
patience of this good and gracious God, who bears with our woeful manners
in the wilderness from moment to moment, and deals not with us according
to the least of our sins!
Beloved, you belong to Him who loves you, and who in
infinite wisdom and wondrous love will take His own way, His wise way,
His loving way, which will be the best for you through time and
eternity.
What wretched work it is to depend upon the
creature, who changes and varies in all its feelings, purposes, and
affections every moment! But our best, dearest, and only Friend changes
not. He cannot change, because He is God. A God, too, all sufficient and
all mighty. Such is your Friend and mine. So never be cast down. If He has
given His Son for us, will He withhold any other good thing? He knows the
end from the beginning. We know nothing beyond the present moment. If left
to ourselves, we would destroy ourselves; but He has promised to provide,
and to care for, and to preserve us, even to the end.
I feel much sympathy for you in this afflictive
visitation of our God. It has a voice. He does nothing in vain. He does
not afflict willingly. It is, among other designs, to wean us from the
world and from ourselves, and from those creature ties which so much draw
our hearts from Him, so that we have but half for God. Let us gird up the
loins of our mind, and start afresh for heaven. Why does He afflict and
correct those whom He loves? It is to cause them to live more above a
dying world, walking more humbly and closely with Him. He is jealous of
our love.
Never sit down and reason what you should do in this or
that perplexity, but go at once to the Lord with it, distrusting your own
heart; which is deceitful above all things; but trusting Him, which you
may safely do. We are poor blind creatures, and need this Heavenly
gracious Guide.
How tenderly is He watching over us! His sleepless eye
of love ever upon us; a Friend to guide us through the wilderness,
encircled, as we are, by a host of beasts of prey. How wondrous that we
are not lost, and lost forever, living in a world lying in the wicked one!
No power short of Omnipotence could preserve us from his malice, or foil
his deep laid schemes for our ruin. What a debt of love we owe Him
who, seeing our danger, ran to our rescue, and undertook our eternal
salvation!
A needy sinner and an all sufficient Savior can walk
sweetly together.
I wish only to live to show my love to Him, and to
manifest the power of His grace in one who in herself is one lump of
sin and defilement. How marvellous that the Lord should select out of
the mass of the world's sinful beings such a one as myself to show forth
the power of His redeeming love and grace! Every fresh manifestation of
this love breaks the heart, and humbles the soul even to the dust!
Time is hastening us on, and the moment will quickly
come when our dearest Friend will claim us as His own and for Himself.
Then we shall see Him face to face; and who will shout the loudest in
glory? I think I shall. For, what has He not forgiven me? No
tongue can tell how my heart goes out, at times, in wondering gratitude
and adoring love towards Him. Such is the Lord Jesus that angels
themselves know not half His worth. It is sinners, poor sinners like
myself; helpless, lost, ruined in themselves; who alone can appreciate the
glorious finished work of Jesus. My soul at this moment; weeping while I
write; rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory in God my Savior.
Let us live as candidates for a crown of glory.
This will keep us above the trials and the trifles of time.
When we turn from earth and gaze upon the glorious
prospect that is before us; when we see what rich provision is made in the
gospel for such poor sinners as we are; when we see Jesus at the right
hand of God waiting to receive us home; when we realize that a very few
steps we have to take and then we will be done with time, and a vast
eternity burst upon us with all its solemn and glorious realities, oh, how
does the world, with all its tinsel and toys, its emptiness and
nothingness, sink into the dust beneath our feet! The present world
is but weariness, disappointment, and vexation of spirit. Take it in
whatever form you may, it brings its troubles and its sorrows.
What debtors we are to grace for opening our eyes
to see our need of Jesus, and our hearts to receive Him as the best and
dearest of God's blessings to this fallen world!
Nothing is too trifling to bring to Him, which is a
trouble to us. It is better to go to God than to the best, the wisest, or
kindest earthly friend. Only let us come with the one request which
presses the most upon our hearts, to our Guide, our Protector, our
Provider, our best Friend and Brother.
How are you traveling heavenward? Are you enjoying
the light of His countenance, without which nothing on earth can give true
happiness, either here or hereafter? Is Jesus precious? Are you enabled to
say, "My best Beloved is mine, and I am His?"
Child of God, Jesus loves you and is watching over your
every step through the wilderness. And although you are prone to forget
Him, He never for a moment forgets you.
Alas! we live so below our high and heavenly
calling, our glorious and eternal destiny!
The day my beloved pastor died, I could have danced for
joy, I so vividly and sensibly realized the scene which was taking
place between Jesus and himself. I could imagine I heard the "Well done,
good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!"
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Rev. 21:4
Do you not almost envy those who have escaped from sin and sorrow and
suffering, and are so signally honored as to see Jesus, to bask in the
full sunshine of His glory, and to sit forever at His feet? See the loved
ones enter the gates of heaven; angels their attendants! See the
glorified, loving Savior holding out the golden scepter, and saying,
"Come, you blessed of my Father!" Could we be so selfish as to wish
them back? Oh no! No more pain, no more sighing, no more sorrow, no
more sin!
The humble, penitential, minute confession of sin will
keep the conscience tender, create a watchful spirit within, sanctify
the heart, and draw us closer and closer to the Cross, and to the Christ
of the Cross. Thus go to Jesus. He is with you in all your
concerns, in all your trials, in all your blessings, in all your sorrows
and in all your joys. His dear eye is ever upon you for good. He loved you
with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness drew you to Himself.
Veil no secrets from Him. Keep an open heart with Christ. If your love
is cold, He will warm it. If your spirit is depressed, He will
raise it. If your corruptions are strong, He will subdue them. The
oftener you come the more welcome you will be. You cannot weary nor
wear Him out!
Time is short, and eternity with all its solemnities
will soon burst upon our view! And yet how many who profess and call
themselves Christians fritter away their little measure of time in the
baubles of this present evil world! Is not this the worst species of
madness? May the Lord make us faithful to Him, urging all we love to flee
from the wrath to come, pointing them to the Lamb of God whose blood
cleanses from sin and sanctifies the heart!
How often we detect ourselves endeavoring to build our
nest below, and get wounded by thorns and thistles, with prowling beasts,
the voice of the roaring lion seeking for his prey! What a mercy that
Jehovah is round about His people, defending them, and watching over them
with a sleepless eye, in their eventful and perilous journey homeward! Let
us take the world just as God makes it to us, and desire no more than what
He gives. To the believer, this world is a great snare and hindrance!
The flesh lusts after it, and we require to be constant in prayer to
repel its assaults and to resist its seductions.
Dear friend, we are but shadows, passing from
shadows, to solemn and glorious realities. We live in a dying world.
Death seems stalking about, summoning many to the judgment seat of Christ.
What a mercy to be found ready; and when we meet Him, to recognize in the
face of the judge upon the throne, the Savior who hung upon the cross; our
dearest Friend who died for us, that we might live forever! My own mind is
kept sweetly staid upon God, and my eye, in a great measure, fixed upon
eternity, to which I am fast approaching.
This poor world is but a wilderness. And who would
desire to dwell forever in a wilderness?
Oh for hearts to feel His great goodness, in all the
ways He takes with us!
Yes, we are traveling home to God. Our princely mansion
is above, prepared for us from the foundation of the world by the hand of
Him who loves with an eternal love. Let us be satisfied to be but
strangers and pilgrims here in a strange land; looking and longing for the
time when He will say to us, "Arise, My love, My fair one, and come
away!" We do not know how soon our journey may terminate. Let us be
ready; our lamps trimmed, and brightly burning.
I am fully persuaded that formality is the bane
of spiritual religion; religion of form without power; of possession,
without recognition; satisfied with the performance of a duty, without the
sweet enjoyment of a privilege.
How vain it is to look for happiness in this vile and
rebellious world; a world lying in the wicked one. God never designed
that His people should have a resting place here, where sin and sorrow
meet us at every step. In Him alone we can rest. And when faith is tried
and exercised, how pleasant to feel that we have this rest; a rest in His
changeless love, deeper than the ocean, vast as eternity.
How sweet is close, confidential communion with Jesus!
How fully we can then unveil all our hearts to Him; disclosing every
secret; making known every need; and bringing our hidden enemies, our
corruptions, to Him, that He might slay them before our eyes!
God is love! Nothing but love to His beloved ones! One
ocean of love! Love in all His varied dealings and dispensations of His
all wise providence. Dark clouds may hover over us, but love is
embosomed in them all. The atmosphere of heaven, too, is love. And
before long our bark will float in that infinite sea! What a prospect lies
before us!
Oh, He is a jealous God, and will have us lean, not
upon the creature, but upon Himself.
These very trials, which now seem ready to crush
you, are among the "all things" that are working for your best and eternal
interests. The Lord your God is at this moment watching over you for good.
From everlasting He has loved us, and will love us through all the
varying, shifting scenes and dispensations of His loving providence.
It is sweet to traverse this wilderness with our
hand in His, safely led along each narrow path we tread. None but
Jesus can make us happy here or hereafter.
Look often at your eternal inheritance. Take your walks
by faith in the garden of love above. See Jesus there no longer
wearing the crown of thorns but the diadem of glory! Let us give to Him an
undivided heart.
What distinguishing grace to us, which has opened
our eyes to see our danger and our Refuge; which has led to God's well
beloved Son, to be saved in Him with a present, sure, and everlasting
salvation!
Let us think more of what awaits us. This will
sweeten present trial, and subdue a repining and complaining spirit. We
must converse less with the conflicts and trials of the way, however
painful, and more with the glory that is to be revealed. Let us draw near
to Him, and He will draw near to us.
The formalist and the Pharisee! There is, perhaps,
nothing more difficult than to bring a poor formalist out of his religious
formality; or a poor Pharisee to drop his filthy rags, and come to Jesus
just as he is: blind, naked, wretched. An 'empty sinner' and a 'full
Savior' can alone walk together!
Dear friend, when He raises His chastening hand, run
at once into His bosom! You cannot lie long there without feeling the
throbbings of His loving heart; and this will heal the sorrow, quell the
fear, disarm the rebellion, and peace and rich consolation will be the
blessed result.
I not only love Him for what He has done for me, but
for what He is in Himself; the chief among ten thousand, the altogether
lovely One!
Why should Christ care for us, vile creatures? Oh,
what a Savior is ours!
Whenever any cross of whatever kind comes in my way, I
take it at once to the Lord. It is, thenceforth, no more a trouble to
me. He makes the rough places smooth and the crooked paths straight.
The more I read the Bible, and the closer my communion
with Jesus, the more persuaded I am, that so matchless and wondrous is the
efficacy of that atonement He has made to Divine Justice, the vilest
sinner that breathes the faintest, believing cry to Him for mercy; even at
a dying moment- He will hear and save. The thief on the cross found it
so!
The broken and the contrite heart God will not despise.
There are few who view sin as it really is: a rebellion against the best
of beings, the holy Lord God. And many such, without any true self
knowledge, take up a profession of religion, float but upon the
surface, and imagine they are in reality what they are not.
The life of God in the renewed soul is an astonishing
thing. How this great and mysterious work is carried on must be a study
and a wonder to the angelic world, and a wonder often to the Christian
himself. We do well to watch the dealings of God with us, tracing His love
and power in counteracting and overruling, subduing and sanctifying, thus
fitting us for the kingdom of glory. May the Lord keep us, and cause us to
see that we have but one thing to do, which is, to aim in all
things to glorify and honestly to walk with Him.
A constant resort to the Fountain open for sin and
uncleanness keeps the conscience undefiled and the heart tender, humble,
and loving.
We live in such poor, frail bodies, it is all of
mercy that we do not suffer more than we do. Sin, sin has
done it all, and sorrow follows close upon its steps. Every pang
should remind us of this, and remind us, too, that God has something
better in reserve for us who love Him.
How condescending is Christ to one unworthy of a
single crumb of mercy from His hands! But so it is! He will, in the
exercise of His own sovereignty, have mercy upon whom He will have mercy,
and He has had mercy upon me!
We have to contend with a host of enemies, all opposed
to the progress of Christ's kingdom. What are we to do? Carry them to
Jesus to subdue them for us, for we have no power in ourselves. If we
attempt to subdue even one small corruption in our own wisdom and
strength, we fail at once, for the smallest will be more than our
match. Christ has reminded us, "Without Me, you can do nothing."
We must have more to do with eternal realities. Let
us relinquish the poor trifles of earth, and fix our thoughts, and
affections, and hopes more on the future.
Our precious Jesus, who deserves ten thousand hearts,
if we had them, receives, alas! but half a heart, while the world
would retain the other half.
The morning is to me the sweetest and most important
time of the day. I then enjoy much of the presence of Him whom my soul
loves; and without these sweet visits from Him, what a wretched void would
this world be to the Christian! Oh for closer communion, holier intimacy,
with the Father and His Son Christ Jesus. This is what we need to raise us
above earth, and inspire our soul to depart and to be with Christ. We
too much cling to earth and its trifles, forgetting that glory awaits
us, and that an instant may put us into its full possession. How much we
need to be constantly reminded of this!
It is a mercy to know that the bounds of our
habitation are fixed; that is, appointed by Him who cannot err, and who
sees the end from the beginning.
We live in a mournful and dying world. What a poor
world, if this were to be our all! But to God's children it is but the
passage across the desert, in which we are schooled and prepared for
the Canaan Jesus has gone to prepare for us! But how do we murmur, often,
at the training we have to go through; at the hard lessons we have to
learn!
What a hospital is this world! There is but one
remedy for all it's evils; the precious blood of Jesus, God's dear Son.
How mysterious are the ways of God! They are often
to us a great enigma. But what we don't know now, we shall fully and
eternally know hereafter. By all the varying dispensations of His
infinitely wise providence, we are being disciplined for the glory that
shall be revealed in us.
Afflictions, trials, and cares are the medicine of
the soul, bitter for the present, but most salutary and healthful in
their hallowed result. How little do we know, or still less can we judge,
of Jesus' love to us while passing through a dark cloud. This is the time
for faith to repose sweetly on the faithfulness of our unchanging God and
Father. Let us then wait, and watch, and pray, looking unto the Lord,
whose love never varies. He is doing all things well. Only trust Him, and
never doubt, though you cannot discern a ray of light. Place your hand in
His, and He will gently and skillfully lead you through every dark
providence. Beloved, what an ocean of consolation is this!
I shall not be long here. Heaven looks very
attractive. No more tears, no more parting, no more sin there. Who would
not live for this glorious eternity!
Oh, how faintly do we realize the wondrous blessings
that await us- the fulness of joy, and the pleasures that are at God's
right hand! Oh, that we would lived up to them! This passing world
engrosses too much our thoughts and time, that we forget the Lord is
caring for us, ordering all our concerns in such a way as that we need be
anxious for nothing. And all we have to do is to rest upon Him as little
helpless children would do upon the tenderest mother. A mother may
forget, yet God will not forget us!
Oh what love, that He should ever have descended
from His exalted habitation in glory for the express purpose of suffering
in our stead, fulfilling the law, atoning for our sins, leaving not one
unpardoned thought, word, or deed; then rising from the grave, proving
thereby that He had conquered all our enemies, and ascending up on high as
our Redeemer, taking possession of heaven for us until He shall have
brought home the last elect vessel of mercy!
Do not be satisfied with a little when there is
such a rich abundance treasured up in Christ Jesus for us.
Why does the Lord employ the chastening of trial?
Is it not with the view to draw us closer to Himself! Is it not to weaken
the world's attractions, teaching us that this is not our rest, for it is
polluted?
Ten minutes at the feet of Jesus, in a full view of
His love, while confessing sins and shortcomings; sins we know already
pardoned; yet sorrowing that we should ever grieve One who so tenderly
loves us, is a happiness I would not exchange for millions of worlds!
Oh, what a poor wretched exchange professors make
when they barter the blessings of a close walk with God, for the beggarly
enjoyments of an empty, disappointing world!
If we would keep under control the old nature within us
(which can never be mended); and the world outside us (which will ever be
what it is); it must be by the increase of every grace of the Spirit
within us. Faith in Christ will overcome the cunning world outside us, and
the more subtle world within us.
It is no common journey we are upon. Every step of
the way is important, and fraught with the deepest interest. God the
Father is watching every trembling step we take. God the Son tenderly and
graciously enters into all our difficulties, discouragements, and
conflicts. God the Holy Spirit instructs and leads us onward, whispering
words of comfort, and imparting new life and energy to our minds, by
leading us constantly to the Fountain of living waters.
It is a melancholy spectacle to see many who
seemed to run well for a season, slacken in the race, and afterwards grow
weary, and turn back, and walk no more with Jesus. It is to the flesh so
self denying a way; and its pleasures and joys so entirely internal, apart
from anything external and visible; that the mere nominal Christian, the
religious formalist, soon wearies, turns back, and finds that he was not a
true pilgrim.
You and I have but a little while to honor God.
Eternity, with all its solemn realities, is before us. Let us not lose a
moment of the little space that is left us. Every thought, every word,
every step is all important. We must live for God, and for God only.
To Him we belong. He has redeemed us at a vast price, and we are His and
His alone. Living for Him here, is a pledge of our being with Him
throughout an endless and ever increasingly glorious eternity. God be
praised for such a hope beaming with immortality beyond the grave!
We were traveling the broad road to eternal woe when
Jesus met us and turned our feet into the narrow road that leads to
eternal life. What could move His heart towards us? It was love;
love from everlasting, and love to everlasting. And it is that same love
that still watches over us day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. And
although we often loath ourselves, His love never varies. Is it not
surprising that He can love us while we hate ourselves? But such is
our Jesus. He is ours, and we are His.
The Lord is good, but how little we understand of His
goodness! But a blessed eternity will be ever unfolding it to our hearts.
The marvel is, that we are so well satisfied to remain where we are, and
are not longing more to depart and be where we shall behold Him as He is
in all His unveiled beauty and excellence. If the 'drops' we get here are
so sweet and refreshing, what must the 'ocean fulness' be!
Is it not marvellous that after all our ungrateful
returns and sad departures, He should yet stand with open arms to receive
and welcome us back when a fresh trouble brings us to His feet? None
but Christ could or would do this!
Nothing in the Christian's life happens in this
valley of tears but what God overrules for our best interests. Every event
in God's loving dealings is designed to draw us sensibly nearer to
Himself.
Let us apply continually to Jesus, and not fail to take
our little matters as well as our greater ones. I often find that it
requires stronger faith to carry minor concerns to Him than weightier
ones. Our lives are made up of little things, like small links in a
great chain, forming a complete whole.
We should see His loving hand in all the varying
dispensations of His righteous providence. Let us aim to walk by faith in
this poor world, through which we are traveling home to a better world.
Our ever vigilant foe, the devil, seeks to entrap and wound us; while we
have a yet greater enemy within, ever ready to listen to his subtle
reasoning. How much need have we to cry to the Lord, "Hold me up, and I
shall be safe!"
I can seldom feel the love of Christ without a
sensibility that moves me to tears. To think He should ever set His heart
upon such sinners as we are; so love us as to lay down His life for us;
and still love us in spite of all our wanderings and shortcomings,
coldness, barrenness, and forgetfulness of Him; to love us notwithstanding
all! Is it not enough to cause us to weep, and to lay ourselves in
the dust at His feet, that, in return, we love Him so little?
In all the difficulties we meet in our pilgrim way,
let us not sit down and brood over them lest our heart deceive us; but go
at once with them to the Lord, making Him, with an open heart, our
Confidant.
Let us view the world as passing away, and we
ourselves passing away with it. It matters but little whether we are rich
or poor, learned or unlearned, for soon we shall be with the Lord, who
will come and receive us to Himself. Let us be watchful against the
world's entanglements, gathering up our garments that they trail not upon
the earth.
What a mercy to know that I am in the hands of One who
loves me better than any earthly being can, and better than I can love
myself. I feel so sweetly to rely upon the tender care and watchful
providence of God, that my heart often overflows with a sense of His
goodness and my own unworthiness; and that He should condescend to
look upon such a one, and above all to love so worthless a sinner as
myself.
We shall have to praise and bless His holy name
throughout eternity, for every trial He has been pleased to give
us. God is love; and all His purposes towards us are unchanging love,
eternal as His being.
May the Lord keep us humble, meekly sitting at His
feet, feeling our own wretched weakness and liability to fall, and enable
us to look to Him for strength, wisdom, and grace, and above all for
precious faith that we might hold fast our confidence to the end!
I firmly believe that when my eyes close on earth,
they will instantly open upon Jesus, the first precious object I shall
see!
What a God is our God! Who would not love Him! So
good, sympathizing, and full of love! Oh for a tongue to praise Him here!
We shall be fully able when we reach 'home'.
Little faith can get to heaven, though strong faith
will bring us greater comfort, and the vessel will hold more of the
coming glory.
We do not expect to travel through this wilderness
exempt from its thorns and briers; but it is well when we feel Jesus is
with us, and we can lean upon His arm, and often repose our weary heads
upon His loving bosom, while He speaks to us and says, "Take courage! It
is I. Don't be afraid." You need have no troubles- take all to Him, who
will arrange them better for you than you can for yourself. Only beware of
sitting down first to consult your own heart, and then, when this is done,
to think of going to Jesus for help and counsel. Go at once to Christ!
Whatever happens, go and tell Jesus, making Him your Confidant, your
Friend, your All.
It is sweet to feel Jesus' love kindling in our
hearts, enabling us to draw sensibly near, telling Him every need, and
wish, and fear. This is your Friend and mine.
Cheer up! We are now nearer glory than when we
first believed. There sits Jesus, once crowned with thorns, bruised and
crucified for your sins and mine, in all His ineffable beauty and glory
waiting to bid us welcome home. "Come, you who are blessed by my Father;
take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of
the world." Heaven is not so far off as we think. It invites us;
and it is but a step and we are there! This poor world is not our rest!
Heaven is our home, and we are but sojourners here in this wilderness for
a while, soon to be away! Cheer up!
Holy counsels to a young clergyman- The Holy Spirit
must be your teacher. He alone can accompany His own Word spoken to the
soul. He it is who gives life. He it is that convinces of sin, strips the
sinner of his filthy rags, and applies the blood of Christ to the guilty
conscience and speaks peace. Do not give the promises to the goats, which
are intended only for the sheep! Here, my friend, make a distinction, lest
any take the children's bread and are self deceived. I have seen a whole
congregation addressed as believers, while fully two thirds or more were
unconverted! Oh, how awful is such a deception! Oh, preach with your eye
upon eternity! Preach the gospel as though Jesus were at your side! Think
of the never dying souls around you, unawakened, insensible, led captive
by Satan at his will. Work for Christ. Be much in prayer. Go to Jesus for
all your supplies. "Without me you can do nothing." Get your message from
Him. Great is your work! Vast is your responsibility! You are in yourself
powerless, but He is all power, and is ready to give you all you need.
Carry your empty vessel to His overflowing fountain of living grace!
Pray in prayer. Oh, how many unmeaning, heartless
prayers are offered up that never reach the ear or heart of
God!
Praise and laud His holy name for all His mighty
goodness and rich display of love to us, poor lost sinners! It was love
that carried Him through His deep degradation and sorrow, and that
transfixed Him to the cross! It was boundless, matchless love from first
to last! Oh, should we not live for Him! I think if I had ten thousand
hearts, I would give them all to Him! May the Lord bless you with much
of His presence, and shed abroad His own precious love in your heart!
Dear friend, do you feel Jesus precious to your
soul? Is He not the fountain, yes, the ocean of love? Oh, get much of His
love into your heart! Aim to live on high! The soul naturally, through the
weakness of the flesh, cleaves to the dust; and Satan is ever busy in
encumbering our minds with the poor world we are rapidly passing through.
Well may he be called the "god of this world." Do not be ignorant of
his devices.
While passing through all the daily changes of life, we
should call to mind that, either sooner or later, we are hastening to the
great and most eventful change that will take place. The world, with Satan
at its head, will be incessantly calling off our attention to the poor
trifles of time, making every effort to occupy our thoughts, and so
leave very few, if any, for the glory that awaits us above. Do we not
daily see the extreme folly of taking up our rest here on earth?
On looking back upon the past of my eventful life, I
can trace God's fatherly hand in all His correctings and
disappointings, the crosses and losses by the way, and how needful they
all were to bring me to seek all my good in Jesus; for in Him I find all
my soul needs.
Oh, to have such a Friend to go to, who has all things
at His command; the gold and the silver are His, and the cattle upon a
thousand hills, and all hearts are His. Let there be no distance between
you and Jesus. Live upon Him. Live for Him. Yes, live with Him even here.
Cling to Him, for He is your life. Carry all your cares, little or great,
to Him. He will listen to all. It is written, "Casting all your cares upon
Him, for He cares for you." Do not let the poor trifles, the
gewgaws of this trifling world entangle your heart's best
affections. Look at this world as "passing away," and not worthy of a
thought. Keep close to Jesus. He loves you. Oh, repay Him by giving Him
your whole, your undivided heart! He will accept it just as it is, and
make it all you may wish to have it.
Oh, this is a world full of snares, and our sinful
hearts are so deceitful, they are ever ready to fall into them.
Dear child of God, Jesus' loving eye is ever
upon you, and His loving heart is ever towards you.
Jesus is now, though in heaven, what He was when on
earth. He is just as ready to bow down His loving ear, and listen to our
faintest whisper, as He was when here in this world of sin and sorrow. He
was never known to turn one away that came to Him for help. He is the same
now; full of the tenderest sympathy; and He needs us to deal with Him as
helpless children, who can do nothing of ourselves that is good,
and need to be led and upheld every step we take in this sinful and
treacherous world.
The purity of heaven is sweetly attractive,
and, next to being with Jesus, will make heaven what it is, a place of
perfect happiness. It is sin that creates all our sorrow here on earth.
Truly, all whose eyes the Lord has opened must say
this is a world of sorrow. Trials, in endless forms- crosses,
sickness, temptations; assail us at every step we take through this
wilderness. But we look for better things to come. The Lord is too good to
put us off, even with the best of this poor world. For what is the best of
it? If we had health, riches, and all the honor of a princely throne,
what would they avail us? We are appointed to die, and a better world,
or a worse world, is prepared for us.
I am unworthy of the least crumb of mercy that
falls from His own dear, loving hand.
Remember, all the way you are led is chalked out for
you by infinite wisdom; and in that covenant that is ordered in all
things and sure. Not a step we take but is ordered by infinite
love. All our chastenings and rebukes are so many precious tokens of
our adoption into the family of God. Unbelief would often suggest hard
thoughts of Him whose heart is always love towards us; but He, seeing the
best way for each to attain to that blessed preparation for the full
enjoyment of what He has gone to prepare for us, deals with us as seems in
His infinite wisdom to be the best. Then, let us hush every murmur, or
desire to have our own way, seeing that the Lord's way must be the best
way. When we get above, we shall then study all the way He has led us,
and admire and adore the wisdom that condescended to take such care of us,
and at last to make all our trials, crosses, and losses, to work together
for our good and His glory.
May we never forget that God's glory is connected with
every step a saint of God takes through the wilderness.
How sweet it is to look above and beyond this
transient valley of tears! This is not our rest, because it is
polluted. There is no sickness in heaven; no desponding feelings there;
all love, enjoyment, and blessedness.
How is our loving, gracious God dealing with you?
In all His dealings, whatever they may be, there is nothing but the
tenderest love towards you, all designed to draw you nearer and nearer to
Himself. We are tried in order to bring us to a better acquaintance with
His tenderness, sympathy, and unchanging love. He cares for you. You need
not trouble yourself about, or load yourself with, earthly cares. Carry
them, as they arise, to Him. Do not fret yourself about managing matters,
when He, who has sent the cares, will manage better for you than you can
for yourself. Come with an open heart, and pour all into His own loving
heart. This is the confidence He loves. What a mercy to have such a God
and Father to deal with us, who pities and loves us too! Oh, let us
rejoice together, and cast all our cares upon Him, and be anxious for
nothing.
Do not be concerned with all the tinsel glory of this
empty, unsatisfying world. It is not worth a straw when compared
with what awaits us! What an unsatisfying world this is, to have our
all in! How trifling does everything appear which is not in some way
connected with God's glory. Look upon all you now see or admire as passing
away, yourself passing away with it. This world is a waste land, a
howling desert! Oh, that we did but consider it as such, and expect
nothing in it but thorns and thistles; looking unceasingly, with the
anticipation of holy joy, to the period when He shall say to us, "Come
away, my love, my fair one, enter into the joy of your Lord!"
Go to Jesus when you will, you will be always welcome,
and never more so than when you come full of needs. You may tire a fellow
creature out with your often coming, but you will never weary Jesus, your
own Jesus, that Brother born for your adversity. Recollect you can, at all
times, and under all circumstances, in the streets, in company, abroad, or
at home, have the loving, listening ear of Jesus! What an honor is this
put upon a poor worm! Whatever concerns you, equally concerns Christ.
What poor creatures we are if left to ourselves!
What a mercy there is One that loves us better than we love ourselves, and
will watch over us all our journey here, and who has engaged (by all the
varying dispensations of His providence) to prepare us for that blessed
place He has gone to prepare for us. And oh, what a place will that be!
Love Him supremely! Live for eternity! Live for Jesus! Have much to
do with Him!
Live for eternity! This world is not worth living
for. Its honors, its riches, its glories are things ever passing away;
but the love of Jesus is eternal as Himself. Oh, live for eternity! The
glory of this world is fading, and is soon gone, and gone forever! Again I
say, live for a glorious eternity! If you could have the glory, the
wealth, and the honors of this world laid at your feet, short would be the
empty enjoyment of them. Then, live and act with reference to
eternity! And oh, the glory that awaits the true follower of Christ, who
has cast overboard all that the world calls good and grand, and taking the
Bible as his directory, walks as Jesus did.
Let us keep very near to Jesus. Be much in close
communion with Him. While we tell Him all that is in our hearts, He will
unfold His own tender loving heart to us. How He loves us! It is His glory
and delight to do us good. We must die before we can know how much He
loves. He is watching over us moment by moment; and there is not a
pain or a trial but by its discipline He is preparing us for that dwelling
above, which His infinite love has prepared for us, and which He will have
us in the full enjoyment of.
We need not fear the prospect of changing worlds-
earth for heaven; sin for holiness; and the disappointing creature for the
overflowing fountain of all goodness and love. That world we hope to go to
is worthy of all our thoughts and best affections.
I can truly say I love the Lord. But oh, how little
in proportion to His love to me!
Who could or would have borne with us as Jesus has
done? He has led and kept us, loving us in spite of all that was so
unlovely in us.
What a change from a bed of suffering at once into
the presence of Christ! Oh, let us make and sustain a close acquaintance
with Christ here, that we may not feel we are going to a stranger when we
depart, but to be with one with whom we have had close communion and
heavenly communion here below.
Truly we live in a dying world! We see one another
pass away out of sight, and yet how little impression it makes upon the
survivors!
What a mercy to know that all these events which
seem confusion to us are, even now, accomplishing His own eternal
plans and purposes of love. Oh to trust Him fully, and watch His
providence in all that is transpiring.
Is it not a blessed thing to know that God has to do
with us, and that we have to do with God, every moment of our fleeting
existence? How precious is the thought! I would not desire it
otherwise for millions of worlds! It is the joy of my heart by night and
by day. How sweetly and securely can I travel through all the intricate
mazes of this wilderness state, while I feel that God is with me, that
His eye is upon me, and His heart toward me.
Oh, to be more alive to eternal things, and to sit
loose to the things that are passing away daily. We too much magnify
present trifles, and dwell too little upon the glory that awaits us
above. And yet, in one moment, we may be put into possession of our
glorious inheritance. What a heaven awaits us! What glory is before us!
Jesus standing ready to receive us! Let us encourage each other in the
way. We shall soon be at home; our happy home; no home like it here. It is
sweet in prospect! Absent from the body, present with the Lord!
Blessed be God for all the rich supplies
afforded us in this wilderness.
Such a Friend is Christ to us- always ready to help
us, to strengthen us, to comfort us when we are cast down, and to lift us
above the base cares of time, and to speak sweet peace to our too often
failing and doubting hearts. Unbelief, cruel unbelief, destroys more than
half our comforts while on our short passage to glory.
A little while and we shall be put into possession of
our glorious inheritance; and all our poor, short lived trials, crosses,
and disappointments are so many rich blessings in disguise to prepare us
for it. What a hope we have of being shortly with Jesus! Oh that we
might be kept disentangled from the rubbish of this fallen world!
In a fallen house we must expect a great deal of rubbish; such are the
poor trifles of this contaminating world by which we are so often
engrossed, and through which we are so rapidly passing.
Oh, to look forward more! Are we not too much like
children playing with toys, and when they are broken, sitting down and
mourning over them? Let us keep our hearts near to Jesus, so as to be
quite willing to depart and be with Him.
We trifle too much with our God!
God will not put us off with the worldling's trash.
He has higher enjoyments for His children.
What a poor, unsatisfying world is this! While we
have cause to be grateful; oh, how grateful; for the accommodation
afforded us while here, yet what a mercy of mercies we are not to live
here always! Oh, the goodness of God, to prepare us for, and point us to,
a better world! My soul is often overwhelmed at the thought of it, and
how very soon I shall be there in its full enjoyment.
Dear friend, think more of that eternity to
which day by day we are hastening, and less of this world we are so soon
to leave.
Jesus is watching over us with an ever watchful eye.
Oh, to know that He loves us, that His love never changes, that He is
causing all things to work together for our best interests, and in due
time will come and receive us unto Himself, and that when we see Him we
shall be like Him! What a thought is that for a poor sinner; to be like
the Son of God; the Son of the Highest; the Great Jehovah! Oh, if I had
a thousand hearts I would give them all to Jesus!
What a mercy that Jesus is ever with us, by day, by
night, in sickness, in health, in time, and through eternity! "I will
never leave you nor forsake you." But we live in a changing world.
The creature changes, we change, but, "I the Lord, do not change." Ever
the same loving, faithful friend is Jesus. Bless the Lord for this, O my
soul! I live in Him, and I desire to live for Him, and with Him, even
here, as far as I can, in the body. But oh, the joy of knowing and
feeling, that before long I shall be with and like Him forever! How great
the bliss, even in anticipation, of beholding Him face to face!
Often my aged heart seems to spring into youth again at
the prospect of being with Jesus; seeing Him face to face; sitting at
His feet; beholding Him as He is. I am favored sometimes with glimpses of
the coming glory, a look into heaven now and then, a little anticipative
realization of the presence of Him who will make heaven what it will be to
us.
Dear friends, live above a dying world and all its
fading things. It is not worth a thought. Live independently of the
creature, and walk hand in hand with Jesus. Keep an open heart with Him,
confiding to His love all you feel or fear. He will not betray your
confidence, but will lead you safely along the right road to glory; glory
begun here, and increasing through the countless ages of eternity.