August 14

Fear not: I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. — Isa. xliii. I.

. ,. In the Old Testament the Book of Life is called “Thy Book,” Augnst 14. ’

in the New it is called “the Lamb’s Book.” That is of a piece

with the whole relation of the New to the Old, and of Jesus Christ, the

Incarnate Word and Manifester of God, to the Jehovah revealed in former

ages. For, unconditionally, and without thought of irreverence or idolatry,

the New Testament lifts over bodily, and confers upon Jesus Christ the

attributes which the Old jealously preserved as belonging only to Jehovah.

And thus Christ, the Manifester of God, and the Mediator to us of all

Divine powers and blessings, takes the book and makes the entries in it.

Each man of us, as in your ledgers, has a page to himself. His account is

opened, and is not confused with other entries. There is individualising

love and care, and, as the basis of both, individualising knowledge. My

name, the expression of my individual being, stands there. Christ does not

deal with me as one of a crowd, nor fling out blessings broadcast, that I may

grasp them in the midst of a multitude if I choose to put out a hand, but

He deals with each of us singly, as if there were not any beings in the world

but He and I, our two selves, all alone.

Deliverance and security are the results of that individualising care. In one of the Old Testament instances of the use of this metaphor we read that, in the great day of calamity and sorrow, “Thy people shall be delivered, even every one that is written in Thy Bock.” So we need not dread anything if our names are there. The sleepless King will read the Book, and will never forget, nor forget to help and succour, His poor servants.

But there are two other variations of this thought in the Old Testament even more tenderly suggestive of that individualising care and strong sufficient love than the emblem of “the Book.” We read that when, in the exercise of his official functions, the high priest passed into the tabernacle, he wore upon his breast, near the seat of personality and the home of love, the names of the tribes graven, and that the same names were written on his shoulders, as if guiding the exercise of his power. So we may think of ourselves as lying near the beatings of His heart, and as individually the objects of the work of His almighty arm. Nor is this alL For there is yet another and still tenderer application of the figure, when we read of the Divine voice as saying to Israel, “I have graven thee on the palms of My hands.” The name of each who loves and trusts and serves is written there — printed deep in the flesh of the Sovereign Christ. We bear in our bodies the marks, the stig77iaia, that tell whose slaves we are — “the marks of the Lord Jesus.” And He bears in His body the marks that tell who His servants are.