The Supreme Rule of Jesus
“This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing” —
“2tott! 2Cf)g ffiolJ rricjnrtij.” — ISA. lii. 7.
“get fjafae B set mg Iting upon mg fjolg f)ill of 2ton.”
-Ps. ii. 6.
STIje Supreme
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God’s gracious palm-trees of promise are not designed for comfort and refreshment to the individual believer alone. He has an outlook from under their grateful shade on the Church’s far horizon. Delightful and elevating is that topic of consolation which our motto-verses suggest!
In the context from which the former of the two is taken, the prophet, in heavenly vision, beholds the swift-footed Gospel messengers speeding from country to country, from race to race, carrying the tidings of salvation round the globe. He sees a whole world brought under the beneficent reign of the Prince of Peace, and can exclaim (ver. 10) — “The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” The Church ceases not her efforts till every mountain and valley be gladdened with the feet of these evangelists, with trumpet-tongue proclaiming the behests of her Great King.
And what is the opening theme of those who are thus swift to act as His delegates? What is their brief watchword for the children of Zion? — “Thy God reigneth!” Happier, more blessed words there cannot be. Messiah rules over His Church and over the nations. “Yet have I set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” AVhat a comfort to the Church universal that amid political complexities: it may be the prevalence and triumph of human tyranny and wrong; all which concerns her is under His omnipotent supervision; that He is controlling every event for her ultimate welfare. ‘Kings and potentates,’ says M’Cheyne, ’ are only like Hiram’s workmen in Lebanon cutting down trees to prepare a highway for the King’s chariot.” The sacramental host,’ His true people throughout all the world, need be in no trepidation — giving way like Israel in Egypt to precipitate panic; for in front and in rereward they have an Almighty guardian. And especially His ministers, ’ the armour-bearers of Jehovah,’ need never fear the ultimate success of their proclamation of the good tidings; the issue of the conflict is in the Lord’s hands. They can take as their battle-song the motto inscribed on the altar erected shortly after Israel left their Elim encampment, ‘■’■Jehovah JVissl” (“The Lord is my banner’’).
And what is theme of encouragement to the Church universal, is equally so to each separate member of that Church. There are times, amid the mysteries of daily life — amidst startling providences — baffling dispensations, when the old moorings threaten to give way, or have momentarily given way, and we feel ourselves drifting out on the cheerless sea of human doubt and distrust. All is dark around; — no rift in the cloud, no star in the midnight sky, — and in the anguish of bitter unbelief we are tempted to mutter the querulous plaint, “Where is now my God?” Or, if that
God lives and reigns, does He live a God of terror? does He answer to the fire-god of the Phoenician in his Baalworship, or to the Capitoline-Jupiter of the Roman, armed with the thunderbolt and forked lightning? or, in the phantasies of a later philosophy, has He abdicated His throne, and left man and his fortunes to wild chance, to be driven, things of fate, hither and thither on the fitful waters, — the vessel without a pilot, the world without a ruler?
No! the chart of Providence containing the fortunes of the nations, as well as all that concerns His Church and people, is in the keeping of the Christ of Calvary. “The Lord is King,... He sitteth between the cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet” {Prayer- Book version.) It is He who mingles every drop in the cup, and lights every furnace, and orders every trial, and draws every tear. Oh! what would many have been in those gloomy hours of despair, when the props of existence were tottering underneath them — (what they thought were life’s strongholds giving way like the yielding rafters beneath their feet) — what would they have been, but for the sustaining assurance that that roll of human destiny is in the hand of the Lord who died for them?
Especially to the mourner in Zion, how cheering the assurance, that all which concerns him and his is under His Saviour’s control and sovereignty! On those gloomy, sterile mountains of trial, on which “every tree is burnt up, and all the green grass burnt up,” glad is this announcement, borne by the messengers of consolation. Other “good tidings of good” there are, — grander and more glorious gospel promises, embracing the hopes “full of immortality;” but how the soul, amid the ruins of its joy — the dust of its desolation, clings to this elementary truth, that it was no capricious accident or chance, which overturned its fondest fabrics, and made “the city sit solitary that was full of people;” but that every form of outer calamity, fever and disease, lightning and tempest, plague, pestilence, and famine, are so many arrows in the quiver of God. “Zion! ///;’ God reigncth /”
We may not now, and do not now, see the wisdom and faithfulness of many of His deahngs. Many an Elim of blessing may be mistaken for a Marah of bitterness and sorrow. We may even, at times, lose the footsteps of the Sovereign Ruler, and the cry of the smitten heart may be, “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself” But the arm, for the present slumbering, Yill in due time “awake;” the arm, now concealed, will in due time be “made bare;” the purposes now hidden will be unfolded; and each of the children of Zion will come to be “joyful in their King.”
“Know well, my soul, God’s hand controls
Whate’er thou fearest;
Round Him in calmest music rolls
Whate’er thou hearest.
“And that cloud itself, which now before thee
Lies dark in view,
Shall, with beams of light from the inner glory,
Be stricken through.”
“FOR THE LORD SHALL COMFORT ZION: HE WILL COMFORT ALL
HER WASTE PLACES; AND HE WILL MAKE HER WILDERNESS
LIKE EDEN, AND HER DESERT LIKE THE
GARDEN OF THE LORD.”