The Saviour Resting in His Love

“He -will rest in his love.” — Zephaniah, iii. 17.

One of our sweetest hymns commences —

“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word:
“What more can he say than to you he hath said?
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled.”

Well might the poet put the question, if he had risen up from reading this third chapter of the prophecies of Zephaniah. Oh! people of God, open your ears and your hearts while Jehovah speaks to you by his prophet’s lips, and thus addresses you — “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” The words are very simple, but the promises are so weighty that the verses roll along like the periods of a poem. Simple truth, if it be of a most solemn character, when told in the simplest words, is very much akin to the loftiest poetry; and I repeat it, that there was never poem composed by human intellect which could match for a moment, in the sweetness s notes, with this succession of promises which God here proclaims in the ears of his chosen ones.

We cannot, on the present occasion, enter for a moment int( the wondrous depths of the promises herein contained. We should need, indeed, a long period of time before we should be able so much as to explain them; and possibly the whole of life will scarcely be sufficient for us to realize the full of these things in our own experience. We will turn, therefore, at once to the few words of our text, “He will rest in his love.” We shall consider these words as referring to the Lord Jesus Christ and as relating to his divine and matchless love, which he hath manifested towards his people in the wondrous works of grace which he has done for them and in them.

“Pie will rest in his love.” This is capable of several interpretations, and each view we take of it has in it something extremely delightful. “He will rest in his love.”

I. Here is, first of all, the doctrine, that Christ will keep

EVER FAITHFUL TO THOSE UPON WHOM HE HAS SET HIS HEART

“he will rest in his love.” The love of man is a flickering flame; it may be set for a season with apparent constancy upon an object, but you cannot tell how long it shall abide. However firm, however true, and however fervent it may seem, and even really be, yet trust it not, for cursed is he that trusteth in man, even a man’s love, and he that maketh flesh his arm. Trust ye not in a friend, put not all your confidence in any man, for the best of men are but men at the best, and the firmest of men have the frailty of their kind. But God’s love is no flickering flame; it does not burn for a little like the crackling of thorns under a pot; it is not to be imaged forth by the fool’s mirth, which lasteth but for the season. It beginneth, it waxeth vehement, it diminisheth not, but it groweth from strength to strength, till what seemed at first but sparks becomes a flame, and what was a flame becomes like the beacon-lights of war, and what was but as a beacon becomes as the sun itself, in the fierceness of its heat and in the strength of its goings.

There be some who teach that Christ’s love may be set upon a man and afterwards may be removed. Where then remains the comfort of God’s people if this statement be true 1 But Jesus “rests in his love.” Where is the value of his affection at all? In what respect can he be said to stick closer than a brother? How can it be true that many waters cannot quench his love, neither can floods drown it 1 If these men be right, must not the Apostle Paul have been wrong when he was persuaded that neither height nor depth, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any creature whatsoever, should ever be able to separate him from the love of God which was in Christ Jesus his Lord 1 Shall we imagine that the Apostle was incorrect in order that this heresy may be thought to be right? Shall we turn away from the positive testimony of Holy Scripture, when that Scripture is in itself so full of consolation- to God’s people that if once proved to be untrue they may put their hands upon their loins and go to their grave full of misery and despair. But ye know right well that Jesus Christ’s love, when once it has engraved his name upon the hand of Christ, never can suffer that name to be erased. Ye believe, and ye believe right well, that he who has a portion in the heart of God has an eternal portion. He who can claim for himself a share of the Father’s love, of the Son’s redemption, and of the Spirit’s care, need never be afraid that all the thievish hosts of hell shall rob him of his divine inheritance. For look ye here, brethren, — what is there that can separate you and me from Jesus Christ’s love which has not been tried already 1 Can sin ever make Jesus cease to love me 1 If so, he would have ceased to love me long ago. If there be any iniquity that I can commit that would divide me from Christ’s love, methinks I should have been separated long ere this, for in looking back upon my own life, I am compelled, with shame and confusion of face, upon my knees to confess, that he has had a thousand reasons for thrustmg me out of doors if he had chosen to do so, and millions of excuses might he have framed, if he had blotted my name out of the book of li-fe. He might have said, “Thou art unworthy of me, and therefore I will be unmindful of thee.” And more, if Christ had intended to cast us away for our sins, why did he ever take us on? Did he not know beforehand that we should be rebellious, and did not his omniscient eye see all our sins, and detect all our follies 1 Are we ungrateful? yet he knew we should be. Are our sins extremely heinous 1 yet he knew how heinous they would be. He could foresee all in his mind’s eye. Every spot that was to be upon us, was upon us when he chose

US. Before his omniscient eye, every fault that we might commit was already committed in his estimation. He foreknew, foresaw all; and yet he took us just as we were. If he had intended to abandon us and cast us away, would he ever have taken us at all 1 If Jesus meant to divorce his bride, foreknowing all her faults, would he ever have espoused her 1 If he meant to cast away his adopted child, since he knew that child’s unfaithfulness, would he ever have adopted him 1 Oh, think not, beloved, that Christ would have done all that for nothing — would have come from heaven to earth, and have gone from earth to the grave, and allowed his spirit to descend into the shades of Hades — would have come all this way, and suffered all that awful amount of torture which is comprehended in the curse, on a bootless errand. AVould he not have started back and said, know my bride to be unworthy, therefore I will not redeem hei — I will not espouse her 1 But since he has done it, has espoused her, has put the red ring of his own atonement on her finger, and has hitherto been faithful to her, what shall divorce her 1 What shall cast her from his bosom whom he died to save 1 Oh! beloved, it must be true that he will rest in his love, if he has rested in it, though he has had much to distract him therein.

Our sin, then, has not divided, and, we believe, never shall divide us from the Saviour’s love. What remains 1 Can persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword 1 Nay, all these do but make the Saviour manifest his love to us the more. If Christ loves his people well in prosperity, he never loves them less in their adversities. Do you believe that Christ loves his children when they are arrayed in purple, and will forsake them when they wander about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented “? If so, ye know not Jesus’ heart. He loves his people well enough every day, but if he sees them stretched upon the rack and about to die for his sake, if it be possible, the infinity of his love must even overflow itself when he sees them thus doing these things for his sake. Well, said the Apostle, when he had mentioned all these sufferings and pains, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Sin and sorrow, therefore, are perfectly incapable of rending us from the heart of Christ — he will, he must, rest in his love. And this seems very plain if we just pause a moment, and think of what we are to God the Father, and to God the Son. Is not every Christian God’s child 1 And did you ever know a flither who did hate his own child? Have ye known a father — ye may have known such,*but mark, it was an unfatherly act after all — have ye, I say, known a father who has cursed his son, and has driven him forth, and declared that he was not his son 1 Ye may have known something of that kind, ye may have heard of such fallen creatures; but mark you, the father’s curse could not unchild his child — he was still his child, even when he was cursed. Not the blackest words that ever came from the most embittered heart, could ever take away that child’s right to call that man his father — that child is a child for ever if once a child, and that father is a father for aye if once a father.

Now, beloved, in the usual course of nature, we find men will do any thing for their children. There is a poor creature born into the world that is nearly an idiot — that has not one of its senses right — that is nearly blind and deaf — and its parents know that if they can briig it up, it will always be a trouble to them; and yet you see the father and mother, with what studious care they endeavor to save this poor child’s life. While others say, “If it were to die it would be a happy release,” both father and mother feel that they should be losers by its death. “Ah,” said one good old divine,” if a father could have a child that had lost eyes and ears, and feet and hands, though he could not breathe without an engine, though he could not feed without some extraordinary means for the digestion of his food, even then his father would do his best to keep him alive; and so surely shall it be with that great Father, who, when he speaks of himself, and of us, always puts his Fatherhood far higher than ours, who says, ‘If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give to them that ask him V And truly I may say, if an earthly father does not wish to lose his child, if he can forgive a thousand faults, if he would endeavor to save a child’s life, though loaded with ten thousand diseases, how much rather shall our Father who is in heaven stand to it that none of his little ones shall perish, but that every one of them shall be preserved. Do you not see that be cause we are God’s sons, we are, therefore, Jesus Christ’s brothers, and he will rest in his love V

But there is yet another thought. We have a relationship to Christ, and he will rest in his love. We have never heard of a man yet who hated his own flesh. Strangely wicked is it, we have heard of men who have hated their flesh in the mystic sense of the marriage tie, and have driven out the wife by brutality and cruelty; she whom he pledged to cherish and to nurture, has been driven forth by his cruelty; but not his own flesh. The man may become bad towards her who is his own flesh by marriage, but not his own literal flesh. Now, Jesus Christ has taken his people into such a connection with himself, that they are nearer to him than even the wife is to the husband. They are as near to him as our own flesh and blood are to our own head. What will not a man do to save his hand, or the least member of his body 1 Would he take away his care from even the feeblest portion of his frame? Men arc generally tender enough of their own flesh and blood; much more, therefore, will not Jesus Christ lose the members of his body, for we are his fulness, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. And will Christ lose his own fulness? Shall his body be dismembered 1 Shall the head become a bleeding head, and the trunk a dead corpse 1 Shall any one member be left to die, to burn, to be destroyed? Oh, no! As surely as we are brought into this relationship with Christ, so surely are we saved beyond a hazard. He must, he shall rest in his love.

11. This is one meaning of the text, and abundantly consolatory to the tried, tempest-tossed child of God. I have thought, however, that there is a very sweet meaning. Christ has labored in HIS LOVE, he now RESTS IN IT. I will give you pictures. There is a man, who loves his hearth, and his home, and his country, and his Queen. The sound of battle is heard in the land, he girds his sword upon his thigh, and he marches forth to defend all that is dear to him. He fights, he struggles, his garments are stained with blood, and he himself is wounded. It is love — love of his own safety, and that of his family, and love to the glory of his country, that has made him fighi and wrestle. The deed is done.

and he comes home. The foe is swept from the white cliffs of Albion, and the land of liberty still is free; Britons are not slaves. He retires to his house, and you see how quietly he sleeps; how joyously he sits down under his own vine and fig-tree, none daring to make him afraid. With what joy does he now look upon the faces that he has preserved, upon the hearth for which he has fought! What satisfaction does it give him to know that the honor of his country is still unstained, and his land is still the home of the free! Now he rests in his love; that which made him fight, now gives him joy; that which impelled him in the day of battle to do great deeds of heroism, is its own sweet reward. Now he rests because the battle is fought, the victory is won, and he, therefore, rejoices in the very love which once caused him to labor.

Now you see the Lord Jesus Christ laboring in his love. Love fetched him from his home in heaven; love disrobed him of his glories; love laid him in Bethlehem’s manger; love led him through this weary world three-and-thirty years; love took him to Gethsemane; love oppressed him till he sweat great drops of blood; love made him the great standard-bearer in the fight; love made him stand erect, the focus of the war, when the storm gathered round his brow, and every arrow of the foeman found a target in his heart; love made him stand calm amid the bewildering cry, confident of victory; love made him bow his head, and give up the ghost, that he might redeem his people. Now, now that he is more than conqueror, he rises to heaven, and he rests in his love. Oh, what rest that is! If rest be sweet to the laboring man, how much sweeter to the bleeding man, the dying man, the crucified man 1 If rest be sweet after toilp how pwa^ *-’^ - rest of Jesus after all the toils of life and death, -^^^^es with hell! If victory made the soldier’s return joyo’ ^“^ ^?^^®’ “^ the return of that conquering Hero who has led”’ ^^^’^^ five, and received gifts for men! He “doth re’^ ^^^’^^^ Do you not see that the very same thing that dro ‘®^’ “^^^^^^ now makes a couch for his head? That which ir ^^^’ in the day of battle, makes him joyous in the h -^ the very love which he bears to his people? down in heaven, and thus he thinks within h’^/where but in the

- u.ee will he recline but it, I have done it; not one of them shall perish; no drop of the hail of God’s vengeance can fall on them, it has all fallen on me; I have been smitten, I have borne the curse; they are not cursed, they cannot be cursed, they are delivered.” And then his holy mind roves on in meditation — “I have taken away the curse, and I have given them the blessing; I have brought many of them to know and love me; I will bring all the rest; they shall come that are ready to perish; I will fetch them all in due season; I shall have every one of my blood-bought sheep; they shall be blessed on earth, and by-and-by I shall have them where I am, and they shall feed in these rich pastures; they shall lie down where the wolf is not, and where desolation cannot waste their pastures; the time shall come when I shall have their very bones resuscitated, when their flesh that has lain in the dust shall live again to be with me; so shall every one of them, body, soul, and spirit, with all the inheritance that they have lost, and with all that double portion which I have gotten for them, share the spoil, and wave the palm, and be more than conquerors, through what I have done for them. This gives rest: “He rests in his love.” The loved ones are secure in the labors he has wrought.

III. Again. Dr. Gill gives this meaning to the text — one of the meanings, for he is always noted for giving a great variety of meanings to a text, so that nobody knows which is the best. When he is going to explain a text, he always says to us, “It does not mean this thing, it does not mean that, and it does not mean that.” Nobody ever thought it did. And after he has mentioned seven or eight things which it does not mean, he mentions four or five things that it may mean, and then he tells us zo xue’uxiog mean. He says the text means, “He shall solacethat there is love.” There is something very sweet in love; his love, he Nyeetest to be loved or to love, I know not; but is a man, who I’the two meet together, they are like two rivers his Queen. Thyjj through a rich and fertile country, and comhis sword uponyg master lake, some inland sea; then are they is dear to him. need. Now Christ sees our love; the love which with blood, and i meets the love which he has poured out towards own safety, and thq© he takes sweet solace. He solaces himself country, that has mauoheers and comfoT-ts him. Some men, when they would be cheered on earth, drmk the vine which stirs their blood; some men find comfort in company, and the noisy, giddy, thoughtless talker makes them glad; others if they would be solaced turn to books, those are their joys — “My library a dukedom large enough.” Others, if they would be satisfied, chink their gold, look over their mortgages, their estates, their bonds, and suchlike things; and some men there are, who in this world have nothing sweeter for solace than the love of those who are near and dear to them. The man who loves his home and his family, and finds his little earthly heaven around his hearth, is one of the happiest men I know of. Can you treasure that thought for a moment, and think of Christ as taking all his delight in his family? I never heard yet that it is ever said he rests in his power. He has great power; see what he has done. He has built the heavens; he has stretched out the earth, and walks through the world, and upholds the clouds with his might; but he never rests there. I know, too, he has great wisdom: he knows all things; he walks the ages past, and the centuries to come, unravels mysteries, foretelling all things, and remembering all that is past; but I never heard that he rested there. There is a great world of angelic spirits waiting in his courts, and lie, as King, sits in the very centre of their praise, and before him principalities and powers cast their crowns; but I never heard that he rested there. But he is like the man who loves his family; he rests in the midst of his own beloved ones — his spouse’s bosom, the place where he hears his children cry, where he listens to their prayers, the door at which he receives their thanksgiving and bestows his blessing, the house where they wait on him and he waits on them, where they commune with him, and he communes with them — that is the house where he rests. He rests in his love, in the midst of the objects of his love; there it is he finds his own eternal satisfaction, the solace of his heart. Is not that a sweet thought 1 It has ravished my soul in turning it over, that Jesus Christ should ever find his rest among the poor sons of men. He said, “His delight was with the sons of men,” and he now says that is his rest, too.

Oh, how pleasant! He will not sleep anywhere but in the house of his beloved and ‘neath no other tree will he recline but beneath the tree of his own right-hand planting. “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, that he hath planted.” Oh, it is very easy to understand how he should be to me — “As the apple-tree M’hich is among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons of men.” But that he should say the same of me! I can say of him, “I sit under his shadow with delight, and his fruit is sweet unto my taste.” But for him to say the same of me! — and turn round to the poor saint and say to him, “O soul! thou art weary; but thou art my rest, and I am thy rest: thou art sick; but thou art my health, and I am thy health: thou art sad; but thou art my joy, and I am thy joy: thou art poor; but thou art my treasure, and I am thy treasure; thou art nothing; and 3’et thou art my fulness, and I am thy fulness.” Oh, what a host of precious thoughts rise up here! we have started a whoi6 covey of sweet things, if we can but stand still and calmly meditate. It is not one, but many thoughts in one — this precious truth,” He wdll rest in his love. He never rested till he found that all his love was given to us, and he never will rest completely till all our love is given to him.

IV. The Hebrew has yet another idea. In the margin we read, “He will be silent in his love.” Why is this? What can silence have to do with love 1 “He shall be silent in his love.” One old divine thinks that Christ means by that, to say, his love is so big it is better to be heard by his saying nothing, than by his attempting to express it. “He shall be silent in his love.” What a deal Christ has said in the Scriptures about his love, and yet hearken, O spouse of Christ, the love that he hath not spoken is ten times more than he has said. Oh, yes, there is much love which he has brought out of the treasure-house and given to you; he has a great deal more like it in that strong closet of his heart. Some tributes of his love you have received, but those bright clouds on high of his silent love, those are the massive storehouses of his grace. When you read the promise you say, “Ah, this is precious.” Recollect that is not a tenth of what he has not said. He has said rich things, but there are richer things still. He has not said them, he cannot say them, because they are unsayable, they are unutterable, they cannot be declared. When you get to heaven you will hear them, you cannot hear them here. You know the Apostle said when he was caught up to the third heaven he heard words which it was not hiwfid for men to utter. Perhaps he heard a little more of the Saviour’s love, as though the Saviour said, “I tell you this, but you must not tell any one else, it is not lawful to utter it down below; I have made you a great vessel, you can hold all this, but as for the rest they are only little vessels. Do not tell them any more, it would burst them; do not expose them to too great a heat of love, it would consume them — they would die if they knew more — they cannot understand more. I have told them so much love, that if they only understood all I have told them they would not be able to live on earth, their hearts would burst for joy, and they would be obliged to flee to me above. Therefore I tell them no more, they cannot hear it.” So that you see there is a preciousness here, “He shall be silent in his love,” as if he could not say it, therefore he would not try to say it, he would just leave it alone. One poet, after praising God with all his might, finds that he can go no further, and winds up his words — “Come, then, expressive silence, tune his praise.” That is just the text, as if Christ should say, “I have said a great deal, but my people cannot understand; I will say no more; I shall only now say, ‘Come, then, expressive silence, tell my love.’”

There is, however, a meaning that is, perhaps, more correct. He shall be silent in his love. “Shall be silent” may mean that he shall be silent about his people’s faults, for from the connection it looks like this. “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy; the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more.” It looks as if he meant to say he would be silent about his sins. There stands Christ in heaven to-day, pleading for his people. Listen! he says nothing to accuse them. Satan may excuse, but Christ never will. The good that his people do is magnified, and multiplied, and perfected, and then presented before the throne. But as for the sins of his people, he casts them behind his back, and all he says concerning those sins is this — “I behold no sin in Jacob, neither iniquity in Israel; my anger is cast from me; I have blotted out like a cloud his iniquities, and like a thick cloud his sins.” “He will be silent in his love.” Sometimes love

308 THE SAVIOUR RESTINa IN IIIS LOVE.

makes a man silent. If you hear any thing said against one you love, and you are asked, “Is it not so V you say, “Well, I am not compelled to bear witness against one that I love, and I will not.” You know our law does not demand of a wife that she shall give evidence against her husband; and certainly the Lord Jesus Christ will never give any evidence against his spouse. Never — “he will be silent in his love.” If he were called upon to say, “Has thy spouse sinned ]” his declaration would be, “I am the sin-offering.” “Has she sinned 1 I am her security. I have been punished in her stead. I can say, thou art all fair, my love, there is not a spot in thee.” There will not be a word of accusation from him. She says, “I am all black.” He will not deny it, but he will not own it. He says, there is no spot, and he goes on to say, she is all fair in his sight. Oh, glorious silence — he will be silent in his love. So am I inclined to believe it will be at the last great day, when the books shall be unfolded: he will read the sins of the wicked against them, but as for the sins of his people, he will be silent in his love. I sometimes think it will be so, though I cannot speak with authority. “No,” he will say, “upon you be the curse who lived and died without repairing to my blood as the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness; but these my yeople, they had their sins blotted out; and I will not read what is blotted out; I will be silent in my love.”