The Glory of the Redeemer in His Person and Work

The author has redeemed his promise of placing in the hands of the church of God, a treatise, presenting in an experimental and practical light, a view of the personal and official glory of the Redeemer. It ill becomes him to speak of his own work; yet if he may be permitted an allusion to the feelings with which he introduces it to the Christian public, he can with truth say they are such as lay him in the dust with unfeigned self-abasement. ‘That his own blood has not in vengeance been made to mingle with his sacrifice thus laid upon the altar of a holy and righteous God, is alone because the atoning blood of Him whose glory it dimly shadows forth, ‘cleanses from all sin,’ even the ‘iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts.’ It is a deeply humbling truth — would that it were more present to the mind! — that there is enough of pollution in the character, motive, and aim of the most spiritual performance which the most holy believer can present, to awaken the severest expressions of God’s spotless purity and utter hatred of sin. But Jesus is the true Aaron: he is the great High Priest; and by his ‘ one offering,’ and continual presence before the throne in ceaseless and prevalent intercession, our poor, defective, polluted

* Hxodus xxviii. 38.

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services are an ‘odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.’

All who peruse these pages, will sympathise with the author in his painful consciousness of having, in his perhaps too presumptuous attempt to unfold it, fallen greatly below his theme. Its comprehensiveness has embarrassed, its magnitude has overpowered him. The glory of the incarnate God! who can set it forth? What pen of man, what tongue of angel, can describe it? We must dve — live the renewed life, the life hidden with Christ in God, to see it even partially below. We must die — die as the righteous die, to behold it fully above. Faith, the eye of the regenerate soul, sees it now, though through a glass darkly: that faith changed into sight, will behold it perfectly hereafter. ‘“‘ Now we see through a glass darkly, — then face to face.”’ Our beloved ‘‘ standeth behind the wall, he looketh forth at the window, showing himself through the lattice.”’* Our glimpses of him are dim, imperfect, transient; though sometimes, blessed be his name! ravishing, sanctifying, and heaven-attracting. But the full, the perfect, the unclouded vision, yet awaits us. O the magnitude of the spectacle! O the magnificence of the scene! O the exceeding and eternal weight of glory! To drop the glass, and be in a moment ushered into the presence of the glorified Son of God! To see him as he is! To be with, to be near, to be like him!. Why, then, wish to detain the soul poised on its wings for heaven? Why indulge in excessive grief the absence of the departed saint, now with, and beholding the -glory of Jesus? and why shrink ourselves from dying, with such a prospect, so certain and so full in view? Oh! one view of the glorified Saviour were worth ten

* Song of Solomon ii. 9.

thousand deaths, though a martyr’s flames were our chariot to heaven!

To aid the spiritual mind in its endeavours to obtain an occasional sight of the Redeemer’s glory, in this vale of darkness and of tears, is the simple design of this work. Defectively as his task is performed, the author does not regret his having written on the subject. He entered upon its discussion with an irresistible and solemn conviction, that the present state of the professing church demanded some hand to point its eye more directly and simply to Christ, the fountain of life, light, and love — the three great and essential elements of a true, healthy, and influential Christianity. In this age of polemical divinity, — the author is far from speaking lightly of it, for if the truth is worth possessing, it is worth defending; and it now, if ever, behoves the saints of God to heed the apostle’s exhortation to ‘contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,’’ — yet in this age of much and sharp controversy, the eye is liable to be drawn off from Jesus; and thus the spirit with which his truth is defended, and his kingdom is advanced, may be such as would, were he personally on earth, call for his tender yet solemn rebuke, as not partaking sufficiently of that meek, lowly, and self-annihilating element, which only is imbibed in a close study and profound contemplation of his character and glory.

If this publication be instrumental in the smallest degree of imparting a higher tone to the spirituality of the church of God — of refreshing the spirits of any who are labouring upon the outworks of Christianity — of promoting a more visible union among the members of the one family — of correcting and leading to a relinquishment of any views that may be held contraryity PREFACE.

to Divine truth — of stimulating to a more vigorous action in the cause of God, showing its connection with high Christian principle — of shedding light upon the path of any who may be perplexed in their way — of comforting any who are cast down — of sweetening the bitter waters of which many may be deeply drinking — of preparing the way of the comming King — in a word, of increasing the knowledge of the Father, of rendering Jesus more precious, and of seeking more earnestly the anointing of the Holy Spirit, — then, the exhausting toil of its preparation — the trembling solicitude with which it is laid at the feet of the church, and the numerous blemishes which, even to his partial eye, appear on every page, will all be lost sight of and forgotten, — absorbed and swallowed up in the thought of the glory and praise that will thus accrue, and which solely and for ever shall be ascribed to the TRIUNE JEHOVAH. And should his lowly service be accepted by the saints, all that the author desires and asks in return, are their prayers, that the great, holy, and precious truths embodied in this work, may prove the sanctification of his own heart, his comfort in life, his support in death, and his glory through eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ be with the spirit of the reader. Amen!

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