The Preciousness of God's Children

“The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold.’* — Lamentations iv. 2.

Ix our endeavour to evade what from conviction we deem to be erroneous, there is often a tendency to verge to an opposite extreme of error. One of the most serious and popular eiTors amongst the many by which the truth of God is assailed is, the exaltation of the Church above its legitimate and assigned yosition in the Christian economy. With nmltitudes the Church is an idol, virtually a saviour. It is elevated to a pinnacle, enthroned as a sovereign, and invested with an authority and power which God never designed. Awful perversion of truth! In a word, the creed and the religion of numbers substitutes the Church for Christ, invades the legislative authority of God, and imposes upon the conscience of Christ’s free disciples yokes which Christ’s gospel nowhere enjoins. In avoiding this error we are,

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Avitliout due caution and study, liable to run into its opposite — the setting aside the value, the mission, and the glory of the Church of Christ altogether. Both these extremes are antlchristian and fatal. Let us endeavour to find the truth that lies midway between them; and thus walking in the middle path, hold the truth in an equal balance, finding it instructive, sanctifying, and comforting. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” (Jer. vi. 16.)

, It is the glory of God that He has in the world A CiiUECH — that it is composed of His elect, chosen from eternity, redeemed by Christ, and called by the Holy Spirit, a people gathered out of all lands, found in all Christian communions, and constituting, as a whole, an incorporate body, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head. This body may be, as alas! it too much is, divided and sundered by difierences of judgment on external and unvital points, but essentially and indivisibly it is ONE Church of God — one Family — one Bride of the Lamb — one spiritual house — and “all built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself the chief corner-stone,” of whom, as such, we shall in a subsequent chapter of this work more yarticularly speak. Our present object is not so much to define the nature or expound the principles of Christ’s one Church, as to assert its existence, unfold and illustrate its worth and preciousness. There is much sanctifying, comforting teaching involved in this truth — the preciousness of God’s children. It is impossible to study it, and not rise from an admiration of the beauty, glory, and preciousness of the Church, to the transcendent beauty, glory, and preciousness of Him whose Church she is, in whose righteousness she is clothed, and in whose comeliness she is comely. “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold.” Let us consider the title, and the preciousness of God’s people, as suggested to our minds by this passage.

It is a high and honourable appellation “the sons of Zion.” The world holds the Church of God very cheap. No gold, nor fine gold is it in the eye and estimation of the ungodly. And yet the world owes its existence to the Church. The Church of Christ is, instrumentally and subordinately, the world’s saviour. It is the conservator of the world, its salt, its light. Take out of the wf7rld all who are witnesses for God, for Christ, and for the Gospel — all who are living “godly, lightconsly,, and soberly in this present evil world” — all who mourn for sin, who trample on their own righteousness, and trust alone in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus; in a word, all the good and holy and useful, and what remains but a mass of unmitigated evil — a world of unrelieved corruption — an empire wholly in rebellion against God, and in supreme subjection to Satan?

Thus, extract the salt, extinguish the light, sift the wheat, separate the gold, and eliminate the pure truth from the mass of error, and nothing; is left but fuel for the final and fearful conflagration. This is the doom that awaits it when the last son of Zion shall have shaken its dust from his feet, and this earth shall no longer be the home and dwelling-place of the Church. Unclasp the vine that imparts beauty to, that climbs around, holds together and preserves the decayed and crumbling trunk, and it falls to dust and ruin. Thus will it be with this world when the Lord shall come and remove from it the Church wdiich has so long been its moral preservation and its beauty. But the Church of God is His Zion, whom He loves, His dwelling-place.” Jehovah-Shammah ‘’ — The Lord is there — is its name. His Church is His only home upon earth. He dwells not in temples made with hands

218 THE PSECIOUSNESS OF GOd’s CHILDREN.

—the gorgeous catlicclral, the Gothic abbey, the costly sanctuary, the material structure, planned, reared, and adorned by human device and art. A spiritual being, He can only dwell in the spiritual. “God is a Spirit,” and His temple, His worship, and His offerings must be spiritual. Therefore has He declared that His iit, favourite, and only dwelling upon earth is the humble mind, the broken heart, the contrite sjoirit, the empty, lowly, penitent, and believing soul. Listen to His solemn averment of this great and holy truth: — “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build imto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (Isa. lxvi. 1, 2.) TJiis is the house we will build to the Lord, and this is the place of His rest! Does this page meet the orlance of such a one? Blessed saint! There rears not its proud head a structure in the universe so distinguished as you. Your soul is the habitation of Him who is the “high and lofty One that inhabitcth eternity, whose name is Holy,” who has said, “I dwell in the liigli and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” The Church of God, then, is His Zion. His ‘people are denominated the “sons of Zion,” in reference to the fact of the Church being the spiritual birth-place of His peojDle. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” (Isa. lxvi. 8.) ‘’And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her.” (Ps. lxxxvii. 5.) The Church of God is the spiritual birth-place of His people. Every true child of God, every convert to Christ, is a son and a denizen of this city. He is born through the labours of the Church of Christ, he is nourished by the instructions of the Church of Christ, he is watched over and trained for heaven by the care and discipline of the Church of Christ, “who is the mother of us all.” And “the Lord shall .count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there.’’ Oh precious privilege this, to be registered among God’s people, to be “written amongst the living in Jerusalem,” to be numbered with the children of God! Have you, my reader, any evidence that this is your honoured place? Does your name stand upon the sacred roll of those who are “called to be saints l’ What if it should not appear wlieii the Lord” writeth lip the people! “Search, examine, and ascertain. Are you amongst the” mourners in Zion? “Do you” love her solemn feasts,” and are you walking in her holy ways, your face fully set towards the Mount Zion of glory, of which John in the Apocalypse had a vision, “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads?” If this is your present condition, the Zion of God your spiritual home, and the God of Zion your covenant God, then may you clap your hands with joy. “Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God f and in these “glorious things” that now are, and that are yet to be revealed, you shall share. Of the preciousnesa. of the Lord’s people — these sons of Zion — let us now speak.

The Holy Ghost compares them to “fine gold.”, “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fiue gold.” We have yet much to learn, even the most deeply instructed, concerning the preciousness and privileges of God’s yeople. Are we not in great danger of taking divine truth for granted? Instead of siftiuo- its evidences, search ino; into its blessedness, and realising its power and sweet-THE PEECIOUENESS OF GOD’s CHILDEEK 221

ness in our souls, we give to it too much of a cold intellectual assent.^ We assume that the Lord’s people are a privileged and precious people, but we little surmise how much blessedness, sweetness, and holiness is bound up in this truth — how much there is of God and of ‘Christ in it. It is impossible, as we have remarked, to study the character and trace the history of God’s Church, and not know more of the wisdom, power, and love of God. It is’ in the salvation of this Church that He has embarked all His glory, and has revealed Himself in a way that will iill all the celestial intelligences, saints and angels, with wonder, love, and praise through eternity. My reader, study the history of God’s Church, for therein God is revealed in a volume second only in its grandeur, interest, and importance to the volume of His revealed Word. And now let us proceed to illustrate and open up the preciousness of the Lord’s people — “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to hue gold.”

We begin with the groundwork of the subject — tJie preciousness of God’s people to God Himself. The proof He has given of this is His everlasting love towards them; His eternal choice of them to salvation; His- anticipation of their fall in the first Adam, and His provision for their recovery in the second Adam. Who can read the following declarations, and not rise to a lofty conception of God’s estimate of the worth and preciousness of His peoyle? — ‘’ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the yraise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,” (EjdIi. i. 3-6.) Not His election of them only, which is the spring-head of all the subsequent displays of His grace and favour, but His provision for their salvation, in the gift of His beloved Son, demonstrates God’s estimate of their preciousness. Ponder the declaration of this truth — “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only beg-ytten Son into the world, that we niiaht live through Him. Herein is love, not that-^v/e loved God, but that He loved us, and gent His Son to be the propitiation for our siua*”

{1 John iv. 9, 10.) Beliold, beloved, how precious you are to God! That which God chooses, upon which He sets His eternal mind and heart, that which He secures to Himself at a sacrifice so great and costly, must be precious to Him. Upon no beings has He expended so much divine perfection, and in none has He made such illustrious displays of His glory, as His saints. All His eternal decrees and purposes — all His everlasting grace and love — all His marvellous works in time, centre in this one body — His elect, redeemed Church, “to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” His adojJtion of His people, in union with their election and salvation, forms another striking illustration of their preciousness to God’s heart, and of their beauty in His eye. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.“‘” As many as received Him, to them gave He power” (or privilege) “to become the sons of God.” (John i. 12.) “Behold, what manner of love the^Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” (1 John iii. 1.) “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His

Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. iv. Ij.) What more shall we say? Can anything add to the proof of God’s estimate of the worth and preciousness of His pG0]3le? He has loved them, chosen them, adopted them, saved them; and in each one and all of these successive demonstrations, He has declared to the universe liov, dear to His heart, and glorious to His eye, are “the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,” In this Zion of His love and choice He dwells, displays the tokens of His especial favour, and shews forth His greatest glory. “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation; and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.” (Psalm cxxxii. 13-lG.) And in the assurances He has given in His revealed Word of their ultimate and eternal glory — the final, full, and certain gathering together of all His children in their “Father’s house” above — He has put the climax to the evidence of their worth and preciousness. “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels” (pv, special treasure); “and I will spare thein, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” (Mai. iii. 17.) Well may God challenge His people, and say, “And now, 0 inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard,- that I have not done in it?” (Isaiah v. 3, 4.) When a God of infinite resources says He could have done no more, oh, what a stupendous, marvellous, overwhelming demonstration have we of the preciousness of His Church to His heart!

Thus far have we contemplated the Church of God in its collective form. But all that Zion is to God as a Church, it is to Him in its individual capacity, — “The precious sons of Zion.” Each son of’ Zion is equally precious to Him as the whole. It cost Him as much love, as much power, as much grace, as much glory to save one sinner, as to save His whole elect Church. Who, then, can decide how dear you are to the Father? your person, your love, your obedience, your service, your offerings, regarded as His especial treasure, and as accepted in the Beloved? Angels are not so near or so dear to God as you. Their music is not so melodious as your poor, faltering praises. Their persons are not so glorious to Hiio as yours, clothed with t-he righteousness of Hifc Son. Their tributes of adoration and glory are not so fragrant to Him as your sacrifices offered in faith and love, all-perfumed with the atoning merits of Jesus. He has pardoned our sins — has justified your persons — has provided, in Christ, for your necessities — is schooling and training you, by the hallowed discipline of the covenant), for the many-mansioned home He has provided, and Christ is preparing for you; and you shall dwell in His presence, and swim in His love, and bask in His glory through endless ages. Child of GrOd! Son of Zion! is not this enough?

Equally precious are the “precious sons of Zion” to the Eternal Son of God. How shall we attempt to vindicate and unfold the dove of Christ to His people — the great and costly proof of that affection which He has given? Who can fathom its depth, scale its height, or measure its length and breadth? That which is infinite is measureless; that which is eternal is boundless. And yet, though vre may not compass its dimensions — for it is “a love that passeth knowledge” — we may “know the love of Christ.” For the aifection He bore us He voluntarily espoused our cause in eternity — bound Himself in an unalterable covenant to accomplish bur redemption, and, travailing in the greatness of His power and love, finished it. His love made Him willing to become incarnate, to assume our curse, to bear our sins, and to suffer and die in our stead. Kising from, the dead, He completed our justification; and ascending up on high, He passed within the vail, “now to appear in the presence of God” as our Advocate and Intercessor. There is no other object upon earth that engages the thoughts or fills the heart of Jesus but. His people. His presence, invisible and noiseless, yet real and powerful, perpetually surrounds them. Where the Kingdom is, there is the Sovereign; where the Body is, there is the Head; where the Church is, there is Christ. “Lo, I am with you alway, (literally, all days) even unto the end of the world.” For the accomplishment of the number of His elect. He preserves the world in existence — makes and unmakes empires — putteth down one, and raiseth up another — is guiding the deliberations of cabinets — is employing all human agenoies — and is overruling every event and circumstance in the history of this vast universe.

But how precious to Him are the sons of Zion ill tlieii individual relation and history. Is there one who has ventured to appeal to His love — to trust in His grace — to accept His salvation, who is not more dear and precious than all the angels in heaven? Oh, how precious to Him the tear of. godly sorrow — the touch of trembling faith — the look of lowly love — the offering of sincere gratitude — the yearning and longing of holy desire! So precious to Him are they, His ear is attentive to their faintest cry — His thoughts are never withdrawn from them for a moment — His hand is ever extended to succour, and they that touch them touch the apple of His eye. So precious. He sits at the fountain of grace to supply all their need — He bows His shoulder to their heaviest burden — He unvails His heart to their deepest sorrow; and in all places where they dwTll, fulfils in their experience the beautiful prediction of the proplietp “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” 0 believer, live not without a deep, constant realisation of your ];)reciousness to Christ, and of the dejth, tenderness, and constancy of the love He bears towards you. All your present holi-*. ness, happiness, and succour, springs from your believing apprehension of this fact, that you are precious to the heart of Jesus. Let your faith grasp it, amidst the varied phases and changes of your Christian course, and it will be as a sweet flowing stream gliding and sparkling by your side all through the sandy desert, imparting swiftness to your feet in travel, strength to your hand in labour, nerve to your arm in battle, — soothing, reviving, and refreshment to your spirit vfhen sad, faint, and drooping by the way. The Holy Spirit, testifying to your soul of the love the Saviour bears you, will remove all that constraint, shyness, and following Him at a distance, wdiich too much characterises the bearing of so many of His disciples. Be assured of your personal interest in Christ, of your place in His affections, of your home and sanctuary in His heart, and no act of obedience, of love, or of service on your part, will be too costty. Your love to Him will be the inspiration and reflection of His love to you, proportioned in its degree and intensity to the vividness with which His is seen and realised. Nor for this alone would we love Him. Apart from all that He has done, and is doing now, Jesus challenges our admiration and affection. His personal worth, His official work, His glory, and His government,

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all demand our profoundest homage. This Ha receives from celestial beings, who, not having sinned, need no repentance, and not having fallen, need no Saviour; and this He will receive, in that day when to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess; how much more is He worthy of it from those whom He has redeemed with His most precious blood! Keader, has your eye seen His beauty? has your heart bowed before His cross? have you fallen at his feet? and have you crowned Him Lord and Sovereign of your soul? Oh, what is Christ to you — despised, hated, and rejected? — or, adored, loved, and welcomed? Have you received Him, not as a helper, but as a Saviour — not as a model, but as a Redeemer? Is He all in all to you? If so, then doubt not your preciousness to Him. “I love them that love me.” If His name is as ointment poured forth to your soul, it is an evidence that He has set you as a seal upon His heart and upon His arm, and will wear you as an ornament for ever.

Not less precious to the Holy Ghost are the children of God. It must be so, since He has renewed, sanctified, and made them His temple. The work of the Spirit is as essential to our salvation as the finished work of Jesu.«. There is im many a tendency to regard it as less important, and consequently, with proportionally less reverence and interest. Individuals who would shrink from holding a view of Christ’s Atonemtnt derogatory to the essential value and glory of that work, or calculated to neutralise its power, have yet been found to entertain views of the Godhead and work of the Holy Spirit, the effect of which has been to vail the” glory of His divine person, and render nugatory His regenerating and sanctifying operation. And yet it is just as fatal an error to believe in the dogma of Baptismal Kegeneration — the antagonistic error to the work of the Spirit — as to believe in the dogma of the Mass — the antagonistic error of Christ’s sacrifice. So essential, then, is the work of the Spirit in the heart of the regenerate, so divine, holy, and efficacious is it, that all in whom it is wrought, however feeble and obscure it may be, are to Him “the precious sons of Zion.” So glorious and so precious to Him is the new creation of the soul, the universe has no beauty, no grandeur, no sublimity in His eye in comparison of it. Dwelling in the soul, He guards with a sleepless eye that new cieation which His own Divine power and skill has wrought, and which no inward corruption oy outward assault shall ever destroy. Precious to Him is every spiritual desire, every heaven-sent thought, every holy aspiration, every feeble, languid, yet sincere hunger and thirst of the quickened soul after righteousness. All your grateful remembrances of God, all your loving thoughts’ of Jesus, all your breathings after Him, all your pantings for deejoer sanctification, your daily and sore conflicts with sinful desires, and wanderingthoughts, and vain imaginations; your infirmities in prayer, your derelictions in duty, your failures in service, your falterings in obedience — all, all are cognisant to His unslumbering eye. And but for His inbeino- His ceaseless vioilance and divine power, this flood of CAdl, this whirlwind of passion, would upheave the foundations “and carry away the edifice of your faith and hope. But the Holy Ghost is enshrined in every believer, and He guards this blood-ransomed, grace-won, and heaven-kept soul night and day, lest any being .or anything hurt it. Oh that our hearts may bow in profounder adoration before this Divine Spirit, and ascend on the v»dng of more ardent, glowing, praiseful love to Him — listening to His voice more attentively, grieving His heart less frequently, and obeying His promptings more implicitly, who has wrought so great, so holy, so indestructible a work in our souls!

“The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold.” By this figure the Holy Ghost seeks to illustrate the relative preciousness of the Lord’s people. Their clothing is costly, it is of “wrought gold,” even the righteousness of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Their ornaments are costly, “comparable to fine gold,” even the graces of the Syirit — “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” — awakening the admiration of those who have a spiritual discernment of their beauty: “Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.” (Song Sol. i. 10.) This commendation of the Church, which is the commendation of all the Lord’s people, is all the more precious, since it follows her own humiliating confession of unworthiness — “I am black.” When the believer is low in his- own eyes, he is exalted in Christ’s. We are never more lovely in His view than when we appear the most uncomely in our own. These words of her Lord teach that though His people have many infirmities, yet there is exceeding great loveliness to be seen in them — they are “comparable to fine gold.” There

2M THE PEECIOUSNESS OF GOD’s CHILDEEN.

is, too, a plurality of ornament in the believer — not one jewel, but “jewels;” not one chain, but “chains of gold.” The graces of the Spirit are not solitary and isolated, they are always conjoined and blended with others. The grace of imputed justification is a cognate grace of intparted sanctifi cation, never separated in the believing soul. He who has one grace has all liTaces. How minutely does God describe the beauty with Vvhich He adorned the soul in conversion, and this is the distinguished condition of every true believer in the Lord Jesus — “I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver.” (Ezek. xvi. 11-13.) Let us select one or two of these spiritual ornaments, as illustrating the preciousness of the believer to Christ.

How precious to Him is your love. Sincere love is precious, even as a human affection, find it in what heart you may. What must be His estimate of divine love in the human heart whose essence is ’ love V Oh, with what ineffable delight

He gazes down upon a soul pulsating with a holy, divine affection towards Himself! Can you, beloved reader, say, “Lord, though I am the chief of sinners, the meanest of Thy saints, unworthy to loose the shoe-latchets of Thy disciples, a poor backslider, a slow traveller, a dull learner, a rebellious child, yet Thou knowest that I love Thee, that Thou art the sovereign of my affections, the beloved of my heart; that I am in covenant with Thee, Thy child. Thy servant, one of Thy precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold?” — then, beloved, your affection is inconceivably precious to the Lord.

How precious to Him is the obedience of His people. The loving, prompt obedience of a child — how grateful to a parent’s heart 1 There is not an evidence of the sincerity of filial love more true or j)recious. The loving child is the obedient child; he oheys because he loves. Such is the test of love our adorable Lord — “the everlasting Father “of His people — has demanded.” If ye love me, keep my commandments.” The Lord delights in the obedience of His people. He lo’s OS it above any other evidence of love. “To obey is better than sacrifice,” — the most rare and costly you can lay upon God’s altar. One holy preceyt observed, one divine law obeyed, ou8 lowly cross taken up, one cherished sin laid down for Christ’s sake, has more of fragrance and acceptance in it to Jehovah than the most glowing, blinded zeal that ever bore a martyr to the stake. Beloved, in this spirit of filial love, search and study the commands af Christ, the laws and institutions of His kingdom, the precepts and examples of His gospel. Tamper not with convictions, do no violence to conscience, resist not the teaching and promptings of the Holy Spirit. If, on a careful research into God’s Word, and a faithful examination of your own walk, you discover a command unobeyed, a precept unobserved, a self-denying cross from which, checked by the fear of man, you have shrunk, bevare of a persistent course of disobedience! Oh, by all the love you profess to the Saviour, walk in obedience to His commands! They are not grievous, but pleasant; they are not arbitrary, but loving; they are not optional, but binding. Essential they may not be to salvation; essential they are to a holy and happy walk. We have already cited obedience to Christ as the test of love. Our Lord, on the same principle, has made conformity to His precepts an evidence of Christian disciplesMp. “Whoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” And, as if to win our reluctant hearts to obedience, in another 2olace He emphatically says — “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shafi. find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my hmden is light!’ Soon you will have done with the judgment of this poor world. With your head pressed upon a dying pillow, and with eternity slowly rising upon your view, human opinion will weigh but little with you then. Oh to meet the Saviour as a loving disciple, as an obedient child, bearing the “marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus,” the scars and chafings of the rude and heavy, yet blessed cross, borne for Him! It will then ho, of little moment whether you ruled an empire, or swept a crossing; wore a mitre, or served the Saviour in the m’ost obscure and lowly sphere of His Church. Found in Christ, standing “complete in all the will of God,” you will hear the plaudit and receive the welcome of your Lord and !RLister — “Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few tilings, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

At belonoino’ to the blessed number of the

o o

sons cf God, remember that filial and cheerful acquiescence with His parental will is a distinctive feature. The j)^ecious sons of Zion are known by their submission to God. It is for this that they me chastened and disciplined, tried and purified; that, comparable to fine gold, they may emerge irom the furnace a pure and holy reflection of the Divine imao’e. This is the eTcat secret of repose amidst restlessness, calmness amidst agitation, confidence amidst dark providences, — the will brought into complete subjection to the Divine will, — the heart beating in unison with Christ’s heart. The moment you are led to see that all is riyht, that God has done it, and that it must be wll done, you are happy. / There is no happiness — not a moment’s — in opposing God. Fretting against His dispensations, murmuring at His disposals, fighting against His dealings, resisting His providences, tossed amidst the waves of second causes, is just the uplifting of the flood-gates of all distress into the soul. But to lie down at His feet, as the wheat His hand lias sifted, — to repose in His heart, as the child Kis rod has smitten, — to drink the cup His love has mingled, exclaiming, “Not my will, 0 my

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Father, but thine be done!” — this is happiness indeed! Ye tried, afflicted sons of Zion, not less precious to the heart of Jeeus are you because you are chastened. You have argued against yourselves, and have impleaded against God from the afflictive. dispensations of His providence. You have deemed yourselves cast out of His heart, and out of His mind, and out of His sight, — “reprobate silver,” and not “fine gold,” — because He has cast you into the “furnace that is in Zion.” Listen to the language of one who thus reasoned, but soon discovered how false that reasoning was — “I said in my haste, I am cut off from before ?Lhine eyes: nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee.”’ (Ps. xxxi. 22.) Be not hasty in the conclusion you draw from God’s dealings with you. Wait patiently until He unvails the purpose, and clearly shews you the end of the Lord, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.” Oh the blessedness, the quietness, the perfect peace of a cheerful acquiescence in the will of God! To have a blended will, a united heart, a submissive spirit with Him in His government of you, i to be like God. There is nothing more divinely assimilating and Christ-like. To be like Christ in Gethsemane is to be like Christ in the glory of His throne. To drink the cup in His spirit of profound submission, is to reign with Him for ever and ever. The- Lord pardon where we have cherished the least rebellion against His dealings, — when we have refused to drink the cup, — when we have thought Him hard, and harsh, and arbitrary, — when we have, in our ignorance, supposed we could have devised, and planned, and arranged with more skill and wisdom, and with a happier result than He! May the intercession of Jesus on our behalf avert the correction which our murmuring, repining, and rebelKon have evoked] ‘JIay the sprinkled blood blend every though and feeling, and desire with Jesus!

“I did Thee wrong, my God,

I wrong’d Thy truth and love;
I fretted at the rod, —

Against Thy power I strove.

Come nearer, nearer still;
Let not Thy light depart;
Bend, break this stubborn will;
Dissolve this iron heart I

Less wayward Kt me be,
More pliable and mild;
In glad simplicity

More like a trustful child

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“Less, less of self each day,

And more, my God, of Thee 5
Oh, keep me in the way,
However rough it be.

Less of the flesh each day.
Less of the world and sinj
More of Thy Son, I pray,
More of Thyself within.

“Here moulded to Thy will.
Lord, let Thy servant be;
Higher, and higher still.

More, and still more like Thee!”

It would be an imperfect close of this chapter were the spiritual reader not reminded of the animating truth, that among the “glorious things” that are “spoken of Zion, the city of our God,” is the future glory that awaits all her ‘’precious sons.’’ The latter-day glory of the Church, the new Jerusalem of the saints, the return of all the scattered children of Zion in triumph and joy to their final and eternal home in the new earth all radiant with righteousness, with a new heaven smihng from above, presents the most animating 1 and sanctifying prospects that ever unvailed to mortal eye. .The coming of the Loed Jesus in personal majesty and official glory to make up His jewels, to perfect the number of His elect, to gather together in one the scattered sons and Q

242 THE PEECIOUSXESS OF COD’s CHILDREN’.

daughters of Zion, and to present them in their essential and visible unity, “a glorious Church/* to the Father, as His Bride, is the one all-revealed, all-consoling, all-inspiring, all-sanctifying hope of the saints.” Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation.” With a hope before you so blessed and assured, what a motive to believers — what an incentive to devotedness — what a reason for watchfulness — what a bond of unity! What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! What separation from the world — what crucifixion of sin — what unreserved consecration to Christ — what wakeful vigilance — what yatience in suffering — what ‘meekness in persecution — what communion with the Invisible — what vivid realisation of eternal realities, should trace and track our every step towards the full consummation of our bliss I The Lord is at hand! Christ is coming! The Bridegroom is putting on His royal robes! The Bride is longing for His coming! All things indicate the nearness of His approach! The snow-clad mountains of this wintry, dreary world are already edged with the golden streaks of the up-rising Sun. Soon will that Sun appear in its full, its meridian splendour. “Let me go, for the day breaketh!” Sin — enchain me no longer! world — attract me no more I creatures — leave your shrine, and loosen your hold upon my affections! sorrow, suffering, trial — your hours are numbered! My Redeemer is coming! My Beloved is hastening! My Lord will soon appear, and receive me to Himself! “Let me go, for the day breaketh! “*’ In a little while He that shall come will come,” for “the night is far spent, the day is at hand.” Then will the magnificent vision of the Apocalypse be realised, “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven sajdng, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 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 tliinga are passed away.” Sons and daughters of Zion! on, then, and still on, praying, fighting, toiling, suffering, enduring, hoping, for “the morning Cometh.” Then, “the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

*’ Saviour! if of Zion’s city

I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy name.

* Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show I
Solid joys and lasting treasure,
Ko&« but 21ion’8 children knotr.”