CHRIST - THE STANDARD FOR THE HEART
CHRIST — THE STANDARD FOR THE HEART
Entering on another year, I give you Song of Songs 2, part of verse 3: “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste”. The better you know that which is divinely good and beautiful, the better can you discern any departure from it. Every Christian has some standard by which he discerns good and evil. Many a one lives in a good conscience because he is up to his [p. 48] standard. The higher the standard, the better you can separate the precious from the vile. The high moral standard of the law, man’s relation to God and to man, suits the natural mind, and commends it, for it enables it to estimate every one on that level. But when you become in any degree acquainted with Christ in the light in which He is, where your heart not only learns to confide in Him, but He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness, you will be so entranced with the interview and the society you have been in, that the legal standard will not at all suit you; you discern everything now by quite a new standard. You will feel more a stranger here than ever, more like the man who was blind (John 9), now in the solitude of light, but there Christ satisfied his heart. You must be, as I may say, at home with Christ before you will know what suits Him, but once you do know what suits Him, you will find that it is not the legal standard, that is, man or his ways which you are discerning (which is the forte of the natural mind according to its vigour); but that the one commanding thought and purpose of your heart by the Spirit is to find out what suits Christ. As you walk in the Spirit your heart will be cheered, and through Him you mortify the deeds of the body. He interposes as the natural mind is ready to express itself; He blocks it, and leads you into concert with Christ’s mind. This is walking by the Spirit, and He is more ready to lead you than you are to be led by Him. Unless you grieve Him by preferring the flesh He will lead you, and then you will rejoice that you have escaped, and that you can resume your place under Christ’s shadow with great delight, and thus you will have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
The Lord lead you to come from Himself, and as blessed by Him, to enter on this new year, and thus to be a real help and comfort to His own and to all around you.