JORDAN LEARNED PRACTICALLY
JORDAN LEARNED PRACTICALLY
“He bringeth down ... and bringeth up” (1 Samuel 2: 6). Often when a serious illness befalls us, we experience what it would be if all natural lights here were extinguished; how one could part company with all here, and depart to be for ever with the Lord. This experience is very helpful; one finds that the Lord’s presence can be abundant compensation for every loss here. He is magnified to one’s heart in a moment like that; and even if the illness be removed, the experience taught, because of its dangerous nature, cannot be lost, you have learned to accept Jordan. True it is, that often in the first instance it is the prospect of one’s own dissolution which challenges the heart as to how it would bear to leave all here and go to the Lord. But when the challenge can be accepted in the words of Rebekah, “I will go”, the light and power of Jordan, of crossing this death with Christ to where He is, are known and enjoyed; and this knowledge and enjoyment remain, though the health be perfectly restored; one is able in the brightest circle of earthly blessings still to say, “I will go”, and not only so, but I know and enjoy the way to Him. This is really Jordan. My own death or dissolution is not Jordan. Jordan is when I am loosened from every tie here so absolutely by death with Christ that I can cross over in spirit to the place where He is, and become so formed in that place that I am in every divine relation on earth more truly for Him.
You see, it is a different thing to be loosened to every tie here when there is no hope of my being able to stay [p. 404] here, and to be so when I have plenty of natural vigour to enjoy them all. Christ surely is the joy of the heart when it cannot enjoy anything here; but He can be its supreme joy when it has full natural ability to enjoy all His gifts here. Nay, He can be so much so, that it delights in parting company with all here, and in spirit crossing over to be with Him where He is.
When I know Christ fully as my Saviour, God’s love perfected to me, I delight to make much of Him at my own expense, as Jonathan stripped himself for David. Next, when I know Christ’s company as indispensable to me, like Ruth, I give up my own place (earth) for His place; but when I know Him above, as united to Him there, I can resume here in cheerful devotedness, like a faithful wife to an absent husband, in every position in which He is pleased to set me. Knowing His work for me, I strip myself for Him; knowing Himself, He is necessary to me, and I leave earth for heaven; but when I am in the restful enjoyment of union with Him, by which alone I reach Him in heaven, I resume here in faithful devotion to His interests.