SORROW AND TRIAL (3)

SORROW AND TRIAL (3)

It is a very blessed time when there is a real sense that every tie to this world is being loosened, and one is about to step into an entirely new place “with Christ”. Everything is real then. What He has done for us is deeply real; the nearer we are to Him, the more perfectly His love shines into our hearts. There is no fear when His love is perfected with me.

But it is not only that the dark side has been cleared away, but He Himself is made known to us, not only as the Saviour who has set us in unclouded peace with ^[p. 429] God for ever, but as our friend - “a friend loveth at all times” (Proverbs 17: 17); “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32: 2). He is indispensable to us. We cannot do without Him. “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me” (Song of Songs 2: 6). What a sense this gives us of His present consolation, as Paul says, “If there be ... any consolation in Christ” (Philippians 2: 1). This is the greatest personal enjoyment now. I do not say, that standing here for Him, knowing our union with Him in heaven, does not lead us into a higher joy; but there is a more private joy, if I may so express myself, in sitting under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit sweet to my taste. It is what He is personally to me. I am restful in the perpetuity of His love, when I learn that I am united to Him; but it is the love that He has engendered and fostered in my heart privately with myself, which makes the union such a climax of bliss.

I send you this little line, that you may seek the more to know Him in this private way. He will bring you to His banqueting house. Be to Him as Ruth was to Naomi, “Whither thou goest, I will go”. May your joy be indeed in the Lord; may He be increasingly your delight.