To patience and long-suffering. Heb. x. 36, 37: "Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a little while (how little, how little!), and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." James v. 7, 8: "Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13 (compare 1 Pet. i. 6, 7): "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." To moderation, sobriety, and confidence, without disquietude. Phil. iv. 5, 6: "Let your moderation be known unto The Lord is at hand; or, the Lord is near. all men. careful for nothing." Be 1 Pet. i. 13: "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind; be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ." To faithfulness in the use and exercise of gifts received of the Lord for common profit. 1 Tim. vi. 13-15: "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in his times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." See also 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 1 Pet. v. 1-4: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.' And how many more Scriptural declarations might there not yet be mentioned. When speaking of the end of God in converting sinners to Himself, it is a double end: 1st. To serve the living and true God; 2ndly. To wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. i. 9, 10). Is it to give comfort to those who mourn for relatives sleeping in Jesus: "Comfort one another with these words," said the Apostle. See what these words are in 1 Thess. iv. 13-17. Do we want to know to whom it is the Lord will appear when He. returns, we read, He "will be seen a second time without sin, by those who look for Him unto salvation" (Heb. ix. 28). Do we want to know until when the Church ought to continue to observe the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Jesus, it is said, that as oft as we eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death until He Does a question arise concerning the confidence we may and ought to have in Him who has loved us, each faithful one may say, as to himself, as did Paul: "I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. i. 12). And as to our brethren, it can be said: "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. i. 6). come. In a word, is there a crown of righteousness, of which Paul, ready to seal by his death his faithful service, could say, "The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that day," and who shall receive with him a distinction so special? "And not to me only, he adds, but unto all them also who love His appearing" (2 Tim. iv. 8). And what could I more add to this mass of testimonies to prove the solemn responsibility we are set under to keep this Word of the waiting for the Lord, and consequently the waiting for the true Jubilee, unless it be this voice of Jesus Himself to each of those who keep this word: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Apoc. iii. 11); or this prayer of Paul's, which I would now put up for us all, to the Father of all grace: "And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ"? (2 Thess. iii. 5). "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Through Israel's land, the Lord of all, Then closed His life of sorrow here, O Zion! when Thy Saviour came Yet onward, in His path of grace, To feel, at last, that love on Thee, Yet not in vain-o'er Israel's land His chosen Bride, ordain'd with Him To reign o'er all the earth, Shall first be framed, ere thou shalt know, Then thou, beneath the peaceful reign Of Jesus and His Bride, Shalt sound His grace and glory forth, The nations to thy glorious light, The name of Jesus yet shall ring 286 .... "As regards the coming of the Lord, the purpose of God is evidently to make saints always wait for it as a present expectation; and this is shewn in never telling them the moment. Nothing can be more explicit than Scripture on this head. St. Paul then made no mistake in expecting 'the speedy return of Christ from heaven.' He waited for God's son from heaven, and taught others to wait for it continually. He never prophetically announced the time. In each he was perfectly guided by the Spirit of God. That this was the Lord's mind as presented in Scripture, the following passages shew: But 'let your loins be girded about; and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that.... they may open unto him immediately.... And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants ...Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.' So again, 'If that evil servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him.... and shall appoint him his portion with hypocrites.' Yet in the very same discourse, directly after, the Lord says, ‘While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made,' etc. That is, if the heart counted on delay, it betrayed its wickedness; yet the bridegroom would delay, so trying the faith of his own. Yet, adds Peter, the 'Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish....for the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.' That is, the delay is not slackness in His promise to us, but God's patience with men prolonging the time of grace and salvation. But the same Apostle warns us that there would be scoffers, saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?' The Apostle then, taught of the Holy Ghost, acted in the Spirit of Christ's direction to His disciples in the lively, and joyful, sanctifying, yea energising constant hope of His coming, and yet never predicted the time which He had put in His own power, who had said, 'Sit on my right hand till I make hine enemies thy footstool."" No. XI. TRUE POSITION IS POWER-DEPARTURE FROM IT IS WEAKNESS. IN grace, where alone, as lost and ruined, we could stand, we learn that all our blessings are accomplished by Christ and vested in Him. To possess and to enjoy remain with us. Simple as this truth appears, none is practically so embarrassing to our legal and self-dependent spirits. To possess and to enjoy God's gifts, we must first value them as gifts; and here is our difficulty. Our pride blunts our sense of need, but the earnest soul counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. The surrender of nature proves the appreciation of grace, but it does not obtain it; though it opens the door to possession and to enjoyment. Grace is laid up for me; as I value it, I enjoy it. There is none newly provided or prepared for me; for it is already provided and laid up in Christ; and I enjoy it when I am in a position to enjoy it. We see this in the apostle's prayers in Ephesians. In the first, that the saints might know the power which wrought in Christ, and what He has accomplished for them; and in the second, that they might know Christ Himself-that they might be filled with all the fulness of God. As the soul enters on the position in which grace sets it, it knows the power which wrought in Christ. Truly, power must first work in me to raise me to that position, and for this is the prayer; but being in the position, I not only know the power but the fruition of it, and while I keep it I enjoy power efficiently. 1 do not gain the position. Through grace it is mine, and I take it. There is power in the taking of it, and still greater, evidently, in keep VOL. VI. PT. III. 16 |