Christmas Advent Devotional Pt.II ~"The symbol of the Divine Presence glowed through the darkness"

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

​

 ​​“Glory to God in the highest,

​​And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Luke 2:8-14

The selection of two or three peasants as receivers of the message, the time at which it was given, and the place, are all significant. It was no unmeaning fact that the ‘glory of the Lord’ shone lambent round the shepherds, and held them and the angel standing beside them in its circle of light. No longer within the secret shrine, but out in the open field, the symbol of the Divine Presence glowed through the darkness; for that birth hallowed common life, and brought the glory of God into familiar intercourse with its secularities and smallnesses. The appearance to these humble men as they ‘sat simply chatting in a rustic row‘ symbolized the destination of the Gospel for all ranks and classes.

No wonder that the sudden light and music of the multitude of the heavenly host’ flashed and echoed round the group on the hillside. The true picture is not given when we think of that angel choir as floating in heaven. They stood in their serried ranks round the shepherds and their fellows on the solid earth, and ‘the night was filled with music,’ not from overhead, but from every side. Crowding forms became all at once visible within the encircling ‘glory,’ on every face wondering gladness and eager sympathy with men, from every lip praise. Angels can speak with the tongues of men when their theme is their Lord become man, and their auditors are men. They hymn the blessed results of that birth, the mystery of which they knew more completely than they were yet allowed to tell.

As was natural for them, their praise is first evoked by the result of the Incarnation in the highest heavens. It will bring ‘glory to God’ there; for by it new aspects of His nature are revealed to those clear-eyed and immortal spirits who for unnumbered ages have known His power, His holiness, His benignity to unfallen creatures, but now experience the wonder which more properly belongs to more limited intelligences, when they behold that depth of condescending Love stooping to be born. Even they think more loftily of God, and more of man’s possibilities and worth, when they cluster round the manger, and see who lies there.

‘On earth peace.’ The song drops from the contemplation of the heavenly consequences to celebrate the results on earth, and gathers them all into one pregnant word, ‘Peace.’ What a scene of strife, discord, and unrest earth must seem to those calm spirits! And how vain and petty the struggles must look, like the bustle of an anthill! Christ’s work is to bring peace into all human relations, those with God, with men, with circumstances, and to calm the discords of souls at war with themselves. Every one of these relations is marred by sin, and nothing less thorough than a power which removes it can rectify them. That birth was the coming into humanity of Him who brings peace with God, with ourselves, with one another. The ringing music of that angel chant has died away, but its promise abides.

Note the conduct of the shepherds, as a type of the natural impulse and imperative duty of all possessors of God’s truth. Such a story as they had to tell would burn its way to utterance in the most reticent and shyest. But have Christians a less wonderful message to deliver, or a less needful one? If the spectators of the cradle could not be silent, how impossible it ought to be for the witnesses of the Cross to lock their lips!

The antithesis to this barren wonder is the beautiful picture of the Virgin’s demeanor. She ‘kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart.’ What deep thoughts the mother of the Lord had, were hers alone. But we have the same duty to the truth, and it will never disclose its inmost sweetness to us, nor take so sovereign a grip of our very selves as to mould our lives, unless we too treasure it in our hearts, and by patient brooding on it understand its hidden harmonies, and spread our souls out to receive its transforming power. If we hide His word in our hearts, and often in secret draw out our treasure to count and weigh it, we shall be able to speak out of a full heart, and like these shepherds, to rejoice that we have seen even as it was spoken unto us.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Expositions of Holy Scripture

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;

O sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!

Glory to God, all glory in the highest;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

Christmas Advent Devotional Part I ~"God is compassion, and compassion is God."

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;

​​For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,

​​To give knowledge of salvation to His people

​​By the remission of their sins,

 ​​Through the tender mercy of our God,

​​With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;

​​To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,

​​To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Luke 1:76-79

“But for you who revere My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”

Malachi 4:2

         As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song. Mary and Zacharias brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed Him. The human members of this choir may be regarded as the last of the psalmists and prophets, and the first of Christian singers. The song of Zacharias, from which this text is taken, is steeped in Old Testament allusions, and redolent of the ancient spirit, but it transcends that. For that final chapter of the Old Testament colors the song both of Mary and of Zacharias. The picturesque old English word, ‘dayspring’ means neither more nor less than sunrising. And it is here used practically as a name for Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Sun, represented as rising over a darkened earth, and yet, with a singular neglect of the propriety of the metaphor, as descending from on high, not to shine on us from the sky, but to ‘visit us’ on earth.

         Jesus Christ Himself, over and over again, said by implication, and more than once by direct claim, ‘I am the Light of the world.’ As the darkness speaks to us of ignorance, so Christ, as the Sun illumines us with the light of ‘the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ For doubt we have blessed certainty, for a far-off God we have the knowledge of God close at hand. For an impassive will or a stony-eyed fate we have the knowledge (and not only the wistful yearning after the knowledge) of a loving heart, warm and throbbing. Our God is a living Person who can love, who can pity, and we are speaking more than poetry when we say, God is compassion, and compassion is God. This we know because ‘he that has seen Me has seen the Father.’ And the solid certainty of a loving God, tender, pitying, mighty to help, quick to hear, ready to forgive, waiting to bless, is born into our hearts, and comes there, sweet as the sunshine, when we turn ourselves to the light of Christ.

         In like manner the darkness, born of our own sin, which wraps our hearts, and shuts out so much that is fair and sweet and strong, will pass away if we turn ourselves to Him.  His light pouring into our souls will hurt the eye at first, but it will hurt to cure. The darkness of sin and alienation will pass, and the true light will shine.

         The darkness of sorrow—well! it will not cease, but He will ‘smooth the raven down of darkness till it smiles,’ and He will bring into our griefs such a spirit of quiet submission as that they shall change into a solemn scorn of ills, and be almost like gladnesses. Peace, which is better than exuberant delight, will come to quiet the sorrow of the soul that trusts in Jesus Christ. The day which is knowledge, purity, gladsomeness, the cheerful day will be ours if we hold by Him. We ‘are all the children of the light and of the day’; we ‘are not of the night nor of darkness.’’

         The Dayspring is ‘from on high.’ This Sun has come down on to the earth. It has not risen on a far-off horizon, but it has come down and visited us, and walks among us. This sun, our life-star, ‘has had elsewhere its setting and comes from afar.’ For He that rises upon us as the light of life, has descended from the heavens, and was before He appeared amongst men.
        There is only one way of peace, and that is to follow His beams and to be directed by His preceding us. Then we shall realize the most indispensable of all the conditions of peace ~Christ brings you and me the reconciliation which puts us at peace with God, which is the foundation of all other tranquillity. And He will guide docile feet into the way of peace in yet another fashion ~in that the cleaving to Him, the holding by His skirts or by His hand, and the treading in His footsteps, is the only way by which the heart can receive the solid satisfaction in which it rests, and the conscience can cease from accusing and stinging. The way of wisdom is a path of pleasantness and a way of peace. Only they who walk in Christ's footsteps have quiet hearts and are at amity with God, in concord with themselves, friends of mankind, and at peace with circumstances....for the man who puts his hand into Christ's hand, and says, 'Order my footsteps in Your word.' 
       Friend, put your hand out from the darkness and clasp His, and 'the darkness shall be light about thee'; and He will fulfill His own promise when He said, 'I am the Light of the world. He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.'

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

St. Luke

Thanksgiving Devotional "...when thy God hides His face, say not that He hath forgotten thee."

Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God,

believe also in Me.

John 14:1

Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold trials...Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:6, 8

God, let Thy mighty heart beat into mine,

And let mine answer as a pulse to Thine.

See, I am low; yea, very low; but Thou

Art high, and Thou canst lift me up to Thee.

I am a child, fool before Thee, God;

But Thou hast made my weakness as my strength.

I am an emptiness for Thee to fill;

My soul, a cavern for Thy sea. I lie

Diffused, abandoning myself to Thee…

—I will look up, if life should fail in looking.

GEORGE MACDONALD

Within and Without

Where showers fall most, there the grass is greenest.  I suppose the fogs and mists of Ireland make it "the Emerald Isle"; and whenever you find great fogs of trouble, and mists of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts; full of the beautiful verdure of the comfort and love of God.  O Christian, do not thou be saying, "Where are the swallows gone?  They are gone; they are dead."  They are not dead; they have skimmed the purple sea, and gone to a far-off land; but they will be back again by and by.  Child of God, say not the flowers are dead; say not the winter has killed them, and they are gone.  Ah, no!  Though winter hath coated them with the ermine of its snow; they will put up their heads again, and will be alive very soon.  Say not, child of God, that the sun is quenched, because the cloud hath hidden it.  Ah, no; he is behind there, brewing summer for thee; for when he cometh out again, he will have made the clouds fit to drop in April showers, all of them mothers of the sweet May flowers.  And oh! above all, when thy God hides His face, say not that He hath forgotten thee.  He is but tarrying a little while to make thee love Him better; and when He cometh, thou shalt have joy in the Lord, and shalt rejoice with joy unspeakable.  Waiting exercises our grace; waiting tries our faith; therefore, wait on in hope; for though the promise tarry, it can never come too late.

                                                                                                                    

C.H. Spurgeon

 Mornings and Evenings

Autumn Devo '18 "God’s interest in man is the interest not merely of grace but of creatorship."

Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

1 Peter 4:19

O Lord, have mercy upon me

A wandering sinner in great need.

I need You to heal and restore—

Forgive my erring divided heart.

Cleanse my soul that’s torn apart,

My eyes return to You, gracious Lord.

I entrust my soul to You, my faithful Creator,

My loving and merciful Father and rightful King.

You’re the eternal One who will reign forever and ever.

Unto You, the Majestic Glory, my soul will sing.

Your love comes softly like the touch of angel’s wings;

Full forgiveness covers like snow, gently falling.

My soul is made clean and set free from this darkness—

I can now walk upon Your pathway of light.

My Rock, my Refuge and love of my life,

Your promised presence dispels all my loneliness.

I Entrust My Soul to You

C.A. TAYLOR

         God is a faithful Creator. That is an illumined and illuminating word. God’s interest in every man is the interest not merely of grace but of creatorship.

Man is created to become holy and blessed in the free service of God. Man falls into sin through the abuse of his freedom. Is God, then, to abandon His original purpose? The artist or architect has conceived his ideal labors for its realization in spite of obstacles. And will God abandon His design? No: the ‘faithful Creator’ ‘forsakes not the work of His own hands.’ He remains true to His original purpose. Humanity, in His idea, is a holy and blessed thing; and this idea must yet be realized. Trust in a faithful Creator is the keynote of the gospel, the explanation of the tranquility of Christ. There is much gold in human nature, but it is embedded in much quartz. Will God separate the gold from the quartz? The answer in the text seems to have been written for us and for all men. What is our real worth to Him in whom we live and move and have our being?

What do we mean when we speak of God as a faithful Creator? We mean that He is true to Himself; that He always acts from a definite purpose of good, to which He adheres.

This is so in the physical world. Is not science always reminding us that the whole universe is under the reign of law, that the revolution of a planet in its orbit and the growth of a wayside flower are alike the product of forces that have nothing arbitrary in them? The moon has her appointed seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. The ancient promise still stands: while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter will not cease. Now this uniformity of Nature is but another name for the faithfulness of God. He has placed man on the earth, He has taught him to cultivate the ground; and when human hands plough the fields and sow the seed, human hands reap the harvest ripened by sunshine and rain. In this way God keeps faith with man; having created him with needs, He gives him the means of supplying them. The physical world is adjusted to his senses; there is food for his hunger, water for his thirst; he eye loves beauty, and he finds it in the loveliness of green fields or waving corn or pastoral hills; his ear craves music, and he hears it in the ripple of the brooks and the song of the birds, and the rustle of the wind among the trees. It has been so from the first, and has continued so from generation to generation, because God is faithful to the creatures He has made.
JAMES HASTING

1 Peter

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Thomas Chisholm

August Devotional ~"Why Do These Trials Come?"

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ…

1 Peter 1:6-7

Jesus, You shine in marvelous splendor,

Reigning from Heaven’s throne of glory!

Creator of the sun, moon and stars of wonder;

Angels praise Your Name from all eternity.

Sovereign over all, You reign as the Prince of Life,

My sins You carried in Your Body upon the tree.

Conquering death, You arose with power divine,

Shepherd of the stars, I now need You to carry me.

Shine your wisdom upon this shadowed path of mine,

Give me hope and the strength to carry on.

Anoint me with Your gladness from on high,

Lift up my head, my Light and great Salvation.

May my faith come through this fire like pure gold,

Reflecting and revealing Your marvelous glory.

These trials will seem to us nothing when all is told,

Lift up Your face and shine upon us; give us peace.

Endless honor and praise to the Lord of uncreated light,

Any glimmers streaming from us are borrowed rays.

Yet, You bestow upon us the brightness of the noonday sky,

Like the stars who will forever shine forth Your praise.

C.A. TAYLOR

Prince of Life

         Now these ‘manifold trials’ assume many guises and employ varied weapons of painful inquisition. Some of them may be found in the antagonism of men. Loyalty to truth may be confronted with persecution. A beautiful ministry may be given an evil interpretation. Our beneficence may be maligned. This may be one of ‘the manifold trials.’ Or our antagonism may be found in the apparent hostility of our circumstances. Success is denied us. Every way we take seems to bristle with difficulties. Every street we enter proves to be a cul-de-sac. We never emerge into an airy and spacious prosperity. We pass our days in material straits. Such may be another of ‘the manifold trials.’ Or it may be that our antagonist dwells in the realm of our own flesh. We suffer incessant pain. We are just a bundle of exquisite nerves. The streets of the city are instruments of torture. The bang of a door shakes the frail house to its base. We are easy victims of physical depression. Who knows but that this may have been Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’? At any rate, it is one of ‘the manifold trials’ by which many of our brethren are put to grief.

         Why do these trials come? Why are antagonisms allowed to range themselves across our way? Why are there any blind streets which bar our progress? Whey does not labor always issue in success? Why are ‘manifold trials’ permitted? We may find a partial response in the words of our text. They are permitted for ‘the proof’ of our faith. That is the purposed ministry of the sharp antagonism and the cloudy day—‘the proof of your faith.’ Now ‘to prove’ the faith means much more than to test it.

         First of all, it means to reveal it. To prove the faith is to prove it to others. God wants to reveal and emphasize your faith, and so He sends the cloud. May we not say that the loveliness of the moonlight is revealed and emphasized by the ministry of the cloud? It is when there are a few clouds about, and the moonlight transfigures them, that the glory of the moon herself is declared. And it is when the cloud is in our life that the radiance of our faith is proved and proclaimed. The ‘manifold trials’ set out in grand relief that which might have remained a commonplace. Light which fringes the cloud is light which is beautified. Faith which gleams from behind the trial is faith which is glorified. It is the hard circumstance that sets in relief the quality of our devotion.

         But ‘the manifold trials’ do more than reveal the faith. There is another ministry wrapped up in this suggestive word ‘prove.’ The trial that reveals the faith also strengthens and confirms it. The faith that is ‘proved’ is more richly endowed. The strong wind and rain which try the tree are also the ministers of its invigoration. The round of varying seasons makes the tree ‘well seasoned,’ and solidifies and enriches its fibre. It is the negative that develops the strength of the affirmative. It is antagonism that cultivates the wrestler. It is the trial that makes the saint. The man who sustains his hold upon God through one trial will find it easier to confront the next trial and exploit it for eternal good. And so these ‘manifold trials’ prove our faith. They reveal and they enrich our resources. They strengthen and refine our spiritual apprehension. They may strip us of our material possessions, ‘the gold that perisheth,’ but they endow us with the wealth of that ‘inheritance’ which is ‘incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.’

JAMES HASTINGS

The Speakers Bible -1 Peter

        

         No man gets good for himself alone out of his sorrows. Whatever purifies and makes gentler and more Christ-like, whatever teaches or builds up—and sorrows rightly borne do all these—is for the common good. Be our trials great or small, be they minute and everyday—like gnats that hum about us in clouds, and may be swept away by the hand, and irritate rather than hurt when they sting—or be they huge and formidable, like the viper that clings to the wrist and poisons the life-blood, they are meant to give us good gifts, which may transmit to the narrow circle of our homes, and in every widening ring of influence to all around us.

We shall never understand our sorrows unless we try to answer the question, What good to others is meant to come through me by this?

ALEXANDER MaCLAREN

July Devotional "the Almighty God offers Himself to do the work of keeping me"

“You, who are kept by the power of God…”

1 Peter 1:5

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—

​​From whence comes my help?

 ​​My help comes from the LORD,

​​Who made heaven and earth.

​​​He will not allow your foot to be moved;

​​He who keeps you will not slumber.

 ​​Behold, He who keeps Israel

​​Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;

The LORD is your shade at your right hand…

The LORD shall keep you from all evil;

He shall preserve your soul.

The LORD shall keep your going out and your coming in

From this time forth, and even forevermore.”

Psalm 121:1-5, 7-8

The word Peter uses, kept, is the same word the Apostle Paul uses when he is talking about the Governor under King Aretas who guarded the city of the Damascenes. It is the same word that the same Apostle employs, with the same emblematical reference as here, when he speaks of ‘the peace of God’ as guarding your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That is to say, we are to think of some little undefended, unwalled village, which is made safe because a strong force is thrown into it. St. Peter thinks that every Christian man has enemies that he cannot beat back alone, and he thinks that every Christian man may have round him a ring of defense against which all enemies will break and foam themselves away like waves against a lighthouse.

First, the keeping is all-inclusive. What is kept? We are kept. How much of us? The whole being. Does God keep one part of us and not another? No. Some people have an idea that this is a sort of vague general keeping, and that God will keep them in such a way that when they die they will get to heaven. But they do not apply that word ‘kept’ to everything in their being and nature. And yet that is what God wants.

There are some people who think God will keep them in spiritual but not in temporal things. Now, God sends us to work in the world, but He does not say: I must now leave you to earn your own money, and to get your livelihood for yourself. He knows we are not able to keep ourselves. God says: My child, there is no work you are to do, and no business in which you are engaged, and not a penny which you are to spend, but I, your Father, will take into My keeping. God cares not only for the spiritual, but also for the temporal. The greater part of the life of many people must be spent amid the temptations and distractions of business; but God will care for them there. The keeping of God includes all. In sunshine as in the gloom, our God is ready to keep us all the time.

Once more, there are others who think of God’s keeping thus: God will keep me from doing very great wickedness, but there are small sins I cannot expect Him to keep me from. There is the sin of temper. I cannot expect God to conquer that. When you hear of some man who has been tempted and gone astray, or fallen into drunkenness or murder, you thank God for His keeping power. ‘I might have done the same as that man,’ you say, ‘if God had not kept me.’ We believe He keeps us from drunkenness and murder. And why do we not believe that He can keep us from outbreaks of temper? We thought that this was of less importance; we did not remember that the great commandment of the New Testament is, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ And when our temper and hasty judgment and sharp words came out we sinned against the highest law—the law of God’s love. And yet we say: God will not, God cannot—no, we will not say God cannot; but we say, God does not—keep me from that. We perhaps say: He can; but there is something in me that cannot attain to it, and which God does not take away. Listen to these words, ‘Kept by the power of God.’ There is no qualifying clause to them. The meaning is, that, if we will entrust ourselves entirely and absolutely to the omnipotence of God, He will delight to keep us.

This keeping is not only an all-inclusive keeping, it is also an almighty keeping. God is almighty, and the Almighty God offers Himself to work in my heart, to do the work of keeping me; and I want to get linked with Omnipotence, or rather, linked to the Omnipotent One, to the living God, to have my place in the hollow of His hand. David had very wonderful views of how the everlasting God is Himself the hiding-place of the believing soul, and of how He takes the believer and keeps him in the very hollow of His hand, in the secret of His pavilion, under the shadow of His wings, under His very feathers. And we who are the children of Pentecost, we who have known Christ and His blood and the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, why is it we know so little of what it is to walk confidently step by step with the Almighty God as our Keeper?

God comes to us as the Almighty One, and without any condition He offers to be our Keeper, and His keeping means that day by day, moment by moment, God is going to keep us.

JAMES HASTINGS

First Epistle of S. Peter

         Look out and up, then. Look up ‘from the depth,’ the vast depth of your weakness, perhaps of your mysteriously inherited weakness. Look up out of your failure under some temptation, inward or outward, inherited, so to speak from yourself, from your own unfaithfulness in the past. Look up out of your ruined purposes—unto Himself. He is able to rebuild, and more than rebuild, the ruins. He is able to untie the knot, and draw out straight the line of will and obedience to Himself. Being what His is, Keeper of Israel, God of the Promise, Lord of the Sacrifice, Prince of Life, present Savior, indwelling Power, He is able to keep you that your feet shall not totter.”

H.C.G. MOULE

All in Christ

Will our God, in His tenderhearted love towards us, not keep us every moment when He has promised to do so?

ANDREW MURRAY

June Devotional: "a life in which the longings of the heart are satisfied."

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

I Peter 1:3-5

Come closer, weary one, and draw near,

Sink down under the shadow of My wings.

Seek refuge in Your Lord and Maker,

Trust, hide, and rest; let your heart gently sing.

I will be your peace, so you may be secure,

Forgiven and cleansed, restored by My shed blood.

I will be your hope, with a never-ending future,

Lift your head and look up, unto Heaven above.

O, come, draw near, I am your haven and home,

I am with you always; you are never alone.

 Let Me cover you with My merciful grace,

Bestowed upon you without measure.

Abide in my presence ‘til the eternal dawn breaks,

When I gather you to Myself, for forever.

C.A. TAYLOR

For Forever

There is something waiting for us here of which we may say, as of the living hope, that the very sound of it is refreshing: ’an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.’ The refreshing element belongs to the contrast between this and the things to which we are most accustomed. With our regeneration we become heirs to a glorious spiritual estate, with all its inexhaustible possessions and treasures. How the Apostles roll out the New Testament music by ringing the changes upon this eagerly welcomed word! ‘Heirs of salvation!’ ‘Heirs of the kingdom!’ ‘Heirs together of the grace of life!’ ‘Heirs according to the hope of eternal life!’ The Apostles survey their estate from different angles, that they may comprehend the wealth of the vast inheritance. With what fruitful words does the Apostle Peter characterize the nature of the inheritance. It is an inheritance ‘incorruptible.’ It is beyond the reach of death. No grave is ever dug on this estate. It is an inheritance ‘undefiled.’ It is beyond the taint of sin. No contamination ever stains its driven snow. It is an inheritance ‘that fadeth not away.’ It is beyond the blight of change. The leaf never turns. 'Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom.’ Into this glorious inheritance are we begotten again by the abundant mercy of God.

All that is pure and lovely on earth is the reflected image in the unstable element of time of the enduring realities of eternity—the calyx that contains within it the unopened blossom of eternity. And just as the calyx in plants is a transformed leaf, and the blossom a transformed calyx, so heaven is only earth transformed by Him who maketh all things new.

It is a life in which the longings of the heart are satisfied, and cherished hopes are translated into tasted experiences. In heaven, personal perfection is attained. They hunger no more, neither thirst any more. There is perfect satisfaction in the attainment of perfect conformity to the will of God. No distance there between what we longed to be and what we are; but the rest of perfect attainment.

And yet all this passes away before something greater. At length there is the perfect satisfaction of our craving for God. With unveiled face we see His face; with the ear that is opened to grasp His utterances and understand we hear the music of His voice. There we know at length what it is to enter into the fullness of union with Him, to find eternal rest and joy, reposing on the heart of God.

JAMES HASTINGS

The Speaker’s Bible -I Peter

What Bernard of Cluny saw, as he peered through the darkness, was heaven itself. He saw it in glorious colors, all golden, all joyous, with Christ and the holy angels, and filled with, holy men and women.

But what Bernard of Clairvaux saw was better still. It was the King of the fair, heavenly land. It was the dear Savior who died for us. What he saw was the Person of Jesus. He saw the head that was crowned with thorns, and the feet that were pierced with nails, and His hands and His side.

And each of them put what he saw into a hymn.

The poor monk who had only a cell to live in made the hymn we have so often sung:

Jerusalem the Golden!

With milk and honey blest:

Beneath Thy contemplation

Sink heart and voice oppressed.

I know not, oh, I know not,

What joys await us there,

What radiancy of glory,

What bliss beyond compare.

The rich Abbot of Clairvaux saw past that glory, and fixed his great heart on Jesus Himself:

Jesus, the very thought of Thee

With sweetness fills my breast;

But sweeter far Thy face to see,

And in Thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,

Nor can the memory find

A sweeter sound than Thy blest name,

O Savior of mankind!

A. MACLEOD

The Child Jesus