We believe this is one of the richest volumes of written ministry available to believers. Its subject is the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal Son, ever dwelling in the bosom of the Father.
The opening paragraph of the first page of these precious meditations begins with this comment: “I am sure that I dread reasonings where affections would animate us withdrawing from the place of living power into a region of theories.”
How needful these words are for believers today! So often the precious, sweet things of Christ which ought to be received and enjoyed in faith and held in love become matters of intellectual debate and mere human reasonings. A striking and solemn example of these sad speculations is seen in the false teachings concerning the eternal Sonship of our blessed Saviour.
The volume, which we are reviewing, wonderfully presents the truth of this vital doctrine. However, Mr. Bellett’s meditation is the result of the “rivers of living water” flowing from his heart’s affections for our Lord Jesus. Thus, we are given the doctrinal truth as rich and sweet ministry, rather than a dry, technically correct dissertation.
Early in the first chapter we read this statement: “We must not, beloved, touch this precious mystery. We should fear to dim the light of that love in which our souls are invited to walk on their way to heaven. And we should fear to admit as faith that which would defraud the divine bosom of its eternal, ineffable delights and which would tell our God that He knew not a Father’s joy in that bosom as He opened it and which would tell our Lord that He knew not a Son’s joy in that bosom as He lay there from all eternity.”
Later Mr. Bellett writes: “Can I be satisfied with the unbelieving thought that... Father, Son and Spirit are only different lights in which the One Person is presented?” He further notes: “It was once asked me, ‘Had the Father no bosom till the Babe was born in Bethlehem?’ Indeed, fully sure I am, as the question suggests, He had from all eternity... the bosom of the Father... the eternal habitation enjoyed by the Son in the ineffable delight of the Father.”
Toward the end of the volume we read: “At this time... there may be a tendency to forget His person—Himself—in the common testimony to His work. Doctrine may be surveyed as with a measuring line and level rather than being eyed with an admiring, worshipping heart as the place of the glories of the Son of God.”
We heartily recommend that our readers obtain a copy and diligently read (and reread) this book.
Ed.