IT is quite true that to you this alarm and depression have a spiritual significance, but in reality it may not be anything of the kind. We are at present in unredeemed bodies (Rom. 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)), and the state of our bodies sometimes intrudes upon the enjoyment of our Christian privileges. For example: My mind may be too weary some night to read a chapter in the Bible with pleasure. Physical drowsiness or an attack of neuralgia may spoil a prayer-meeting for me, or a bad sick-headache interfere with my communion with other Christians.
The real test for all of us is the value we put on CHRIST; whether at the bottom of our hearts we have, or have not, a real appreciation of Him. And does not the very trouble you are now passing through declare beyond any contradiction your genuine conviction of His worth? You could not happily do without Him. Therefore, be of good cheer.
If I heard that you had lost something on the road, and that you had merely turned back a few paces, looked for it hastily, and then said to those with you, who began to be anxious on your account, “Oh, never mind! Don’t trouble! It does not matter much!” I should very naturally conclude that the thing in question was of little consequence to you. But if I knew you had been searching for it every day for weeks, and often continuing the search by artificial light far into the night; if I knew that you were greatly concerned because you could not find it, and almost crushed by the fear of having finally lost it, I should say without the smallest hesitation, even if I did not know what you had lost, that it was something you set great store upon, something very precious to you; that in heart you really believed in its value.
“To you therefore that believe,” writes the Apostle Peter, “He is precious.” The great moral proof of their believing on Him was the value they put upon Him. They realized His “preciousness” (1 Peter 2:77Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, (1 Peter 2:7)).
On the other hand, the Jewish “builders” rejected Him. They saw no beauty in Him! They did not “desire Him.” They “set at naught” that “Chief Corner Stone,” though He was “chosen of God and precious.”
There is surely a distinctly marked contrast between His being so precious as to be diligently, anxiously sought after, and being “set at naught” as worthless (compare Acts 4:1111This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. (Acts 4:11)).
You sometimes fear that He has given you up because of the amount of bad, or the deplorable lack of good, in yourself. But what if you were so good in yourself that you could afford to give Him up, seeing you no longer needed Him as a Saviour! Ah, that would truly be an alarming symptom. But is it so? Who is more certain than you are that in your case it is not?
Our sense of badness, and shortcoming, and general unworthiness, only makes Him the more indispensable. Oh, think not of yourself or of your faith, or even of your own love. Think of His sufferings at Calvary. Think of the love He expressed there.
“This is the love that sought us;
This is the love that brought us
To gladdest day from saddest night,
From deepest shame to glory bright,
From darkness to the joy of light.”
Geo. C.