THE excellence of Christ's priesthood is a constant subject of refreshing to the redeemed; it is only in contemplating this dear Savior that we can abide in His love. It is not then without a spirit of prayer and reflection that we direct our looks to Him who came to give us the words of the Father, that the joy He takes in us may abide. May this precious Savior be pleased to keep us from all evil, while we meditate among brethren His holy Word, in order that our joy also may be full, knowing, before all things, that without Him we can do nothing!
The work of redemption being finished, the Lord rejoices in the communion which He has established between His redeemed and the Father, by means of His perpetual priesthood; but, on the other hand, the sanctification of the redeemed requires a constant activity of the Lord's love until the last of the elect is perfected.
We are thus carried on to contemplate Jesus, not only as the perfect Savior of the Church, which is His body, but as the Head, the Bridegroom of the Church, during the formation and bringing forth of this last. We purpose here to meditate on this subject. Our individual feebleness does not hinder us from undertaking this essay and offering it to our dear brethren in Jesus; we hope that even its imperfections will be a motive, for others more able, to search into and set forth these truths in a manner more complete.
The Semeur has just accomplished, before hand, the wish that we here uttered; an able and delicate pen, a talent universally admired, has put itself in the Lord's service to treat the same subject.
We do not believe that we ought to change anything in our essay, and we deliver it to the readers of the Témoignuge, blessing God that we have found ourselves in unison in this little labor with the author of the article of the Semeur, at least on important points.[I leave this as it stands in the unchanged, as being unable to speak from a knowledge of the article referred to. But I should regret that any of our readers should consider the above opinion as a sanction of the corrupt religio-philosophic tone which pervades the Semeur of late, so far as I have seen its pages, and especially when it ventures into the discussion of Scriptural topics.—ED.)
That which our brethren already possess is much greater than all we can offer them; for they possess Jesus, in whom are contained all the riches of the Father's love; but this consideration ought not to arrest us in the constant study of the Word; no more can it hinder us from discoursing with brethren upon all that is contained there. Wherefore, we trust in the grace of the Lord, that He will be pleased, by means of this essay, to strengthen the brethren in conflict, to encourage them in holiness, to increase among them longsuffering, love, compassion, and sympathy.
May He be pleased to give us a clear view, an eye single and watchful to contemplate Himself in His quality of Head of the body of which He is the Savior; and more particularly, as sympathizing in the sufferings and infirmities of all the members together, and of each in particular!
But, before considering the compassion of Christ for His redeemed ones, we must clearly lay down the basis on which we are all founded, namely, that Jesus has fully and perfectly finished the work which the Father had given Him to do, that is to say, to glorify God upon the earth.
Moreover, the office of Jesus, as Savior of the body, is sufficient, perfect, and finished, for by His death He has taken upon Him and carried from over us sin, condemnation, and death; then, by His resurrection, we have justification and life, and this resurrection is itself a proof of the sufficiency of His death.
The sacrifice of Christ has been offered once. Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.,
The work of the Rock is perfect.
Jesus glorified is sat down in His quality of priest and victim, that takes away sins forever, and He is thus expecting till His enemies are made His footstool.
Having suffered once for sins, He, the just for the unjust, was crucified through weakness to bring us to God.
Thus Christ had to be in weakness, first as the servant, to make Himself of no reputation; He was made for a little while lower than the angels, but, by the power of God which was in Him, (John 10:1818No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:18),He took His life again to be thus the first-burn among many brethren. Sometimes with the Ionians ἐκ, replaces ὐπὸ, "by," after a passive verb. This preposition after a passive verb often means "in consequence of.")
The sufferings of Jesus, in humiliation and under the curse due to our sins, have completely paid our ransom; the justice of God has been entirely satisfied; as Savior of the Church, Jesus then has fully and perfectly accomplished our salvation and justification by His death and by His resurrection. In this precious point of view, the heart of Jesus is filled with joy when He considers the Church.
The saints of the present dispensation contemplate the fact upon which rests their salvation as an act past and accomplished, whilst the just men of the old covenant had seen beforehand, by faith, and welcomed the day of Christ. But for those as for these, everlasting life and justification, by free grace, were richly purchased for them in the death of Christ and for eternity.
We have, then, established that Jesus, as the Savior of the body, has accomplished what it was meet for Him to do, and that, as the Captain of our salvation, He must be perfected by suffering once, always, and for evermore.
But we would now examine how, before His redeemed are brought to glory, they must needs suffer in their turn during the formation of the body, which will contribute to make us understand and seize, for our joy, the sympathy and incessant compassion of Him who is the Head of the Church, as well as its beloved Savior.
All that Scripture tells us of the sufferings of the body of Christ is, in. a sense, applicable to Christ as Head of this body; and if the fellowship of the Lord, and the search after His thoughts, were the habitual state of Christians, the sufferings of Him who is their Head would be a motive to grief and prayer; but, above all, to watchfulness and humiliation, for those who are the object of these sufferings of the heart of Jesus.
When we say that the sufferings of the body are in a sense those of the Head, it is that we have always in view in that which follows the participation of Christ in our evils and in our griefs, in the sense of sympathy, of compassion; and that we employ these words, just as Scripture does, as synonymous with suffering with, or sharing in, one's sufferings.
The hour of grief arrived for the Church after that Jesus returned to him who had sent Him; it is through the sorrows of bringing forth that the Church walks to its perfection in Christ, and this state of suffering will last till we all meet together in the measure of the full stature of Christ, till by our passage through the trial of this life we have all been individually and successively perfected in Him who is the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.
The edification of the body of Christ is then a time of sorrow, during which the Head shares in the numerous and varied sufferings which the members are to undergo, whether in the conflict of the Spirit against sin for their sanctification, or because of the enmity of a world from which God's grace has made them go out.
The position of the Church of the redeemed, considered in its acting portion, during its formation through the ages, must necessarily draw upon it persecutions if it is faithful, or a false peace and a dangerous calm when it is faithless or enfeebled.
In the eyes of God, the Church is the continuation of Jesus on earth; it is to represent Him in face of the world, so as to glorify the Father. The mission of the Church is to perpetuate the remembrance of Jesus until He come, to follow His steps by the aid of the Holy Spirit, and to convince the world, which has crucified Him, of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.
Jesus, above all, did two things on earth: He obeyed, He suffered.
The Church ought to follow this model; it will obey, therefore, the powers of the world in all that which is in their province; but it obeys God in separating from all that which is already judged. Thus it is that it bears witness in favor of the rights of Jesus and against the usurpation of His kingdom by the enemy. Now, it is precisely in following His model that the Church is sure of suffering also, as Jesus suffered. Its only consolation and its only joy here below are in communion with its Head and in the glorious hope which it enjoys, by a full certainty of faith in future and invisible things. During His path on earth, Jesus, as man in weakness, was a man of sorrows, because possessing the thought of divine purity, He was, in His form of servant, without sin, surrounded by sin and rejected by this world, which He was come to seek in order to save and bring it to the Father.
Jesus had been sanctified, that is, set apart by the Father; He had sanctified Himself in his quality of Sent One, and it was for His own that He had done that, that they also might be sanctified by the truth. The object of this setting apart from the world was, above all, to glorify the grace of the Father by means of this peculiar people consecrated unto His name.
Jesus had not shared in any of the joys of the world, otherwise than to manifest there His glory, which was the glory of the Father. Whoever would follow Him must hate, in himself and in others, all that which is of the world; he is to bear his cross, and walk through the desert, like a pilgrim who socks a better country.
But here, too, the heart of Christ will be the source whence we are to draw meekness, patience, longsuffering, towards the individuals of the world. Christ has always blessed, borne with, called with love all the souls which presented themselves on His road. Imitate, then, Him who came not to judge but to save—Him who hated sin, but who loved poor sinners—this Jesus, who was meek and lowly of heart.
The means of realizing in our life, humility, love, and detachment from the joys and the good things of the world, is, instead of trusting to these good things, to consider seriously the Lord in His life and His death, always bearing about in our body the dying and the marks of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.
Whatever be, at any given moment, the degree of toleration of the Church by the world, it is not less a world, hostile to God, which crucified Jesus, and is governed by Satan, its actual prince. There will always be enmity on the part of the world toward the children of God when they are faithful in glorifying their Father. When no opposition comes from the world to bear witness to the fidelity of Christians, there is room to attentively examine the state of the Church; for if the world loves us, it is a proof that we are like worldly people; whilst, if we follow the steps of Jesus, the world in that ease will hate us, for the world loves its own.
If the Church looked for nothing of the world—if it accepted nothing of it—if, in place of sleeping in a false peace with the enemy and making an alliance with him, it lived separate—if it profited by this beautiful position outside of all to act in the world and on it in the power of grace—if the Church bore witness to the speedy return of the true King in His great power—then each of its members would see that there is nothing but trial to expect, and that it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God.
Are we really here below as in a journey across the desert? Is the testimony of the members of the body of Jesus unanimous, or at least powerful enough to affright and irritate the enemy? Are we not in a world made Christian and a Christianity made worldly, and do we groan because of this confusion? Do not the greater part of brethren accept from the hand of this same world what it otters them in the place of gifts and ministries really evangelical?
Doctrine, sacraments, evangelizing, worship, ministry, are they not, to a very great extent, dependant on the will and authorization of the world, and is not this evil the work of the adversary and the token of a great confusion?
Jesus, our head, is necessarily sensible of all those infirmities of each member individually and of all together, during the successive formation of His body; and if our testimony is also miserable, is there not in that, for us, an always renewed subject of humiliation and prayer?
Prayer and communion with the Lord are the only enjoyments which are the portion of the faithful in this world; they are inward and spiritual blessings, which they can find only in withdrawing near the Lord, far from the sin which so easily besets.
Communion with the Lord procures us, among other blessings, communion with brethren and intelligence of the wants and sufferings of all the body of Christ. The nearer, then, we may be to the Lord, the more we understand that we have to bear here below, in our turn, our portion in the sufferings which the body of Christ has yet to endure clueing its formation..
This translation is literal without transposition of words, and this passage thus rendered contains the following chain of ideas:
What does Paul? He fills up in his turn. What? That which is wanting of the afflictions of Christ.
What are the afflictions of Christ to which something is wanting?
They are the afflictions of the body of Christ or of the Church during its formation; and the sum of the afflictions of the body is composed of the portion of each of its members.
Is it Paul only who has part to fill up in this sum of afflictions imposed on the Church during its formation?
What Paul did, we have to do, each in our turn, for the portion which is assigned us.
Those tribulations of which Paul in his turn endured his part, were they wanting to the sufferings of Christ, or to Paul's part during his life (or in his flesh)?
Those afflictions were wanting in the flesh of Paul; and it was in his flesh, that is, during his life, that he filled up this part assigned to him.
Whence we see clearly that Paul accomplished a task which was Imposed on him during the days of his flesh, (1 Peter 4:1616Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (1 Peter 4:16),) and that the Head first, having suffered its part in quality of first-fruits, suffers no more, save as sympathizing with that which remains.
Finally, those afflictions were endured in the first place by the Head, next by turns by each member of the common body, and this successive filling up takes place in favor of the whole body, or, as another passage reads it, "for the body."
The Greek word [ἀνταωαπληρῶ] "I fill up in my turn," or "I accomplish on my side," is found no where else in the New Testament.
It is possible, it seems to us even probable, according to what the Lord has often manifested of His ways toward the Church, that the Spirit who is at present urging many brethren to the contemplation of Jesus acting in His love, and who renders the bride attentive to all the power and wiliness of the enemy, desires thus to prepare for some great event.
The grace of God always strengthens His children when there is need of it; and if evil times draw near us, what mightier buckler can we find in trials than fellowship, with our Head, than brotherly love, than the energy produced in each member by the feeling of its responsibility to, and its being bound up with, the whole body?
No consideration appears to us more calculated than the sympathy and compassion of Christ to destroy and repulse the selfishness and indolence, the cowardly sloth even, which hinder brethren from uniting in the communion of the Lord and in prayer, from humbling themselves for the evil which divides the Church, and even from owning it. There is nothing better than Christ's participation in all these miseries for engaging us to undertake one another's burdens.
The true means of not slumbering in a vain profession of Christianity, of not being dead while we have a name that we live, is in exhorting to the contemplation of the Lord Jesus in the activity of his love for us.
It was needful, because of our infirmity, that Jesus should be revealed to our faith in different distinct aspects; that He should be made known to us in His different characters and in His different offices, explaining them to us each separately, whilst revealing to us His unity with the Father and with the Holy Ghost.
We know that Jesus in the manger is the same as Jesus on the cross, that the Son of God in abasement is the same as the Son of God in power: we all believe that Jesus is God blessed forever, but we have particularly need at this moment to contemplate Jesus in His glorified humanity. The humanity of the Lord Jesus is our humanity; it is thus that He is Son of man; it is in our humanity that He satisfied the justice of God, and established us in communion with God. It is our humanity which is glorified in Jesus; and just as the life of Christ is in us, even now upon earth, likewise also, by Christ, our humanity is even now glorified in heaven.
In order well to understand the compassion, the sympathy of Christ, His participation in the state of the Church, we should contemplate Him not only as Savior in glory, but moreover as Head of the Church in His glorified humanity. It is thus that He is the head of the body He has saved; it is in this point of view, precious to our souls, that He is the first-born among many brethren, the head of the Church; it is thus He is active and in living and efficacious relations with His Church.
Perhaps this aspect of Christ has been a little lost sight of by brethren; it is necessary to recur to it, since the resurrection and the glorification of Jesus are the earnest of our own resurrection in glory and the pledges of His activity, of His sympathy, and of His intercession for His brethren, for his Church before the Father's throne of grace.
Paul had been converted by the sight of Jesus glorified; he had viewed Him in His union with the Bride. This Saul, who before wasted the Church, who persecuted the body of Christ, understood this mystery, when from the height of glory Jesus said to him: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME? I am JESUS WHOM thou persecutest."
Was it not the Head of the Church who complained of the evil, in causing His first members to suffer on earth? And is not the body still on earth? is it not there it exists, there it is formed, and there it suffers?
Saul became himself a member of this body; he was united to it from this moment, and the sufferings he endured from that time were not a special and distinctive part of his ministry; but Paul had the mind of Christ; Paul suffered, nay, he died every day, for the sufferings of Christ abounded in him; and that which distinguishes Paul from all his brethren is not suffering for the whole body, but is perhaps the abundance of his tribulations.
If it is true that we also have the Spirit and the mind of Christ, we ought, during our trial here below, carefully to search out what are the sufferings and the griefs of the members of His body, that we may bear our part in those afflictions, and realize in this way our death to the world with Christ, and our life with Christ in God. Then should we cry, Who is weak, and we are not so likewise? Who is fallen, and we burn not? We will even take pleasure in infirmities, in sufferings, in distresses, for Christ's sake.
Let but one of the members of the body be in a state of fall, of feebleness, of worldliness, under a trial or a judgment, then all the members suffer, if at least the body is in a normal state, and the Head is not isolated nor insensible to these disorders. For we are the body of Christ, and members in particular; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; for the body is not one member, but many members, and Christ is the Head of every man; so that Jesus takes part not only in the sufferings of all the members, considered as gathered collectively, but He sympathizes in the afflictions of each of us in particular. Scripture also shows us our inevitable sufferings and our unceasing conflict as the afflictions of Christ Himself, of this Lord who is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
Now, that which is said of each fall of one of our brethren, we ought to apply to our own falls, in order that, considering the painful impression they make on our Head and all the body, we may walk in holiness, seeking to glorify God in all things.
Christ who is faithful over all His house, He who washes us from our defilements of every day, and who as High Priest has compassion on our infirmities, has charged Himself moreover with the actual judgment and with the discipline of the members of His body; so that if we do not discern ourselves in order to present our infirmities to God, we are judged here below after the manner of men, in the flesh, that we may not be condemned with the world.
This office of Christ over His house is moreover a ministry of love toward His Church; but how much is not His heart afflicted in a thousand ways while He fulfils it? Our duty is then to take all these things to heart, as being also our own affairs, to consider before God and in His love our state of wretchedness, that of our brethren in the faith, and the state of disunion and feebleness in which all the body is found; then, if the love of Christ constrains us, we shall also, as it were, travail in birth again until Christ be formed in the elect who are held in the miserable elements of the world, or who have returned to them.
Whatever be the sort of sufferings of our brethren, we ought to share them as the Hebrews sympathized in the bonds of Paul and the misfortunes of their brethren, for we see that the apostle puts this compassion on the same level (as regards the recompense it is to obtain) as the sufferings themselves, and the positive afflictions endured by the Hebrews. It was, moreover, brotherly love, which displayed by time Corinthians great patience in enduring the same sufferings as Paul. The latter praises them because of this sympathy, so that the affliction of Paul brings to the Corinthians salvation and consolation, because, having partaken in the sufferings, they should partake in the salvation and consolation. In this last passage, we find again as ever the principal idea which is so sweet to our hearts, namely, that if the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
We shall suffer thus with Christ every time that we take part with Him in the troubles which are manifested in His Church, during its conflict with the universal rulers of the darkness of this world and with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places; but we have besides to suffer yet for Christ, and we certainly meet with this last sort of sufferings in faithfulness to the Gospel. If we would bear a powerful and sincere witness to the glory of Christ who has redeemed us, we shall also have sufferings to endure as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and here, as elsewhere, we shall be sustained by the mighty power and the good hand of our Head.
The despite of a world which calls itself Christian, the accusations of so many brethren who know not even the motives which separate us from every institution coming from the world, are very certainly sufficient to engage us to bear our own cross, and to consider ourselves as taking part in the sufferings of the body of Christ.
If, then, the times of open persecution are not actually our lot, yet are we still happy if we are in any manner reproached for the name of Christ, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us. Be then steadfast in faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in our brethren that are in the world. And if we do well and suffer for it, it is a grace of God; for it is thereunto we are called, because Christ, the Just One, has suffered for the unjust, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.
Christ rejoices, then, in His perfect work as Savior of the body; but Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church and the Head of the body, actively shares in the afflictions of this body during its formation, as well as in the troubles and infirmities of each of its members.
If we have understood this so encouraging truth, we shall be eager to search both the terms of this state of things, and the reward which is promised to those who may have taken part in all this labor and in all these fatigues.
The term is presented to us in 1 Thess. 4:13-1813But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18). The moment of joy will come when the Bridegroom arrives in the clouds to gather all His own into the air, by the glorious resurrection of the saints. Then each will receive his recompense; then the Bride will be revealed to the eyes of the entire creation, clothed with the glory and the power of the Son of God.
Let us bear then, in our turn, in our flesh, our part of the sufferings of Christ, and let us realize thus our death to the world with Christ and our life in God by Christ; but hasten we, with our requests and our prayers, the blessed moment of the presence of the Lord, of Him who ought ever to be the nearest to our hearts by faith.
It is not only the whole creation and the inanimate things which groan, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we groan, being burdened, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.
Shall we be loss intelligent than all the creation which groans, being in travail of birth until now after so many ages, and awaiting the time of the return of Christ with his saints to be delivered from the bondage of vanity and corruption? Shall we not also, elect members of Christ's body, groan during our journey through the evil produced by the sin of Adam? For we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if at least we suffer with, HIM, with Christ who suffers because of His love to us, and because of His intimate union with us.
It is not a question for us to think of suffering with Christ in His past sufferings, either in the flesh or on the cross. These sufferings of the Savior have always been for Him alone, for He alone was capable of enduring them, and we can share in them in no other way save in giving thanks, honor and praise, to Him who has accomplished them. But if we suffer with patience, we shall also reign with Him, and we have need of patience in tribulations, that, having done the will of' God, we may obtain the promise.
Inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy, for the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits.
One of the most precious fruits of our communion with the Lord Jesus, in His thoughts and sufferings, full of love, is certainly the better resurrection; for Paul cried out, That I may know Him and the power of Hs resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if, by any means, I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
John, in the year of our Lord 96 or 100, presenting himself to the seven churches under the most commendable titles, says, I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Here the kingdom only is a future thing, which is obtained by participation, during the life of the beloved disciple, in the actual tribulation and patience of Jesus Christ. This tribulation, such as we have developed it up to this point, is that of the Lord, because of His union with the Church and His compassionate mercy toward His redeemed ones. Now, the tribulation, as well as the patience of Christ, were also the part of faithful members of His Church; there were their most precious titles.
Many Christians admit the consequences of this doctrine; they are willing to accept the common bond which links together all the members of the body of Jesus, and the responsibility of each for the evil which is in all and in the midst of all; they suffer the persecutions which the Church endures in various places on earth; they groan because of the evil which rends it more and more; they deplore in their hearts the falls, the faithless ways and the miseries of each brother, but they do not receive the doctrine which makes us a duty out of this sympathy, because it shows us Christ as Head, as the center and reservoir of all sufferings, general and individual. Those dear brethren, accordingly, follow the impulse of a good, natural heart, but they accept not the sole principle which can sanctify those sympathies, that is to say, fellowship with Christ as the source and spring of these Christian affections.
Others, only laying hold of the glorious and ineffable privileges of our union already consummated with the Head of the body, appear too often to boast only in their hope, forgetting, on the other side, to boast in humiliation and to identify themselves with the persecuted Christ, with the suffering Head of their own body.
It is true that the doctrine of the actual sufferings of Christ may have been neglected among Christians, because of the abuse which others have made of it. For ourselves, who desire to contemplate the Lord under all His aspects, we are assured that the doctrine of Christ's sympathy for the Church, during its formation, cannot damage the doctrine of the complete satisfaction of God in the death of Jesus.
After having contemplated the love of the Father and that of the Son in giving His life for His enemies, we find nothing more touching than these compassions of the Lord Jesus, who desires to share in all our griefs, who loves us with an eternal and uninterrupted love, who suffers in seeing us still burdened with our cross—He who has borne all the sins of his redeemed, and undergone condemnation and death for them and in their stead.
What love is that of Christ! Does it not pass all understanding? Is it not by the ever-acting power of His love that in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, and who besides even now intercedes for us?
And yet the building up of that which remains of Christ's body to put together becomes always more laborious and difficult; for the lack of love, the indolence, the selfishness in each one of us, the want of affection and of fellowship among brethren, but, above all, our reluctance to suffer, even with Christ, considerably augment the difficulties of the last times, at which we are now arrived.
Charity, love of the Lord and of brethren, are the last remedy which remains to us; but how are we to employ it? If we continually contemplated Jesus, if we assiduously searched into the Word through the Spirit, we might realize, in some measure, His love and divine compassions. It is thus, and not by considering the charity which is in us or in some other man, that we shall keep ourselves in the love even of the Father, and in the light of the knowledge of His glory, in the face of Jesus Christ.
Love is found only in Christ; it is impossible for us to realize it otherwise than in communion with Him, by means of the Spirit, who takes of what belongs to Jesus to give it unto us. If we drink at the source, the rivers of living waters shall flow out of us. If we are nourished on Christ, then shall we understand all that is lacking to us and all that is lacking in the Church. May the Lord Himself break down the hardness of our hearts and overcome our culpable selfishness, in order that we also, in our turn, may share in His thoughts and in the sufferings of our beloved brethren over all the earth, and walk toward the mark with confidence, knowing that our Jesus, the Son of God, is our great High Priest, who, having been tempted in all points like as we are, without sin, can sympathize with our infirmities!
Disposed thus and with these affections from on high, shall we joyously direct our steps toward our heavenly country, always expecting on the road the rest and deliverance, continually going to meet the Lord in the living hope of His coming.
Then, brethren, we shall be united in true love without alloy, when Christ shall be manifested, Christ who is our life. Then shall we truly rejoice in the Lord and no longer merely in hope. Meanwhile, let us seek the things above, where our life is hid with Him in God. For, yet a little, a very little while, and HE THAT SHALL COME will come, and will not tarry.—(Translated from Le Témoignage.)