THE fervent words of the Moravian hymn―
“OH, DRAW ME, SAVIOUR, AFTER THEE,
SO SHALL I RUN AND NEVER TIRE” ―
have been frequently upon my tongue, as my mind has been ruminating on our next word in this divine “Song”― “Draw me; we will run after Thee;” and I have been thinking that the writer must have had this verse before him in composing it; for his second verse is a celebration of the royal Bridegroom’s love, and seems as if he had entered into the thought, “We will remember Thy love more than wine,” —
“What in Thy love possess I not?
My Star by night, my Sun by day;
My spring of life when parch’d with drought;
My wine to cheer, my bread to stay:
My strength, my shield, my safe abode,
My robe before the throne of God.”
“Draw me; we will run after Thee: The King hath brought me into His chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in Thee; we will remember Thy love more than wine; the upright love Thee” (verse 4).
Here we have:― 1. THE DRAWING PRAYED FOR, AND THE RUNNING PROMISED; 2. THE BRINGING INTO THE KING’S CHAMBERS; 3. THE GLADNESS COUNTED UPON; 4. THE LOVE CELEBRATED; 5. THE CHARACTER OF THOSE WHO LOVE.
1. “DRAW ME: WE WILL RUN AFTER THEE.” ―In wondrous love, God our Saviour drew us before we ever breathed such a prayer as “Draw me.” He said, when on earth, “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:4444No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)); and when this takes place, “the manslayer did not more willingly free from the avenger of blood into the city of refuge, than a sinner, sensible of his state, does to Christ for salvation.” We will never forget the melting’s of soul―the drawings and moving’s of love―that drew us to our Beloved, “by a sweet omnipotence, and an omnipotent sweetness.” They came we knew not whence; they wrought we knew not how: but the mantle of love was over us ere ever we knew where we were; and, lo! the Lamb stood before us as He had been lifted up, and His own word was verified in our experience― “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me.” And this is a drawing which we cannot resist, when once we know Him; for as hundreds of patients are drawn from all parts of the world to a physician of world-wide celebrity, so are we drawn to the Great Physician when his fame reaches us, and we realize our need and really believe that He is able to save and heal our souls.
We never should have yielded to all the entreaties of Christ’s servants, nor accepted the most urgent invitations, had it not been for the inward quickening, enlightening, and teaching of the loving Spirit of Christ; but just as Elisha was drawn from the plow by Elijah casting his mantle over him; as the disciples were drawn from their nets and ship and father, by a word from Christ, “Follow me;” and as Saul was drawn forever from his persecuting by a sight of “that Just One” whose brethren he was injuring,―so were we drawn “with cords of a man and with bands of love,” from self, sin, the world, and everything beneath the sun, to gaze on the ascended Lamb on the Father’s throne. And it is not unintelligent; for although He says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:33The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3)); yet this is explained by Jesus thus: “It is written in the prophets, and they will be all taught of God; every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh, unto me” (John 6:4545It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. (John 6:45)). “But you hath he quickened who were dead,” for only the living can be drawn so as to run after Him; a corpse is not drawn but lifted.
We have all seen the wary babe, just beginning to walk, drawn towards a smiling parent holding out his arms to it; and when drawn, by even the help of a finger, how quickly it runs into the parent’s embrace! So does the “newborn babe in Christ” run to Him when drawn and helped by the gracious motions of His Spirit, and the teaching that shows His love. And surely we must all feel how helpless we are to take any journey Christ-ward, and that we need constantly to be moved and drawn by His Spirit. “Draw me” implies a feeling of need, a sense of distance, a longing for more intimate communion, a conviction of spiritual inability, a dissatisfaction with the present condition, and a confidence in “Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh, in us” (Eph. 3: 20). And O how blessed the man who waits upon the Lord, and, in utter helplessness, says, “Draw me,” and receives the answer in sweet drawings of soul to enjoy nearer fellowship with the divine Bridegroom! It is at such hallowed seasons we are assured of our being acceptable to Him, and we feel as if we heard Him say to us, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:33The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3)). And, surely, there is no magnet for drawing the heart of the Bride like that of the Bridegroom’s manifested and revealed love!
“We will run after Thee.” ―As those precious perfumes or excellences of character were the cause of attraction or love, the first words of this verse are a prayer that He would unfold His loveliness, and thereby draw the soul to Himself. The character of Christ, as opened to the heart by the Holy Ghost, is the corrective of our natural sluggishness, and kindles within us the desire of following Him with all our energy—of running after Him; but as our weakness is more sensibly felt as this desire strengthens, we pray that His strength may be made perfect in our weakness, and we may be constrained by the influence of His grace― “The love of Christ constraineth us.” Nothing is more attractive than a lovely character to those capable of relishing its beauties. The Creator has made us susceptible of this attraction, as naturally as matter is attracted by gravitation; and when the Holy Ghost unfolds the loveliness of Christ, and restores the perceptive powers of the heart, we are spontaneously drawn towards Him. When He who has displayed His love in a holy devotedness to God on earth and in dying for our sins, becomes, by grace, our one object, then it is our delight to be near Him, in the consciousness of our souls, and we run after Him, as the needle of the compass turns naturally towards the pole.
As a bride runs towards her bridegroom the moment he shows himself, and needs no drawing but his presence, so is it with the gracious soul and the heavenly Bridegroom.
The request was “Draw me,” but the promise is, “We will run after Thee.” “For as the body is one and hath many members, so also is the Christ; for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” And as we are one spirit with the. Lord, and one Spirit as well as one life is in us all, the loving and devoted activity of one―especially if he be a prominent “member” in “the body of Christ” ―acts with sympathetic spiritual power upon all within the sphere of His influence. How deeply and widely the living embodiment of love and consecration to Christ in such men as Paul, Martyn, and M’Cheyne, has acted upon the Church of God! A life of love and near communion with the Lord Jesus stirs our souls, and engages us to run after Him as they ran. And no amount of learning, knowledge, gift, or ability will have lasting spiritual effect, unless baptized into personal love and devotedness to Christ. “My soul followeth hard after Thee,” must be the sentiment of our souls, if we would enjoy sweet and near fellowship with our Beloved, and be useful and spiritually influential in our several spheres.
And it is “after Thee” we will run. Not after our own objects, interests, or ideas; but, like Paul, “I press towards the goal” ―a glorified Christ―and am not to be drawn aside by any object, or rest satisfied with any attainment, until I reach Him, am like Him, and with Him in glory! How easy to be entangled in a yoke of bondage by running after even the best of men! What liberty when we follow Christ only! There is no leadership but, in Christ when they truth of God lies straight in our souls; and the truth is always more or less perverted where you have men drawing away disciples after them. When John pointed straight to Jesus, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God,” immediately two of his disciples who heard John speak left him, though the greatest of woman-born, and followed Jesus. So will it always be, if we take only the place of “the friend of the Bridegroom,” and not that of the Bridegroom himself. Our mission, as the ministers of Christ, is to introduce souls to HIM, and leave them with HIM, and not to form an admiring circle of disciples around ourselves.
There are some notable examples of drawing and running in Scripture. We read of Elijah: “He found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah.”
And no sooner is Jesus anointed as our Prophet, than He casts “His mantle” on the fishermen by the sea of Galilee, and said, “Follow me and they straightway left their nets and followed Him.” And one of those very men, Simon Peter, after the Lord’s resurrection, when He appeared on the shore of that sea and gave the miraculous draft of fishes, as soon as John said to him, “It is the Lord!” his love was so impatient to be at His feet, that he could not bear to abide the slow progress of the ship, but he “cast himself into the sea,” and hastened to his risen Lord.
And when “this same Jesus” appeared to Saul, be adds, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision;” and in another place he says, when God’s Son was revealed in him, “immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:” and when speaking of the way in which the gospel was introduced into Europe, he says, on recounting the various drawings of the Lord by His Spirit, “Immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had sent us to preach the gospel unto them.” This was service: but in communion we find him, as in the third of Philippians, saying, “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark,” that I may know Him, win Him, be like Him, and with Him forever in glory.
And when the Lord returns, what a running there will be to meet Him! The dead saints shall be raised in spiritual bodies, the living saints changed, and the center of attraction will be the descending Saviour, and they shall together be caught up to meet the Lord in the air: and when He shall come in glory to the earth, and reveal Himself to His Israel as their Messiah, Jehovah’s “Leader and Commander to the people,” then “nations shall run” to where He is in the earthly Jerusalem, for then shall He “sit upon the throne of His father David;” and of His nation it is said, “Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel: for He hath glorified thee” (Isa. 60:55Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. (Isaiah 60:5)). “And He shall judge among the nations: neither shall they learn war any more.”
“He is our Peace” ―the world’s “Prince of Peace:” but until the day of His appearing we are called to follow Him through conflict, rejection, afflictions, trials, sorrows: for as our Forerunner “He hath left us an example that we should follow His steps:” for when “He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him.” And Paul would run unto Him, even were it through crucifixion and death (Philip. 3:10, 11). Our race is to be run all through the wilderness, the eye of a reposing faith “looking unto Jesus” as the obedient Man, who began, continued, and ended. His course in faith, “and is now set down on the right hand of the throne of God:” He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny Himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
2. “THE KING HATH BROUGHT ME INTO HIS CHAMBERS.” ―The Beloved is a Priest in verse 3; He is here “the King.” The composer of “the Song” seemed very much like a King-Priest at the dedication of the Temple. These, however, were chambers into which he could not introduce his Bride, although he might introduce her into his palaces, and show her the fruit of his wisdom and the royal magnificence of his throne. But our Beloved, who, as the Royal Priest, is already crowned with glory and honor, can introduce us into every chamber of His house, and show us all His treasures, and also at last receive us to Himself, and make us free of the many mansions in the Father’s house―the palace and throne in the heavenly city―and the regal glory over the millennial earth.
And how full of blessing to be drawn now in sweet fellowship into the chambers of our Beloved, and be able to say, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 John, 1-3). And this seems to come so suddenly, that while we are yet speaking, the Lord answers our prayer, and “The King hath brought me into His chambers!” is our joyful experience.
“Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises
With healing in His wings.
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining
To cheer it after rain.”
It is only the Bride that has “liberty and access” to enter “the secret place” of holy fellowship. At Windsor strangers are allowed to pass freely through the staterooms, and gaze on all their furniture, garniture, and objects of historic interest; but the sovereign’s “chambers” can be entered only by the Queen’s children, members of the royal household, or such as are specially invited; so is it with the “chambers” of our heavenly Bridegroom. There are many rooms in “the King’s palace” ―outward Christian privileges, such as are common to all alike―into which strangers as well as children may enter; but into the chambers of secret spiritual knowledge, experience, and fellowship, none but such as are brought by the Holy Ghost can enter. Jesus was wont to take His disciples into His chambers when He was on earth, as when He said, “Come ye yourselves into a desert place and rest awhile;” or when, in Matt. 13, He “sent the multitude away and went into the house,” declared unto them the parable of the tares of the field, and opened up to them also the inner mysteries of the kingdom, given under the parabolic symbols of the pearl, the treasure, and the drag net with the good fishes gathered into vessels; or when He took them into the upper room, instituted the Lord’s Supper, washed their feet, and opened up to them the blessings consequent on the coming of the abiding Comforter, and gave that wondrous specimen of His love unto the end, which we have in His intercessory prayer. It was in these chambers He revealed more of the Father, and spoke more of Him than at any time. “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” This is the great foundation truth of the Church, the specialty of our calling and position in Christ; and when known and enjoyed in the Spirit we are brought into His chambers by the Holy Ghost, and there enabled to see the “riches of His grace” and the God-ward side of divine things, which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart, of the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him: but God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit.”
The very books of the Bible might be regarded as so many chambers of the King, into which He brings His Bride, and shows her endless diversities of glories. There are galleries of pictures of grace, and galaxies of personal, moral, official, and displayed glories in connection with the Beloved Himself, and also in connection with His saints. There are personal and moral glories of the Head of the Church displayed in the gospels, and chambers full of the mysteries of God, the purposes, operations, affections, and ways of God in the epistles. What a sight is it to enter into such a chamber as the Roman Epistle, and see how the gospel of God in connection with His Son determined in power as such, by resurrection, becomes “power of God unto salvation” to men who have been living in sin; or to enter into the Ephesian chamber, and see God, “rich in mercy,” displaying His everlasting love in quickening “dead” sinners, uniting them to His risen Son, their glorified Head, as set over all things, and they blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him: to see, as on Pentecost, the Holy Ghost descend and baptize the waiting disciples into one body, connected with Christ their living Head in heaven, making them one Spirit with the Lord, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all: the house of God: an habitation of God in the Spirit: the Body of Christ, the Bride of the Lamb, for whom He gave Himself that she might be quickened, raised, and seated in Him in heavenly places now, and be actually glorified together by-and-by; the display of the kindness and love of and the exceeding riches of His grace in the ages to come; and coming forth with Him in His glory to reign in love, life, and endless blessing; when He shall have all things put under Him, both the heavenly and the earthly, and enjoy His love, confidence, and fellowship forever. Ah, beloved! it is only the blessed one who lives “in the secret place” of the Lord who is entrusted with the Lord’s secrets. Noah knew His grace for himself, and His counsel about the flood, which none of the “giants in those days” knew. Abraham was in communion with God on the hill top, and knew the secret of the come-down God about Sodom’s destruction, which even righteous Lot living there knew not until the very last Moment!
3. THE GLADNESS. ― “WE WILL BE GLAD AND REJOICE IN THEE.” When we are drawn “by cords of a man and bands of love” (Hos. 11:44I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. (Hosea 11:4)) into the king’s “chambers,” in which He treats us as His most intimate friends, reveals to us the secrets of His heart, unfolds to us His fullness of grace, wisdom, power, and glory, and gives us to have communion with Himself, as our glorified Lord, the thoughts that fill our minds, and the affections that pervade our hearts, are those of gladness and joy; and we naturally express ourselves like the spouse here― “We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.”
When others are seeking many things, we can say― “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Ps. 27:5). If we have one thing before us, one desire in us, then there must be joy and gladness. Too many say, “One thing I have desired,” without being able to add, “that will I seek after.” Here we have the seeking after it expressed in the “draw me, we will run after thee.”
The joy here expressed is the joy of sweet and near communion. “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.” “These things write I unto you, that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:44And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. (1 John 1:4)): and they were all about Christ, the manifested Life and Love. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The essence of the Kingdom of God, as found by us now, is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost is the element in which we live and move and have our spiritual being; the very atmosphere in which we breathe―for we are “in the Spirit,” and “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is in us as “the Spirit of love and of power, and of a sound mind;” and when Christ is revealed to us in all His preciousness, loveliness, fullness, and beauty, then we have “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
It is by divine discoveries of the excellency of Christ Himself and of His work, grace, and glory, that our souls are so engaged, occupied, and filled with inward gladness that our face will shine, and we will not be able to contain our sense of the exquisite joy, but we will be certain to let it be known by our exulting demeanor and manifest rejoicing.
Nothing earthly can give us such joy. It is far greater than that of the men of the world when their corn and wine abound. “We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.” “My joy shall remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15.)
He gives the “oil of joy for mourning.” How blessed, when, through Christ we see that we have such a justification—such a standing in grace and freedom from wrath, death, and every evil, that we can rejoice in hope of the glory of God, for then “we joy in God.” We find Him the justifier, the Saviour-God, and our exulting thought is― “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?” “Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?”
When in “His chambers,” “rejoice in the Lord always,” is an easy duty―yea, rather a high privilege. Oh, to know more of the joy of being in His presence, abiding in Him, and having living, loving spiritual communion! Then, come what may, we will be able to rejoice, for we know that all things shall work together for good to us; and He will hide us in His pavilion “in the time of trouble,” “in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me.” And when rejected and despised of men, like Jesus, we can rejoice in spirit, for not only are our names written in heaven, but we ourselves are “seated in Him in heavenly places;” and as He could say, “All things are delivered unto Me of my Father,” etc., so can we say, “All things are ours, for we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s;” and so, although “sorrowing” and “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” “yet always rejoicing” is our portion.
When Jesus was taken up from His disciples, it was when with uplifted hands He blessed them, and as “He was carried up into heaven,” they felt so associated with Him under His blessing, that “they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God” (Luke 24:5252And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: (Luke 24:52)). And when they were endued with power from on high—the Holy Ghost coming upon them—they “did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God.” The King had truly brought them into His chambers, and their feeling was— “We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.” And when persecuted for Jesus’ name’s sake, they remembered Jesus’ words, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad,” for “they went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:4141And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41)). And surely Stephen, “a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,” was in the King’s chamber when his enemies “saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel,” when he began his address with “the God of glory,” and finished by seeing “the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,” saying― “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God;” and was taken as to his spirit into the opened chamber of the heavenly glory, with the glorified Man Christ Jesus. And as the testimony of Jesus was given, it brought joy to all who embraced it, as in the case of the Ethiopian, who “went on his way rejoicing;” and whatever the circumstances, “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 13:5252And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. (Acts 13:52)). And the apostle Paul, when he had nearly finished his course, and was the prisoner of Jesus Christ, though in bonds and imprisonment was brought into the King’s chambers, for in Philippians, he seems “filled with all joy and peace.” His writing there is more experimental than in any of his epistles, and throughout it is sparkling and radiant with joy in the Lord.
“In Thee” is the grand secret of joy. If we count on saints, service, circumstances, privileges, we will be grievously disappointed; but not if our joy is in Christ, for He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”
Let the maiden of humble origin be brought by another into the palace of a great prince to whom she is betrothed, and be shown all his riches, treasures, and glory, she would certainly feel it to be a high gratification to have such treasures as her portion by-and-by; but let the prince himself come for her, and take her to himself, and bring her into his own most private apartments as his own loved bride, then she would not think so much of her dignity, wealth, and splendor, as of him who had established the endearing relationship which made him her own beloved, and because of whom all was hers, only because she was his. So is it with us. “We will be glad and rejoice in thee.” “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath, covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels” (Isa. 61:1010I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)). It is not in the heaven before us we rejoice, not in the crown, the palm, the glory, but the Bridegroom of our hearts is there―there is someone to go to, for heaven is heaven because CHRIST is there; and when truly brought into spiritual fellowship with Him, and our relationship to Him is realized, our hearts exult in Him alone, for―
“The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear
Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze on glory, but on my King of
grace;
Not on the crown He giveth, but on His pierced
hand;
The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.”
We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh.
4. THE CELEBRATION OF HIS LOVE. ― “WE WILL REMEMBER THY LOVE MORE THAN WINE.” ― “Unlike the pleasures of the world, these gratifications are attended with no painful remembrances ‘We will remember Thy Love more than wine; Here, with Jesus, we have great peace in present possession, glorious hopes for the future, sweet recollections of the past. What are the remembrances continually gathering round an irreligious life? Hopes blasted, expectations disappointed, a sense of having never realized what was anticipated from any source, the enfeebling effects of dissipation, apprehensiveness of detection and exposure in unrighteous gratifications, and forebodings uttered by conscience of judgment to come; these are the best fruits that memory can gather from the past, wherein there have been no visions of Jesus. How empty is the recollection of even the temperate and allowable enjoyments of the irreligious! But how sweet is the remembrance of God’s grace! These memories are as a luminous stream of living waters winding amid the deepening gloom and ruins of the past. How tender the recollection of the times and places where first this precious Friend met us with the assurance of forgiveness, where His Spirit melted down the soul in deep contrition, where we had brightening views of heaven, where Jesus showed us the riches of His grace, the pledges of His glory, and gave us His love! Could any pleasures of wine, of sense, of the world, be remembered as fondly as the disciples cherished the recollection of the farewell words of their Lord, of the discourse on the road to Emmaus, of the scene at the transfiguration? And as the tide of time will not allow us to make tabernacles and dwell where thus our Lord met us, memory delights to build her shrines there, and linger fondly on those consecrated hills.”
Memory as our storehouse contains many happy reminiscences of the loving-kindness of the Lord. The word is “loves,” as showing the fullness of His love to us―that love which has been manifested in His sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension―in His sending the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the unction, seal, earnest, witness, and teacher, imparting all the benefits, gifts, graces, and joys, which so fill our souls with inward gladness, that we rejoice before Him in holy worship, and shoe forth His praises in devoted service. When we are filled with a sense of His love, we know experimentally the naturalness of the sequence, “Behold, God is my salvation;” “draw water with joy out of wells of salvation;” and “praise the Lord: call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted” (Isa. 12:2-42Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 3Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. (Isaiah 12:2‑4)).
When we gather to the name of Jesus and break the bread and drink the wine “on the first day of the week,” it is for a visible memorial of Him, a remembrance and celebration of His love, such as is pleasing to Him and refreshing to ourselves, for it is a “publishing of His death until He come,” and by that death we have got to know something of the extent of His love, for “He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.” “We will remember Thy love.” Oh, how could we ever forget it? But ah! we know in our sad experience that it is not so constantly the subject of our meditation as it ought to be, and that we cannot often say, “My heart is bubbling up a good matter. I speak the things that I have made concerning the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” If it were so, our cup of enjoyment in communion would run over, and we would rehearse His love, and make mention of it to others, with such a zest that they would be infected with the like passionate affection, and would join us in worshipping gladness, in praising and extolling Him in whom an excellency resides. He has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God; and surely it becomes us “by Him to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, giving thanks unto His name” (Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)).
“We will remember Thy love more than wine” ―more than the world remember their choicest delights. Says one, truly, “When we let our affections run out upon the creature we do but lose them, and they become unprofitable to us; but when they are set upon Christ, we lose them not; He makes them heavenly and gracious, and gives them to us again. Whatsoever of love we expend on Christ, in Christ we shall find it again.”
The only way to have our hearts transfigured is to leave them with Him on the holy mount of self-sacrificing love; “for the love of Christ constraineth us; we love Him because He first loved us.”
What a relief in the midst of the apostasy and confusion of the present to know that although the Church, as the house of God, is gone, “the body of Christ” (of Eph. 1) continues; although the candlestick (of Rev. 1) be removed, and the outward witness of Christendom be spued out of the mouth of the faithful and true Witness, as in the early part of “the Revelation,” the real saints of God come out towards the end, as the “Bride, the Lamb’s wife,” presented to himself all-glorious in the Father’s house, the joy and gladness of that blessed day being the joy of a marriage feast.
5. THE LOVE OF UPRIGHTNESS. ― “The upright love Thee!” Sincerity is of the greatest importance in Christians. “The upright:” who are they? The first man characterized as upright is Noah: “Noah was a just man, upright in his generations—Noah walked with God.” This is contrasted with the state of the world in his day. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The root idea of “upright” is straightness, as opposed to crookedness, as when Joseph said, “My sheaf arose and also stood upright;” or in Jeremiah, “upright as the palm tree,” that shoots up its straight trunk from the well’s side.
The moral idea is inward rectitude and sincerity, without guile, double-mindedness, or false-heartedness. Achish said to David, “Thou hast been upright. . . for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day.” “God hath made man upright,” with no crookedness in but perfectly straight in his entire nature, physical, mental, and moral.
Man’s present crooked condition is seen in the description given of the woman (Luke 13), “who was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” And the means by which crooked humanity is made “upright,” are seen in what Christ said and did to her: “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity; and He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Only straight people either glorify God, or love the Lord Jesus Christ: “The upright love Thee.”
The literal rendering is, “Straightnesses love Thee,” the abstract being put for the concrete.
But there must surely be in the saints a universal uprightness―everything lying straight within us ―sincerity and truth running straight through the thoughts, feelings, conscience, affections, words, and ways, and the whole man pervaded by the atmosphere of moral honesty―if there is to be all-absorbing love to Christ; and there can be no doubt that the little devotedness shown by professing Christians generally is an indication (according to Christ’s standard, Luke 8) of little love to Christ; and that tells again its sad tale of the great want of “a good conscience,” sincerity, and uprightness,―of “truth in the inward parts.”
When “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, he saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” His astonishment is excited, “Whence knowest thou me?” And when Jesus shows Himself to be the Jehovah-Messias by telling him, “When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee,” he confesses Him at once as “the Son of God and King of Israel.” It is as if the words of the 139th Psalm had flashed into his mind: “O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off;” and as if he were living habitually under the omniscient eye of Jehovah; and that, as a consequence, he discerned in Jesus “the Son of God,” by His saying, “I saw thee.” Thus we obtain a good illustration of guilelessness and sincerity. The upright Nathanael at once recognizes the dignity of the Messias, and confesses Him as the Son of God and King of Israel. He is all “truth in the inward parts,” living in a state of uprightness with God; and when the Divine One, who was revealed “full of grace and truth,” is before him, he confesses Him, and bows himself as a worshipper.
And whoever can realize and sit under the shade of the 139th Psalm is an upright one “in whom there is no guile.” What a sense there is in that psalm of the eye of God following us everywhere! And when it comes to be a question whether David is upright with God in really taking sides with Him against His enemies, he is so conscious of integrity that he can say about this matter, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
And if we come to the case of fallen Peter, in his interviews with the risen Lord Jesus, we will have another sample of sincerity in love. “That his faith had not failed he is enabled to give sweet proof, for as soon as he hears that it is his Lord who is standing on the shore, he threw himself into the water to reach Him, not, however, as a penitent, as though he had not already wept, but as one who could trust himself in His presence―the presence of his once-denied Master―in full assurance of heart.” And when our Lord put to him the thrice-repeated question, “Lovest thou me?” it drew forth the uprightness of his love, for, like the psalmist, he could refer his sincerity of heart to the divine omniscience, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” There is in this state of soul a fine specimen o the divine workmanship. How happy for us to know the sincerity of love evinced by the restored apostle!
Before this, the risen One had appeared to Mary at the sepulcher, whose love made her linger there after the disciples had left; and the sincerity of that love, that would have her Lord dead or alive―though very ignorant, knowing Him as yet only “after the flesh” (as did also the disciples) not as “the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit” —was very pleasing to the Lord, and He sent her with the important message that, as risen, He now associated His disciples with Himself in resurrection as His brethren. Like another woman, who washed His feet with her tears, she “loved much,” she loved uprightly; there was no object between her and her Lord; and immediately that “Jesus saith unto her, Mary, she turned herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni,” for her heart turned to Him as the needle of the compass turns to the pole!
The apostle Paul is, perhaps, the brightest illustration of sincerity of love to Christ. And this is seen in many ways. It was seen in his own devotedness, his personal labors to preach Christ, his determination to keep His gospel uncorrupted and His Church pure, His flock tended and undistracted, and to have His glory advanced. Even an apostle must be withstood to the face if he would give any countenance by double-dealing and dissimulation to the overlaying of the faith of Christ by the ordinances of a superseded dispensation; and no quarter was to be given to those who would undermine that faith by the teachings of a Gentile philosophy. Where does he write, “The love of Christ constraineth us,” but in that epistle wherein he writes, “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, we have had our conversation in the world. For we are not as many who corrupt the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ: but we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” This was written to that church to which he had previously written, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.”
We read of “the disciple whom Jesus loved;” and such an one could say “We love Him because He first loved us.” And it is instructive to consider the steps by which he advances to this precious experience. “God is love; in this was manifested the love of God,” and then he goes on to tell of His being sent into the world, “that we might live through Him,”― “the propitiation for our sins;” “we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit;” and love with us is perfected, “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in this world;” and such “perfect love” as has been thus “manifested” in the Son, beginning with giving us life “when we were dead in sins,” and completing the circle of its sincerity and devotedness to our interests in identifying us with the manifested Son, in risen life, love, victory, and glory, at the throne of God, gives boldness in the day of judgment, links our interests and prospects with His, and also enables us to say, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
And when this glorious One appears to His exiled apostle, as in the beginning of the Book of the Revelation, and he falls at His feet as dead, we read that “He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not;” and the hand of Him who has all power of life in Himself, and “all power in heaven and in earth” given unto Him being upon him, “the power of Christ so rested upon him” that he could stand before His glory, and never had aught but “boldness,” though the whole action of the book is one of judgment, and its day “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” And the sincerity and uprightness of his love is seen in every page―in his being interested in every scene, not because it was all about Him, but because it was so intimately bound up with Christ’s glory, and not immediately relating to his standing, circumstances, or blessing. “The upright love Thee,” was never better illustrated than when this loving disciple “wept much because no man was found able to open the book” of the title-deeds of the earth, so as to rescue the inheritance of his glorified Lord out of the hands of the Usurper and Destroyer!
The growth, unselfishness, and uprightness of Christians’ love, can be measured by the proportion in which we can interest ourselves in the things of Christ that do not immediately affect ourselves. The disciple who can read the book of the Apocalypse with “unto Him that loveth us” sounding through his soul, and yet feel a similar interest to that felt by the apostle in every vision and action it contains, is the one who can truly say, “The upright love Thee.”
When we were young Christians we searched the Word with nothing else but the one thought before our minds of finding what would suit and profit us; but now we can read it without a thought of ourselves, or of our own salvation, and only to have more intelligence in the things of Christ, for “the things concerning Himself” are now our engrossing topics, and we are more associated in spirit with those of whom it is said, they “fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints,” and who “sung a new song, saying, THOU art worthy;” or the angels “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands,” who are saying continually and without one thought of themselves, “Worthy is the Lamb that is slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
We are reminded of a fine Old Testament illustration of exclusive love, and love in its sincerity, in the case of those multitudes that came up to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel. It seems like a foreshadow of this coming scene of joy and praise of which we have just been writing. There were “the Gadites who had separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness,” who showed their sincerity by being his when he had nothing to give them but himself and rejection, outlawry, and persecution. The consequence was, they had faces like lions―for “the righteous is bold as a lion” ―and “were as swift as roes upon the mountains.” Having one object gives lion―like boldness; the single eye produces “a true heart;” and we will dare anything for our Beloved; as these Gadites “went over Jordan when it had overflown all its banks, and they put to flight all them of the valley,” so when we “know no man after the flesh” ―not even Christ, but are attached to Him on the basis of resurrection―as “over Jordan” —we will show the sincerity of our love by occupying ourselves in aggressive work “for His name.” But not to mention all, we note that it must have evinced sincerity of love in “the mighty men,” even of Saul’s brethren of Benjamin, to come to David to Ziklag, “when he kept himself close because of Saul;” and perhaps they were more actuated by sincerity than the three thousand “of the kindred of Saul,” who came to Hebron, who “hitherto the greatest part of them had kept the house of Saul;” for they came only after the sun of Saul’s house was setting and David’s throne was now being bathed in the orient radiance of morning glory. But we have a notable word said about the fifty thousand of Zebulun, that they “could keep rank, and were not of double heart,” or as the margin has it, “without a heart and a heart.” “All these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel, and all the rest of Israel were of one heart to make David king, and there they were with David three days eating and drinking,” and “there was joy in Israel.” There was one heart, one object, one great feasting company, and one great national joy. And we may be very sure that there will be always unity produced in the Church, a spiritual festival, and a universal joy, when the one object of owning and honoring Christ as our common Lord is the one supreme object before us all; and it will always be found that absorbing engrossment with the perfect object God presents to us, ensures uprightness and produces “a perfect heart,” and “the upright love Thee.” “We love Him because He first loved us.” “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Cor. 16:2222If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (1 Corinthians 16:22)).