Sunday Morning at the Christadelphian Ecclesia, No. 307
“Exhort one another.”—Paul.
p. 233There are many gatherings in the world in honour of individuals and in commemoration of events, which arouse the interest and enthusiasm of various classes of the community. There is assuredly, however, no personage, and no events, to compare with him whom we remember, or those events which come into view when we surround the table of the Lord. All earthly things sink into utter insignificance in comparison with the brilliancy and grandeur of the Lord Jesus Christ. The assemblies of the world are in palatial halls, with men and women of high rank, and characterised by culture and learning. These features appeal to the senses, and cause the world’s heroes to be invested with an importance which is entirely visionary. We, however, have little to appeal to the natural eye; indeed, that which is visible is the reverse of gratifying to the senses. Nevertheless, when, from the standpoint of the Lord’s table, we exercise our spiritual vision, we discern that the world with all its greatness has no glory by reason of “the glory that excelleth.” It is not exaggeration, but practical truth, to say that all that the world deems great and glorious will in no-wise bear comparison with the things of our faith. “The things that are not seen are eternal;” hence the profit in our gathering. We are refreshed and comforted and edified in allowing our minds to dwell upon the eternal things of the truth. If we are content to grope in the gloom of our present surroundings, we shall be depressed and chilled and hardened. We want to get away into the Spirit World; to bask in the sunshine, to breathe the pure air, and gaze upon the glorious scenes of the Kingdom of God which are brought before us in almost every page of the Bible.
All these things centre in Christ. This is a special and unique feature of the truth. God has associated all His blessings with one glorious personage. “In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Therefore we wait for him, we look for him, we fix our affections on him, and strive to please him. One sight of him will mean to us, if faithful, the disappearance of all our woes, the end of all our sorrows, the satisfaction of all our desires. The apostle John seems to connect all things with the one sight of Christ: “We know not what we shall be, but we know we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” It is a wise thing to view Christ in the personal aspect; to recognise him as a real living personage, a kind and loving friend, who has wondrous power, and inexhaustible riches in his hands, which he will bestow upon his servants. After all, it is our personal, individual relationship to Christ which is of importance. God is not dealing with us en masse, but individually. He calls us one by one; we walk in the truth in single file; and there is coming the supreme moment when all the outside world will be forgotten, all brethren and sisters will cease to be of interest to us; and, for a brief time, Christ and you, and Christ and I, will be face to face. In that solemn interview it will be Christ alone that we shall see. It will be his opinion, his judgment alone that will be of absorbing interest to us. Therefore in all our remembrance, in all our reading, in all our deliberations, let this personal element of the Christ take first place.”
We are remembering Christ individually this morning. We carry our minds back to the great feature of his work in the past: the Lord’s death. “Show ye forth the Lord’s death until he come.” Did God so love the world that He sent His only begotten son? Yet see the personal aspect of the case as given by Paul. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This thought takes us right away from the petty things of the present; it brings us close against Christ. “The life I now live in the flesh, I p. 234live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” If each were impressed with this; if we looked, not at brethren and sisters, but at Christ direct, we should surely be transformed in our lives; we should be happier, holier, more faithful sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.
We remember his own words this morning as we view the emblems before us: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” It is not simply a sublime teacher that we commemorate, nor a compassionate helper of the suffering and oppressed—though this he was as none other has ever been. There is yet a greater fact “I WAS DEAD; I AM ALIVE.” Here is the essence of our faith. This great fact goes to the root of matters. All problems are solved; all questions are answered; all difficulties are met, in the great truth: Christ died and rose again, and lives for ever. No man else ever made that claim. Absurd would these words have been from the lips of any other. Here it is made by Christ, and it is attested by evidences which convinced thousands of his contemporaries, and caused them to go forth and proclaim the wondrous truth at the peril of their lives.
Ever since the occurrence of the event, men have been showing forth the Lord’s death and resurrection as we do. They must have had good reason. We trace our way back through the centuries—back to the very time—and we find they had the best of evidence: the evidence of the senses. They “saw”; they “handled.” Some, however, are said to have been sceptical. Little wonder, in view of the astounding character of the event. Some, we are told, “believed not”; some “doubted” Let us be thankful for these doubters. Let us appreciate the fact that there were men who required some foundation for their faith; who were not ready to receive “idle tales” (Luke xxiv. 11). Their attitude is of great value to us. They required proof; they sought for confirmation of the alleged wonder; and they had it. They found many infallible proofs, and the result was conviction. They believed, and went forth with their unwavering testimony into the Jewish and Pagan world, and turned it upside down. Yet it was not solely the resurrection of Christ that ensured the success of the Apostles’ work. They could not have obtained the evidence of the multitudes without additional testimony. Peter says, ‘Jesus, being by the right hand of God exalted, he hath shed forth this which ye see and hear.” We know what this was. It was God’s own attestation of the resurrection of Christ in the outpouring of Spirit power. Here is the secret of the Apostles’ work. Taking our stand in their midst, we see the world aroused by the unmistakable evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus, and multitudes of all classes recognise and obey. We are told in regard to one miracle that their opponents could “say nothing against it.” The enemies of the truth had to admit, “We cannot deny it” Then who shall deny it with reason? Who shall speak against it?
The work of the Apostles has come down through the centuries, and we are here to-day in the isles of Tarshish remembering the living Christ as a result of their labours. We look back; we see the foundation laid. As reasonable men and women we accept the testimony. Believing, we rejoice. Christ died—Christ rose again—Christ is at the right hand of God.
How beautiful is this truth, and what sweetness does it yield to us. The One who has called us, and the One who has died for us, are side by side in the Heavens. They are agreed in regard to those who are striving to yield obedience. They, as it were, concert together to secure the eternal salvation of the saints. While in the presence of the Most High, Christ is a High Priest for his household; and that fact is impressed upon us with all the preciousness it involves. We have a friend in the Courts of Heaven, solicitous for us; concerned about our welfare; working on our behalf; and we have his own assurance that the Father with whom he pleads likewise regards us with favour. “The Father Himself loveth you.”
Christ came in the fulness of time. We remember his work. We have in the record of his life an indication of the blessedness resulting from his presence on earth, even as a man of sorrows. He was caught away, and eighteen long weary centuries have elapsed, and we see him not. We long for one of the days of the Son of Man. The world derides our hope; it doubts his coming again. Our friends in his absence pass away, and we mourn as we feel we too are slowly p. 235wending our way to the grave. Here comes in the great explanation of the delay. Here is solace and comfort. Christ is at God’s right hand working for us. He lives, and because he lives, we shall live. The time is a small matter; the fact is all important. Hold fast until he comes. Our woes cannot last; our burdens must fall; our griefs and sorrows, our anxieties and perplexities, the darkness and the gloom, will all disappear when the Sun of Righteousness rises at the determined time with healing in his beams.
Gaze upon the two pictures presented to us in the Apocalypse this morning—the dark night and the glorious day. We have the night first in Rev. xiii., the long ages of the supremacy of the Beast with the seven heads and ten horns, speaking blasphemies against God; against His name; against His tabernacle; making war with the saints, and overcoming them; the world worshipping him. How painful the spectacle: “all the world wondered after the beast;” “they worshipped the dragon;” “they worshipped the beast.” Small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, marked in the forehead with the fatal mark. How dark the days since Christ left the earth! We live in the end of the time. The darkness still continues, as we know. We see on every hand the influence of the Beast—the mark still impressed on forehead and hand. It is a painful situation: the truth in the dust—its beauties unappreciated—our faith derided—the inanities of orthodox Christianity presented to a dying world in place of the verities of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Our feeble efforts to stem the tide and keep the light burning appear almost vain. Yet in the dark picture there is a ray of light. Those whose names are in the book of life worship not. They maintain their integrity in the midst of apostasy, heeding the word of comfort: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” In chapter xiv. the scene changes. The darkness passes away; the horrors of the past give place to the ineffable glories of the presence of Christ. The Lamb is exalted on Mount Zion—the Beast is no more. The Father’s name, and not the name of the Beast, is written in the forehead of the multitudes who surround the throne. Their voice is not now hushed in the earth; it resounds as the thunderings of rushing waters, combined with the melody of the harp, and all the world hears. They rejoice with great joy, and sing with happy hearts and voices, before the throne and before the living creatures and the elders, that song which God’s children are in this life being educated and trained to sing. None can sing that new song save the hundred and forty-four thousand redeemed from the earth. Our experiences now, our trials and sorrows, are fitting us to join in this delightful anthem before the throne of God. “Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Here they are! The day of Christ has come, as God said it should, with its eternal joy and gladness. They find themselves at last in the Kingdom of God. The way has been dark maybe; many have been the difficulties and hardships; it has been trodden in weariness and faintings; but it has ended, and the travellers have emerged into scenes of ineffable glory never again to taste of evil. “They shall hunger no more; neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. The Lamb shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God ahall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” “All things,” says Paul, “are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”
Our hope is true; the favour is abundant indeed. Let then our thanksgivings redound to the glory of God, and our gratitude find expression in that “patient continuance in well doing” which will assuredly secure the commendation of Christ, and his mercy and favour in the fast approaching day.
F. W. P.