the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? - Psalms 2:1.
WHAT has been the consequence of all the opposition against the cause of God and truth? What? Why, more abundant and zealous efforts in its diffusion; for inquiry is always friendly to truth, as darkness and concealment are friendly to error. And so also has it proved with regard to the sufferings of its followers by persecution. Here we have the testimony of an apostle who suffered as an evil-doer unto bonds, but he says, “The word of God is not bound.” And says he to the Philippians, “I would ye should understand, that the things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace.”
The periods of suffering have always been the most glorious for Christianity: the brethren have been united and endeared the more to each other; the spirit of glory and of God has rested upon them; their sufferings have arrested attention and induced sympathy; the witnesses of their sufferings have been found to be impressed, and they have been led to inquire concerning the principles that could produce such effects. Therefore the blood of the martyrs has always been considered the seed of the church, and the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and grew.
Dr. Watts, all poet as he was, said, (and who would not wish to join with him in the choice?) “I would rather have been the author of Alleine’s Alarm to the Unconverted, than the writer of Milton’s Paradise Lost;” but that was a prison production. What did the enemies of religion get by confining Bunyan so many years in the jail at Bedford? There, almost inspired, he wrote those works which will continue to incommode the powers of darkness to the end of the world. The divisions and parties that have sprung up among professors have amazingly alarmed some good men; and in their lamentations they have added terror to grief; they have talked of danger, not remembering that in a thousand cases variety is compatible with unity.
The differences which subsist among all those who hold the Head do not affect the oneness of the church. They are only so many branches which form one tree; so many members which form one body. By these they have always proved stimulative to each other. They have awakened and increased emulation and zeal, and religion has always been, upon the whole, a gainer by them. It has been found far more important for Christians to love one another, and exclaim, “Grace be with all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,” than to peep together through the same keyhole of opinion.
And then the different parts of Scripture have also, in consequence of these divisions, been peculiarly attended to. One party has argued for the doctrinal part, another for the practical, another the disciplinary; and, in consequence of these, no part has remained unemployed or unheeded. If we thus view these things, and if we consider their consequences as they affect Christianity itself, it is obvious that even these have been over ruled for good; that even these, as they have given rise to parties and divisions, have caused each to have a salutary check upon the other; and that each has prevented the possibility of interpolation and alteration of the Scriptures.
Thus the cause of true religion lives through all; and the very things which seemed likely to destroy or injure it have proved the means of its benefit.
That I may win Christ. - Philippians 3:8.
WHILE the men of the world are making worldly good their chief aim, and are seeking for happiness in the things of the present life, endeavouring to gain its honours, its riches, its pleasures, the Christian’s aim is to “win Christ.” Oh, says he, it is my wish, my grand desire, my principal aim, my daily and earnest pursuit, to win him, to realize him, to possess him, and to enjoy him.
Observe, therefore, The value of the prize. That I may win Christ; and oh, what a prize is he. To describe the excellence of this “treasure hid in the field,” this pearl of price unknown, would beggar a seraph’s tongue. The sacred penmen seem to have been at a loss to find suitable expressions to set it forth. They speak of him as being “fairer than the children of men;” yea, he is “altogether lovely.” He is the “hope,” and the “consolation,” and the “glory” of Israel, in whom all fulness dwells, so that in winning him we gain all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that we may become “wise unto salvation.” In him it hath pleased the Father should all fulness dwell, so that in gaining him we gain all pure, Spiritual, durable, and satisfying good, all Spiritual blessings in time, and all the happiness and glories of eternity. Therefore, says the Apostle, “All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or things present or things to come. All are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
Observe, secondly, The person who is thus desirous to win Christ. This is the language of Paul. He is the candidate for this prize, and we notice, first, that this language received as coming from Paul, is calculated to excite our admiration. What a change has taken place in his views and in his feelings, he who verily thought within himself that he ought to do many things against the name of Christ. Haling men and women, and committing them to prison, and persecuting even to strange cities all that called upon his name; and when they were put to death giving his voice against them.
Here we find the blasphemer now a worshipper of Jesus; the bitterest foe the most earnest candidate for his favour, and giving expression to unparalleled admiration. And we may also notice that this language is calculated to excite inquiry. It may he asked, But had he not already won the prize, and was he not now rejoicing in a knowledge of the fact? Yes, but with all who sincerely love Christ, he sought after higher attainments in a knowledge and enjoyment of his interest in Him. He says, “I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” And thus it is with all Christians that love Christ so well, that they are not satisfied with what they have known and felt. “They want to see still “greater things than these.” Hence says the Apostle, “That I may know him,” that is, know more of him, “and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death.”
An increase in knowledge promotes humility. A Christian is not dissatisfied with the object, but with the measure of his knowledge; and therefore he is, with Paul, anxious to possess more of “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord.”
Thirdly, Observe the possibility of success. This prize is attainable, and it is attainable by us. Not by way of merit, nor desert, but by an humble, penitent, and loving application to him; in an exclusive dependence upon him; and in an entire renouncing of all for him. As nothing can be a substitute for him, so no sacrifice will be deemed too great to make for him. We shall be ready to part with self and the world, “laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us,” that we may win Christ. Thrice happy and blessed are all those that win Christ. Happy in time, in trouble, in death, and happy in eternity.
But alas, how dreadful will it be with all those who lose the prize. Whatever else they possess, how poor, and wretched, and miserable will their state be in life, in death, and in eternity.
