"In Thy light shall we see light." --Psalm 36:9
No lips can tell the love of Christ to the heart till Jesus Himself shall
speak within. Descriptions all fall flat and tame unless the Holy Ghost fills
them with life and power; till our Immanuel reveals Himself within, the soul
sees Him not. If you would see the sun, would you gather together the common
means of illumination, and seek in that way to behold the orb of day? No, the
wise man knoweth that the sun must reveal itself, and only by its own blaze can
that mighty lamp be seen. It is so with Christ. "Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-jona:" said He to Peter, "for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto
thee." Purify flesh and blood by any educational process you may select, elevate
mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual power, yet none of these
can reveal Christ. The Spirit of God must come with power, and overshadow the
man with His wings, and then in that mystic holy of holies the Lord Jesus must
display Himself to the sanctified eye, as He doth not unto the purblind sons of
men. Christ must be His own mirror. The great mass of this blear-eyed world can
see nothing of the ineffable glories of Immanuel. He stands before them without
form or comeliness, a root out of a dry ground, rejected by the vain and
despised by the proud. Only where the Spirit has touched the eye with eye-salve,
quickened the heart with divine life, and educated the soul to a heavenly taste,
only there is He understood. "To you that believe He is precious"; to you He is
the chief corner-stone, the Rock of your salvation, your all in all; but to
others He is "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." Happy are those to
whom our Lord manifests Himself, for His promise to such is that He will
make
His abode with them. O Jesus, our Lord, our heart is open, come in, and go
out no more for ever. Show Thyself to us now! Favour us with a glimpse of Thine
all-conquering charms.
Morning and Evening Index
