Sound Words for Pilgrims

"I have called you friends"  John 15:15

O Lord, Thou seest, Thou knowest, That to none my heart can tell

The joy and the love and the sorrow, The tale that my heart knows well.

But to Thee, O my God, I can tell it -- To Thee, and to Thee, Lord, alone;

For Thy heart my heart hath a language, For other hearts it hath none.

In the wide world speechless and lonely, For me is no heart but Thine;

Lord, since I must love Thee only, Oh, reveal Thy heart to mine.

H. Suso

(Footprints for Pilgrims, pp. 89-92)

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." If you meditate upon these words you will never reach their profound depths, nor shall we even in eternity. For who shall tell what friendship with Christ involves ? No one can or ever will gauge the possible intimacy which it holds out to us.

We should diligently cultivate the enjoyment of the love of Christ that we may become moulded by it, so as to express it more in our very demeanour, and be surrounded by the holy atmosphere which it creates.

Whatever makes Christ more precious to us is of God.  Whatever comes between us and Christ is of the devil.

"It is I; be not afraid."  The realisation of Christ's presence is the antidote to every possible fear, and the way to comfort people is the ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit, to so present Him that they shall apprehend His presence.

The nearer we are to God the more we lose sight of ourselves and the better we are able to apprehend and to communicate His mind.

I do not know a happier employment than to sit down quietly and before the Lord and let Him make impressions on your heart -- to let Him impress you with His own presence, and to produce whatever influences He will upon you.

By sitting at the feet of Jesus we shall both delight His heart and find ourselves in the place of untold and unfathomed blessing.

Many people think communion is having happy feelings.  It is being in the mind of God.  Communion is doing the right thing at the right moment in the right way.  Once get out of communion and you cannot do anything rightly.

Are we satisfied with light instead of cultivating love for Christ ? The more light the better if affection goes with it, but if light be held without the heart it will not benefit us.  John 20 illustrates this.  John had more light about the resurrection than Mary, yet when he came to the sepulchre and found it empty he went home.  Mary had no light about the resurrection, yet as she waited there, weeping, Jesus revealed Himself to her.  It is to the heart and not to the head that Christ reveals Himself, so the more heart you have the more you will get manifestations of Him.

To be near Christ is the great enjoyment of the spiritual life.  "Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them ?"  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  In heaven itself you would not be content never to come into contact with Christ; have you come into contact with Him today ?

--- E.D.

"Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight." (Matthew 12:18 JND)

Come now, and view that manger, The Lord of glory see,

A houseless, homeless Stranger, In this poor world for Thee.

Oh, strange, yet fit beginning, Of all that life of woe,

In which Thy grace was winning, Poor man his God to know.

Bless'd Babe, who lowly liest, In manger-cradle there;

Descended from the highest, Our sorrows all to share.

J.N.D.

(Footprints for Pilgrims, pp. 85-88)

Every one found room in the inn save He, but any who wanted to find Him whom angels celebrate must go to the manger.

(Luke 4:4)  It is the written word He ever uses, and Satan is powerless.  What amazing importance Jesus gives the scriptures. ...  It was not as an act of divine authority He dismissed Satan, but the enemy is proved unable to grapple with obedience to the word of God. ... Jesus does not reason with Satan.  A single text silences when used in the power of the Spirit.  The whole secret of strength in conflict is using the word of God in the right way.

(Luke 4:16) "And He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up" -- the low, despised place, but just the place where spiritual power is found.  Was it not ever thus ?  When was it found allied to the great things of this world ?

God did not despise Nazareth, but man despises Jesus because He came out of Nazareth ... Man despises the lowliness to which grace brought Him --- wretched man !

Christ never worked miracles for Himself, but for others.

(Luke 8:37) The world beseeches Jesus to depart, desiring their own ease, which is more disturbed by the presence and power of God than by a legion of devils.

(Luke 9:30, 31) "Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease." They were occupied with His death while talking with Him.  One thing occupies the minds of heaven and earth.  He was going to be crucified where He ought to have been King.  Under such circumstances there was nothing for heaven or earth to talk about but His death.  And so for us, the great thing to talk about Messiah is, that He died. ... We shall never cease having interest in this subject: when with the Father in the glory, it will be the absorbing theme.  He said Himself, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life."  How much more shall we not love Him for the same cause ?

(John 12:1) Bethany receives Jesus for the last time; the blessed but momentary retreat of ... a heart which has given us, in His relations with this beloved family, the example of an affection perfect, yet human, which found sweetness in being responded to and appreciated.

(Luke 23:39-43)  Jesus crucified was more than King -- He was Saviour.  The poor malefactor was a testimony to it, and the joy and consolation of the Lord's heart -- the firstfruits of the love which had placed them side by side, where, if the poor thief bore the fruit of his sins from man, the Lord of glory at his side was bearing the fruit of them from God. ...  Through a work unknown to man save by faith, the sins of His companion were for ever put away, they no longer existed, their remembrance was only of the grace which had taken them away, and which had for ever cleansed his soul from them, making him that moment as fit to enter Paradise as Christ Himself his companion there !

--- J.N.D.