Christ’s Rest and Ours

Christ's Rest and Ours

(No. 2542)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1897.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
6, 1884.

"His rest shall be glorious." Isaiah 11:10.

THE Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the root of Jesse"–"the shoot from the
stock of Jesse," as the first verse of this chapter might be
rendered–is the very center of all Israel! And He is also the
rallying-point of the Gentiles, for He has made both Jew and Gentile to
be one, having "broken down the middle wall of partition between us."
And now, around the one ensign of His glorious name, all the believing
hosts gather with glad accord. He is the King of the Jews, but He is
also our King and, with Paul, we cry, "Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen." Let us, dear Friends, always look upon Christ as the great
Standard-Bearer of all the hosts of God and let us pitch our tents as
near His ensign as we can, and constantly follow where His banner leads
the way.

The text says that "His rest shall be glorious," and I take it that the
glory of His rest is in harmony with the glory of all that He has ever
done. Rest is most enjoyable to the man who has toiled the hardest–the
very labor which has gone before has prepared him for the sweetness of
the rest. And the glory of Christ's rest lies very much in what He has
passed through in order to obtain it. He, Himself, is glorious. His
service and His suffering were both glorious. His death was in the
truest sense, glorious, and now, all the rest which has followed upon
His consummated service is glorious in the very highest degree. Yes, it
is, itself, "glory." If you look in the margin of your Bible, you will
see that our text may be read, "His rest shall be glory."

Without any further preface, let us come to the consideration of these
words, "His rest shall be glorious," or, "His rest shall be glory."
First, I want to apply our text to the rest which Christ Himself has
taken. Secondly, to the rest which He has given to His people. And,
thirdly–to bring the subject very close home to this evening's
Communion Service– to show the bearing of our text upon the rest which
Christ sets forth in this banquet of His love. The rest which He gives
us at His Table is truly glorious. Oh, that we may all enjoy that rest
very intensely and very specially! If we do, I am sure that you will
not need for me to tell you that it is glorious, for you will realize
that it is–your heart will be ready to burst out with holy song as you
delight in the rest which God gives to every believing heart!

I. First, let us notice the relation of our text to the rest which
CHRIST PERSONALLY HAS ENJOYED, IS ENJOYING AND WILL ENJOY.

The first rest that I know of, that ever fell to the lot of our
Well-Beloved, was His rest in His Church. We read in Zephaniah 3:17,
"He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with singing." The idea
of this passage seems to be that we had all gone astray and were lost
and ruined–and God fixed His love upon His people and determined to
save them. If such a metaphor can be tolerated for a moment, there was
no rest for God until He had ordained and settled a plan by which He
could justly save His own. When that great matter was completed, when
the sacred agreement was made between the Divine Trinity in Unity, when
the Lord Jesus Christ had become the Surety of His people and had
entered into Covenant engagements with the Father on their behalf,
then, but not till then, was He fully at rest! When the Father was able
to look upon men–

"Not as they were in Adam's fall, When sin and ruin covered all,"

but as they are in Christ, the second Adam, then His Divine complacency
went forth towards His elect as He viewed them in the Person of His
only-begotten and well-beloved Son–and He rested in His love. All was
arranged, the Covenant was signed and sealed, and He felt that the
grandest of all His designs would certainly be carried out in due
time–and He rested in His love. It never occurred to the heart of God
to change His purpose concerning His people. Never once did He think of
casting them away! They were to be bought with a great price and, in
themselves, they would be little worth buying, but He rested in the
fact that He had chosen them, that He had set them apart to be His
portion, that He loved them with all His heart and that He intended to
do them good. His purpose was worthy of a God and, therefore, He rested
in it.

He had devised a plan which would bring even greater glory to His Deity
and, therefore, He was at rest concerning the objects of His love. He
had set His seal to this Covenant, that they should, every one of them,
be redeemed, that they should be saved, perfected and brought Home to
behold His face in righteousness as the dear children of His love. And
the infinitely Glorious One did, as it were, settle Himself down to
rest in that "Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure."
And, Beloved, you and I feel that His rest was glorious–it would
occupy us throughout eternity to tell all the glory which lies hidden
in that great settlement of eternal love! We talk of it, here, and it
is a charming theme. We sing of it and there is no higher and grander
strain under Heaven!

Now change the scene and think of Christ's rest in His grave. The
Divine Son of God, in due time, condescended to take upon Himself the
mantle of our inferior race. He appeared at Bethlehem, a Man-Child,
having assumed our nature in its utmost weakness. He lived here upon
earth a toilsome life–little rest did He know. His labor afforded Him
sweet solace, for in doing the will of His Father He had meat to eat of
which even His disciples knew not. But rest was seldom His portion. He
had come here to serve, not to be served. To toil with all His
strength, but, at last, His labors were all over and He bowed His head
and said, "It is finished." Christ did not fall asleep until His work
was all done–there was nothing more for that dear and most precious
body to do.

There it hangs upon the Cross, still and quiet. I see Joseph and his
friends extracting the nails, bringing the body down the ladder,
reverently washing it, wrapping it in fine linen and costly spices, and
then laying it in the tomb of honor. Men designed that He should be
buried in a felon's grave, but it was not so, for He made His grave
with the rich and honorable counselor, Joseph of Arimathea. This
morning, (see sermon #1789, Volume 30–"Joseph of Arimat) I conducted
you to the place of His rest where Joseph and

Nicodemus and the godly women laid Him in the grave, and there He
rested. I like to think of that Jewish Sabbath when He took His greater
Sabbath, resting, seeing no corruption, as He would have done in that
time, in such a hot climate, if it had not been for the preserving
power of God and the nature of His body, which could not see corruption
because it had no taint of sin about it. There the great Champion lay
and rested.

I do not wonder that the angels came and sat, one at the head, and the
other at the foot of the spot where He had lain, for there was
something very glorious and sublime about that rest. While He lay
there, He was the terror of His foes–they sealed the tomb and set a
watch lest He should escape them, after all. In the tomb, He was the
grief of His Friends, for they thought He was gone forever. Had they
but known what they ought to have known. Had they but remembered and
understood what Christ had told them, they would have realized that He
was but resting a little while and that He would soon rise again in
glorious triumph from the dead! I say that even while He sleeps there
in that new tomb, His rest is glorious–

"All His work and warfare done."

He has performed it all and now He rests. He who is, Himself, Life and
Immortality lies there locked in the arms of Death. He who makes all
spirits and gives breath to every nostril that breathes, deigns, for a
little season, to surrender Himself as a captive in the bonds of
Death–in that very act destroying Death for all His people, putting an
end to sin, achieving the eternal purpose of the blessed God and
opening the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers! Oh, tread lightly over
the spot where our dear Lord once slept, for in that sleep He was truly
glorious!

Now, beloved Friends, our Divine Lord has gone away from us up into His
rest in Glory. "This Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down at the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting
till His enemies be made His footstool." He is taking His rest now, for
His work is done. There is nothing for Him to do, or for us to do, by
way of perfecting righteousness and salvation–Christ has accomplished
it all and now He rests! It must be Divinely glorious to Him thus to
sit down at the right hand of God. He is not now fighting as a warrior,
for He has already been to Edom and has returned with His garments dyed
in blood, having trodden all His enemies in the winepress of His wrath.
Now He rests and with an unbroken calmness of spirit waits until the
ages shall have rolled on, till the end shall come, till He shall have
trodden Satan finally beneath His feet, till He shall send out that
last great summons, "Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have
made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Till then, He rests in Glory,
and His rest is glorious!

I suspect, however, that my text specially relates to the rest that is
to come to this earth in the latter days. I will not go into the
question of dates, or the arrangement of future events. If you read the
chapter from which our text is taken, you have the great fact plainly
foretold–"But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth
with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall
slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins,
and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. The wolf, also, shall dwell
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child
shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones
shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And
the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

I do not know that everybody will be converted, but everybody will be
enlightened–and every harmful agency will be restrained from evil. If
the wolf still remains a wolf, it will dwell with the lamb without
injuring it. There shall be such days of happiness and peace on earth,
that men shall hang the sword upon the wall and study war no more!
Children shall ask their fathers what was the ancient use of swords,
spears, helmets and guns, for they shall be no more employed in
destroying precious lives. The power of sin shall be broken and there
shall be a general spreading of the principles of life, light, truth,
love and liberty over the whole earth! Well may we sing–

"O long expected day, begin! Dawn on these realms of woe and sin!"

When that Day of the Lord comes, "His rest shall be glorious." Then
shall men say, "the King of Glory reigns, His unsuffering Kingdom is
established on the earth." We may not live to see that day and we
cannot tell when it will be. It is a pity ever to dogmatize about
prophecy, which will always be understood when it is fulfilled. And
probably most of it not till then. When all the prophecies in that
wonderful Book of the Revelation have been fulfilled–in the light that
we shall then have, we shall wonder that we did not understand it
before! But we do not, we cannot, we shall not comprehend its mysteries
until Providence shall loose every seal and spread the Book open before
us! But, certainly, whenever Christ's reign on earth begins, "His rest
shall be glorious."

And, after that, when the Lord shall have let both Death and Hell see
that on the battlefield where Adam was routed and ruined, another Adam
shall rout the foes of God and man–when that great conflict is over
and the long millennium of peace is over, too–when Christ shall have
delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father that God may be All in
All, then Christ and His people shall, together, enter into an
everlasting rest ' 'There remains, therefore, a rest to the people of
God." Oh, the bliss of that heavenly rest! Oh, the deep, unruffled calm
of our spirit throughout eternity with Christ, for even there we shall
find our rest in being one with Him, forever to behold His face,
forever to adore Him, forever to delight ourselves in heavenly
communion with the God-Man, our Savior and our Lord!

To me, it always seems to be the climax of Heaven to be with Christ
forever. I believe in the Communion of Saints above and in our
recognition and love of one another. I believe in all those heavenly
employments that shall occupy our eternal life. I believe in a thousand
sources of joy in that blest land, for there are pleasures, as well as
pleasure, at God's right hand forevermore! But, as the summit of Mont
Blanc rises above the surrounding hills and with its snowy whiteness
seems to pierce the very sky, so the summit of my expectation of Heaven
is to be where Christ is, to behold Him, to see His face and to share
His triumphant joy and rest, for, "His rest shall be glorious," and His
rest and ours, too, shall be glory! Therefore, prepare yourselves for
this rest, my Beloved. "Yet a little while and He that shall come, will
come, and will not tarry." A few more rolling years and we shall be in
the eternal summer, in endless daylight where no eventide shall ever
come–"forever with the Lord."

II. Now let us turn to the second part of the subject, on which I must
speak more briefly. That is, THE REST WHICH JESUS GIVES TO HIS PEOPLE
IS GLORIOUS.

Is it not so? I remember when I first enjoyed rest in the pardon of
sin. I t was so glorious that I wanted to shout, "Hallelujah!" all day
long. He who has groaned under the lead of guilt, when Jesus comes and
touches it and it all disappears, and he realizes that he is
absolutely, perfectly, and eternally forgiven–why, he is ready to leap
for joy! There are no words in the hymn book that are rich enough or
good enough to express the delight of a pardoned soul! The glory of it
lies in the fact that we are justly forgiven. God is "just, and the
Justifier of him which believes in Jesus." A sinner is forgiven by an
act of mercy, it is true, but by an act of mercy which does not sully
the snow-white garments of Divine Justice. My heart never knows how to
express its delight for that forgiveness which, through the precious
blood of Christ, is as just an act on the part of God as condemnation
would have been. Oh, how wondrous is the blending of the Divine
attributes so that Justice and Mercy can meet together, and that
righteousness and peace can kiss each other in the salvation of the
poor, guilty sinner who believes in Jesus! Truly, the rest of pardoned
sin is glorious.

Do you and I ever get to fretting after we have enjoyed that rest? Yes,
alas, even when our sin is all forgiven, we are often worried with
anxious cares about this thing and that–our families, our business,
our poor frail bodies, all sorts of things. Oh, but when we take all
that burden and lay it down where we laid our load of sin and Jesus
gives us rest about it all, that rest in relief from care is truly
glorious! It is not the rest of carelessness–quite the opposite. When
I thus rest in Christ, I have done with my care the very thing that
ought to be done with it–I have laid it on Him who cares for me. Now,
having done the best that could be done, what reason remains for giving
my heart any trouble? I know that the most bitter medicine I shall have
to take will be most salutary and I know that the sweet will not sour
upon me, the Lord will take care that it shall not. He will make all
things work together for my good, so I can confidently say, "do what
you will with me, Lord, I have no care, no fret, no worry, for I have
left all with you."

Then, next, what a glorious rest Christ gives His people in the
satisfying of the heart!No human being can fill a human heart. It would
be an easier task to fill a bottomless pit with leaking buckets than
for man to fill a human heart as it is by nature. Here! Pour in worlds,
as though there were as many worlds as there are drops of water in the
sea–what is there in all worlds that can ever fill a human heart? We
all know the story of Alexander, with the whole world in his grip,
sighing because there was not another world to conquer–and if he could
have conquered another world, he would have cried quite as much to
conquer two more! When he had vanquished two more, he would have had a
fourfold hunger for more and, if he could have won those eight worlds,
he would have had eight times as much ambition for eight more! And if
he could have obtained them, his hunger would have grown in proportion
to that which he thought would satisfy him.

But now look at a child of God when he enjoys rest in Christ. If he is
in a right state of heart, he says, "the Lord Jesus Christ is mine and
the Providence of God is mine for this world and for that which is to
come, and the Heaven of heavens shall be mine in due time! I have all I
need. My passions shall no more lead me astray, for I am married to
Christ, and my heart finds its utmost satisfaction in Him. If I may but
glorify Him here and enjoy Him forever hereafter, I could not wish for
more." Such a man feels like David when he went in and sat before the
Lord, and said, "Who am I, O Lord God? And is this the manner of man, O
Lord God?" I wish that Christian people would more often feel, enjoy,
and talk about this rest. If you do not know what it is, go to Christ
for it at once! Some of us bless the Lord that we know what it is. We
cannot yet sing that–

"Not a wave of trouble rolls Across our peaceful breast,"

but we do feel that when the waves roll, they do not break the quiet
calmness of our spirit. When troubles come, they do not disturb the
blessed serenity that reigns in the deep caverns of our soul.

Now, Beloved, only one more remark upon this point, and that is
concerning rest in the perfection of our joy. We are hastening on to
the end of this mortal life. Some dear members of this Church are in
the deep river even now. They began to enter the stream some time ago,
they gradually waded in till they found the waters knee-deep and some
are chest deep in the cold stream, but it has not quenched their joy,
or dampened their ardor, or stilled their song! I believe that the
happiest members of this Church are those who are about to die. My
observation enables me to say that they are more joyful by far than any
of us who sit here! The most of them that I know are full of holy
transports and a desire to de-part–a kind of heavenly homesickness is
upon them–they long to be Home. They have heard the ringing of the
bells of the mother country, the New Jerusalem! They have caught the
music of the heavenly harps, for the wind sometimes blows that way to
God's people and bears a few notes of the eternal anthem to ears that
are being prepared for it. I say again that the happiest members that
we have are those who are just going Home and, Beloved, you and I are
on the road, our faces are already lit up with some gleams of the Glory
yet to be revealed. Our hearts are charmed with the prospect of
enjoying this eternal keeping of Sabbath. The very anticipation of it
gives us a young Heaven here below! We have not yet come into
possession of the inheritance, but it is ours by purchase, by promise
and by gift Divine. We have the buds of Heaven that we can wear even
here–wait a little while, and we shall have the full-blown roses in
the land where flowers never fade! I congratulate some of our beloved
Friends on the certainty that it cannot be very long with them before
sorrow and sighing shall forever flee away!

We will follow you, dear Brothers and Sisters who will get Home first.
We younger folk are growing old as fast as we can and we are glad of
it, because we shall be the sooner in the Home Country of the
Well-Beloved to whom we are married and we long for the wedding feast.
We have already had the kiss from His lips and we can never be
satisfied till we are with Him to all eternity. Our good Lord has sent
some manna down to let us know what angels feast upon. He has given us
sips of sweetness while yet we linger here in the Valley of Bitterness.
We will struggle on, and press on, and we rejoice that time flies
faster with us, now, than ever! The wheels of our chariot are being
quickened until the axles are hot with speed–and we shall soon be with
the Well-Beloved–and then His rest and ours will, indeed, be glorious!

III. I will not trust myself to say more about that heavenly rest, but
I will finish up with my third point which is this, THE REST SET FORTH
AT THIS COMMUNION TABLE IS VERY GLORIOUS.

I do not believe in coming up to a set of rails and kneeling down to
receive the bread and wine. It was never so done in our Lord's day, nor
for centuries afterwards. Look at that famous picture of the Last
Supper by Leonardo da Vinci– our Lord and His Apostles are depicted
sitting around a table. So it should always be–any posture but that of
sitting as much at ease as possible violates the very meaning of the
supper! Is it not strange that when Christ bids men sit or recline at
the supper table, they will not do so, but they will kneel? Then, as it
is a supper, the first principle with many is that it must be taken in
the morning before breakfast–with some people, everything must be
contrary to Christ's command! High-Churchism means high treason against
Christ–that is the plain English of the matter–at least as to the
symbolical teaching, though I thank God that there are many of those
who fall into that error who are right at heart and true Believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that the Communion is not the Lord's breakfast, but, "the
Lord's Supper," so I like to take it in the evening. Though any time in
the day may be acceptable to God, yet certainly the evening must be
preferred. And it never was meant to be the adoration of a wafer. It
was just an ordinary meal at which Christ reclined with His disciples,
one of them actually leaning his head on the Savior's bosom, and all of
them lying as easily as they could, for that was part of the teaching
of it. The passover in Egypt had to be eaten by the Israelites with
their loins girt and every man with his staff in his hand, for they had
not, then, come to their rest. They were still in the land of their
taskmaster and they had to go through the wilderness to get to their
rest. But when you come to the Lord's Supper, there is no eating in
haste with your staff in your hand–you have reached your journey's
end, for, "they which have believed do enter into rest."

What, then, is the rest we enjoy at the Lord's Table?

Well, first, we shall have the sweet rest of knowing that we are His
children. I remember the time when I longed to have the crumbs that
fell from His table. If He told me that it was not meet to give the
children's bread to dogs, I felt that I could answer, "truth, Lord, yet
the little dogs may eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master's
table, and a few crumbs will be enough for me." I think I sympathized
once with the prodigal son when he resolved to say to his father, "Make
me as one of your hired servants." I should have been glad to take that
position, but that is not the way our Lord acts towards those whom He
receives–Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him, and
that is your place if you are a child of God–you are Christ's table
companion! King Arthur and his knights sat at a round table that no one
might seem superior to any other and, "One is your Master, even Christ,
and all you are brethren." We shall sit together to receive of His
flesh and of His blood and, by His own sweet Spirit's aid, we shall
feed upon the same food and drink of the same cup. May God grant that
we may find sweet rest as we realize that we are His children!

Then, the next rest set forth at this Communion Table is that we are
eternally provided for. On the Table there will be bread and the fruit
of the vine, but, spiritually, there will be the flesh of Christ and
the blood of Christ. We shall eat of the bread and drink of the cup,
but we shall never consume the Divine food of which these are the
emblems. That flesh of His shall always be the meat of His redeemed.
That blood of His shall always be our spiritual nutriment. We are
eternally provided for–we have manna that will never become corrupt,
we have wine that will never turn sour–we have food unto life eternal.
Therefore, Beloved, be quite at rest. You have, first, the spirit of
adoption, and then you have everything provided for you which you can
possibly need between here and Heaven.

There is something that you may rest upon even more sweetly than these
blessed Truths of God and that is, you have become one with Christ. Do
you see that symbolized at the Communion Table? Surely, there can be no
closer union than when the flesh of Christ is our spiritual food and
the blood of Christ becomes our spiritual drink that is a real, living,
loving, lasting, indissoluble union! We are one with Christ–"we are
members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." I once saw in a
work by a man who ought to have known better, a statement charging me
with uttering something akin to blasphemy, for I was actually heard to
say, "We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." Yes,
Sir Critic, I did say it! But I quoted it from the Scriptures! Let
those who find fault with that sentence settle the matter with the
Spirit of God who inspired Paul to write it. It is true that every
believing soul is as much one with Christ as the hand is a member with
the head–as much one with Christ as the body is one with the soul
which quickens it–then who shall separate us? Who shall tear the limbs
of Christ away? Who shall take away from Christ so much as His little
finger and leave Him a maimed Christ?

Some people believe that children of God can fall from Grace. If that
were true, the members of Christ's mystical body would be severed from
Him and He would be no longer a perfect Christ! I believe no such
teaching as that! If I am one with Christ, I defy the devil, himself,
to tear me away from Him–

"Once in Him, in Him forever! Nothing from His love can sever."

Now fall back on that glorious Truth of God, Beloved, and rest. There
is no such pillow as that for an aching heart. There is no such peace
as that which springs from a consciousness of eternal safety by virtue
of a living, conjugal, marital union between you and Jesus Christ, the
Well-Beloved of God, the Truly-Beloved of His people. There is good
reason for rest there.

A further rest that we enjoy as we come to the Communion Table arises
from the fact that we are sure of His coming, again, and of His eternal
reign. How long are we to come to this Table? How long are we to eat of
this bread and drink of this cup? "Till He comes." There is nothing
needed to complete our bliss but that He shall come again. He said to
His disciples, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." "I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there
you may be also." Possibly, some of us will live till Christ comes. I
do not know and I do not particularly care. This I do know–if we fall
asleep in Him before He comes, those who are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord will have no preference over those who are asleep in
Jesus, for when the trumpet shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise
firstand thenthey who are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air! And so shall we
always be with the Lord.

What if somebody shall put his finger on your eyelids and close them in
death and you shall sleep in the dust? Yet let me whisper in your ear
that word of Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives and that He shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin, worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see
for myself: and my eyes shall behold, and not another." I do not see
what more you can need to make you restful and happy! You say you do
not wish to die? Well, perhaps you never may, but why should you fear
death? Why should you dread the grave? Our Lord Jesus left His grave
clothes behind for our use, and He carefully laid the napkin apart for
our friends to wipe their eyes with. We go not to a bare, unfurnished
chamber when we go to our last sleep on this earth–

"'Tis no mere morgue to fence

The ruins of lost innocence,

A place of sorrow and decay–

The imprisoning stone is rolled away!" Therefore, comfort one another
with these words and believe that the rest which Jesus gives us will be
glorious, indeed!

I wish that everybody here had that rest. I am afraid that some of you
have no rest at all. I pray that you never may have any until you come
and take Jesus Christ by an act of simple faith to be your rest forever
and ever. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H SPURGEON: ISAIAH51:1-13.

Verses 1, 2. Hearken to Me, you that follow after righteousness, you
that seek the Lord: look unto the rock from which you were hewn, and to
the hole of the pit from which you are dug. Look unto Abraham your
father, and unto Sarah that bore you: for I calledhim alone, and
blessed him, and increased him. This is for your comfort, dear Friends.
If God could make out of Abraham and Sarah so great a nation as that of
Israel, what is there that He cannot do? Do you say that the cause of
God is brought very low in these evil days? It is not so low as when
there seemed to be none but Abraham faithful in the whole world! Yet
God made that one mighty man to be like a foundation upon which He
built up the chosen people, to whose keeping He committed the sacred
Oracles. And if He did that, what can He not do? However low you may
individually sink, or however weak you may feel, look back to Abraham
and learn from his experience what God can do with you.

3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste
places; and He wiil make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like
the Garden of the Lord. Then what will her gardens be in those glorious
days? When her very wilderness is like Eden and her desert like the
Garden of the Lord, what will her cultivated places be? Oh, what grand
times are yet in store for the Church of the living God! Let us hope
on, pray on and work on, never doubting, for, as John Wesley said, "The
best of all is God is with us." And if He is with us, all must be well!

3. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice
of melody. For God's Church is no prison, no den of dragons, or cage of
owls. It is a place for joy and gladness, for thanksgiving and the
voice of melody. Come, then, and let us bless the Lord with all our
hearts! God is still good to Zion and He will not desert her. He did
much for Abraham–He will do much for us. We may find many precious
things in the hole of that pit from which we were dug!

4, 5. Hearken unto Me, My people; and give ear unto Me, O My nation:
for a Law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgment to rest
for a light of the people. My righteousness is near My salvation is
gone forth, and My arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait
upon Me, and on My arm shall they trust God will not always be
forgotten! Man will not always trust to his fellow man to save him, or
put his confidence in the idols he has made. The day is coming when the
King of Kings shall come to claim His own, again, and His loyal people
shall see the Kingdom spread as it never has done yet! Blessed be His
name, this promise shall certainly be fulfilled, "the isles shall wait
upon Me, and on My arm shall they trust." It is remarkable that there
are so many prophecies made concerning the isles–and that it is in
islands, at this day, that the Gospel seems to have spread so
marvelously. In our own British isles, in the isles of the Southern
Seas, and in Madagascar, what wonders of Grace have been worked!

6, 7. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth
beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth
shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in
like manner: but My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness
shall not be abolished. What a mercy it is to get a hold of something
that will never wear out and that can never be dissolved–something
against which the tooth of time may fret itself in vain! This abiding,
indestructible thing is the eternal salvation–the everlasting
righteousness–which the Lord Jesus has worked out and brought in for
His people! Happy people who have this treasure for their eternal
heritage!

7. Hearken unto Me, you that know righteousness. In the first verse of
this chapter, there is a message for those who followafter
righteousness. Here is a word for those who knowit–"Hearken unto Me,
you that know righteousness."

7. Thepeople in whose heart is My Law; fear you not the reproach ofmen,
neither be you afraid oftheir reviling. If you are true to God, they
will be sure to revile you. A Christian should not expect to go to
Heaven in a whole skin–it is a part of the nature of serpents and
snakes in the grass to try, if they can, to bite at the heel of the
child of God, even as that old serpent, the devil, bit at the heel of
Him who has broken the dragon's head. "Fear you not the reproach of
men, neither be you afraid of their reviling," for your Master suffered
in the same fashion long ago.

8. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall
eat them like wool: but My righteousness shall be forever, and My
salvation from generation to generation. Let them snarl and let them
bite, if they will! They can do no harm to that righteousness which
shall be forever, or to that salvation which is from generation to
generation.

9. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the
ancient days, in the generations of old. We long for God to come again
upon the stage of action, to interpose in the world's affairs and to
let men see what He can do. Time was when He was to be found by the
burning bush, or on the mountain's brow, or in the cave, or by the well
and earth seemed, then, like the vestibule of Heaven! Come again, O
Jehovah, great Lord and King, let Your goings be seen once more in the
sanctuary!

9, 10. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the dragon!
Are you not the One who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep;
that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass
over? Our prayer is that God may do all this again–and the answer to
our prayer is found in the following verse.

11. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with
singing unto Zion. Just as they came out of Egypt of old, and with
singing and with sound of timbrel, marched through the Red Sea, so
shall God bring His people "with singing unto Zion."

11. And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain
gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Just as
Pharaoh turned his chariot to flee from Israel and the depths covered
him and all his Egyptians, so sorrow and mourning shall flee away from
the redeemed of the Lord.

12. I, even I, am He that comforts you. Oh, the beauty and blessing of
these glorious words! Let me read them again–"I, even I, am He that
comforts you."

12. Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and
of the son of man which shall be made as grass?You see the grass cut
down by the mower's scythe, lying in long rows and withering in the
sun–are you afraid of that grass? "No," you say, "certainly not." Then
be not afraid of men, for they shall be cut down after the same
fashion!

13. And forget the Lord your Maker, thathas stretched forth the
heavens, andlaid the foundations ofthe earth; and have feared
continually every day because of the fury ofthe oppressor, as if he
were ready to destroy? And where is the fury ofthe oppressor?Why, in
the hand of God, and He can let it out, or hold it in according to His
infinite wisdom and almighty power! Why, then, are you afraid? Is there
any might in all the world except the might of the Omnipotent One? Can
anything happen but what He permits? Be still, then, and rest in
Him–"Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die,
and forget the LordyourMakeft" In your fear there is something of
egotism, something of your own self. Lay that aside and, as a babe does
not feel itself wise enough to judge of danger, but sleeps calmly upon
its mother's bosom, so do you! All is well that is in God's hands and
you, also, are in God's hands if you have received His Atonement in the
Person of His dear Son. Therefore, give up your heart to joy and
gladness, and let sorrow and sighing flee from you! Even now, let this
be your happy song, as it is also mine–

"All that remains for me Is but to love and sing And wait until the
angels come To bear me to the King!"