Two Choice Benedictions

Two Choice Benedictions

(No. 3371)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1913.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 26, 1867.

"Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, on this wise you shall
bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless you, and
keep you: the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto
you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. And
they shall put My name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless
them." Numbers 6:23-27.

"The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen."

2 Corinthians 13:14.

IT seemed to me that as this was the last of the Thursday evenings of
the dying year and I should no more meet some of you who only come here
on Thursday evenings during this year, it would be well for us to close
the year as our Master closed His life on earth, with a
benediction–and, oh, it will be a rich enjoyment in the year to come
if, by God's Grace, we shall be able to grasp and make our very own the
precious things which are here presented to the whole redeemed family
of the living God! I shall begin, therefore, first of all with–

I. THE AARONIC BLESSING.

This was pronounced at the close of the public tabernacle service when
the people were about to separate, the one from the others. It is said
by the Rabbis to have been only spoken at the morning sacrifice, but
not in the evening because, say some, the old faith of the few gave
them the early blessing. But it remained for Christ to come in the
eventide of the world, at the end of time, to give us the evening
blessing, the blessing of the great, eternal, evening Sacrifice.

It is worthy of notice that the word, Jehovah, which is put in capital
letters in our English version, occurs three times–three
blessings–and each time the word has a different accent in the
original Hebrew. And the Rabbis, although they did not know the meaning
of it, or pretended not to know, yet all agree that there is some
significant mystery therein. The word would not be accented thus
differently unless there were some different shade of meaning intended.
I believe we have here the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. "The
Lord bless you and keep you." Is that the blessing of the Father? "The
Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you." Is that
the blessing of the Son? "The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
and give you peace." Is that the blessing of the great forgiving Holy
Spirit? I think it is very likely. At any rate, this threefold blessing
from the Jehovah, whose name is mentioned three times, may direct our
thoughts to the glorious Trinity, the Trinity in Unity, whom we cannot
understand, but on whom our faith rests and in whom our love finds
delight and repose!

Let us look at these three blessings. "The Lord bless you and keep
you." When we bless God there is nothing more than well-saying and
well-wishing. But when God blesses us, it is well-doing! We cannot
bless God in the sense of giving to Him so as to add to His riches or
to His Glory, for He is the infinitely great, the inconceivably
glorious and nothing that we can do can add to Him. We can only bless
Him by expressing our thanks to Him, paying to Him our reverent love.
"The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock." "Blessed be the name of the
Lord from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same." But
when God blesses us, I say, it is well-doing! He blesses us in our very
creation and much more in our new creation. It is a blessed thing to be
born, but a much more blessed thing to be born-again! He blesses us in
our food–but much more in giving us Christ who is the Bread to keep
alive and nourish our soul's best life! We are blessed in being
clothed, but infinitely more blessed in being wrapped about in the
Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is a

blessing to be a member of a kind, loving, happy family–but it is an
unspeakable blessing to be a member of the family of Christ and adopted
into the family of God!

What a blessing it is, my Brothers and Sisters, to have sin pardoned,
to have righteousness imputed, to have sanctifi-cation worked in us–in
short, to enjoy all the privileges and benedictions of the New
Covenant! Now, I think some of us can say, "God has blessed us, oh, how
richly." Blessed us sometimes when we did not perceive the blessing,
for many of God's mercies come, as it were, in at the back door of our
house. We do not see the mercies, and when we do, we are too often
ungrateful and forget them. What blessings we have received in
trouble–in deliverance from trouble–in sustaining us in it! Oh, what
blessings have we not had? Some of you, perhaps, have had very
remarkable mercies during the year. Now, while the blessing is
pronounced, "The Lord bless you," let your reply be, "The Lord has
blessed me!" This will encourage you to expect that He will continue to
do the same. And what blessings, my dear Friends, may we hope will be
in store for us during the coming year? Many troubles, I have no doubt,
are in store for us. If we were to have a telescope here this evening
and we could look through it and see the future, those would be very
foolish who looked! He would be the wise man who said–

"This will set my heart at rest– What my God appoints is best."

For if that telescope were here and you were trying to look through it,
you would be sure to breathe on the glass with your hot breath–and in
your anxiety you would see nothing but clouds and darkness–whereas,
very likely, there would be nothing of the sort there. Leave that
matter with your God! The future, though it may possibly have trial and
trouble, will still be blessed if you are God's servant. One thing
there is of which you can be quite confident–He has said, "I will
never leave you, nor forsake you." Another thing will also be
fulfilled, "As your days, so shall your strength be." You are very
poor, are you? Yet, at any rate, none can rob you of this
assurance–"Your bread shall be given you: your water shall be sure."
If you are fearing many trials, this promise is your special
fortifying–"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through
the fire, you shall not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon
you." You have God's word for it, "Fear you not, for I am with you: be
not dismayed, for I am your God." If, during the next year, it is
appointed unto you to die, you may still say, "Yes, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You
are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." "The Lord bless
you." As I say that to each Believer here, knowing that the Lord will
so bless you, may your soul look forward, not with dread, but with
hope! "The Lord bless you" was the wish of the priest under the old
Law, and it is always the Nature of God to confirm what He bids His
servants desire. "The Lord bless you."

Now, observe the blessing which is said to spring out of that, "The
Lord bless you, and keep you." And no small mercy it is to be kept by
God! Where would we be if He did not keep us in a moral and spiritual
point of view, yes, and in a natural point of view, too? It is God that
keeps our lives from death and our bodies from perishing. Perhaps,
during the past year, some of you have been kept when in storms at sea,
or when you have been upon a railway, or when you have passed through
places infected with disease. It is no small privilege to hear the Lord
say, "He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your
ways: they shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot
against a stone." The Lord has blessed us and kept us in that sense
during the past year. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, what a privilege to be
kept from falling into sin! He is ill-kept who is his own keeper! He is
worse kept who has his brother for his keeper! But he is splendidly
kept who has God to be his shield on his right hand, his glory and his
defense.

During the past year we have seen some high professors put out like
candles and the foul odor of their fall has filled the Church with
nausea and depression. We have known some who were like bright stars
who have turned out to be only meteors–and their once dazzling
brilliance has suddenly died out in greater gloom. Why are we still
kept? We have had enough temptation to cast us down! Enough tinder
here, inside our hearts, to have made a great blaze! How is it we are
still unburned and walking in the paths of righteousness?

Must we not say, "The Lord has blessed us and kept us"? Let us, then,
without reserve, commit our souls to Him for the future. Let us not
fancy that we shall not fall. Oh, that is a thought that is very apt to
twine itself around us like a serpent! "I am not so giddy as some
people! I am not at all likely to do what some young people have done
and get into this sin, and that sin. I have had so much experience, I
shall be able to stand!" That is the very man that is likely to fall!

We are never so weak as when we think we are strong, and never so
strong as when we know we are weak and look out of ourselves to our
God! Distrust self, then. There would not be such a supplication as,
"The Lord bless you and keep you," if you did not need keeping. Trust
in God for your help. If you fear temptation, let this be your prayer,
"Lead us not into temptation," and if you trust in God, you will pray,
"Deliver us from evil." You will be tempted during the year that is
soon coming, but He will, with the temptation, make also a way of
escape. He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to
bear! You shall go through the wilderness leaning on your Beloved and
you shall not slip, though the way is ever so smooth, nor trip, though
the road is ever so rough. You shall be upheld, for God is able to hold
up in perfect safety those who stay themselves upon Him. "The Lord
bless you and keep you." Holy Father, we breathe the prayer to You as
we read this blessing! Pronounce it upon us now by the mouth of Your
own dear Son, and let us now and until life's latest hour be kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation!

Now, take the next blessing bestowed, through Aaron, upon the people.
"The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. "I
understand by the expression, "The Lord make His face to shine upon
you," His being completely reconciled to us. As they would say in the
Hebrew, a man's face frowned, his countenance fell, when he was at
enmity or angry with another. But when he was his friend and genial
towards him, then his face revealed it, it began to beam or shine! Now,
this is the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is through Him that
God's face is made to shine upon us. The Lord would have no favorable
regard towards a sinner as such while his sins still lay upon him
because of impenitence and lack of faith. The Lord's love might come to
him as an elect creature, but viewing him merely as a sinner, he would
be the subject of Divine disapprobation!

But when the sinner is washed in the blood of Christ, when the sinner
is justified through the righteousness of Jesus, then the Lord looks
upon him with pleasure. That very man who was an heir of wrath becomes
a child of love! and he who would have been driven from God's Presence
with, "Depart, you cursed," is established in Christ's heart with
"Come, you blessed." Now, dear Friends, I hope many of us have already
received, during the past year, this great blessing, "The Lord make His
face to shine upon you." Don't you feel that you have, tonight, to look
up to God and do not feel any fear? You know that He is not frowning
upon you! He is reconciled unto you–you are reconciled unto Him. You
may say, "Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Your
anointed." And you are persuaded that as God looks upon Christ, and
upon you in Christ, you are well-beloved in Him. Well now, as it has
been, so it shall be, for if God once makes His face to shine in the
sense of His favor, He never takes that favor away! You may not see it.
You may think He is angry with you and, in another sense, He may be,
but legally, and so far as concerns the Law and its power of
condemnation, there is not a single thought of anger in the mind, or
feeling of displeasure in the heart of God towards any one of those who
rest in Jesus!

You are accepted in the Beloved. God sees no sin in Jacob, neither
iniquity in Israel. As He looks upon them in His Son, He sees them
without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.

" The Lord make His face to shine upon you." Well, and what springs out
of that? Why this, "and be gracious unto you." Because God is thus
favorable towards us through His dear Son, Divine Grace comes to us.
And what a great, all-comprehending word is that! Grace! It has many
meanings and includes a whole universe of blessing! Grace–it is the
free and undeserved favor of God! Grace–it is the mighty operation of
that favor, effectually working in them that believe! Grace–it is that
which enlightens us to see our lost estate–that which leads us to see
the All-Sufficiency of Christ! Grace–this works faith in us, gives us
love to God! Grace creates our hope, carries on the work within our
souls and completes it, too! Grace–it is a term so comprehensive that
I would need the whole of this evening, yes, and longer, too, to
enumerate the mighty catalog comprised and packed, as it were, in this
golden casket of the word, Grace! "The Lord be gracious unto you."
Well, now, Beloved, He has been gracious to us in the past. Oh, the
Grace of God to me!–

"Oh, to Grace how great a debtor, Daily I'm constrained to be!"

Can you say the same? Look at what a sinner you have been and yet how
favored! Look at your backslidings! Look at your ingratitude and yet
His mercy does not cease–

"Oh, to Grace how great a debtor!" Let your hearts say it, if your lips
do not. And now, Beloved, He will be gracious to you in the future as
He has been in the past. Every mercy received is a pledge of mercies
yet to come! He knew what He was doing when He began with us

and, therefore, He will not leave off. If He had meant to destroy us,
He would not have shown us such things as these. The great Master
Worker would not have built the house so far if He did not mean to
finish it. All His previous Grace and glory will be wasted and
evaporate if He should not complete His redeeming work. Therefore, I am
sure that after advancing so far with His glorious purpose, He will
finish it and, if necessary, in the teeth of men and devils! He has
begun and His right arm, which always goes with His Grace, will surely
carry it through to the end. "The Lord make His face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you."

But now, thirdly, "The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give
you peace. " Is this the voice of the Holy Spirit? Whether it is so or
not, does not greatly matter to us tonight. "The Lord lift up His
countenance upon you." Does not this mean, "The Lord give you a
conscious, a delightful sense of His favor"? Wishing to see a
difference–I will not insist upon it–wishing to see a difference, I
put the second blessing as meaning God's being reconciled. But the
third blessing as meaning God manifesting that reconciliation and
giving His children the enjoyment of His favor. Now, God's people do
not always have this–it is not always sunshine. "The evening and the
morning were the first day," and there is evening as well as morning in
the day of God's people. God always loves His people, but His people do
not always know it. Because of their sins, they do not always enjoy it.
Oh, what a blessing it is when the Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of
God in the soul–when we can say, "Truly our fellowship is with the
Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." When we get out of these mists
and fogs and can see the sun once more shining clear and bright,
Beloved, it is Heaven on earth! It is the true ante-past of Heaven
above, when the Lord lifts up His countenance upon you! I have no doubt
the original allusion is to a father whose child has done wrong and he
says, "Now, Sir, get out of my sight, you have grieved and vexed me.
You shall not see my face." The child goes upstairs to bed–anywhere
out of his father's sight. And after a while, when the father hears he
has been penitent and sees his tears, he smiles again upon him, gives
him a kiss and presses him to his heart. May God the Holy Spirit give
us just that! May everyone of us have it!

We have, some of us, had it during the past year. We grieve to confess
that we did backslide, but when we returned again, we found Him just as
willing to receive us as at the first and He lifted up His countenance
upon us once again! We said, "Restore unto me the joy of Your
salvation," and He did so! We asked Him to take away His wrath from us,
and we found that "His anger is but for a moment." When weeping came to
us for a night, joy appeared in the morning. It will be just the same
with us during the next year. If we transgress and repent, and return
to Him, we have an actual promise that He will forgive us. Now, what
says the text? "The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you
peace." There is no peace like the peace which we have with God, and no
peace with God like that which comes from a sense of His assured love!
And belief in Christ for the pardon of sin gives us the blessing of
non-condemnation. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." But this sense of
non-condemnation may sometimes be destroyed through weakness of faith.
We may be brought very low and our peace may be disturbed, but when we
come back to the Cross, and look once more to Him who died there, He is
our peace and we see in Him that our peace is made with God–and then
our peace becomes like a river, and our righteousness like the waves of
the sea! I think it would be impossible for me to describe peace. You
must feel it to know it. Peace with God is like that clear shining we
sometimes see after a heavy shower of rain. With the thunder and
lightning it seemed as if Heaven would be torn in pieces and all the
earth shaken, and then, suddenly, it is all over and the sun shines
forth! There is a rainbow with its many colors on the clouds, and all
the flowers lift up their drooping heads, each one loaded with a
gleaming benediction–and all the earth fragrant and smiling and
seeming to steam forth the incense of gratitude! Now, after the storm
of the conviction of sin, when the Spirit of God comes, it is as quiet
and peaceful as that. And after a storm of trouble–and I know what
that means–after a hurricane of trial, we can take all our distresses
and cares and lay them down at God's feet and feel that we need not
care about them anymore!

But if my Father did not undertake them, I would not, for I cannot. He
has promised He will, if I cast my cares upon Him. You sometimes walk
out of this place when God has blessed your soul and feel, "Now, I do
not know what may happen, and really I do not care what does. My heart
is resting on my God–I have left it all to Him and I am sure it will
be right, whatever may come." Like Jonah, you may lose your gourd, but
you cannot lose your God! You may see dark weather before you, but
still you can go to Him who cannot fail you–and there shall your soul
have repose. Now, that is the peace of God which passes all
understanding and, therefore, it must surpass all expression. The peace
of God which can only be known by the man who enjoys it–a peace which
the world does not give and cannot destroy, but which

Heaven, itself, can work in the soul! Now, may we have this blessing,
"The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."

If we stopped here tonight and went no further, provided we got these
blessings and fed upon them, it would be quite enough. Let me just read
that text again clearly. "The Lord bless"–now the next word is the
very pith of it, and let it be read now to each one of you, my good
Sisters and Brothers, you who are young in years and young in Divine
Grace, never mind who it is, so long as you are resting upon
Christ–Jesus, the great High Priest, speaks from the eternal Glory and
He says, "The Lord bless you." "Oh, but I do not deserve it!" Just so,
but, "the Lord Bless you." "I am so unworthy, I am so backsliding!"
Yes, but the Lord Jesus Christ knows all, covers all. We will read it,
then, "The Lord Bless you– you, and keep you: the Lord make His face
to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: the Lord lift up His
countenance upon you, and give you peace." Oh, have you got that worked
into your very hearts? It will be like a bundle of myrrh that you may
keep in your bosom and it will sweeten your soul the whole year round,
making you to know that you are blessed in and of the Lord who made
Heaven and earth!

Now, I shall ask your attention for a little while to the second
blessing, that spoken in God's name by the Apostle Paul, in the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians. "The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen." Here we have–

II. THE NEW TESTAMENT BENEDICTION.

This second blessing is precisely like the first as to its essence and
substance. But there is some little difference as to the expression and
circumstance. The first thing that strikes me in reading it through, as
it almost always does when I pronounce it, is this–you notice it
begins with the Lord Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus is the Second Person
of the blessed Divine Unity–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–but this
benediction begins with the Son of God. Why is that? In the order of
Doctrine and fact, all infinite blessings begin with the Father. He is
the Fountainhead of Creation. He is the Fountain, Christ the channel
and the Holy Spirit produces the grand results. Father first, Son next,
Spirit third. But in the order of experience–the order in which the
blessing comes–it is always the Son first. "No man comes unto the
Father but by Me." Not the Father first, but the Son first! What a
sinner learns to comfort him first is not that the Father loves Him.
No. He learns first of all that Jesus Christ died for sinners because
God loves Him–and so he puts his trust in Him. The first thing a poor
Believer gets, then, is Grace through Jesus Christ. After that,
perhaps, he may sometimes think that God the Father has no love towards
him, but as he begins to read his Bible and to experience more of
Divine Grace in his heart, he finds that God the Father is full of
love. So, then, he goes on and gets the love of God the Father. And
when he knows this, perhaps he often wonders what communion may be of,
and fellowship. And when he hears some of those delightful hymns which
we sing at the Lord's Supper, he thinks he shall never get to them–to
talk with God, to have communion with Christ–but, by-and-by, as the
Lord leads him on, from being a babe, he grows to be a man and he gets
into communion with the Holy Spirit. Babes in Grace know "the Grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ." But as they grow they discover "the love of God
our Father." And as they grow still more, they come to "the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit." The three things are put in the order of
experience, not in the order of fact, nor the order of Doctrine.

Having noticed that, just observe the three blessings as they come.
"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ"You know the Grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that, "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became
poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich." You know His
great poverty–you know His great Grace which brought Him from yonder
starry heavens to lie in a manger, to live in obscurity for 30 years
and to die upon the Cross in pains that cannot be told. Now, Grace
comes to us through Christ and, therefore, it is said, "by His Grace."
He is the golden pipe through which it all flows. Believing in Him, we
receive the mercy of God! Coming through Him to the Mercy Seat, we
obtain unnumbered favors by virtue of our union with Him. As the branch
derives sap and then fruit from the vine, we derive Grace from Him. He
is to us the channel of all the good gifts of our heavenly Father. "May
the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."Be with you all–it
is not in the singular–it is not to each one. It is, "with you
all,"because the genius of the Gospel is expansive. You notice the
Redeemer's prayer. It is not My Father. No, but "our Father which are
in Heaven " And the Gospel's benediction, though it is
personal–blessed be God for that–yet it is also expansive–"be with
you all." We are to think of all our Brothers and Sisters. When we get
a blessing, we are to look upon ourselves as part of the Divine family.
When we come together to break bread, we do not come, each one
alone–though it would be the Lord's Supper if only one man were
there–but we come there in humble fellowship, one with the other!
"Eat, drink you all, of this," said Christ. "Take, eat, this is My
body." He would have all His disciples come there and partake. And so
with this blessing of the Grace of Jesus Christ–may it be with you
all!

Has it been with us all during the past year? There are not so many
here tonight as usual. May I, therefore, put the question to each one
personally? Has it been with you–and you–and you? Have you, my
Hearers, known daily the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you stood
by faith at the foot of the Cross and felt that you rested your all on
Him? If so, I know you possess His Grace. He it is who has given you
power to trust Him wholly and absolutely. All the Grace there is in His
great heart and mind belongs to you!–

"Plenteous Grace with Him is found,

Grace to cover all our sins.

May the healing streams abound,

Make and keep us pure within."

May it be with you all!

Next comes "the love of the Father "It is from the love of God that
everything blessed and blessing springs. We must not imagine that Jesus
Christ died to induce His Father to love us–a very foolish and
pernicious idea that! God the Eternal Father always loved His people
and Christ has removed the sin which restrained the shinings of the
most glorious manifestations of that love–but He loved before Christ
died. You know you can boast–

" 'Twas not to make the Father's love

Towards His people sure,

That Jesus came from realms above!

'Twas not the pangs He bore

That God's eternal love procured,

For God was Love before."

That fountain sprung up eternally! It was a well that needed no
digging. Oh, dear Friends, I trust we know what the love of God means.
Has it not been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is
given unto us? We shall know it in years to come, for where it once
takes possession it never departs. Once in Christ, in Christ forever!
In Christ's love you have begun a banquet which will never end. "May
the love of God be with you all," is meant for all God's people. But is
that love present with all? If you have not tasted God's love, you do
not know what life, true life, means. The richest, the most celestial,
the most transporting joy that mortal mind can know is a full assurance
of the love of God! Dear Hearer, do you love Christ? Can you answer the
question, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" Then, if you have love
for Christ, pure and true love and trust, if it is the fruit of God's
love to you, then be of good cheer! May the love of the Father be with
you all your days!

Then comes "the communion of the Holy Ghost " A very ugly word
that–"Ghost." A better translation of the original Greek word would
be, "Spirit." "Holy Spirit," and I sometimes wish that we always called
Him by that name. It is far more expressive. The word, "ghost," bears
such a strange and weird meaning, now, that it were better in this
connection entirely to abandon it! The word, "communion," means not
only the Holy Spirit coming to us and having converse with us, but
communion means copartnership. When the Churches in Macedonia made a
collection for the poor Church in Judea, Paul called the collection,
"communion," because by means of giving money to the Church in Judea
they had a fellowship, something like having all things common–that is
the perfection of fellowship!

Now, the Holy Spirit, if I may use the expression, has all things
common with God's people. He gives to them all things. "He shall lead
you into truth." What the Spirit knows and teaches us, we are able to
bear. He knows the mind of God. He makes intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. He gives us to participate in all that He
possesses. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of peace. He gives us peace.
He is the Spirit of holiness and sanctification–rather, He is the
Spirit of light–He kindles light in our souls. He is a sacred fire. He
baptized the Church in fire. Everything that the Holy Spirit is and
has, He is and has for the Church of God and in common with the Church
of God! Now, what an unspeakable blessing this is, to enter into a
sacred copartnership with God the Holy Spirit! To talk with Him, to
live with Him, to feast with Him, to have Him to be ours and for us to
be His! Now, may such a communion as this be with us! I question
whether we have ever got up to the fullness of this.

I think I told you the other evening the story of a good woman who was
a little distressed in her mind and who, in reading the passage, "Your
Maker is your Husband," said, "Now, I won't be distressed any longer.
When my husband

was alive, I took care to live up to my income and now I will take care
to live up to my heavenly Husband's income." Oh, I wish to get hold of
living up to God's income, for all He has is given to His people! What
rich lives we would have if we were to participate in all that He has!
We would be continually feeling His power in our souls. Have we done
this? May each one of you say, "Lord, give me to know the communion of
the Holy Spirit all my days, until I shall be taken up to dwell where
You reveal Yourself without a veil between!"

Now, in closing, you see the difference between the two benedictions is
this–the second blessing is really exhibited, the first a little
veiled–something like Moses, when his face was too bright for the
people to look upon, he put a veil upon his face. So the blessing Aaron
pronounced is not so distinct or clear as the Apostolic blessing. Note,
again, that the blessings in the second benediction are deeper–they
are traced up to their source in the Triune Godhead, "Grace, love and
communion." The one is a deep, the other a great deep. Note, yet again,
that they are wider. The blessings of the Old Testament are individual
and personal–to "you." The blessings in the New Testament are to the
Corinthian Church and to all the Churches–"with you all."

In the first case there was a confirmation and in the second case there
is one also–"Amen," which is the Divine confirmation of this
benediction.

But I notice in the Apostolic benediction there is one thing which
there is not in the first, namely, the communion, that is, the
privilege–the privilege which comes to a child of God in this age of
bliss when Christ is fully revealed. Did you ever notice that when John
was born, an angel appeared to his father, Zacharias, to announce that
Christ was come? No sooner did that bell begin to ring to tell that
Christ was coming, than what happened? The greatest blessing was about
to be pronounced and, therefore, the smaller blessing had to be
silenced. When Zacharias came out, he was expected to bless the people,
but what did he do? He could not speak a word–he was speechless and he
beckoned with his hand–and that morning the assembly went home without
the benediction! The priest could not pronounce it. Now, I dare say
they said one to another, "What a strange thing it was. We always had
that benediction before, 'The Lord bless you, and keep you,' but this
morning the priest could not speak a word." You and I know what that
means. We must stop that one because there is a better coming! God
seemed, as it were, to give notice to His people, "I am about to hush
the voice of Aaron because Melchisedec is coming. I am about to stop
the sound of the symbolic, because the real Priest is coming. I am
about to hush the voice of Zacharias because the Son of God is now to
appear and declare that the fullest blessing of Jehovah will rest upon
His people."

Now, let us go our separate ways tonight, guided home, I trust, safely
and rightly. And let us feed upon and make our soul's bread the two
precious texts that have been before us. And I am not afraid but that
you will be like those who went out to gather the manna–you shall each
have enough! He who needs much shall have in abundance and he who
requires little shall have no lack. Let us close by singing the
blessing and go our way to turn all life into a song of gratitude for
God's rich benedictions! Amen.