65.

Et doth not get appear what we shall be.

Would that my heart were pure,

I then the Lord would see;

And if I saw Him, sure,

My heart then pure would be.

What is the mean that knits
In harmony these twain;
Points from the earth to heaven,
From heaven to earth again?

It is the secret smart

To HOME-SICK spirits known,
That upwards lifts the heart
And brings the Saviour down.

I JOHN, iii. 2, 3.

And

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." ROM. viii. 22-24. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?"

I COR. XV. 25-28. "For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be

destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith, All things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which did put all things. under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."

I COR. xiii. 12. "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

B

LESSED are the home-sick, for they shall reach their Father's house! was a saying frequently upon the lips of a man of God who had had rich experience of the pilgrimlife here below-its stony paths and stormy days and sleepless nights. But may not the man who treads the very pleasantest of the paths that lead through this terrestrial vale likewise take up the saying? Yes: so long as Christians need to pray that the kingdom of God may come-come into their own hearts and come into the world at large-they will never cease to long for the heavenly home. It is true that the coming of the kingdom of God is not an event altogether future. Even now it is come,

although doubtless only in its rudiments, according to the language of the apostle, when he says, "We have received the first fruits of the Spirit." There is blessedness in the mere drops-how shall it be when the whole ocean flows in upon us ! If the first-fruits already make us rich, shall we not be rich indeed when we reap the full harvest? The more he thus feels, the more natural in the life of the Christian will be a longing after eternity. For if, as the apostle says, "we are saved by hope," he who is destitute of such longing cannot possibly be a Christian at all. None perhaps ever received the firstfruits in more abundant measure than the apostle Paul, and yet he tells us how intensely he longed. He says: "We ourselves, also, which have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop

tion, to wit, the redemption of our body." And think not that this longing makes slothful hands or feeble knees; for after saying, "We are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," he immediately subjoins, "Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted by Him." And while he affirms in one passage, "I die daily," he was able also to aver in another, "I have laboured more abundantly than they all." No; the longing for home does not make the hands slothful or the knees weary. Rather does every man who has a hope so bright and noble "purify himself, even as He is pure." And what else should the servant do who is advancing to meet a master like ours, but prepare to receive Him with due honour, according to His own words: "Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." 2

In this land of pilgrimage the path is often so rough as of itself to breed a yearning for the eternal home. And even were it otherwise, can we, so long as we are in the far country, ever become wholly free from sin? It is true that he who walks in the fear of the Lord advances from victory to victory; but is the victory over it ever complete? That certainly cannot be. St John, when probably in his eightieth or ninetieth year, was constrained to confess, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." St James must needs aver, "In many things we offend all."4 And can any one still sojourning here, and still bearing about with him the earthly house of this tabernacle of clay, venture to anticipate that a day will ever come when he shall no longer need to pray, "Forgive us our debts"? Alas! were the kingdom of God to enter my heart in the fulness of its power, could I even then be blessed so long as I dwell in a world where Satan wields the sceptre over the

1 2 Cor. v. 8, 9.

73

2 Luke, xii. 35, 36.

3

I John, i. 8.

4

James, iii. 2.

children of unbelief, and where, though that which is good possesses the right, the power belongs to that which is evil? No: I must account it carnal fulness when men venture to deny that a yearning for the land of light and truth is as natural to the Christian as yearning for the mountains is to one who has long lived upon the level plain and yet has a boding sense of the salubrity of mountain air.

Never without the deepest emotion do I read these words of John: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." It is as if he wished to say, What man is there who would not even now feel himself blessed by the belief that God had already in His mercy adopted him as a child? And yet something greater than this has been promised; for "it hath not yet appeared what we shall be." "When He shall appear," however, "we shall be like Him." This sets the human spirit at rest, for above or beyond it there can be nothing greater or better. Even at the time when He still concealed His heavenly glory beneath the woollen garb, even then it dawned upon our minds that in Him, or nowhere else, the noblest type of humanity was to be beheld. Now, however, the woollen garb of a servant has been laid aside— He has put on the kingly crown; and what He, the elder brother, is, that shall we also be. Beyond a doubt, therefore, there will arrive a time, long as it may still delay, when all within and about me shall be full of light. I adore, and am silent. How this shall be brought about I try in vain to conceive. I am told, however, that I shall see Him as He is. If, then, when translated into the other world, I take with me a love to Him exceeding all other loves, and if He, on His part, shall unveil Himself to me in the fulness of His beauty, will He not penetrate through me like the unrefracted sunbeam, and fill me with the light of which He Himself is full? "We shall see Him as He is," writes the beloved apostle; and as he wrote the words, how his heart must have thrilled with joy! Even at the time when his Saviour was still wearing the servile garb, John always felt it bliss to be permitted to lean

on His bosom, and experienced a sanctifying influence when he looked into His eye. Afterwards, when the Saviour had withdrawn from human sight, he found blessedness and sanctification in spiritual fellowship with Him, as he says: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." Now, however, John has the hope of seeing his Master again, and of seeing Him as He is that is to say, undisguised and undisfigured—and that sight he knows will make him perfectly holy. Were one to understand the words in a carnal sense, well might he permit such a hope to slacken his efforts. The apostle is rather bowed down by it in spirit, for he is sensible that it is all mercy. It only makes him more humble, and more earnest in seeking to please Him. "Every man,” he says, "that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."

We are now the children of God in faith; we believe that of His mercy He has accepted us, and therefore we feel the beginnings of a filial affection to Him. In truth, however, we shall only then be His children when we resemble the Firstbegotten, who is His veritable Son. And this, methinks, is the reason why Paul likewise says that we groan and wait for the adoption, as if it were not already a present good, and represents it as consequent upon the redemption of the body; looking forward to the time when, the first-fruits being reaped, the full harvest of the Spirit shall have come, and this poor and mortal frame, now so often reluctant when the soul would soar aloft, shall likewise participate in the life of glory. For then there shall be nothing about us to prevent the light eternal from freely permeating our material part, and expelling from it all darkness and infirmity. "Our conversation," saith the apostle, "is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fash1 1 John, i. 3, 4.