p. 7 | I COUNSEL THEE by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 3, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 14.

"I COUNSEL THEE."

By H. A. St. John

"I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Rev. 3:18.

JESUS is the counselor. He is in the presence of God for us. Lukewarm professors in this our day, are the ones thus counseled. O, if only the lukewarm, indifferent, careless professors, could realize but for a few moments, with what intense anxiety and deep, yearning love this counsel of the blessed Jesus is given, they would be melted into tenderness, and with brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit they would be zealous to repent of all their sins of omission and commission, and thus open the door of the heart, and constrain Jesus to come in.

He would surely come in and sup with you, and you with Him; for He is standing at the door knocking for admission. Reader, have you unbarred the door? Jesus will not compel admission, you must make Him a welcome guest, or He will not become your guest at all.

You are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, without Him. He will take all these disgraceful and destructive conditions in exchange for the true, beautiful, and life-giving riches,—faith and love, tried in the fire. In the person of Jesus, from Bethlehem to Calvary, in His obedient life, and tragic death, the faith of God and the love of God were tried in a furnace of fire. O, with what intense, fiery zeal and hatred did Satan and his angelic and human agencies pursue the Redeemer from the cradle to the tomb, making the furnace seven times hotter than ever before, that he might cause the divine Son of God to fail in His revelation of the faith and love of God to a lost, rebellious world. But Jesus came out of the crucible unharmed, without even the slightest taint upon the faith and love of His Father which He came to the world to reveal. Thus it is demonstrated to all the universe of God that there is no power able to destroy a being that is filled and led by the faith and love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus has an overflowing abundance of these true riches—this gold tried in the fire—for every lukewarm professor that will open the door of the heart with the key of true repentance, and let Jesus in. With the faith and love of Jesus filling our souls, we will be all light in the Lord. We will be clothed with the beautiful garment of salvation,—a garment of light,—and then, and not before, we will shine as lights in the world. We must learn to walk with Jesus in light, or we never shall walk with Him in white.

Then, too, we shall behold spiritual things and eternal realities with wonderful clearness, ecstasy, and delight. We can not see natural or material things without the light of the sun of the physical world; and we can not see spiritual and eternal things without the light of the Sun of Righteousness. In exchange for our darkness and blindness, our divine Lord counsels us to accept the true light and sight. With this divine illumination we will be able to see things that are not seen, even Him who is invisible. Thus did Jesus in His earthly pilgrimage always see His Father, and was never moved, and thus may we see Jesus, and walk and talk with Him by the way. And by and by we shall see Him as He is, and be like Him as He is, and be with Him where He is.

H. A. ST. JOHN.