ABIDE WITH US | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 26, 1860

ABIDE WITH US.

“But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent.” Luke xxiv, 29. This was the language of the two disciples to the stranger who had joined them by the way, as they sadly journeyed from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was the first day of the week in which they took this more than a Sabbath day’s journey. Why they went to Emmaus we know not; at least it does not appear to have been for any purposes especially connected with religious worship. He who had been condemned, crucified, and buried, but on whom their expectations were placed, as the Redeemer of Israel, had taken with him, all their hopes also to condemnation and death. Wrapt in contemplation of these things they journeyed to Emmaus, when the stranger joined them. Arriving at their destination, he made as though he would have gone further; but they constrained him. It does not appear that it was for his sake alone that they wished him to tarry. It is usually a desire on the part of the host that leads him to constrain a person to abide with him. Thus Lot constrained the angels who came to Sodom [Gen. xix, 1-3]; and thus Lydia when she had been baptized, with a heart all aglow with love to God and his servants, besought the disciples, saying, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained them.” Acts xvi, 15.

Thus the disciples constrained their unrecognized Saviour. We hear them afterwards saying, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” And do we not here behold the motive which prompted their request? They had become interested in the stranger. Their hearts burned within them as he opened to them the Scriptures; and as they constrained him to tarry, was it not to hear further cheering expositions of the word of God? and have further explanation of the events that so puzzled them, and receive further comfort to their sorrowing hearts? They would not suffer him to go on; and perhaps their request, though urged with such reasons as would be best calculated to prevail with him, found after all, its secret spring in the comfort craved by their desponding hearts.

But another day is far spent; and again the disciples of the Lord are lifting up to him the earnest petition, Abide with us. This day is the day in which alone we can accomplish our work for eternity; the night that cometh is the night wherein no man can work. The day is the day of gospel light, the day of salvation, the day of probation; and this is drawing to its close. The shadows of the evening are already upon us. The night cometh over whose dark border the prospects of the wicked disappear in impenetrable gloom. The night cometh, and there is one name only in which we can trust in that time. The dispensation changes; there is only one name through whose merits we can gain a safe transition into the glorious kingdom of heaven; only one name whereby we may be saved; only one through whom we can become heirs of the promises, and spring into new and perfect life on the glad morning of the resurrection. And this is the one we wish to abide with us. And is it strange that we should wish this? Without him we can do nothing now; without him we shall perish then. And we have not even to constrain him as did the disciples anciently; for he comes to us and seeks admittance; he is willing to take up his abode with us, and only waits for an open door that he may come in. And we need him with us, in public, in private, in waking and in sleeping hours, in acts of worship and in our secular employment, in the house of God, and at our daily toil, everywhere and at all times we need his presence and his grace. And we shall need him with us when the night comes down upon us, when the great storm shall sweep away all refuges of lies, when pestilence shall walk abroad in darkness, and destruction waste at noonday, when a thousand shall fall at our side, and ten thousand at our right hand, and when his kingdom shall be established and all things gathered out which work iniquity, and offend. Then let us hasten to give him a spacious and permanent abiding place; for the day is far spent, time is short; and there are no moments to be wasted.

Reader, has the Lord of glory taken up his abode with you? If not, hasten to bring him in. It is his Spirit which shall quicken our mortal bodies at the last day; and if you have not this, you are none of his. Are you willing to venture alone upon the great issue? or do you want a friend whose arm is omnipotent and whose friendship never fails? Beseech him then to take up his abode with you. He can comfort, he can strengthen, he can give you an earnest of the inheritance soon to be revealed, he can give you a foretaste of the glory prepared for his people, and grant you an abundant entrance into its unspeakable reality.

Who then would not seek the continual presence of the heavenly guest, and offer up the fervent prayer, “Abide with us?” Yet how many, instead of constraining him to come in, will constrain him to depart. They see nothing desirable in him, they will not have him to reign over them, they desire none of his company. Deaf, blind and dead in the things of faith, they little dream of the time when one smile from him will outvalue the treasures of all worlds.

“Abide with us.” This, we trust, is the sincere prayer of every reader of these lines; and the fulfillment of this we also trust will be their experience, so that they will be able to exclaim, > “And in communion sweet and free, > I sup with him and he with me.”

For if he abide with us, if we can lean upon his arm, and have his counsel, we are prepared for every duty and every crisis.