WITH YOU ALWAYS | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1861

WITH YOU ALWAYS.

"Lo I am with you always," says Christ, "even to the end of the world." Matt. xxviii, 20. Like every other promise, this, too, rests upon conditions. He does not promise to be with every one; nor with those with whom he has once been, if they persist in leaving and departing from him. He promises to be with no one in wickedness and sin. He will be with us only so long as we will be with him. Christ does not leave his people: they leave him. The rule is plainly laid down in John xiv, 23: "Jesus answered and said unto him, If any man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Again, chap. xv, 7: "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you," &c. Such are the ones he has promised to be with even to the end of the world. Reader, are you fulfilling these conditions? If so, rejoice in the consolation afforded you in this precious promise.

But who is this who promises to be with you? It is he to whom is given all power in heaven and earth, who is exalted to the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high. It is he who now ministers in the Sanctuary as the advocate to whom alone is committed the interests of a perishing world; he who knows all our weaknesses, sorrows, motives, hopes, and fears; he who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; he who has said, My grace is sufficient for thee, be of cheer, I have overcome the world; he who knows what help we most need, and just when to afford it; who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto him; he who has said, Ask and ye shall receive; and who will at last clothe this corruptible frame with incorruption, fashioning it like unto his most glorious body. Who then is he who can estimate the wealth of the promise which gives us the companionship of such a being as this?

But when will this exalted guest be with us? Is it only at some favored intervals? Will he not perhaps be far away when most we need him? And how shall we obtain his help in sudden emergencies. He says, I am with you always—yes, always. There is no time when Christ places himself beyond the reach of his people. Israel's Keeper slumbers not nor sleeps. And more than this, no power on earth can separate us from his love and presence. The world may turn coldly away, and friends may forsake; be not disconsolate; for the Lord does not leave you on that account: he is with you still. Trials and perils may surround us; but the Lord forgets us not: he is with us still, knowing our danger and affording us his help. Persecution may rage, and the walls of a dungeon may bury us from the notice of the world, and cut off our intercourse with earthly friends; but that voice from one whose heart glows with a diviner friendship, is yet heard saying, Lo I am with you always. No prison walls can bar his entrance, nor separate us from his presence. Death may remove us from the province of man's power; but even this does not put us beyond the reach and remembrance of our heavenly Friend, for then our life is only hid with him in God.

But says some desponding believer, This might have been so when the promise was fresh, and before the first ages of his church had passed away; but surely it cannot be that after so many ages, he yet regards it. The answer is, He regards it still. On this very point he made provision when the promise fell from his lips. He does not say, Lo I am with you for a few years, or even for a few ages; but, Lo I am with you always even to the end of the world. The end of the world has not yet come; the promise therefore has not yet expired. Be assured, he is not slack concerning it. He does not forget it. He has not become weary in fulfilling it. It is still for the believer in all its length and breadth and fullness. And so it will be till the Master appears, and faith is lost in sight.

Have you the evidence the Lord is with you? You may have it. Be sure that you fulfill that which is required of you, that you love him and keep his commandments, and that his words abide in you. Then you may know that you abide in him and he in you; that he is with you, and will be with you to the end.