Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 23, 1869
MOSES.
By John Nevins Andrews
(Concluded.)
MOSES'S CHOICE.
One event in the life of Moses is especially worthy of our admiration. When he had arrived at mature manhood, he determined no longer to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. This was not the wild enthusiasm of thoughtless youth, nor the act of a man who has followed evil ways till remorse and anguish fill his soul with bitterness. The decision was not made in the heat of youth, nor in the moroseness of old age. It was the act of a man in the prime of life, and in the full vigor of his mental powers. What, therefore, could have prompted this extraordinary step?
Was it ambition? He vacated the most honorable position in Egypt. Was it the love of money? He chose poverty in exchange for wealth. Was it the love of pleasure? He voluntarily chose affliction and sorrow. But did vain-glorious thoughts prompt this action? If so, they led Moses in a direction which could not gratify them. He made himself a subject of reproach. Everybody laughed at his folly. His name was despised. He was counted a fool, a fanatic, an enthusiast, a maniac.
What was the object of Moses's choice? He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. What a choice! For this he descended from his high dignity in the court of Pharaoh. For this he severed every earthly tie. He gave up literally everything that he had, that he might have the privilege of suffering with the people of God. Here stands revealed the character of the true soldier. Here is courage, decision, energy, self-sacrifice.
He preferred affliction with the people of God to the pleasures of sin. This was not the choice of some poor beggar who had it not in his power to taste the pleasures of sin; but the choice of a man who had every pleasure of sin within his reach; nay, who was so surrounded with them that he could only avoid them by the utmost care. He had observed the pleasures of sin, and knew what they were. He knew their enticing power. He knew also their miserable deception. He knew that they were only for a season. He knew that they ended in disappointment, remorse, and ruin. He saw that the end of these things is death. His mother's faithful instruction remained in his mind, and he did not forget it, nor depart from it.
But what a condition were the people placed in at the time when Moses made this remarkable choice. They were in the most abject bondage. They had no rights which an Egyptian was bound to respect. They were ground into the dust. They were treated with cruel indignities. Their condition was, to all human appearance, one of hopeless misery.
Never was conduct more inexplicable to human judgment than the descent of Moses from the royal family of Egypt to the lot of the Hebrew people. Here was a sacrifice such as only a very few have ever, in the whole period of 6000 years, had an opportunity to make.
Yet Moses was no fanatic. He did not act from wild excitement. He made deliberate calculations, and then acted with calm, but decisive, steadfastness. He had faith in God sufficient to make the future a reality, and to give it a tangible form. What he had heard respecting the recompense of the reward, he believed in his heart. He saw that he could not have both worlds. He decided which one to choose, and then wavered not in his choice. He had no reserve to make. Everything was given cheerfully for that one grand object.
He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. How different the estimate of Moses from that of the rest of mankind. What everybody despised, that Moses eagerly embraced. What others would not accept on any term, that Moses purchased at the expense of his earthly all. The reproach of Christ! What a commodity to
be esteemed valuable! Yet it was even this which Moses so earnestly sought to make his own.
Was the man beside himself? No; indeed. He was a better financier than the rest of men. He could look into the future, and foresee coming events. One grand secret of financial success is to find what property is to be valuable by-and-by. When a man is able to determine this, he sells his property, and invests in that which he foresees will become valuable after a time. If this is esteemed by others almost worthless, he makes an investment that brings him a fortune.
Now this was just what Moses did. He found stock offered in the market which no one would purchase. He saw that the time must come when this stock would be of infinite value. He knew there could be no failure; for the promise of God, backed by his oath, was pledged in the case. When he had satisfied his own mind respecting the security, he acted like a business man. He had a large estate in possession, and a greater one in prospect. The riches of Egypt were his. Its honors were within his grasp. Its pleasures were all within his power. Everything that the world could give laid at Moses's feet. But he had found something better. He had discovered infinite value in something despised by all the world.
The reproach of Christ was a kind of stock that had no value at all in the market. Men would not take it at any price. But in this very commodity Moses determined to invest everything he had. Riches, honor, the pleasures of this life, all that he held dear, he sold to the highest bidder, or rather, he gave up to those who wished them, and then invested his all in the reproach of Christ. See him fleeing out of Egypt. What had he left of all his earthly greatness? Nothing. He was fleeing for his life. He had separated himself from the royal family. He had allied himself to the despised Hebrew slaves. He had given up as great earthly possessions as it was ever man's lot to give up. What had he in exchange? The reproach of Christ. Yes; he had the reproach of Christ. He had invested largely in it. Satan told him he was a fool. Unbelief gave terrible power to the temptation. The reproach of Christ was a present and painful reality. The time when it should become valuable seemed very far distant.
Humiliation, anguish, and distress, were before him. But we have no evidence that Moses regretted his choice, or even swerved from the grand object which he had set before him. A long life of toil, of burden-bearing, and of affliction, was before him. But he was faithful in the work of God till his discharge was granted.
The time is at hand when the rebuke of the people of God shall be taken away from off the earth. Isa. xxv, 8. Then the reproach of Christ will be changed to infinite honor and exaltation. Pre-eminent among the saints of God shall stand Moses, the man whose heart was steadfast in the service of his Master. The reproach of Christ shall then be found of infinite value. The shame shall be turned to honor. Ignominy shall be transformed to glory and majesty. When the righteous man is thus exalted to honor, every man shall wish that he also had invested in the reproach of Christ. But there will then be none of that stock in the market. It has become of infinite98value, and there is no longer any of it to be had.
This grand change respecting the reproach of Christ shall plainly be witnessed. It is only a question of time. When it comes, those who have invested all in this despised commodity shall find themselves rich beyond expression. Let us thank God that the reproach of Christ is still to be shared. That there is still time for us to take some part of it for ourselves; and when Moses shall be honored before the whole universe may we have a humble part with him.
THE UNSELFISH CHARACTER OF MOSES.
Our divine Redeemer presents the example of a perfectly unselfish life. The lives of good men recorded in the Scriptures are unselfish in proportion as they drink into his Spirit, and imitate his example. Moses presents as perfect an example of self-forgetfulness as the grace of God has ever raised up in the family of fallen man. When he renounced his connection with the family of Pharaoh, he gave up, not only the worldly interests which he possessed, but with those interests he seems to have surrendered also the love of self-interest. At all events, we may trace his whole career without finding one act of self-seeking, while the whole path is strewed with acts of self-forgetfulness, and disinterested benevolence. Had Moses been thus disposed, he had the most ample opportunities to aggrandize himself and family, and to acquire immense riches. But there was never a time when Moses gave evidence of using power, or taking that high position which he had to fill, except from constraint, and with evident regret. Honor from men was never sought by Moses. His brother Aaron was called to the priesthood, and his sons after him. This made them next in dignity, if not equal, to that family in Israel that were to be the progenitors of the Messiah. But the family of Moses was only equal in dignity to the common Levites. They were never honored with any office that raised them above the other members of the tribe of Levi; they were never enriched with any endowments; in a word, they were never raised from obscurity, only as the family of such a husband and father must have been an object of interest to the people of Israel. But it is worthy of notice that not one feature of the law of Moses, or one provision of his whole system, was formed to benefit either himself, or his family. There is barely one instance in which Moses's part is spoken of, and it is so small an item that it seems to make the matter the more conspicuous. When Aaron was induced into the priesthood, Moses was to act as the consecrating priest. And the law prescribed that the wave breast of one offering on that occasion should be Moses's part. Ex. xxix, 26. We read often enough of the provision for Aaron and his sons, but this one item, on one single occasion, is, if rightly remembered, the only instance in which Moses ever prescribed anything for himself or family. All power was in his hands, yet not one particle was ever conferred on his sons. He could have conferred honor and dignity upon his family, but he left them in the lowly walks of common life. He could have turned immense revenues into their houses, but it does not appear that he ever thus acted, even in the smallest thing. When the man of God had finished his labor for Israel, and left them to ascend the mount and die, he had no worldly estate to settle. He had no feuds among his sons to deplore in their grasping the wealth of their father. He left them in that honorable poverty and obscurity which reflect upon the father and the son the highest admiration of mankind.
When Moses was told by the Lord that he would destroy that idolatrous people, and make of him a great nation to take their place, how the disinterested benevolence of Moses shines forth. He wants nothing for himself. He only asks for the honor of God, and the salvation of the people to be secured, and if it be necessary for the accomplishment of this, he asks that himself may be blotted from the book of life. The disinterestedness of Moses is only surpassed by that of the Son of God. How the grace of God was manifested in his servant Moses. How the same grace might make us examples of unselfishness, if we only had it as we should.
MOSES AS A SHEPHERD.
The transition from the palace of Pharaoh to the humble life of a shepherd was very great indeed. In the place of earthly grandeur, he had lowly surroundings in everything. The flatteries that thronged his path were all gone. The royal dainties also, were left in Egypt. In the place of the vanities of earth there were plain, humble realities of life for his portion.
Moses was not one of the helpless kind of men. He had been brought up with royal dignity, but it had not deprived him of the capacity to earn his own bread. He was not a man to sit down in hopeless despondency, and say it was no use to try. He had thought himself called of God to deliver Israel. He had made an attempt in that direction. The effort was a perfect failure. Not only did he fail, but in his failing he lost all that he had, wealth, rank, friends, home. All of earth was forfeited, and he had no alternative but to flee for his life.
This man, who probably could have ascended the Egyptian throne, was now become a humble shepherd in the deserts of Arabia, near the base of Sinai. Forty years of his life were spent in this humble calling. His old friends in Egypt, at least such of them as were only men of this world, undoubtedly expressed their regret that Moses had thrown himself away; that such a splendid genius, with such an opening before him as few men ever have, should have thrown everything away. Even his brethren in Egypt, who were toiling in servitude, must have felt great, perhaps I should say, bitter, disappointment at the sudden flight of Moses. Without doubt, they not only knew that he was of Hebrew parents, but the circumstances of his case must have pointed him out as the long-hoped-for deliverer. But he had fled for life, and their cause was now one of utter darkness and gloom.
So men must have reasoned. Little did they comprehend of the purpose of God. A life in the court of Pharaoh was not the place to complete his training for the great work of delivering Israel. The providence of God had removed Moses to a higher and nobler school, on purpose to complete his education for the great work of leading Israel to Canaan.
Moses had learned all that human wisdom could teach him. Now he must be trained in a school where God and his angels should teach him lessons, and where Satan also should wage fierce warfare with him, and where he should have time to look into his own heart. Men cannot labor in the cause of God till they have had deep experience in the things of God, and have suffered the fierce assaults of the great Adversary. Here they learn humility, patience, submission to God, poverty of spirit, and, finally, all the excellent graces of the Spirit of God.
Forty years of this schooling was granted to Moses. His life of a shepherd in the desert of Sinai, gave him ample time for communion with God, which we may be sure he faithfully improved. As no man can lead others out of difficulty without being himself subject to the like, we may be sure that Satan was permitted to buffet Moses with fierce and cruel temptations. The grandeur of Egyptian royalty was more than once held before Moses in contrast with the humble life which he then led. In fact, everything that could make him discontented, or cause him to murmur against God, was suggested to his mind. How much of anguish Moses endured is not recorded, indeed, but the result of his forty years' life in the wilderness shows how thorough a preparation it was for the good work before him. He died to self. If he thought himself somewhat before, now he was only dust and ashes.
The hour of deliverance to Israel from Egypt came at last. The man to lead forth the people was prepared for the task. The angel of God appeared in a burning bush, and gave him his great commission. Forty years before, Moses thought himself competent to the task, and entered upon it, only to meet the bitterest disappointment. Now when he is really prepared for the work, so deep is his self-abasement that he begs of the Lord to send some other and more suitable person. We may be sure that Moses had wisely improved this forty years of lowly shepherd life.
THE CONTRAST IN MOSES'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF
AT TWO EPOCHS IN HIS LIFE.
When Moses had completed the fortieth year of his life he was in every respect a man of great accomplishments. He was mighty in word and in deed. He had all the treasures of earthly knowledge, and he had judgment and mental capacity to use that knowledge to the best advantage. If we can believe the Jewish historians he was a warrior and a statesman renowned in the management of the affairs of Egypt. That he possessed talents of the highest order his life sufficiently attests. He was also a man that feared God, in the midst of all the wickedness by which he was surrounded. He showed the depth of his religious principles by his decision to be called no longer the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He had in his heart a strong conviction that God had called him to deliver Israel. So fully did this feeling possess his soul that he set himself about the work; “for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them.” Acts vii, 22–25. He had every earthly qualification for the work; he had also in his character a solid foundation of moral worth. He was a man who both loved and feared God. He thought himself competent to the work, and so urgent did the case appear that he set himself to the performance of the task. But the hour for deliverance had not come; and Moses, God's chosen instrument, was not yet ready for the work. His attempt to relieve his brethren ended in disastrous failure. He had no alternative but to flee for life.
But at the end of a second period of forty years, the time for Israel's deliverance had arrived. The man chosen of God was now ready for the work. He had learned humility, self-denial, patience, submission to God, poverty of spirit, and in a word he had become, in a most eminent sense, a man of God. His self-sufficiency was all gone. He had lost sight of his own strength. He no longer depended on his own great capacity. He was humble as a child. Now in God's sight he was really fitted for the greatest task ever assigned to mortal man.
And he was honored with a call so majestic in the display of the glory of the angel of God, that he could not doubt it as a call from God. Yet so fully did he know his own weakness, and so deeply did he realize his own lack of the grace of God, that he begged with the utmost sincerity and earnestness that God would select some other and fitter instrument for the great work. The humility of Moses ought to teach us a good lesson. He was the only man in the world who had either the natural ability, or the deep experience in the things of God, that was requisite for this great task. Yet in his own eyes how small did he appear. We may know when we have exalted views of ourselves, that it is simply because we lack the grace of God that such feelings have a place in our hearts. When we have really learned of Christ, who is meek and lowly in heart, we ourselves shall be meek and lowly also.
MOSES'S DISAPPOINTMENT.
The lives of most, if not all, the servants of God have been marked with humility and disappointment. John the Baptist ended his career as the forerunner of the Messiah, by being cast into prison, whence he never came out alive. This was so great a trial of his faith that he had to send two of his disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah. Elijah, after the mighty manifestation of God's power at Carmel, in the descent of the fire, and then in the coming of the great rain, after the terrible drought of three and a half years, evidently hoped for the reformation of Ahab and his court. He ran before Ahab to Jezreel, and there awaited the result in the royal family, as Ahab should relate the good event which he had witnessed. He did not have to wait long. Ahab wavered between good and evil, though always ending in evil. Jezebel was always ready for a prompt decision in favor of crime and transgression. She sent Elijah a message, swearing by the gods, whose prophets he had slain, that he, on the morrow, should share their fate. This cruel answer, coming at the very moment when Elijah had the highest hopes of reformation in the court of Jezreel, had the effect to completely unman him. He arose and fled for life. It is the only exhibition of the weakness99
of human nature that is presented in the record of his life. How powerless Jezebel really was to harm this mighty man of God, was seen afterward when her son sent three bands, of fifty men each, to take him. But Elijah, for the moment, forgot his strength in God, and remembered only his own weakness. Perhaps such a humiliation was absolutely necessary after the mighty triumph he had witnessed. So with John the Baptist. He needed, after such a work as he had wrought, time and space to reflect upon his own weakness, and to abase himself in the dust before God.
When Moses left the court of Pharaoh to join himself to the people of God, there was nothing so well calculated to prepare him for the great work of his life, as bitter disappointment. So this was his first experience. He would have entered upon the deliverance of Israel. His efforts were in many respects a perfect failure. He had this humiliating fact prominent in his mind as he fled into the wilderness of Midian. It was an excellent introduction to his lowly life as a shepherd. “Not by might, nor power,” i. e. human strength and greatness, “but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Zech. iv, 6. This was the lesson for Moses to learn. It was a severe lesson, but it was thoroughly learned. Moses had too much of the fear of God before his eyes to yield to that bitter spirit of reflection upon God, that Satan can so effectually stir up in the heart of that man who is but partially converted to God.
He bowed his whole soul before God. The valley of humiliation became not merely his place of resort; it was his place of constant abode. We can judge of what was wrought for Moses in the land of Midian, by the state of mind in which he left it to return to Egypt. He might have spent his forty years of lowly shepherd life in bitter regret for the royal honors of Egypt he had relinquished, and in uttering words of unreconciliation and murmuring against God for the utter failure of his well-meant endeavor to deliver Israel. But he had a nobler kind of employment there. He communed with his own heart and was still. He communed with the Spirit of God till he drank deeply into the heavenly graces. He walked before God with such singleness of heart that he enjoyed the care of the angels of God, and at last beheld them with his own eyes. That lowly life of a shepherd fitted him to be the shepherd of the flock of God. It was a part of his life to which memory must have gratefully returned as he bore the crushing burden of Israel's rebellion in the wilderness. His disappointment was made of exceeding profit to him. Why not we profit by this lesson?
J. N. ANDREWS.
THE HEAVENLY HOME,
By Mary E. Guilford
Would you have a home in Heaven,
With the holy, pure, and good—
Those whose sins are all forgiven,
Washed away in Christ's own blood?
Would you drink of that pure river,
Flowing from God's holy throne?
Bask in Jesus' smiles forever—
From his presence never roam?
Would you enter that blest city,
Tread its streets of burnished gold,
Gaze upon its wondrous beauty,
Share its joys, and wealth untold?
Would you mount fair Zion's height,
Pluck its never-fading flowers,
Bask in scenes of pure delight,
Found in those ambrosial bowers?
Would you join the angel choir
In ascribing praise to God?
Let these themes thy soul inspire,
While you pass beneath the rod.
Put away all evil speaking;
All hypocrisy and guile;
If you are the kingdom seeking,
Flee from all that would defile.
With a humble mind press on;
Upward bend your earnest gaze;
Pause not to heed the world's cold frown,
Go not in their sinful ways.
With thine eye fixed on the prize,
Keep within the narrow road,
Till the Lord from yonder skies,
Take you up to his abode.
MARY E. GUILFORD.
Erie Co., Ohio.
HUMILITY.
By A. S. HUTCHINS
Is opposed to pride. “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar off.” “For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.” Humility consists in having low thoughts of ourselves, with a deep sense of our unworthiness in the sight of the Lord. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.”
This excellent grace leads us to a consideration of our weakness, and teaches us to trust for strength and help in Him who hath said, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Humility is pleasing to God, and prepares us for receiving further degrees of fellowship with him, and blessings from his bountiful hand. “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility.” By it, accompanied with the fear of the Lord, “are riches and honor and life.” And what more can we desire? Alas! for man, poor, fallen man, that his heart is so lifted up, and prone to haughtiness. Alas! that it is a characteristic of so many who profess the religion of the Man of Calvary. Oh! that we all might heed the exhortation, “Be clothed with humility.” Then might we in some small degree, in thought and deed imitate Him “who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the earth.” And in some measure should we follow the example of the blessed Saviour, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Says the apostle, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ.” Phil. ii, 5.
It is not for us to ask God to humble us, as some do. It were better, however, that we be humbled by afflictions and judgments, God's means of humbling men (Deut. viii, 2, 3; Dan. iv, 25-37) than to be destitute of humility. This is a work for us to do by divine aid. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” 1 Pet. v, 6.
By searching the sacred Scriptures, we learn that men humble themselves when they are led to a thorough consideration of their sins, a repentance of, and turning from, them, and a cheerful submission to God. Please read 2 Chron. xxxii, 26; xxxiii, 12; xxxiv, 27; Jonah iii. With such humility God is well pleased.
“For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isa. lvii, 15.
Dear brethren and sisters, may we be able to repent of all our sins. May not one be left unconfessed and forsaken, to shut us from the favor and presence of God—to forever close the golden gates of the New Jerusalem against us. Those gates will open to the righteous nation, to those who keep the commandments of God. To be commandment-keepers, we must keep them all; but we are commandment-breakers if we break but one.
Oh! then, may we not fail to obey God in all things; may we not lose the crown of life; may we not lose the privilege of sitting with Jesus on his throne of unending glory, of seeing all the redeemed saints, and mingling our voices with theirs in the song of endless joy. Oh, enrapturing thought! Oh, soul-supporting hope! Can we be there? Shall we be there to suffer and die no more? Shall we meet all the blood-washed throng, to live and reign with them forever and ever? Yes, weary pilgrim, we may. Praise God! Then let us hope on, let us toil on and suffer on, till the Master come.
A. S. HUTCHINS.
SOME MIXED.
By P. STRONG
BRO. SMITH: I send you a brief synopsis of a discourse against the Sabbath; delivered in this place by Eld. White, Methodist from Wayland, in which you will see some mixing, and crowding of time, in order to get rid of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Text, the ten commandments, Ex. xx. These are just as binding on us, as on our forefathers. But there is a diversity of opinion in regard to the day. God gave the Sabbath in commemoration of creation week. But we can not tell whether it was a week of days, or of years, or of a thousand years, or of indefinite periods of time. Sufficient for us to say, is, that it was six periods of time; and we are commanded to keep the seventh-day Sabbath in commemoration of that event.
Abraham, Enoch, and others, kept it till the exode. God then recorded it on stone at Sinai, and we are in duty bound to obey it.
But history says that the children of Israel left Egypt on Thursday, and Moses commanded them to keep that day in commemoration of that event. And therefore that day [Thursday] was kept as the Sabbath till Christ abolished it on the cross, and established the first-day as the Christian Sabbath.
Paul was converted before Christ’s ascension, and preached as his manner was on the Jewish Sabbath, [Thursday] Acts xiii, 14–43; xxi, 13; xvii, 2, 3; xviii, 4–11; but after the Christian church was established, [at Pentecost] he immediately celebrated the first day of the week. Acts xx, 7; 1 Cor. xvi, 2.
The Jews are bound to keep the old law now until they are converted to Christ. And to keep the same day [seventh] that Abraham kept, and they have always kept that day. Here he got so mixed up that he could not find which day they did keep, Thursday or Saturday; and therefore it was a hard matter to tell which day is the day after the Sabbath, on which the Lord arose. But of this he was certain that we are in duty bound to keep the day that the laws of the land set apart, and therefore we, as a Christian nation, must keep Sunday, the glorious day on which our Saviour arose.
So according to this, Christ was crucified Wednesday, the day before the Jewish Sabbath [Thursday]. And the third day after the Sabbath [Thursday], he arose very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, making him rest in the tomb part of five days, and abolish two weekly Sabbaths, which God never claimed to have, and making God’s law a mass of contradiction and nonsense.
Again there are only fifty-three days from the crucifixion to Pentecost. And Paul preached eighty-four Sabbaths, taking one year and seven months’ time to do it in. How could he crowd in so much preaching and time, before the church was established at Pentecost? Truly none but one of Ezekiel’s foxes could so pack time, Eze. xiii, 4, 5, and make Paul preach Christ before he was called; for the first testimony we have of Paul or Saul, is his consenting to the death of one of the church’s deacons, Acts viii, 1, and his conversion is after that. Acts ix, 1–18.
Would it not be proper to say with Ezekiel, “They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. And the prophets have daubed their wall with untempered mortar.”, Eze. xxii, 26, 28.
P. STRONG.
SELF-DENIAL AND PERSEVERANCE.
By E. E. STURGES
God calls upon his people to exercise self-denial. Nothing short of a full and complete sacrifice will he accept. He demands all that we have and are, yea, life itself. Does it seem unreasonable? If so, consider that he requires but his own. Besides this, we owe a great debt which could only be paid by the precious blood of Christ. God cannot bid us deny ourselves more for him than he has done for us. Is reproach for Christ so intolerable that we cannot endure it? Christ had more honor at stake than poor, sinful man dare pretend to have. He “thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.”
Is it pain or suffering that we are afraid of? Oh! look up to the cross, or back to the garden of Gethsemane, and behold the blessed Jesus, agonizing under the weight of the sins of the whole world. See him nailed to the cross. Oh! let us willingly take up our own little cross, thanking God that he has made one so light and easy, when Christ bore one for us so heavy.
God is willing to recompense us for all that we do for the truth. “I reckon,” says Paul, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” “Whoever,” says Christ, “will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” Another, with Simon of Cyrene, may be compelled to carry Christ’s cross a little way; but we find the self-denying soul will stoop willingly to receive the burthen for Christ’s sake.
This may seem a hard work, this taking up the cross daily, this praying always, this watching night and day, and never laying aside our armor, nor indulging ourselves, nor ceasing in our patient waiting on God. Unless we take God at his word, and believe he means just what he says, and that what he promises he certainly will perform, we shall be overcome. The little remnant needs to put on firm resolution. Let us bear in mind that God and angels are spectators, observing our self-denial and perseverance, and quit ourselves like children of the Most High in the work of overcoming.
Jesus, our blessed mediator, has not forsaken his little flock. He sees every proof of our love for him, and our zeal in battling with the powers of darkness. As the time grows short, the wrath of the enemy increases, and he will try to overcome the remnant of Israel, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus. But, thank God, deliverance is sure. We have the promise of final victory. This waiting company shall see Jesus when he comes, and will stand with him on Mount Zion.