.2.2. .Zo. 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Presented by 
 
 ThA . cI.T?vtcVm& Sta&b ^"d.-d. 
 
 Division. J&SlSL A 2-, I 
 
 Section 
 
THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
/ 
 
THE JOYFUL HOURS 
 OF JESUS 
 
 BY 
 
 J. GIBSON LOWRIE, D.D. 
 
 
 JUL 
 
 1920 
 
 A 
 
 %^!GAL %l*$£ 
 
 " In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit." — Luke x : 21. 
 
 " Looking unto Jesus, . . . who, for the joy that was 
 set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and 
 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. — 
 Hebrews xii : 2. 
 
 New York 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London 
 
 AND 
 
 Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1918, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 
 
To all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 especially to the churches I have served in the 
 Gospel ministry, this little volume is dedicated. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 THE volume here submitted to the public 
 presents the brighter aspects of our Lord's 
 life and ministry. Though not specifically 
 connected, nor progressively developed, the various 
 chapters of the book have a unity of theme, in that 
 they all have to do with His gladdening life-work. 
 It is the hope of the Author that the friends of 
 our blessed Master will welcome this humble effort 
 to call attention to His " Joyful Hours," and that 
 because of it some weary souls may " with joy 
 draw water out of the wells of salvation." 
 
 J. G. L. 
 
 Galesburg, III. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I Elements of Happiness in Jesus' 
 
 Life 
 
 II Foregleams of Rejoicing 
 
 III A Gladdening Life-Work 
 
 IV Joy at the Well-Side 
 V Food that Satisfies 
 
 VI Glad Tidings at Nazareth . 
 
 VII In the Holy Mount 
 
 VIII Spiritual Blessings Recognized 
 
 IX Forgiven and Loving Much . 
 
 X Anointed at Bethany . 
 
 XI Our Lord's Spiritual Family 
 
 XII That Good Part 
 
 XIII The Crowning Satisfaction 
 
 XIV Hearts Aflame 
 
 ii 
 28 
 
 43 
 58 
 69 
 80 
 
 94 
 108 
 123 
 
 137 
 151 
 165 
 176 
 
 189 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN 
 JESUS' LIFE 
 
 THE Bible speaks of the joyful hours of 
 Jesus: but its utterances on this delight- 
 ful theme have been strangely neglected. 
 Expositors and teachers have dwelt almost exclu- 
 sively upon the sufferings of Christ. To the 
 Church in all ages He has been pre-eminently " a 
 Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief." We 
 do not wonder at this, for His sufferings were very 
 real, and at the close of His life unparalleled : and 
 upon His painful death are based our hopes of 
 salvation. 
 
 Beside this, it was natural that the martyr 
 Church of the first Christian centuries should 
 emphasize the sufferings of her head, since thus 
 she derived sympathy in her trials and consoled 
 herself with the thought that she was " filling up 
 that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ " 
 (Col. i : 24). It was literally through much tribu- 
 lation that the early Christians entered into the 
 kingdom of heaven. What wonder that they 
 dwelt much upon the sorrows of their Lord, 
 
 11 
 
12 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 feeling that the disciple was not above his Master ! 
 What wonder that the Cross threw its dark shadow 
 not only over the closing scenes of His career, but 
 over His entire Life! 
 
 A celebrated letter from Publius Lentulus to the 
 Roman Senate gives a description of the person of 
 our Savior. Among other things it says of Him, 
 " He was never seen to smile, but oftentimes to 
 weep." The letter is undoubtedly spurious; and 
 may not be earlier than the Fourth Century, yet 
 it reflects the current conception of the early 
 Church — a conception that has not died out of the 
 world. 
 
 While holding all that is vital as to the sufferings 
 of Christ, we may form a saner judgment of His 
 life as a whole by looking upon the bright side of 
 the picture. His life was not all gloom. He was 
 foretold as One who should give " the oil of joy 
 for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit 
 of heaviness" (Isa. lxi:3). He bade His dis- 
 ciples, even in the hour of their tribulations, to 
 " rejoice and leap for joy." His final blessing 
 was that His joy might remain in them and that 
 their joy might be full. We are told that He took 
 little children in His arms and blessed them. 
 Surely it was only a countenance beaming with 
 unaffected gladness that would win them to nestle 
 contentedly in His bosom. 
 
 What were the elements of happiness in the life 
 of our Lord? 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 13 
 
 What were some of the joyful hours of Jesus 
 upon the earth? 
 
 These are the questions we aim now to discuss. 
 
 Let us say at the outset that we have every 
 reason to believe in the happy boyhood of Jesus. 
 As Stier has beautifully said, we have but a " soli- 
 tary floweret out of the wonderful inclosed garden 
 of the thirty years." After His infancy, the scene 
 in the Temple is the only one that is accorded us of 
 the early years of our Lord's life. And a single 
 word, dropped by one of the Evangelists, is all 
 the authoritative information we possess as to how 
 these early years were spent. Mark calls Him 
 " the Carpenter." A humble avocation was His, 
 and a life of seclusion and toil, and even poverty 
 is suggested by it. 
 
 But we have no reason to think that it was any 
 other than a very happy life. When we reflect 
 how much man's happiness depends upon labor 
 we cannot look upon this period of our Lord's 
 life with regret. He has forever dignified the 
 lowliest toil by becoming a carpenter of Galilee. 
 As truly then as in later , years, when busied 
 with far different labors, He could say, " My 
 Father worketh hitherto, and I work " (John 
 v:i7). 
 
 We are not to think He was only a. carpenter in 
 His Galilean home. There was much that Jesus 
 began to do before He began to teach, and even 
 
14 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 in these early years His Father's business was 
 never absent from His thoughts. 
 
 But whatever were His employments, before He 
 began His active ministry, we have no reason to 
 think He was burdened with sorrow. Nazareth 
 was not indeed a Paradise. Its inhabitants were 
 rude and uncultured; their lives were narrow and 
 circumscribed; they had their deep prejudices; 
 and later rejected Jesus in the meridian of His 
 power. Nevertheless, Nazareth was a safe retreat 
 which the fierce storms of the outer world did not 
 disturb, and where He who was " to destroy the 
 works of the devil " had opportunity to prepare 
 for the conflict and " gird His sword upon His 
 thigh" (Ps. xlv:3). 
 
 In its quiet seclusion He was not brought directly 
 into contact with the passions, strifes and tumults 
 of men which made the brief season of His active 
 ministry so stormy, and which so often stirred His 
 pure nature to its lowest depths with holy anger 
 and righteous indignation. And though Nazareth 
 had no immunity from sickness and death, yet not 
 there, as in after years, did he assume that He 
 might bear the infirmities of the multitude. 
 Doubtless He never even witnessed at Nazareth 
 many of the maladies of men His power was after- 
 wards present to heal. 
 
 What were the occupations of His boyhood, out- 
 side of the little shop of Joseph? We have only 
 the general statement that He " increased in 
 wisdom and stature, and in favor with God 
 
ELEMENTS OF HArPINESS IN JESUS 15 
 
 and man" (Luke xi:52). We have no reason 
 to think His was a different life from that of His 
 boyhood acquaintances, save in the fact that 
 " He knew no sin." He must have prattled in in- 
 nocent glee at His mother's side, like other babies. 
 He must have joined in the healthful sports of His 
 boyhood companions. We are told that in His 
 active ministry there was a " disciple whom Jesus 
 loved" (John xx:2). Was there no boy friend 
 whom Jesus loved, as in after years He came to 
 love John ? We do not know ; but we cannot but 
 believe He knew the joys of intimate friendships 
 even in childhood and that His holy influence fell 
 as a benediction upon some youthful companions 
 who were quickened by it into spiritual life. A 
 poet has said, 
 
 " Heaven lies about us in our infancy." 
 
 What an atmosphere of beauty and joy must 
 have ever surrounded the wonderful boy whose 
 thoughts were pure, whose spirit was in com- 
 munion with God and whose delight was in doing 
 the will of His Heavenly Father ! What a heaven 
 earth would soon become were every child like the 
 "holy child Jesus!" 
 
 Perfect physical health contributed, in no small 
 measure, to the happiness of our Lord. There is 
 no evidence that He was ever sick. There is much 
 to indicate that He possessed a sound and health- 
 ful body. He lived the simple life. He was much 
 in the open air. He was temperate in all things. 
 
16 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 He possessed a tranquil mind. He held empire 
 over his passions. He conformed to all the laws 
 of physical well-being. We may believe no body 
 was ever so fit as His to be, because of its physical 
 perfection, the temple of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 No body enfeebled by disease, unless sustained 
 by constant miracle, could have endured the strain 
 of His extraordinary labors during His active 
 ministry. The Evangelical Seer had indeed said 
 of Him, as he beheld Him afar off in vision, " We 
 did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and af- 
 flicted " (Isaiah iii:4). But the Evangelist Mat- 
 thew applies Isaiah's description directly to Christ's 
 ministry of healing. " He cast out the spirits 
 with His word and healed all that were sick ; that it 
 might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the 
 prophet saying, Himself took our infirmities and 
 bare our sicknesses " (Matt, viii: 17). 
 
 It is indeed true that many disciples of Christ 
 have lived happy lives whose bodies have been smit- 
 ten with disease and filled with pain : but they have 
 been happy in spite of physical sufferings and not 
 because of them; and their happiness would have 
 been greater had they each possessed " a sound 
 mind in a sound body." 
 
 And the mind of Jesus, no less than His body, 
 contributed to His enjoyment of life. His was the 
 gift of genius, without those irregularities and 
 peculiarities of temper that we are compelled so 
 often to associate with the word. 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 17 
 
 The inner kingdom of His lofty spirit was al- 
 ways under the control of His will. His intellectual 
 powers were unimpaired by indulgence and never 
 suffered because of internal derangement. His 
 mind fed upon Truth. It obeyed the laws of 
 thought. It had capacities for happiness unknown 
 to those who walked not upon the heights He trod. 
 
 His out-of-door life and his bodily and mental 
 vigor opened to Him another and deep source of 
 happiness in the enjoyment of nature. We are 
 told "The Lord shall rejoice in his works" (Ps. 
 civ : 31 ). Surely then, even in His humiliation, He 
 by whom God made the worlds (Heb. 1:2) re- 
 joiced in the works of creation. The most ele- 
 vated souls have the keenest appreciation of the 
 beauties of the outer world. How then must na- 
 ture have appealed to the lofty mind of Jesus! 
 The enchanting beauty of His Galilean home must 
 have often refreshed His spirit and awakened 
 pleasurable emotions far transcending those of sin- 
 ful men. When disappointed and depressed in 
 His contact with the dull minds and evil tempers 
 of His fellow townsmen how often did nature 
 greet Him with " a smile and eloquence of beauty " 
 and how often did He find in her " a mild and heal- 
 ing sympathy." 
 
 Speaking of the scenery around Nazareth Dean 
 Farrar says : " The view from this spot would in 
 any country be regarded as extraordinarily rich and 
 lovely: but it receives a yet more indescribable 
 
18 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 charm from our belief that here, with His feet 
 among the mountain flowers, and the soft breeze 
 lifting the hair from His temples, Jesus must often 
 have watched the eagles poised in the cloudless 
 blue, and have gazed upward as He heard over- 
 head the rushing plumes of the long line of peli- 
 cans, as they winged their way from the streams of 
 Kishon to the lake of Galilee. And what a vision 
 would be outspread before Him as He sat at spring- 
 time on the green and thyme-besprinkled turf! 
 To the north, Hermon upheaved into the blue the 
 huge, splendid mass of his colossal shoulder, white 
 with eternal snows. Eastward, at a few miles 
 distance, rose the green and rounded summit of 
 Tabor, clothed with terebinth and oak. To the 
 west He would gaze through that diaphanous air 
 on the purple ridge of Carmel — and the dazzling 
 line of white sand which fringes the waves of the 
 Mediterranean, dotted here and there with the 
 white sails of the " ships of Chittim." South- 
 ward, lay the entire plain of Esdraelon, so memo- 
 rable in the history of Palestine and of the world, 
 green as a pavement of emeralds, rich with its 
 gleams of vivid sunlight, and the purpling shadows 
 which floated over it from the clouds of the latter 
 
 rain 
 
 » * 
 
 And what wonder that Jesus loved the solitudes 
 of Olivet and of Gethsemane? Not only did the 
 Father meet Him there, but there nature stood, 
 * " The Life of Christ," Vol. i, p. 101. 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 19 
 
 with open volume, to delight His eye and to feed 
 His ever expanding intellect. What wonder that 
 the Great Teacher saw so many beautiful analogies 
 between nature and grace, and that He adorned the 
 lily of the field, the hanging vine, the springing 
 grass, the noble trees with new beauty as, forming 
 them into a spiritual alphabet, He made them set 
 before us new lessons, which he who runs may 
 read, of the wisdom and goodness of God! 
 
 But our blessed Lord, though thus a lover of 
 nature and holding " communion with her visible 
 forms," found His chief " rejoicing in the habit- 
 able part of His earth, and His delights were with 
 the sons of men" (Prov. viii 131). He was not 
 like John the Baptist, a man of the desert, austere 
 and abstemious. He was no ascetic. " The Son 
 of Man came eating and drinking." He was a 
 man among men. His social qualities were 
 marked. His first miracle was at a marriage feast. 
 He accepted invitations from rich and poor alike. 
 He ate and drank with publicans and sinners. He 
 loved to be with men, and but for the envy, the 
 pride and the selfish rejection of those He came 
 to save, He would have mingled with them more 
 freely than He did and drawn them to Himself in 
 tender intimacy. Alas, " He came unto His own 
 (dwelling place) and His own (people) received 
 Him not (John i: 2). 
 
 There was, however, a little circle of friends, 
 who gladdened the heart of Jesus by their fellow- 
 
20 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 ship and devotion. His early disciples were rude 
 and unlettered men; but they gave Him the love 
 His spirit craved. Later, other friends were won 
 by Him. " Jesus loved Martha and her sister and 
 Lazarus " (John xj: 5). He was often refreshed 
 by them and many happy hours were spent by Him 
 in the home at Bethany. That quiet retreat was 
 one of the bright spots in our Lord's earthly so- 
 journ. Here He found, what to the weary is an 
 unspeakable luxury — rest. And here He surely 
 met what, amid the sordid multitude His spirit 
 often craved in vain, sympathy and appreciation. 
 " Martha received Him into her house . . . and 
 Mary ... sat at Jesus' feet and heard His 
 word" (Luke x:38, 39). And among His 
 apostles there was one who was pre-eminently 
 " that disciple whom Jesus loved." 
 
 These friends of Jesus, notwithstanding all their 
 imperfections of character and dullness of spiritual 
 vision, gave Him many joyful hours. 
 
 Nor may we forget that often in His earthly 
 ministry a more congenial society was His. His 
 mission was one in which all heaven was deeply 
 interested, and angels desired to look into the mys- 
 teries that gathered around it. Angels ministered 
 to Him in the wilderness. An angel was with Him 
 in the garden. Is it too much to assume that often, 
 during the strange travail of His soul He was sup- 
 ported and cheered by their sympathetic ministra- 
 tions ? 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 21 
 
 And a higher communion still was His : a source 
 of unfailing, unalloyed happiness. Save in one 
 supreme and awful hour, He could always say 
 " The Father hath not left Me alone ! " (John viii : 
 29). He knew, alas, how well, the uncertainty of 
 human friendships; but He knew One Friend on 
 whom He could depend ! " Behold," He cried to 
 His disciples, " the hour cometh ; yea is now come, 
 that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, 
 and shall leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, 
 because the Father is with Me " (John xvi : 32). 
 
 The happiness that Jesus always found in com- 
 munion with God can be but very imperfectly un- 
 derstood by us ; yet we are very sure that it was a 
 happiness far transcending that ever experienced 
 by any other being on this sinful earth. And 
 there were supreme moments in His life, when He 
 enjoyed such manifestations of the Father's pres- 
 ence as must have filled His soul with ineffable joy. 
 When at His baptism, at His transfiguration and 
 just before His crucifixion, at morning, at noon- 
 time and in the evening of His Day on earth, a 
 voice was heard from heaven, proclaiming His di- 
 vine sonship and authenticating His mission, His 
 must have been " a joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory" (1 Peter 1:8). 
 
 The deepest source of our Savior's happiness, 
 however, was in His sinlessness. It was this in- 
 deed that fitted Him for unbroken communion with 
 God, and this in itself shut off from His inner be- 
 
22 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 ing many forms of suffering that only sinful souls 
 may know. He bare our sins. He suffered their 
 dreadful penalty. What He endured " for us men 
 and for our salvation " no tongue can tell. But 
 there is a peculiar form of suffering springing from 
 conscious wrong doing that can be compared with 
 nothing else, and we are glad to know that our 
 blessed Lord never experienced it. He never suf- 
 fered from an evil conscience. He never knew the 
 pangs of remorse. His soul was never inflamed 
 with unholy anger, nor embittered by jealousy, nor 
 warped with covetous desire, nor vexed with envy, 
 nor consumed with malice, nor puffed up with 
 pride, nor shaken with fear, nor sullied with one 
 single sinful thought! From His life in the 
 manger to His death upon the cross He was " holy, 
 harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners " (Heb. 
 vii:26). When we consider how directly suf- 
 fering and sorrow in this life spring from personal 
 transgression we cannot overestimate the happiness 
 of one who was justly exempt from self -accusation 
 and the condemnation of God's holy law. 
 
 In a Life of Lord Byron a graphic picture is pre- 
 sented of his career in Venice. " Humiliation, 
 shame, a keen sense of injury, remorseful anger, 
 and incessant fury of heart and brain were the 
 forces that disposed Byron to depraving enjoy- 
 ments." * What a contrast with the perfect peace 
 that reigned undisturbed in our Savior's bosom! 
 * " The Real Byron," p. 68. 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 23 
 
 His soul was a pure fountain where springs of 
 gladness ever rose within. He told the Samaritan 
 woman, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
 shall give him shall never thirst : but the water that 
 I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, 
 springing up into everlasting life " (John iv: 14). 
 
 Surely He who could give this water to others 
 had an unfailing supply in Himself. He had a 
 present possession to impart when He said to His 
 disciples, " Peace I leave with you, My peace I 
 give unto you " (John xiv: 27). 
 
 And pre-eminently the joyful hours of Jesus 
 were hours of service. He could truly say " I de- 
 light to do Thy will, O my God" (Ps. xl:8). 
 " For I came down from heaven, not to do mine 
 own will, but the will of Him that sent me " (John 
 
 vi: 3 8). 
 
 There is satisfaction in all honest work that is 
 well done; but what work ever brought its own 
 sweet reward like that of our Savior's tender and 
 loving ministry ? What was apparently one of His 
 familiar sayings is quoted by the apostle Paul in 
 his affecting address to the elders of Ephesus. He 
 bade them " remember the words of the Lord Jesus 
 how He said (was wont to say) ' It is more blessed 
 to give than to receive ' " (Acts xx : 35). No one 
 ever experienced the blessedness of giving as did 
 the Lord Jesus. His whole life was spent in 
 benevolence. And in every work of mercy 
 wrought by His hands His soul was refreshed and 
 
24 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 made glad. What joy must have shone on His 
 kindly face as He looked into the opened eyes of 
 the man born blind at Jerusalem, of the two blind 
 men of Capernaum and of Bartimeus and his com- 
 panion in blindness at Jericho ? What new strength 
 did He feel in His heart when He healed the para- 
 lytic, rebuked the fever of Simon's wife's mother 
 and raised up the bowed form of the woman with a 
 spirit of infirmity ! 
 
 What enjoyment He took in feeding the hungry 
 multitudes. And how He must have rejoiced with 
 the widow of Nain, with the household of Jairus 
 and with the sisters at Bethany as He showed Him- 
 self to be Lord both of life and of death! 
 
 Ministering to the smitten bodies of men and 
 raising the dead were not, however, the highest 
 forms of service in which Jesus was engaged. 
 These things were ever subordinate to His chief 
 mission which was to seek and to save that which 
 was lost. 
 
 It was when He found faith in the hearts of His 
 hearers, saw the tears of the penitent and felt the 
 answering love of souls His love had quickened 
 into spiritual life, that He had His most joyful 
 hours. In his matchless parables of the lost 
 sheep, the lost coin and the lost boy, He teaches 
 this great lesson. " There is joy in the presence 
 of the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
 penteth." It is first of all a reflected joy the 
 angels feel. They catch the light of a gladness on 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 25 
 
 the face of God, and are moved to rejoicing by it, 
 as the waves of the sea are kindled into brightness 
 by the shining of the sun. Jesus always tasted this 
 supreme joy before His disciples shared it and 
 came to rejoice with Him. 
 
 They wondered when they returned to the well 
 at Samaria that their Master whom they had left 
 weary and faint did not partake of the food they 
 had brought. But He had found a stimulus that 
 sunk the claims of the body out of sight. And He 
 said " I have meat to eat that ye know not of." 
 " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me 
 and to finish His work." The joy of soul saving 
 was the highest joy our blessed Lord ever knew 
 upon earth. 
 
 When the seventy returned with joy saying, 
 " Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through 
 Thy name," He bade them rejoice most of all that 
 their names were written in heaven. " In that 
 hour Jesus rejoiced (literally exulted) in spirit, 
 and said I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
 and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
 babes : even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
 Thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of 
 my Father : and no man knoweth who the Father 
 is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will re- 
 veal Him " (Luke x: 17-22). And it was in this 
 hour of exultation and triumph, as we learn from 
 the parallel passage in Matthew (xi:27), that He 
 
26 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 gave utterance to that matchless invitation that has 
 sounded on through all the ages since His day, 
 bringing comfort, strength and gladness to so many 
 hearts : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt, xi : 
 28). Does it not enhance the value of this price- 
 less heritage of the weary that it was spoken, not 
 in an hour of despondency and heaviness by the 
 man of sorrows, but in an hour of exultation, when 
 Jesus rejoiced in spirit as He realized to the full 
 His oneness with God and that all power was given 
 unto Him in heaven and in earth? 
 
 In our Savior's ministry of soul saving upon 
 earth was fulfilled the prophecy of Zephaniah 
 " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty : 
 He will save; He will rejoice over thee with joy; 
 He will rest in His love ; He will joy over thee with 
 singing" (Zeph. iii:i6, 17). 
 
 " For the joy that was set before Him He en- 
 dured the cross " (Heb. xii : 2) yet His joy was not 
 all in the future. 
 
 In spite of all His acknowledged sorrows we 
 are warranted in believing that never did sinful 
 man on this earth live a life in which as much hap- 
 piness was summed up as in the life of Jesus of 
 Nazareth. 
 
 I once heard Chaplain McCabe, afterward 
 Bishop of the M. E. Church, relate how after giv- 
 ing his lecture on the " Bright Side of Life in 
 Libbey Prison," a lady who had listened to him 
 
ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN JESUS 27 
 
 came forward and thanked him, with tears in her 
 eyes, that he had made it possible for her to be- 
 lieve that her boy, who had suffered in that worse 
 than barbarous prison house, had some happy hours 
 even there. And surely it is comforting to think 
 that He who willingly endured for us humiliation, 
 suffering and death was not unhappy in His exile 
 from His Father's House: that He had the abid- 
 ing springs of peace and joy in His own being; and 
 that there were many hours when " Jesus rejoiced 
 in spirit." 
 
 " Christ had his joys — but they were not 
 
 The joys the son of pleasure boasts — 
 O, no ! 't was when His Spirit sought 
 
 Thy Will, Thy glory, God of hosts ! 
 Christ had His joys — and so hath he, 
 
 Who feels His Spirit in his heart; 
 Who yields, O God, his all to Thee, 
 
 And loves Thy name for what Thou art ! " 
 
II 
 
 FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 
 
 IT is not only in the New Testament that the 
 joyfulness of our blessed Redeemer is set 
 before us. Before His Advent this aspect 
 of his life-work was abundantly recognized. The 
 Messianic Psalms are full of it. (See especially 
 45, 72, no.) The harps of the prophets were not 
 always pitched upon the minor key. Abraham 
 rejoiced to see Christ's day, and he saw it and was 
 glad. David and Isaiah strike no higher notes 
 than when they exult in His triumphant reign ; and 
 the prophet Zephaniah, in a remarkable chapter, 
 predicts his joyful rest in salvation. We may 
 therefore fittingly devote this chapter of the " Joy- 
 ful Hours of Jesus " to a consideration of these 
 prophetic words: "Sing, O daughter of Zion; 
 shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all thy 
 heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. . . . The Lord 
 thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will 
 save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will 
 rest in His love, He will joy over thee with sing- 
 ing." Zeph. iii : 14-17. This short passage is an 
 inspired poem in itself. It is one of the many 
 little gems of Hebrew literature. As a poem it 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 29 
 
 has all the elements of the highest art. The lan- 
 guage is simple, yet elevated ; strong and full of 
 vitality. It has a true rhythm and resonance, 
 which give pleasure to the ear, and a movement 
 which sustains interest throughout. 
 
 Yet here is something more than Classic beauty, 
 something loftier than " poetic efflatus." These 
 old Hebrew prophets, sublime as their language 
 often is, never aim merely at purity of diction or 
 beauty of expression. With them poetry was an 
 instrument, never an end in itself. It was a 
 vehicle of lofty thought, only valued for the mes- 
 sage it bore. It was with a divinely guided touch 
 that the prophet's hand swept the lyre; with a 
 mind moved by the Spirit of God that he poured 
 forth his utterances, speaking to the heart of the 
 Hebrew people, now with a simple lyric ; now with 
 a powerful drama; now with a solemn dirge; now 
 with a hallelujah of triumph; but always with a 
 religious object in view; to awaken to penitence, 
 to inspire with assurance, to move to holy action. 
 
 Not always, indeed, was the full import of the 
 inspired message discerned; but always, to the 
 hearts of those prepared for it, was knowledge and 
 grace imparted. And the prophets themselves 
 searched diligently to know what or what manner 
 of the time the Spirit of Christ which was in them 
 did signify, when it testified beforehand the suffer- 
 ings of Christ and the glory which should follow. 
 i Pet. i : 10. 
 
30 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 So we may listen to this voice of the past, as- 
 sured that it still has its message for the Church. 
 It is for us the Gospel is here preached. Though 
 his language is in poetic form Zephaniah uses 
 here " great plainness of speech." His great 
 theme is salvation. His key-note is joy. His end 
 is to comfort and inspire the hearts of God's 
 people, by revealing the peculiar glories of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 Let us note that the prophet speaks here of 
 the Majesty of Christ. The Jehovah of the O. T. 
 is the Jesus of the New. The God of the O. T. 
 is the God of the New. God does not change. 
 Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, to-day and 
 forever. It is true that God, who is spoken of 
 as Jehovah in the O. T., did not reveal Himself 
 so fully as He did in the person and life of Jesus 
 Christ; but this was not because God was less 
 gracious in O. T. times than in N. T. times; but 
 because the world was not ready to receive His 
 revelations. I believe that God has always re- 
 vealed Himself as fully to men as it has been 
 possible for Him to do, without doing violence to 
 the freedom of the human will. 
 
 It was Jehovah Jesus who, before His incarna- 
 tion, spake in times past to the prophets and it is 
 Jehovah Jesus who speaks to us more fully in the 
 revelations of the N. T. 
 
 In this we are not claiming more for Jesus 
 Christ than He claimed for Himself. He told the 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 31 
 
 Jews, " Before Abraham was, I Am." " He that 
 hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Thomas said 
 to Him, after His resurrection, " My Lord and 
 my God." And so far from rebuking him for 
 idolatrous worship, Jesus replied, " Thomas, be- 
 cause thou hast seen, thou hast believed. Blessed 
 are they who have not seen, and yet have be- 
 lieved." We believe, with Paul, that in Him dwelt 
 all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. That He 
 is the brightness of God's glory and the express 
 image of His person. That He was before all 
 things and that by Him all things consist. And 
 with John that " all things were made by Him, 
 and without Him was not anything made that 
 was made." 
 
 Unbelievers in every age have rejected this 
 truth of the gospel; but belief in the Deity of 
 Jesus Christ has a stronger hold on the world to- 
 day than it has ever had in all the history of the 
 Church. And all the signs of promise indicate 
 to the Watchman upon the walls of Zion, that 
 the twentieth century, more than any previous 
 century, will rejoice to crown Him Lord of 
 all! 
 
 The Author of salvation, then, is the Sovereign 
 of the universe. The Creator, who, though He 
 upholds the worlds that in untold number fill the 
 vault of heaven, and calleth them all by name, so 
 that not one faileth, yet fainteth not, neither is 
 weary. 
 
32 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Yet the majesty of Christ is more illustriously 
 shown in redemption than in the works of creation 
 and providence. Redemption touches the spirit 
 world. It exhibits our Savior as Sovereign not 
 only over matter, but over intelligent will. It 
 magnifies Him as One before whom every knee 
 shall bow. " He must reign until all enemies are 
 put under His feet." 
 
 And the cost of redemption proclaims it as 
 the greatest of all the works of God. In creation 
 God spake, and it was done. God said, Let 
 there be light; and there was light. God breathed 
 into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man 
 became a living soul ! With what apparent ease 
 were all these mighty works accomplished ! By 
 a volition, — a word, — a breath! And even if 
 the development of the universe, as at present 
 constituted, took untold ages, there is no sign that 
 it cost the Creator anything. How vast the con- 
 trast when man was to be redeemed ! What years 
 of toil and suffering! What tears and groans and 
 dying agonies! What humiliation and shame for 
 the eternal Son of God, ending in death and the 
 tomb! Thus may we measure the work accom- 
 plished by our blessed Redeemer and learn how 
 much we owe! What wonder that His majestic 
 rule commands the praises of heaven, and is 
 echoed from the arches of the celestial Temple. 
 " And I heard," says John, " the voice of many 
 angels round about the throne . . . saying . . . 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 33 
 
 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
 power and riches and wisdom and strength and 
 honor and glory and blessing! Alleluia, for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! " This is He who 
 is introduced to us by Zephaniah. His title is 
 King of kings and Lord of lords. And He right- 
 fully claims all power in heaven and upon earth ! 
 
 The next amazing thing of which Zephaniah 
 speaks is that this mighty Sovereign is a God near 
 and not a God afar off. Here already in the 
 O. T. He stands revealed as an Immanuel, God 
 with us! 
 
 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is 
 mighty. The Scriptures reveal God chiefly, not 
 as one who in the dim and far off past did great 
 things, nor as one who in the heavens ruleth over 
 all, but as one who is in the midst of us, with all 
 His power, wisdom and love availing for our 
 salvation and spiritual enrichment. What an 
 amazing consideration ! Oh, for faith to grasp it ! 
 
 " And will this mighty King of glory condescend, 
 And will He write His name, my Savior and my Friend? 
 I love His name, I love His word ! 
 Join all my powers to praise the Lord ! " 
 
 It is in the Gospel that God is brought especially 
 near to us. We see in Christ our elder Brother. 
 He touches us at every point, save in fellowship 
 with sin. And He is the only One who has power 
 to relieve us of this dreadful evil. We talk as if 
 
34 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 we believe this ! But I fear that we have lost much 
 of the impression these old Hebrew prophets had 
 of His majesty and His power. We use His name 
 with familiarity, sometimes with flippancy. We 
 think more of His sympathy than we do of His 
 exalted character. More of His love for us than 
 of our loyalty to Him. More of the comfort of 
 His presence than of having Him assert His crown 
 rights in our lives. Hence too often, as Jeremiah 
 laments, He is in the midst of us " as a man aston- 
 ished, as a mighty man that cannot save." We 
 limit the Holy One of Israel by our unbelief. We 
 need to remember the truth to which Zephaniah 
 calls our attention. This mighty God is not only 
 here in the midst of us; but He is here for a pur- 
 pose. What is this purpose? Let Zephaniah 
 answer. " He will save." This was the errand 
 that brought the Savior to our sinful earth, and 
 this is the end He has in view in dwelling in the 
 midst of his people. " Call His name Jesus : for 
 He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. 
 i : 21. 
 
 When a man of distinguished reputation, a 
 Statesman, a Governor, a President comes to any 
 community, great interest is always excited. 
 People want to know at once why he came, what 
 his errand is, and what will be the result of his 
 coming. They do not expect men of unusual 
 prominence and ability to make aimless moves, 
 or to be inefficient. We need to remember that 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 35 
 
 God has a purpose in dwelling in the midst of His 
 people. He is here to save. This is the work in 
 which He takes delight. But sometimes His skill 
 is baffled by the rejection of those who need Him 
 most. Sometimes a medical missionary comes to 
 a plague stricken community, only to find that few 
 will accept his remedies. Such is Christ's position 
 in the midst of us. He is a kind Physician. He 
 is here to save ! He is able to save unto the utter- 
 most. And yet He saves only those who are will- 
 ing to be saved. God saves no man against his 
 own will. There are some things every sinner 
 must do who finds salvation. He must realize his 
 guilt and his helplessness. He must acknowledge 
 his sin. He must repent. He must have faith in 
 God. He must open his heart to the Gospel. He 
 must commit the keeping of his soul to Christ in 
 well doing. God helps every soul to do all these 
 things, who looks to Him in prayer for the gracious 
 ability to do them; but no one who refuses to allow 
 God's power to work thus within him can find 
 salvation. 
 
 Yet HE WILL SAVE! There are always 
 some who are willing to receive the Savior. It 
 was so when He was upon the earth. Rejected 
 at Gadara, He was welcomed on the other side of 
 the Lake, where the people were all waiting for 
 Him. Driven out of Judea, He made for Himself 
 a welcome at Jacob's well. With no shelter in 
 Jerusalem, He found a home in Bethany. 
 
36 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 It is so still ! HE WILL SAVE ! He is carry- 
 ing on His work in many hearts, and precious 
 souls will yet be won to Him, who have not 
 yet acknowledged His power. What a cheering 
 assurance is this for those who love to see the 
 Savior honored; but who have almost come to 
 believe that it is useless to pray any longer for those 
 for whose salvation they long ! The Lord thy God 
 in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save! 
 
 But Zephaniah calls upon us to consider a 
 greater wonder still. . . . Jehovah's complacency 
 in salvation. " He will rejoice over thee with 
 joy: He will rest in His love. He will joy over 
 thee with singing." 
 
 There is satisfaction in the breast of every true 
 workman, when success crowns his labors. Even 
 the gloomy Carlyle tells us that he finished his 
 " unutterable book," Frederick the Great, with a 
 " kind of solemn thankfulness." Bernard Palissey 
 was thrilled with gladness when, after 16 years 
 struggling with suffering and poverty, he wrested 
 from nature and art the secret of the manufacture 
 of enameled pottery. Who can describe the emo- 
 tions of Michael Angelo when " the hand that 
 gilded Peter's dome " put the finishing touches on 
 that immortal work! Who can describe the rap- 
 ture of Wilberforce when he saw Britain free from 
 the iniquity of the slave trade; or of Abraham 
 Lincoln, when he penned the Emancipation 
 Proclamation ! 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 37 
 
 Jesus Christ carried out the great work of Re- 
 demption single handed. No one shared with Him 
 its labors, its anxieties, its sufferings, its penalty. 
 Yet He left nothing undone to secure a perfect 
 salvation for all His people. When He left the 
 earth, He could say to the Father, " I have glorified 
 Thee on the earth ; I have finished the work which 
 Thou gavest me to do." What wonder that He 
 should take complacent satisfaction in a work so 
 vast, so unique, so glorious, so full of far reaching 
 results, not only to this little earth, but to the 
 whole universe of God and to His own Mediatorial 
 glory! If the morning stars sang together and 
 all the sons of God shouted for joy when God laid 
 the foundations of the earth; and He who rested 
 from His labors said, " Behold, it is very good," 
 what must have been the joy among the angels 
 when the great Captain of our salvation ascended 
 from the earth, which had been at once the 
 scene of His sufferings and of His triumph, 
 " leading captivity captive and giving gifts to 
 men " ! 
 
 The work of redemption was in one sense com- 
 plete when Jesus left the earth; for the atonement 
 had been made, but, in another sense, it is a work 
 He is carrying on still, as He applies the remedies 
 of the Gospel to the hearts of men. He is still 
 in the midst of us mighty to save, and His heart 
 goes out in love and compassion for the perishing. 
 And there is nothing that so satisfies the Savior, 
 
38 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 now, after the travail of His soul in the days of 
 His flesh, as to see the hearts of men melting into 
 tenderness under the warm rays of His infinite 
 love. 
 
 What an expression is this of Zephaniah, " He 
 will rest in His love " ! There was nothing that 
 so rested and refreshed the Savior, when He was 
 upon the earth, as the faith of the needy, the tears 
 of the penitent, the prayers of the perishing. Once, 
 when worn out with toil, He withdrew to a desert 
 place for rest; but, when the multitude followed 
 Him, His compassions were stirred, because they 
 were as sheep not having a shepherd, and He 
 began to teach them many things. He forgot His 
 weariness when He found their hearts were rest- 
 less and seeking rest in Him. He was both weary 
 and hungry when He sat on Jacob's well ; but soon 
 He rested in His love when the Samaritan woman 
 began to drink in the water of life; and He said 
 to His returning and wondering disciples, " I have 
 meat to eat that ye know not of." How the Savior 
 rested in His love when the woman that was a 
 sinner bathed His feet with her tears! How His 
 spirit was refreshed as Mary sat at His feet and 
 heard His words ! And what rest His weary soul 
 had when the seventy returned with joy, saying, 
 "Lord, even the devils are subject to us through 
 Thy name!" "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in 
 spirit, and said, ... all things are delivered 
 unto me of my Father." And what wonder that, 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 39 
 
 in the exuberance of His love He should, at this 
 time, utter that matchless invitation that has gone 
 ringing down the ages : "Come unto Me all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest " ! It was not only for the sake of the 
 lost that salvation came to a Nicodemus, to a 
 Zaccheus, to a dying thief. The Savior needed 
 these resting places in His weary way, that He 
 might not fail nor be discouraged till He had set 
 judgment in the earth (Isa. xliiizj.). An angel 
 strengthened Him in the garden; but on the cross, 
 in the hour of His deeper agony, it sufficed that 
 He rescued from the very jaws of death one of 
 the vilest of our race, that He might thus rest in 
 His love; and, in His dying moments, reveal the 
 fulness of His salvation by erecting close to Cal- 
 vary, where all eyes that looked to Him henceforth 
 must see it, a monument of grace. 
 
 The Savior was the " Man of sorrows " ; but 
 we think too little of the deep undercurrent of 
 peace that flowed always through His soul and 
 of the satisfaction He took in His redeem- 
 ing work. " For the joy that was set be- 
 fore Him He endured the cross, despising the 
 shame." 
 
 Far be it from us to belittle the sufferings of 
 the Savior of men. That such a being should 
 suffer for us at all, how amazing, how condescend- 
 ing, how infinitely kind! All the elements that 
 enter into the case increase the wonder that He 
 
40 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 should die. His dignity, His knowledge of all 
 that was before Him, His entire willingness to 
 lay down His life, the ill-desert of those for whom 
 He suffered, . . . these and other things pile up 
 wonder upon wonder, into which angels desire to 
 look. But with it all let us remember what He 
 has so impressively taught us, that time is not 
 eternity. His sufferings were but as a ripple on 
 the calm ocean of His endless life; as one painful 
 breathing in the bosom of His immortal being; 
 as one fleeting cloud in the infinite azure of His 
 eternal day. Ever since He left the earth He has 
 been resting in His love. Isaiah declares, " He 
 shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be 
 satisfied." Will you let the loving Savior rest in 
 your bosom, O impenitent soul, after His weary 
 way on the earth, seeking to save, or will He find 
 no room in your heart for Him, as when He drew 
 His first breath there was no room for Him at 
 the Inn? 
 
 " He will rest in His love ! " In the margin the 
 reading is " He will be silent in His love." There 
 are times when love finds its truest expression in 
 silence. The mother, bending over her babe at 
 night; the watcher, hailing in the peaceful slumber 
 of her patient the returning tides of life that are 
 bringing a loved one back to health and strength ; 
 the wife, clasping in her arms the husband who 
 has returned from many dangers on the battle- 
 field or on the sea ; the parents, welcoming to their 
 
FOREGLEAMS OF REJOICING 41 
 
 home and to their covenant God a wandering but 
 penitent son or daughter, these do not love the 
 less because they are silent in their love. Some- 
 times silence is more eloquent than speech. Some- 
 times the heart is too full for utterance. 
 Sometimes " the lips can only tremble with the joys 
 they cannot speak " ! How eloquently does the 
 Savior speak to you of His love when He whispers 
 it only in the " still small voice " ! Let this be the 
 prayer of every one of us : " Rest, blessed Savior, 
 in my bosom, silent in Thy love; only let me, as 
 it were, feel the pressure of Thy loving hand upon 
 me that I may know Thou art there; make me 
 conscious, by Thy Spirit, of Thy presence; and 
 let everything that might disturb Thy perfect rest 
 within me be driven from my breast; — then, and 
 then only, shall my soul find perfect rest in Thee! " 
 And here I might well end. But the prophet 
 does not thus end his inspired poem. He strikes 
 a higher note, and bids all heaven join the chorus, 
 as he tells how the Lord brings home His own. 
 The rest the Redeemer enjoys with His people on 
 earth is imperfect and transient. There remaineth 
 a rest for Him, as well as for them, — an eternal 
 Sabbath of joy. " The Lord thy God in the midst 
 of thee is mighty; He will save; He will rejoice 
 over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He 
 will joy over thee with singing." It is because 
 God rejoices in Zion that Zion is summoned to 
 rejoice in God. 
 
42 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 The joy in the presence of the angels is the 
 joy of Jehovah Jesus, and that joy will swell out 
 into glad triumph through all the ages to come 
 as " the ransomed of the Lord shall return and 
 come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon 
 their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, 
 and sorrow and sighing shall flee away " (Isa. xxv : 
 10). "And His rest shall be glorious!" (Isa. 
 xl: 10). 
 
 Bunyan, at the close of his matchless Allegory, 
 after describing how Christian and Hopeful came 
 up to the gates of the celestial Zion, says, " Then 
 I saw in my dream that all the bells of the city 
 rang again for joy, and that it was said unto them, 
 ' Enter ye into the joy of your Lord.' " What 
 will be the jubilation when the last member of 
 the redeemed host shall have crossed the flood, 
 and we meet in the New Jerusalem to crown Him 
 Lord of all! 
 
 " The mighty God ! Here shalt thou find thy rest, 
 O weary one ! There is naught else to know, 
 Naught else to seek — here thou may'st cease thy quest. 
 Give thyself up. He leads where thou shalt go. 
 
 The changeless God! Into thy troubled life 
 Steals strange, sweet peace ; the pride that drove thee on, 
 
 The hot ambition and the selfish strife 
 That made thy misery, like mists are gone." 
 
Ill 
 
 A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 
 
 THE whole history of Jesus Christ is wrapped 
 up in the significant words of Peter in the 
 house of Cornelius, when he speaks of Him 
 as one " who went about doing good." All else 
 that is recorded of Him is but an expansion of 
 this general statement. Biography at its best is 
 but a fragment. The most voluminous record of 
 any man's life must leave untouched the bulk of 
 all that he has said and done. Mr. Crocker, the 
 laborious editor of Boswell's Johnson, calls atten- 
 tion in his preface to the fact that " a little less 
 than the one hundredth part of Dr. Johnson's life 
 occupies about one half of Boswell's work of 
 2528 pages." Yet few will dispute Macaulay's 
 verdict that " Boswell is the first of biographers." 
 Not only would it be impossible for any his- 
 torian to ascertain all the incidents that transpired 
 in the lifetime of his hero, but the very end of 
 his work would be defeated by such an elabora- 
 tion. The mind of the reader would be over- 
 whelmed by the mass of details. The most faithful 
 and successful biographer, therefore, is he who 
 skillfully seizes upon salient points that reveal 
 
 43 
 
44 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 character, or have a marked effect upon the indi- 
 vidual himself or upon society. How imperfect 
 is our knowledge of the whole life of Julius 
 Caesar, of Socrates, of Peter the Great, of Martin 
 Luther! And yet there can be little question that 
 the world has a truer conception of the genius and 
 character of these men than it would have if the 
 great gaps that yawn in the narratives of their 
 childhood, their youth, their manhood were all 
 filled up with a minute account of every day's 
 experiences. 
 
 This law of selection, which governs all history, 
 applies to the history of Him who was the Life 
 and the Light of men. We have, as has been re- 
 marked, but one incident, viz., the scene in the 
 Temple, recorded of the first thirty years of His 
 life. And of the three years of His active minis- 
 try comparatively few incidents and discourses are 
 recorded. John truly says, " There were also 
 many other things that Jesus did." Yet, while the 
 history of Jesus, as given in the Gospels, is but a 
 fragment, it represents the whole life as no frag- 
 ment, however voluminous, could represent the life 
 of any mere man. Who shall say that there were 
 not incidents in the unrecorded years of this wise 
 man that if made known would make us deplore 
 his folly? of this good man that would make us 
 shudder at his wrong doing? of this brave man 
 that would awaken our wonder at his cowardice? 
 So that, while we may form our estimate of human 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 45 
 
 character by fragmentary biography, we dare not 
 affirm that it is faultless, or that the same prin- 
 ciples of wisdom, benevolence or truth we have 
 had called to our attention characterized the hero 
 at all times. 
 
 Here, however, the life of Jesus Christ differs 
 from that of any mere man. We have general 
 statements made of His life in the flesh; and we 
 know that they are absolutely infallible, and apply 
 to His whole career, from His birth in Bethle- 
 hem to His death upon the cross. Such is that 
 embodied in the statement that He went about 
 doing good. 
 
 Though the veil that hides the first 30 years 
 of His life is but once lifted, we know that there 
 is nothing hidden behind it that we would be sorry 
 to learn! 
 
 No words of disrespect to His parents ever 
 sprung from His lips. No bursts of sinful anger 
 ever perturbed His tranquil spirit, or sent their 
 fiery arrows into the bosoms of His childhood 
 friends. No thought of impurity ever scorched 
 His soul. No deceit ever warped His sincere and 
 upright purpose. In all things, and at all times, 
 He was " holy, harmless, undefiled." His inno- 
 cence was spotless. His whole spiritual being was 
 an unsullied fountain; hence it would give forth 
 only pure and wholesome waters. He was incar- 
 nate goodness ; hence " He went about doing 
 good." 
 
46 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 The great mission of Jesus Christ to earth was 
 to secure the salvation of sinners; but there were 
 subordinate ends accomplished of which we may 
 not lose sight. If we remember His death, we 
 must also study His life. If we emphasize His 
 sufferings, we must also recognize His obedience. 
 If we look for peace to His atonement, we must 
 look for guidance to His example. 
 
 Let us remark, then, of the benevolence of 
 Jesus, that it was Positive. If there has ever been 
 such a thing as a negative character, His was 
 not one. His life was spent not merely in 
 avoiding evil, but in doing good. His was an 
 active usefulness. He went about doing good. 
 Cloistered virtue has had its pretenders and its 
 advocates; but it cannot point to the Son of man 
 as its founder or its exponent. He was no recluse. 
 He was not even retiring in temper, nor stern of 
 spirit, like John the Baptist. He came to seek 
 and to save that which was lost; and He mingled 
 freely among men, that He might fulfill His min- 
 istry. Not that He might gratify a sensual appe- 
 tite, but that He might reach the people in their 
 homes, " the Son of Man came eating and drink- 
 rag." 
 
 He confined Himself to no class in society, but 
 sought to help men of every condition and circum- 
 stance into a higher and purer atmosphere. He 
 ate at the tables of the rich; He became known as 
 the friend of publicans and sinners. 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 47 
 
 When we consider the obstacles that lay in His 
 pathway we are more and more impressed with 
 the earnestness of His active life. We are apt 
 to think solely of His divinity, and to make that 
 the ready solution of every difficulty; but we need 
 to remember that, while He was divine, He was 
 also a man, tempted in all points like as we are. 
 Looking upon Him in His humanity, — and thus 
 we must view Him, if we would understand the 
 trials through which He pressed forward in His 
 benevolent efforts, — we see discouragements that 
 would have proved appalling to any but His manly 
 character. He aimed at universal benevolence, — 
 yet He was a young man, poverty-stricken, the 
 citizen of a city accounted mean. He had no 
 influential friends to introduce Him to society, 
 or to put Him into position where He might apply 
 the gifts with which He was endowed. The Jew- 
 ish Hierarchy, proud, influential, wealthy, were 
 from the first His enemies. Rome was hostile to 
 the Jewish religion, and to Him, whom it regarded 
 as only one of its teachers. The masses, whom 
 He most easily reached, were blinded with preju- 
 dice, filled with sensual desires, warped with low 
 and ignoble purposes. No man ever had a more 
 gloomy prospect before him than Jesus of Naza- 
 reth had, from a human standpoint, when He went 
 forth from His humble Galilean home on His un- 
 selfish errand to a world smitten and bleeding 
 under the curse of sin. 
 
48 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Considered simply in the blessings He conferred 
 upon humanity, by His discourses and His works, 
 the life of Jesus upon the earth was one of com- 
 plete success, though to many onlookers it seemed 
 to be spent to no purpose and to go out in failure. 
 While we are far enough from placing this perfect 
 life on a level with any other of which history 
 gives us any record, we may say of it, what is 
 often said of the lives of great men, that it de- 
 serves to be studied because of its success. No 
 measure of success was ever attained without a 
 careful study of those elements that are essential 
 to it, — and it is pre-eminently true of the life of 
 Jesus that it was successful, in the highest sense, 
 because of His care to conform Himself to certain 
 principles that underlie God's working always, and 
 must underlie man's, if he would achieve any 
 worthy end. As He is our Exemplar, we should 
 be more careful to inquire by what methods He 
 went about His Father's business. 
 
 First, we recognize, as we read the Gospels, that 
 He had definite plans of usefulness, of which He 
 never lost sight. His was not a restless or aimless 
 existence. He did not wander about the country, 
 doing only such good as came to His hand. He 
 did not spend an hour's time, waiting for some- 
 thing to turn up. His work was well systematized 
 and arranged, and everything he did was timely. 
 He called His disciples, instructed them and sent 
 them out, with a view to carrying on the great 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 49 
 
 work He had planned, in all its details, — and His 
 missionary tours through Judea and Galilee were 
 systematically arranged, so as to give Him readiest 
 access to those whom it was most needful that He 
 should reach. If he must needs go through 
 Samaria, there was likewise a needs be that con- 
 strained Him to enter into Capernaum, into 
 Jericho, into Jerusalem. 
 
 Again, His activity was unremitting. He lost 
 no precious time. He squandered no golden hours 
 in ease and pleasure seeking. Even His seasons 
 of devotion were chosen with a view to leaving 
 time for contact with men, after communion with 
 God. 
 
 " Cold mountains and the midnight air 
 Witnessed the fervor of his prayer." 
 
 He rose up a great while before day to go into a 
 solitary place to pray. More than once, perhaps, 
 He continued all night in prayer to God. And 
 these seasons of prayer were followed by the most 
 intelligent, persistent and earnest efforts in well 
 doing. 
 
 Again, His activity was comprehensive in its 
 scope. It embraced contact with individuals, as 
 well as with masses of men. He whose time was 
 short upon the earth, and infinitely precious, could 
 discourse at length with a poor, sinful woman, 
 that He might disclose to her, and then heal, the 
 plague spot of her heart, — could listen patiently to 
 
50 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 the doubts and spiritual perplexities of a Master in 
 Israel, and apply His instruction to resolve them, — 
 could seek out a solitary blind man, whom He had 
 healed, that He might complete the cure His grace 
 had begun by opening his spiritual eyes, — could 
 tarry with the woman taken in adultery when all 
 others had withdrawn that He might say to her, 
 " Go, and sin no more." 
 
 The variety of method employed by Jesus is an- 
 other proof of the comprehensive character of His 
 benevolence. Sometimes by the ready word of 
 hearty sympathy, He revealed His kinship to 
 humanity and showed how He could be touched 
 with the feeling of its infirmity. Sometimes by 
 the exercise of healing power He showed that He 
 had more than pity to offer. — And His miracles of 
 healing embraced diseases of all sorts. Sometimes 
 by the supply of daily need He showed His com- 
 passion on the perishing, as when He fed the multi- 
 tude in the desert and His disciples by the shore of 
 the sea. 
 
 His miracles were not merely attestations of His 
 divinity; they were wonders of beneficence, de- 
 signed to reveal the love of His heart and to banish 
 sorrow and suffering from those who were af- 
 flicted. 
 
 He rejoiced in spirit as He applied to His 
 ministry the prophecy of Isaiah, " The Spirit of 
 the Lord God is upon Me, because He hath sent 
 Me to heal the broken hearted." It gave Him joy 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 51 
 
 to lighten the burdens of others. There were 
 gleams of sunlight upon the dark pathway of the 
 man of sorrows as He saw the result of His 
 ministry of love in alleviating sufferings of body 
 and of mind. Who shall say that His spirit did 
 not take exquisite satisfaction in the joy of the 
 widow of Nain, — in the gratitude of Bartimeus, — 
 in the restored happiness of the stricken household 
 of Bethany? 
 
 Had His miracles been wrought solely to attest 
 His divinity, they might have been of a different 
 character; prodigies of the supernatural merely, 
 without relation to mankind; — or even miracles of 
 judgment. But the smiting of the barren fig tree 
 is the only miracle that can be pronounced one of 
 judgment; and even this had its lessons of mercy 
 for His disciples. While in every other wonder of 
 His hands may be traced designs of beneficence for 
 all who witnessed it, and especially for those di- 
 rectly affected by it. He took upon Himself our 
 nature that He might heal its diseases. What an 
 instructive account of His ministry is that He Him- 
 self renders to the disciples of John. — " The blind 
 receive their sight, and the lame walk ; the lepers are 
 cleansed and the deaf hear ; the dead are raised up 
 and the poor have the Gospel preached to them; 
 and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in 
 Me" (Matt, xi : 5, 6). Matthew says, "And 
 Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their syna- 
 gogues and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, 
 
52 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 and healing all manner of sickness and all manner 
 of disease among the people" (iv:23). 
 
 It is worthy of consideration how He went 
 about. Not in an easy coach, on a smooth and 
 level road, supplied with all the modern appliances 
 of comfort. We have only one instance of His 
 riding in any way; — and that was when He made 
 His triumphal entry into Jerusalem upon an ass. 
 He went afoot, over the burning sands and under 
 the hot sun of Syria. Often, as when He reached 
 Jacob's well, He was hungry and thirsty. Often 
 He was footsore and weary. Often did the Son 
 of man have not where to lay His head. 
 
 What an affecting picture is that recorded in the 
 last verse of the 7th, taken in connection with the 
 first verse of the 8th chapter of John's Gospel, 
 when we supply, with the R.V. the important word 
 " bat," which is omitted in the A.V. The sen- 
 tence thus restored ends the evangelist's description 
 of a day of busy toil, — " And every man went 
 unto his own house; but Jesus went unto the 
 mount of Olives." He who went about doing 
 good was perhaps the only one in that crowded 
 city of Jerusalem who had that night " not where 
 to lay His head." Gethsemane, where He oft times 
 resorted, was as much His home as any spot on 
 earth. 
 
 While we are considering the comprehensive 
 character of His teaching we must not forget how 
 important a part His teaching was of it; and how 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 53 
 
 wonderfully adapted was His instruction to the 
 minds of His hearers; — how varied, how simple, 
 yet how lofty. 
 
 He spake the word to the multitude as they were 
 able to bear it. He taught gratuitously a better 
 wisdom than the Jewish or Gentile schools offered 
 at a price. His teaching was plain, and designed 
 to be understood by every willing mind. His 
 parables were wonderful. His maxims were 
 direct and practical, though profound. While 
 such tenderness and love breathed in his very tones 
 that men wondered at the gracious words that pro- 
 ceeded out of His mouth. 
 
 It was weary work, this teaching. Few men 
 who live by manual labor have any conception of 
 the exhaustion caused by mental toil. They who 
 work so hard in the fields and in the shops often 
 think that the lawyer, the professor, the preacher, 
 must have an easy time of it. But there is no 
 weariness like brain weariness; and the Great 
 Teacher was not exempt from the peculiar suffer- 
 ing which nature endures when the mental faculties 
 have been overtaxed. 
 
 Let those who have worn themselves out, almost 
 to nervous prostration, under the mental strain of 
 Day School, Sunday School or Pulpit work, re- 
 member that He who went about doing good can be 
 touched with a feeling of their infirmities. 
 
 Again, consider how practical was the benevo- 
 lence of Jesus. 
 
54 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 He sought to bless men in the common walks of 
 life. He taught a homely piety. He inculcated 
 virtues that were calculated to make men better and 
 happier in the spheres where they were found. He 
 counseled trust in Providence. He eased many 
 weary hearts of their self-imposed burdens, as He 
 bade them take no anxious thought for to-morrow. 
 He unfolded the treasures of contentment. He 
 showed how the smallest service might be made 
 kingly, and how even a cup of cold water, given in 
 love, would be followed by a glorious reward. 
 
 And how timely were His compassions ! When 
 Jairus' daughter had been restored to life, and all 
 were so astonished at the miracle as to be helpless 
 or forgetful of a very needful ministration, He did 
 not lose sight of the benevolence of daily life, in 
 the great wonder He had wrought. " He com- 
 manded that something be given her to eat." 
 
 Oh, idle dreamer of good deeds! You who are 
 always panting for some great mission, — longing 
 for some other position in which to serve, — paint- 
 ing to your fancy a pleasing picture of your useful- 
 ness in doing good in some far off field, or among 
 those who will understand you always and ap- 
 preciate your worth ; but who, while you build these 
 airy castles of benevolent design, are overlooking 
 a thousand opportunities of lightening the hearts of 
 others in your home and in your work day circle, — 
 who, with all your lofty desire to be a blessing 
 somewhere else, or at some far off time, can be un- 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 55 
 
 just, ungenerous, impatient, self-willed, regardless 
 of the pain you inflict upon those nearest to you, 
 remember the daily self-denial and homely, prac- 
 tical benevolence of Him who went about doing 
 good, and go and do thou likewise. 
 
 And this leads us to our final thought. In the 
 teachings and works of Jesus of Nazareth are em- 
 bedded the seeds of beneficence for all after time. 
 His example is not merely to be wondered at, but 
 to be imitated. We have dwelt upon the gifts of 
 His humanity chiefly, for in these only is He our 
 pattern. Not merely unto salvation, but to patient 
 continuance in well doing, does His voice summon 
 us, saying, — "follow thou me!" Howard 
 heard that call, and left his princely country seat 
 to spend his life among the dungeons and pest 
 houses of Europe. Mrs. Fry heard it, and the 
 prisoners of Newgate were cheered in their despair. 
 Wilber force heard it, and for 20 years his fortune 
 and his energies were devoted, amid untold opposi- 
 tion and insult, to the emancipation of the slave. 
 Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Edith Cavell 
 heard it, and loved not their lives unto death. 
 Brainard, Judson, Elliot, Williams, Livingston, 
 Paton and a growing multitude of like-minded 
 heroes heard it ; and in the ends of the earth, and 
 among savage men, they went about doing good. 
 All missionary operations are the outgrowth of the 
 Gospel. Red Cross Relief, Y. M. C. A. activities 
 in the trenches and in the camps, find in Jesus of 
 
56 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Nazareth their inspiration and their support. 
 Hospitals, asylums, and varied public charities, are 
 becoming world-wide, as His spirit asserts its 
 power over the hearts of men. Woman in Gospel 
 lands takes her God-given place, as man's choicest 
 gift from heaven, and finds her ample sphere, not 
 in noisy clamoring for rights, however legitimate, 
 but in the home, where none may have such far- 
 reaching and lasting power for good, and in the 
 Church of the living God, where her help is increas- 
 ingly exerted in manifold and loving ministrations. 
 Jesus of Nazareth has left the earth; but His 
 footsteps remain in it, and in them we may all 
 tread to the end of life. Let those who covet 
 earth's empty honors obtain their baubles ; let those 
 who enjoy the satisfaction of sinful pleasures drink 
 their fill; but let every follower of Jesus realize 
 that he can win for himself no higher meed of 
 praise, can attain to no better reward, than to have 
 it said of him at the last, as it was said of his 
 Master and Lord, " He went about doing good." 
 
A GLADDENING LIFE-WORK 57 
 
 Hold up thy mirror to the sun, 
 And thou shalt need an eagle's gaze, 
 
 So perfectly the polish'd stone 
 Gives back the glory of his rays; 
 
 Turn it, and it shall paint as true 
 The soft green of the vernal earth, 
 
 And each small flower of bashful hue, 
 That closest hides its lowly birth. 
 
 Our mirror is a blessed book, 
 Where, out from each illumined page 
 
 We see one glorious Image look 
 All eyes to dazzle and engage. 
 
 The Son of God; and that indeed 
 
 We see him as He is, we know, 
 Since in the same bright glass we read 
 
 The very life of things below. 
 
 Keble. 
 
IV 
 JOY AT THE WELL-SIDE 
 
 WHEN Jesus told the Samaritan woman of 
 the living fountain within the heart, 
 springing up into everlasting life, she 
 cried out in rapture, " Give me this water ! " We 
 readily recognize her misconception; but her lan- 
 guage is none the less appropriate to express our 
 spiritual needs. Jesus spoke to her of living water. 
 He speaks more plainly to us. She mistook his 
 meaning. We cannot well do so. The blessings 
 of the Gospel are so frequently symbolized in the 
 Scriptures under the figure of water that our minds 
 have become thoroughly familiar with the imagery. 
 When Isaiah cries, " with joy shall ye draw water 
 out of the wells of salvation "; when Jeremiah re- 
 bukes his people for forsaking the fountain of liv- 
 ing waters; when Zechariah prophesies of a " foun- 
 tain opened to the house of David . . . for sin 
 and for uncleanness " ; when Jesus says, "if any 
 man thirst let him come unto Me and drink;" and 
 when the final invitation sounds from the sacred 
 oracles, " whosoever will, let him take the water of 
 life freely," the same thing is meant, the grace of 
 
 58 
 
JOY AT THE WELL-SIDE 59 
 
 God in Christ, which, like a hidden well, springs up 
 in the hearts of believers into everlasting life. 
 
 It is a blessed day for the soul when this con- 
 scious thirst for spiritual things takes possession of 
 it. Man does not naturally possess it, though he 
 thirsts from the earliest years of his experience. 
 He is above all things a creature of desire. He 
 reaches out in every possible direction for some- 
 thing to stay the ardent longing of his spirit; but 
 though his mind is capable of being entertained in 
 an endless variety of pursuits, there is absolutely 
 nothing of an earthly nature that will long satisfy 
 his wants. " Who will show us any good ? " is 
 the feverish cry of the restless soul, as it turns from 
 one side to another, tasting the unsatisfying waters 
 of broken cisterns. Now Christ offers Himself 
 to the thirsting soul, not that he may stamp out of 
 the heart all its deep yearnings after happiness and 
 bid it thirst no more at all. The religion of Jesus 
 is not designed to make men dull and senseless, 
 without emotion or aspiration; — lifeless clods in- 
 stead of living, longing, immortal beings. But it 
 comes into the heart to change the current of these 
 deep desires, while it purifies and intensifies them. 
 It stays the earthly thirst, while it stimulates the 
 heavenly. " He that drinketh of this water," says 
 Jesus, referring to the water of Jacob's well, " shall 
 thirst again," — and the same is true of all those 
 earthly things with which men seek to slake the 
 spirit's longings. Like the waters of the sea, the 
 
60 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 streams of worldly pleasure only intensify the burn- 
 ing thirst of him who quaffs them. " But whoso- 
 ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him," 
 continues the Savior, " shall never thirst ; but the 
 water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of 
 water, springing up into everlasting life." The 
 soul still thirsts after it has turned to Christ; but it 
 thirsts at the Fountain, where its ever increasing 
 needs may be continually and abundantly satisfied. 
 
 It is a bitter thing to thirst without having the 
 refreshing waters that the parched lips desire; but 
 thirst is a boon when we have the means of satis- 
 fying it. So fond of the waters of the Nile are 
 the Arabs that they are said to eat salt that their 
 thirst may be stimulated to demand larger and 
 larger draughts. But no Bedouin is so extrava- 
 gant in his fondness for the waters of this famous 
 river that he will venture thus to whet his thirst 
 when buried in the heart of the desert. 
 
 But as the world's great Physician represses the 
 thirst of His sin-sick patients for those delights that 
 can never be obtained in their fulness, and that fail 
 to satisfy, He increases their longing for the waters 
 of life. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers has a striking sermon on the " ex- 
 pulsive power of a new affection." The mind ab- 
 sorbed in a new passion forgets its former joys, 
 and even its former sorrows. Isaac mourned for 
 Sarah, his mother ; but when he found Rebekah the 
 record is " She became his wife and he loved her; 
 
JOY AT THE WELL-SIDE 61 
 
 and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death." 
 If the religion of Jesus did not offer to the soul 
 better things than it dispossesses it of, it would 
 appeal to it in vain. If there was truth at the 
 bottom of the bungling explanation of the old 
 philosophers of physical science that " Nature ab- 
 hors a vacuum," it is no less true of the human 
 heart. " If any man love the world, the love of the 
 Father is not in him" (i John ii : 15 ) . Hence 
 our Savior has said, " Blessed are they that do 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they 
 shall be filled" (Matt. v:6). 
 
 The blessedness of attaining a thirst for spiritual 
 things is two-fold. First, it centers the affections 
 and desires upon one object. It presents Christ as 
 a never failing source of supply. It bids the soul, 
 weary in its vain quest for satisfaction in ten 
 thousand different directions find happiness and 
 rest in Him; and, secondly, it teaches it to find in 
 Him a never failing source of satisfaction. The 
 soul may thirst after Him to all eternity ; its long- 
 ings shall be satisfied, moment by moment. 
 
 What the heavenly thirst after Christ may be we 
 do not know; but we can analyze our present de- 
 sires after Him and recognize the elements that 
 enter into our spiritual thirst. We know what it 
 is our souls must have. They need pardon; and 
 Jesus only can say, " Thy sins be forgiven thee." 
 They need support ; and He says, " My grace is 
 sufficient for thee." They need purification; and 
 
62 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all 
 sin." They need companionship ; and He says, " I 
 will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." ..." Lo, 
 I am with you alway." There is absolutely no use 
 to which natural waters may be applied which may 
 not find some spiritual analogy in the waters of 
 salvation. The water that Christ gives satisfies 
 the thirst of the soul; it refreshes the drooping 
 spirit; it cleanses its sin-stains; it heals its sick- 
 nesses; it beautifies it with a glory not its own; it 
 reclaims it from barrenness and makes it to bring 
 forth, in goodly clusters, the fruits of the Spirit; 
 it flows freely, abundantly, unceasingly, within the 
 heart, springing up into everlasting life. 
 
 " Plenteous grace with Thee is found ; 
 
 Grace to pardon all my sin. 
 Let the healing streams abound ; 
 
 Make and keep me pure within. 
 Thou of life the Fountain art; 
 
 Freely let me take of Thee ; 
 Spring Thou up within my heart; 
 
 Rise to all eternity ! " 
 
 Well may every thirsting soul cry, " Give me this 
 water." 
 
 Again, the woman's prayer is appropriate, in 
 that it is addressed to the right Person. To the 
 woman of Samaria, the stranger who sat on Jacob's 
 well gave little promise in His appearance of con- 
 ferring any benefit upon her. What strange con- 
 trasts appear in Him as we view Him sitting on the 
 
JOY AT THE WELL SIDE 63 
 
 well-curb at Sychar! He is weary; yet He prom- 
 ises rest to all who are weary and heavy laden. 
 He thirsts; yet He promises to satisfy the thirst of 
 all who will receive the living water from Him. 
 He asks for a drink of water; yet He offers to give 
 water that no one else can give. He hungers ; yet 
 He has meat to eat of which no one knows but He. 
 He is an obscure, unknown, poverty-stricken man ; 
 yet greater than the patriarch who had dug this 
 well, and whose name was venerated above all 
 others in this region of Samaria. Yet we, who 
 have been instructed in the Gospel, have found the 
 solution of all these paradoxes. This stranger, 
 unknown, unrevealed as yet to the Samaritan 
 woman, is no stranger to us. His claims have been 
 vindicated ten thousand times. He is able to ful- 
 fill all these gracious promises, and He is as willing 
 as He is mighty to save. Jesus alone can impart 
 this water of life. Christian believers may them- 
 selves be filled with divine grace ; but they have no 
 power to bestow it upon others. The wise virgins 
 had no oil to spare for their foolish sisters. And 
 Christ will pour forth the refreshing streams from 
 the wells of salvation only to him who with a deep 
 sense of his spirit's thirst cries out to Him, " Give 
 me this water." 
 
 A few years ago I visited a great cathedral in 
 the city of Montreal. It was fitted with the usual 
 appliances of Romish worship. Among other 
 things, I noticed the apartments built around 
 
64 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 the sides of the room; little closets, each intended 
 for a separate priest, who there heard confession of 
 sins, and granted so-called absolution. But, over 
 one of these confessionals there was a notice that 
 the priest who usually officiated there was absent. 
 How disappointing to the crowds who were 
 accustomed to come to this place of supposed sanc- 
 tity to be informed that the confessor was away 
 from home, and that they must therefore seek some 
 other priest to give them spiritual relief; or must 
 wait until their favorite confessor returned! But 
 what suppliant ever approached the Mercy Seat, 
 where Jesus waits to bless, and read such words as 
 these ? Rather, the words there recorded are : " I 
 will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of 
 the water of life freely" (Rev. xxxi:6). "Ho, 
 everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters " 
 (Isa. iv: i). 
 
 John says of his vision of heavenly things, " He 
 showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
 crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
 of the Lamb" (Rev. xxii : i). The blessings of 
 the Gospel come from a lofty source; but while the 
 throne of God stands that river shall flow on for 
 the refreshment and cleansing of all the weary and 
 sin-stained sons of men. It is with us as with 
 Israel in the desert, " for they drank of that spirit- 
 ual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was 
 Christ" (i Cor. x:4). We need never fear that 
 like the stream of Cherith the waters shall fail. 
 
JOY AT THE WELL-SIDE 65 
 
 Every morning as we refresh our spirits with a 
 Scripture promise and " with joy draw waters out 
 of the wells of salvation," or drink at the well- 
 spring of prayer, we find the stream undiminished 
 and its life-giving, healing virtues unimpaired. 
 " And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come ; and let 
 him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is 
 athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take 
 the water of life freely" (Rev. xxii : 17). 
 
 Again, the language of the woman expresses 
 personal need. " Give me this water." The cry of 
 thirst is always personal; though it need not be 
 selfish. Sir Philip Sydney refused the cup that a 
 dying comrade needed more than he; but though 
 his great heart throbbed with joy in the pleasure of 
 his magnanimous purpose, the fever burned none 
 the less fiercely in his own veins and his parched 
 lips still craved the draught they so nobly sent from 
 them. The woman of Samaria knew that in the 
 city there were many to whom the gift of an unfail- 
 ing well would be as great a boon as to herself. 
 But she felt her own need to be pressing; for the 
 sore of her wretched life had been opened afresh; 
 and out of a desolate heart that knew its own bit- 
 terness, though it comprehended as yet but blindly 
 the manner of relief promised by this mysterious 
 Stranger, she cried, " Give me this water, that I 
 thirst not." It was not with her as with the dying 
 hero of the battle-field or with the famine-stricken 
 inmates of a besieged fortress. She did not de- 
 
66 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 prive others of their share of a scanty supply by 
 asking water first for herself. The blessings of 
 the Gospel are for them that thirst; and they only 
 can be filled who cry out to Christ, in conscious 
 dependence and longing, "Give me this water!" 
 It is only when He has been found, by personal ex- 
 perience, to satisfy all the deep wants of the soul, 
 that we can hasten to others and say, " Come, see a 
 man that told me all that ever I did." 
 
 " His blood can make the foulest clean ; 
 His blood availed for me." 
 
 What contrasts are suggested between the water 
 of Jacob's well and the water of life! The water 
 of the well lay far beneath the surface. It must be 
 drawn up one hundred and fifty feet, by painful 
 effort. The living water springs up within, a per- 
 petual fountain, spontaneous and fresh, ever ready 
 for the thirsty lips. The water of the well was 
 without the city. Those who had need must go out 
 to draw it; as man is ever going out of himself for 
 happiness. The living water is in the heart. He 
 who has it shall be satisfied in his own spirit ; for 
 " the kingdom of God is within you " (Luke xvii : 
 21 ). The water of the well would one day cease 
 to flow. It is to-day choked up with stones and 
 debris; the object of curiosity to the inquiring 
 traveller in Palestine, but affording no supply to 
 those who thirst, as they peer into its dark and for- 
 bidden depths. The living water is eternal. Time 
 
JOY AT THE WELL-SIDE 67 
 
 does not change its freshness, its purity or its con- 
 stant flow ; and it will spring up within 
 
 "While life and breath and being last, 
 Or immortality endures ! " 
 
 The living water is satisfying. " He that drinketh 
 of this water shall thirst again." How true we 
 have found it of all the waters of earth ! But, in 
 the failure of every earthly thing, what a boon to 
 have a satisfying portion; — the water of life, true 
 religion in the soul, the love of God in the heart, 
 Christ within ! " Give me this water ! " 
 
 We have read of a caravan that was lost in the 
 desert. Men were sent out in every direction, 
 seeking for water. At length, after long search- 
 ing, one lighted upon a spring. There, in abun- 
 dance, was the precious element, for lack of which 
 many were dying. But, was it the bitter water of 
 the desert, brackish and salt; or was it pure and life 
 giving? The finder does not stay long to specu- 
 late. The fever burns in his veins. His parched 
 lips will hardly permit him to proclaim his dis- 
 covery. He stoops and drinks, and then, with in- 
 vigorated frame and joyful heart, he hastens back 
 to the perishing, crying, " Water, water, enough 
 for all ; come and drink ! " 
 
 Come, thirsting spirit at once to Christ! Utter 
 the woman's prayer, with all the earnestness your 
 deep need demands, " Give me this water ! " And 
 then, like the woman of Samaria, let your feet be 
 
68 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 swift to bear to others the glad tidings of salva- 
 tion ; " Come and see ! " . . . " Is not this the 
 Christ?" (John iv: 29). 
 
 " If thou knewest, longing soul, 
 The Gift that God has given ; 
 How fully would thy thirst for joy 
 Be satisfied from heaven. 
 
 If thou knewest, guilty soul, 
 
 That, sinful as thou art, 
 Compassion fills His soul for thee, 
 
 And tenderness His heart. 
 
 He has these living waters still. 
 
 He offers them to you. 
 Drink ; for these springs are ever fresh ; 
 
 These wells of mercy new." 
 
FOOD THAT SATISFIES 
 
 WHEN the returning disciples urged their 
 Master to eat of the provisions they had 
 obtained in the city of Sychar, He told 
 them, " I have meat to eat that ye know not 
 of. . . . My meat is to do the will of Him that 
 sent Me, and to finish His work." 
 
 The lofty character of this reply will be better 
 understood if we remember two things. First, 
 the claims of his body were as yet unsatisfied. He 
 came to the well of Sychar at noontide. The hot 
 sun of Syria was, no doubt, pouring down its 
 fiercest rays. He was weary with His journey, 
 hungry from His long fast and burning with the 
 thirst which only travellers in lands poorly watered 
 can know. The passing hours since His disciples 
 had left Him to buy meat in the city had not 
 brought relief to either His hunger or His thirst. 
 No one had been with Him, save the woman of 
 Samaria. She had no meat to offer Him, and it 
 does not appear that she gave Him to drink, even 
 after He had offered her living water. This is the 
 only recorded request that Jesus made for bodily 
 
 69 
 
70 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 relief of any kind during His active ministry, and 
 we are not told that it was granted. 
 
 The second fact that we need to consider is that 
 our Lord was not an ascetic. He did not ignore 
 the wants of the body, nor strive to stamp out its 
 normal appetites. He was neither gluttonous nor 
 a wine-bibber; but, notwithstanding, " The Son of 
 man came eating and drinking." His example 
 gave sanction to the maxim His great apostle has 
 left us, Every creature of God is good, if received 
 with thanksgiving. He was present at a marriage 
 ceremony and furnished wine for the guests. He 
 accepted an invitation to a great feast, where He 
 ate and drank with publicans and sinners. 
 
 It was not, then, either because our Savior had 
 broken His long fast or that He had any scruples 
 about satisfying His hunger that He replied to His 
 disciples, " I have meat to eat that ye know not of." 
 " Man shall not live by bread alone " had been the 
 words of Jesus to the tempter in the desert. There 
 He had pointed to the word of God as food for the 
 soul. Here He speaks of the service of obedience 
 as soul satisfying. Hunger and thirst were for 
 the time ignored, because the Son of man had ex- 
 perienced the expulsive power of a stronger appe- 
 tite. The spiritual conquests before him overcame 
 the clamors of the body. 
 
 Absorption in some favorite pursuit has often 
 deadened the sensibilities of men to the claims of 
 the body. 
 
FOOD THAT SATISFIES 71 
 
 When the great painting in the rotunda of the 
 Capitol at Washington was under way, the artist 
 often forgot his dinner which was daily placed near 
 him. John Opie, when a lad, used to rise at three 
 o'clock in the morning, denying his body rest, that 
 he might draw sketches with chalk and charcoal. 
 James Ferguson, when a poor boy, unknown to 
 fame, felt the same ruling spirit. Often, after 
 toiling all day, though he was of feeble frame, he 
 would go out at night into the fields, with a blanket 
 about him and a lighted candle and there, lying on 
 his back, pursue for long hours the movements of 
 the heavenly bodies, stretching a thread with small 
 beads upon it between his eye and the stars that he 
 might measure their apparent distances from one 
 another. The claims of the body were forgotten, 
 for the spirit was in rapture. David Livingstone, 
 buried in the heart of Africa, sick and weary with 
 his many years of exploration refused, when relief 
 came, to go home to all the comforts of civilized 
 life. He was willing to sacrifice himself, if he 
 might heal the sore spot of a sin-smitten world. 
 
 To all who take true views of human life, the 
 body is a slave, and not the master. The spirit 
 must have dominion, if the man is to achieve any 
 worthy end in life. The body is only the instru* 
 ment through which the immortal part of man does 
 his work; and often the absorption of the soul in 
 a great work forbids the indulgence of the appe- 
 tites. The master has food to eat the servant 
 
72 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 knows not of. The body must wait. Abraham's 
 servant would not eat, until he had told his errand. 
 Samuel would not sit down to meat until he had 
 anointed David. With Jesus this dominion of the 
 spirit was absolute : and the food his soul feasted 
 upon was the loftiest of all service and the most 
 congenial to his heart. It was hunger of spirit 
 that brought him from heaven to earth. He could 
 truly say, " I delight to do Thy will, O my God ; 
 yea, Thy law is within my heart." 
 
 He came to do His Father's will; yet so perfectly 
 were He and His Father one that the love that sent 
 and the love that brought were equal. Both were 
 infinite. He did the Father's will when the worlds 
 were made by Him yet creation's wide domain did 
 not satisfy a Savior's love. Before His incarna- 
 tion He rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth 
 and His delights were with the sons of men (Prov. 
 viii : 31 ). Though the stars of a universe lay scat- 
 tered like diamonds upon the robe of night, the 
 Lord of glory found not among them all the one 
 treasure most dear to His heart. A lost world was 
 wandering from its place into the blackness of 
 darkness, and to go after it and restore it was the 
 mission he assumed. 
 
 The motive power that impelled Him forward in 
 every step of His way was love. Man, the one 
 prodigal of the great family of God, must be re- 
 stored. The ninety and nine of the heavenly fold 
 were as dear as ever to the heart of Infinite Love; 
 
FOOD THAT SATISFIES 73 
 
 but the one that had strayed filled that heart with 
 solicitude, and nothing could so stir it as the an- 
 swering call of the sheep He had lost. 
 
 Devotion to toil is not enough in itself to stamp 
 man's character with nobility. Some men neglect 
 the appetites of the body, only to feed the more 
 imperious appetites of the spirit in pride, avarice 
 or ambition. Some men wrap themselves in toil- 
 some labors only to escape painful memories. But 
 Jesus Christ entered upon His life-work under the 
 impulse of motives known only to infinite love. 
 The work of winning souls was His meat and His 
 drink. His spirit had just been refreshed as it re- 
 joiced over the woman of Samaria, now won to re- 
 pentance; and hungered for the more ample feast 
 of a city filled with sinners whose souls were just 
 as precious as was hers. This pleasure loving 
 woman was the first fruits of His mission to 
 Sychar, and the fields white to the harvest toward 
 which He pointed His wondering disciples were 
 not those of nature but of grace. Perhaps by this 
 time the company of Samaritans was in sight, an- 
 swering the call of the woman who said to them : 
 " Come, see a man which told me all things that 
 ever I did." " They went out of the city," we are 
 told, " and came unto Him." " The divine fisher 
 of men has just felt the tugging of a vigorous life 
 upon His line, and as the prize is secured He is 
 eager to cast in again and again where a shoal is 
 passing by." What wonder that in such heavenly 
 
74 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 employment the Savior could say to the disciples, 
 as yet uninitiated into this heavenly art, unac- 
 quainted with the hunger that consumed the winner 
 of souls, or the joys of redeeming love, " I have 
 meat to eat that ye know not of? " 
 
 There was a divine " needs be " that directed the 
 Savior's steps to Samaria. The controlling 
 reasons were neither geographical nor political. 
 Sovereign grace had marked this spot as one in 
 which to display its power. It was an unlikely 
 hour at which to meet any of the people. And it 
 would seem that this woman, of irregular life, was 
 the least likely person to fulfill the Savior's desires 
 as He came to that well-side, seeking to save. But 
 divine wisdom had seen all, arranged all. The 
 hunger of the Son of man was not to be unsatis- 
 fied. Here He found food richer than angels eat ; 
 and, as He tasted of it He said, " My meat is to do 
 the will of Him that sent Me." Perhaps He had 
 been long fasting in spirit when He came to Jacob's 
 well. We know that He was driven from Jeru- 
 salem by the envy and malice of the Pharisees, 
 who could not bear to hear it said that He made 
 and baptized more disciples than John the Baptist. 
 Penetrating the strange and inhospitable region of 
 Samaria, He carried with Him the same longing 
 for souls that had possessed Him at Jerusalem, and 
 when He found a lost sinner who was willing to 
 listen to His message of salvation, His joy was 
 like that of one who, after long fasting, is called to 
 
FOOD THAT SATISFIES 75 
 
 sit down to a feast. Jesus would gladly have 
 slaked His thirst at Jacob's well but there was a 
 deeper thirst in His heart of love, and as He 
 stooped to drink of the answering love of a sinner 
 His grace had saved, His joy was so great that 
 hunger and thirst of the body were forgotten. Dr. 
 Arnot relates a story in apt illustration : 
 
 " A traveller lost his way in an Eastern desert. 
 His provisions were exhausted, and he had already 
 wandered about for several days without food, 
 when he descried under a palm-tree on his track 
 the marks of a recent encampment. He ap- 
 proached the spot, tremulous with hope. He 
 found a bag which the travellers had left behind, 
 filled with something that appeared to be dates. 
 He opened it eagerly expecting to satisfy his 
 hunger; when lo, it contained only pearls ! He sat 
 down and wept. What are pearls to a man who is 
 dying for bread ? " " Jesus," continues this fasci- 
 nating expositor, " is Lord of all. Those glorious 
 stars that stud the heavens are all His. They are 
 the jewels which belong to His crown. He values 
 them; but they do not satisfy His soul. To Christ 
 these shining orbs are like the pearls to the fainting 
 traveller in the desert. They are precious and 
 pure; but he cannot live upon them. Christ does 
 not need to redeem those bright worlds and those 
 unfallen angels, and they cannot therefore satisfy 
 His appetite. To seek the strayed, to redeem the 
 lost, to renew the fallen, to lay down His life for 
 
76 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 them, this is His meat; and for this food He must 
 pass through those shining worlds." And we may 
 add, insignificant as is our little world among the 
 great family of stars, it will forever shine con- 
 spicuous in the vault of heaven, while the material 
 universe remains, as the one world where the Lord 
 of glory " for the joy that was set before Him en- 
 dured the cross, despising the shame." 
 
 We have seen how, when the seventy returned, 
 rehearsing the result of their mission, Jesus re- 
 joiced in spirit, and bade them rejoice that their 
 names were written in heaven.; and then, as with a 
 spiritual hunger whetted for souls, He burst out 
 with that loving invitation, upon which a perishing 
 world has been feasting ever since, — " Come unto 
 Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will 
 give you rest." 
 
 When Zaccheus was called from the sycamore 
 tree by the roadside, he came down and received 
 Jesus joyfully. But Jesus received Zaccheus joy- 
 fully too. His appetite was not to be disappointed 
 in that busy, pleasure loving city. " For the Son 
 of man was come to seek and to save that which 
 was lost." 
 
 This is the explanation of all our Savior's en- 
 durance in life and of His patient suffering upon 
 the cross. Hunger brought Him from heaven. 
 Hunger impelled Him forward to Calvary. Hun- 
 ger caused Him to weep, like the traveller in the 
 desert over his useless pearls, as He looked upon 
 
FOOD THAT SATISFIES 77 
 
 the glittering domes of the Holy City and thought 
 of the multitudes His love could not save. " I 
 have a baptism to be baptized with," He cried on 
 His way to Jerusalem to suffer, " and how am I 
 straitened till it be accomplished ! " 
 
 There are other ends met in eating beside the 
 gratification of the appetite. Bodily strength is re- 
 newed; the whole frame is refreshed and invigo- 
 rated; even the spirit feels the impulse of a new 
 life; and the faculties that were dull and listless 
 while the body was famished are sharpened for 
 duty, as it was with Jonathan in the wood when he 
 cried, " See how mine eyes have been enlightened 
 because I tasted a little of this honey!" (i Sam. 
 xiv: 29). Whether Jesus thus went from strength 
 to strength, as He gathered in souls during His 
 earthly ministry, it is assuredly true that thus 
 we may become spiritually strong, and thus will our 
 eyes be opened to see spiritual truths hidden from 
 those who are not workers together with Christ in 
 winning men. Perhaps you are weak, fainting in 
 the way, doubtful of your own acceptance with 
 God, tempted to give up the struggle and go back 
 to the world. And you say that you have tried in 
 vain to feed upon the word, upon prayer, upon 
 Christian fellowship, upon the ordinances of the 
 sanctuary. Try one thing more, my brother. 
 Seek to save souls. Seek them by the light of a 
 godly example, seek them by prayer, seek them by 
 earnest, timely and loving solicitation ; and as your 
 
78 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 hunger for the lost is met, your faith in God will 
 be strengthened and your zest for duty renewed. 
 
 There is no better way to dispel the mists of 
 doubt than to be in earnest in doing good. Like 
 the Master you may learn to say, " My meat is to 
 do the will of Him that sent Me and finish His 
 work." 
 
 Jesus rejoiced in the prospect of a finished work. 
 To accomplish that work was His meat; to enter 
 into His spirit and to labor to secure the results of 
 His sacrifice may well be ours. 
 
 Yet Jesus has other food for us too. We can- 
 not live upon toil alone. And to prepare us for 
 toil, and to enable us to take a hunger-like relish 
 in it, he gathers us into the sanctuary and bids us 
 feast upon His love. 
 
 " I am the living bread, which came down from 
 heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live 
 forever ; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, 
 which I will give for the life of the world " (John 
 vi:5i). 
 
FOOD THAT SATISFIES 79 
 
 Give us our daily Bread, 
 O God, the bread of strength ! 
 For we have learnt to know 
 How weak we are at length. 
 As children we are weak; 
 As children must be fed ; 
 Give us thy Grace, O Lord, 
 To be our daily Bread. 
 
 Give us our daily Bread, 
 To cheer our fainting soul ; 
 The feast of comfort, Lord, 
 And peace, to make us whole; 
 For we are sick of tears, 
 The useless tears we shed ; — 
 Now give us comfort, Lord, 
 To be our daily Bread. 
 
 Give us our daily Bread, 
 The Bread of angels, Lord, 
 By us so many times, 
 Broken, betrayed, adored ; 
 His Body and His Blood; — 
 The feast that Jesus spread; 
 Give HIM, — our life, our all — 
 To be our daily Bread. 
 
 Adelaide A. Procter. 
 
VI 
 GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 
 
 WE have already recognized the foregleams 
 of rejoicing seen in the prophets con- 
 cerning the Messiah. That was a " joy- 
 ful hour " at Nazareth when Jesus opened the roll 
 of the prophet Isaiah, and read these words; — 
 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He 
 hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; 
 He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to 
 preach deliverance to the captives and recovering 
 of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
 bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 
 Passages of Scripture such as this are like full 
 honeycombs, running over with the sweetness of 
 the Gospel. They are like the vines of Eshcol, 
 bearing goodly clusters. They are as a bundle of 
 myrrh; and though unbound by unskillful hands, 
 the fragrance fills the house. The teacher or the 
 writer sinks out of sight, but Christ cannot be hid. 
 The singer may be forgotten; but the song abides 
 in the heart. Let us share in the joy of the Lord 
 as we seek to unfold these words. Amid the 
 abundance of the material here set before us it is 
 
 80 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 81 
 
 hard to choose, but let us remark first, upon the 
 unity of revelation. People talk about the differ- 
 ence between the Old and the New Testaments, as 
 if the spirit of the Old were hard and severe, and 
 the spirit of the New, all mercy and love. But 
 the apparent severity of the Old Testament is only 
 the necessary limitation that love finds to her 
 manifestations where men are not ready to receive 
 her. The Old Testament is not the New, as the 
 bud is not the flower ; the dawn is not the day ; the 
 opening strains are not the oratorio. The bud may 
 not be fragrant ; but sweet will be the flower — and 
 without the bud we shall not have it. The dawn is 
 dim; but the noon of the same day is glorious. 
 The opening notes of the Gospel may be heard in 
 the Old Testament; the Hallelujah chorus is in 
 the New ; but it is one song all the Scripture writers 
 sing — 
 
 "Salvation, Oh the joyful sound!" 
 
 And, as in a mighty chorus, they whose voices 
 were first heard do not cease to sing as others join 
 in the song ; — so Moses and David and Isaiah and 
 Job and Ezekiel and Jeremiah sing on; while the 
 strain is taken up by the Evangelists and Apostles 
 and by our blessed Lord Himself. And we who 
 hear these earlier singers, chanting in harmony 
 with the words of Jesus and of John and of Paul, 
 find more melody in the sweet strains they utter 
 than did the saints of an earlier time who heard 
 
82 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 them sing alone. For where David seemed to the 
 men of his own generation to be speaking only of 
 the glories of his own kingdom, or sounding the 
 praises of Solomon, we now understand that he is 
 exulting also, and in larger measure, in Messiah's 
 kingdom and rule. Where Jeremiah appeared to 
 be lamenting only the downfall of Jerusalem, or 
 exulting in her recovery, we now find that his 
 mourning applies to Zion's low estate, and his 
 prayers embrace her prosperity in all the earth. 
 And while to his cotemporaries Isaiah seemed only 
 to comfort the captives in Babylon and to predict 
 their deliverance, we hear his voice, blending in 
 sweet symphony with that of the Carpenter of 
 Nazareth, whose gracious words in the Synagogue 
 begin with this utterance, — " The Spirit of the 
 Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to 
 preach the Gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me to 
 heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the 
 captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set 
 at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the ac- 
 ceptable year of the Lord." 
 
 . . . And so we pass to notice the source of all 
 comfort and joy. It was the Spirit of the Lord 
 that inspired David's song, and touched Isaiah's 
 lips, and uplifted Ezekiel in vision, and exalted 
 Daniel in prophetic rapture, and opened the eyes 
 of John to see and his mouth to utter the glories 
 of the New Jerusalem, — and all for the comfort 
 and support of the people of God. 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 83 
 
 These holy men of God were anointed for their 
 ministry as truly as was Christ, though to Him 
 alone was the Spirit given without measure. They 
 were sent of God, and He who sent them con- 
 tinues to send forth His messengers of comfort. 
 Our Savior said of His disciples, — " As Thou hast 
 sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent 
 them into the world." 
 
 May God multiply the heralds of salvation an 
 hundredfold, that the burdened children of men 
 may know all the comforts of the Gospel. " Let 
 him that heareth say, Come, and every one that 
 hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
 the churches" (Rev. xxii : 17; ii : 7 ) - 
 
 How appropriate does it seem that Jesus speaks 
 these comforting words at Nazareth, where He had 
 been brought up ! And it was by the Spirit of God 
 that He was directed to this congenial ministry 
 among His own townspeople. For nearly thirty 
 years He had lived and toiled here. His heart 
 was knit to many in that synagogue by social and 
 friendly ties. He knew their heart sorrows, and He 
 longed to heal them. And though His own received 
 Him not, His example should stimulate us to seek 
 to bless especially the souls that are nearest to us. 
 Yet, as it was the intimation that the Gospel was 
 not for the Jews alone that enraged the people of 
 Nazareth, so many now whom we would point to 
 the Savior, show by their narrowness and bigotry 
 that they utterly misunderstand the Gospel. They 
 
84. THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 who would confine the blessings of salvation to the 
 heathen at home need to know that the broken- 
 hearted can be comforted only as they themselves 
 become comforters; and that "it is more blessed 
 to give than to receive." 
 
 . . . But let us examine more particularly the 
 passage from Isaiah which our Lord applies to 
 Himself. It sets before us the scope and fullness 
 of the Gospel. It sufficiently indicates the uni- 
 versality of the Gospel that it is to be preached to 
 the poor, — while the distinctive blessings of the 
 Glad tidings are set forth in the gracious words, 
 " He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted ; to 
 preach deliverance to the captives and recovering 
 of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are 
 bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 
 And Jesus later emphasized the message : — " the 
 
 POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM ! " 
 
 And who are the poor? Not merely they who 
 are without worldly substance. A wider class is 
 embraced in this designation. In the meaning of 
 Scripture, the poor are they who are destitute of 
 anything that may be necessary to their holiness 
 and happiness. It was a king who cried, " I am 
 poor and needy ; yet the Lord thinketh upon me " 
 (Ps. xl: 17). David felt that without the Lord's 
 mercies and favor, though he sat upon the throne 
 of Israel, he was poor indeed. The religion of 
 Jesus Christ is a system of consolation for the 
 wretched. The great mass of mankind are liter- 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 85 
 
 ally poor in temporal possessions; but so are they, 
 in common with those rich in temporal good, poor 
 and needy in spirit. 
 
 By indicating therefore poverty of spirit as the 
 want the Gospel is designed to supply, Christ points 
 out its universal scope. Yet that the literal poor, 
 the down-trodden and the lowest of the social scale, 
 who compose the mass of humanity, should share 
 at all in the blessings of this remedial system, 
 this is the distinguishing feature of the religion of 
 Jesus Christ. Nothing like it had ever been known 
 to antiquity. Nothing like it is ever attempted in 
 modern times, save under the impulse of Chris- 
 tianity. The idea of elevating and blessing the 
 common people, and especially servants, slaves and 
 criminals, is perfectly original with the Gospel 
 system. Sages in all lands, and in every age, have 
 indeed been heard uttering the voice of superior 
 wisdom. Some sublime " guesses at truth " we 
 have from philosophers and poets of antiquity; 
 some lofty maxims; some wise sayings. But who 
 were reached and helped by these speculations and 
 counsels? Only select pupils, intimate friends or 
 distinguished guests. The teachings of the wisest 
 men of antiquity never went beyond a very narrow 
 circle of the upper classes of society. If, on a rare 
 public occasion, a poem was recited, a history read, 
 a tragedy acted in public, as at the Olympic games, 
 the design was not to benefit the masses, but to se- 
 cure their applause, as the reader or actor was 
 
86 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 crowned with the olive in their presence. What 
 did the poor of Greece know of the philosophy of 
 Plato, or the slaves of Rome of the dissertations of 
 Cicero? And, even if these teachings had been 
 diffused among the masses, what was there in them 
 to elevate or to comfort the poor? What were the 
 glad tidings of pagan philosophy? The two great 
 antagonistic systems both offered the hungry heart 
 of man a stone. The one said, " This earth is all ; 
 let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ! " The 
 other said, " Blunt your sensibilities, destroy your 
 affections, stamp out your desires, here only is hap- 
 piness." How different the teachings of the 
 Gospel! 
 
 This blessed system is for the poor of all lands. 
 It addresses the wretched everywhere. It has al- 
 ready penetrated to every quarter of the globe, and 
 will yet extend to the darkest places of the earth. 
 And everywhere it offers instruction to the igno- 
 rant, comfort to the afflicted, and liberty to the 
 captive. It will do for the Moslem, the Hindoo, 
 the African, what it does equally well for the rich 
 and cultured of Christian lands, who heartily re- 
 ceive it. The beggar, the outcast, the criminal 
 may find relief, as truly as a resident of a palace 
 in London, or Paris or Chicago. 
 
 Christianity does not change the constitution of 
 the human soul. It takes men as they are, with 
 their God-given faculties, with their deep seated 
 desires for happiness, with their affections, with 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 87 
 
 their mutual social relations, and offers its blessed 
 healing for their sicknesses and satisfaction for 
 their wants. The Gospel blesses the poor every- 
 where by bettering their social condition, lifting 
 them above abject poverty, and making them share 
 in all the outward advantages of a Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 What a contrast do we find between the condi- 
 tion of a poor man in America and the poor of 
 Africa, or Turkey or Russia, or China ! The 
 best minds in Europe and America are working 
 upon social problems whose solution means the 
 elevation of the poor. Philanthropic efforts are 
 carried on for their benefit. The poorest man in 
 America may own a Bible. He is welcome to the 
 churches, whether they be cathedrals or plain 
 chapels. The free schools educate his children. 
 The hospitals and asylums receive him and care for 
 him in his misfortune. He is better paid, better 
 clad, better fed, better treated everywhere and in 
 every way than the poor of any other land or age 
 ever were. And all this is the direct result of the 
 teaching of the Gospel. 
 
 It has been suggested that were two maps con- 
 structed, the one depicting the prevalence of Chris- 
 tianity or heathenism, by light and dark colors re- 
 spectively; and the other the diffusion of happiness 
 and misery over the earth, the two maps would 
 very closely correspond. The lands marked with 
 Gospel light are the lands where the poor are lifted 
 
88 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 up and blessed; while in lands of pagan darkness, 
 
 " Man's inhumanity to man 
 Makes countless thousands mourn." 
 
 In London alone there are more than two thou- 
 sand agencies for the relief of the poor, and more 
 than twenty-five million dollars are annually ex- 
 pended for their help. All our great cities have 
 like charities. In like manner, the Gospel lifts 
 the burdens of humanity by multiplying friends, 
 sympathy and kindness to the sick and suffering. 
 Christ is the Great Physician. He healed many 
 diseases when He was in the flesh; but He has 
 literally healed many thousands more by the 
 agencies of the Gospel since He left the earth. 
 
 The Gospel cultivates and fosters true science 
 which has done so much to discover and remove 
 the causes of disease and to mitigate its evils. It 
 works not by ignoring means, but by employing 
 them. It often guides, by the blessing of God, 
 in answer to prayer, to the right physician, to the 
 right medicine, to the right change, and it im- 
 parts that calmness and resignation to the 
 sufferer that is so favorable to recovery. Truly, 
 
 " The healing of His seamless dress 
 Is by our beds of pain ; 
 We touch Him in life's throng and press, 
 And we are whole again." 
 
 The testimony of Isabella Bird Bishop is note- 
 worthy, — She says, " Medical missions are the out- 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 89 
 
 come of the living teachings of our faith. I have 
 now visited such missions in many parts of the 
 world; and never saw one which was not healing, 
 helping, blessing, softening prejudice, diminishing 
 suffering, telling in every work of love and of con- 
 secrated skill of the infinite compassion of Him 
 who ' came not to destroy men's lives, but to save 
 them.' " 
 
 We have come upon troublous times, now that 
 the powers of darkness have been let loose upon 
 the earth. The horror of almost universal war 
 is upon us. But let no one say that Christianity 
 is to blame for this state of things, or that Christi- 
 anity is in any sense a failure because they exist. 
 It has been the refusal to accept Christianity on the 
 part of those who wage unjust warfare that is re- 
 sponsible for all this devastation and bloodshed. 
 The doctrine that " might makes right " is not the 
 Gospel, nor is " the survival of the fittest," as men 
 judge of fitness, the law of the kingdom of heaven. 
 But when brutal might rises to crush the helpless, 
 the true followers of Christ see in the very suffer- 
 ings of the oppressed and down-trodden, their great 
 opportunity to bring the consolations of the Gospel 
 to those who so sorely need them. When in all the 
 wars of the past were so many and such efficient 
 agencies multiplied to bring relief to the stricken 
 and to heal the brokenhearted? When has so 
 much ever been done for the spiritual interests of 
 soldiers and sailors as is being done now by the 
 
90 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Y. M. C. A. and kindred organizations of Christian 
 lands? 
 
 But we have all too little space left to tell of the 
 spiritual sickness, bondage and blindness which the 
 Gospel is sent to relieve. " To the poor the 
 Gospel is preached." The word here rendered 
 poor properly denotes the afflicted, the distressed, 
 the needy; and as it is amplified in the following 
 clauses we see that it designates not outward evils 
 only, but all the sufferings of the mind and heart. 
 
 The Gospel brings its chief blessings to the souls 
 of men. It emphasizes the value of the spiritual 
 man. It demonstrates that "a man's life con- 
 sisteth not in the abundance of the things that he 
 possesseth." It proves that death does not end all. 
 The Gospel of Jesus Christ shows me how, with 
 abundance of this world's goods, I may be poor in 
 spiritual possessions. 
 
 And I need this spiritual enlightenment. Sin 
 not only blinds the eyes to the truths of the 
 Gospel, so that, without Christ's healing touch, the 
 sinner remains blind and ignorant of his blindness, 
 but all the remedies this world has to offer him 
 ignore his sad condition and make his case nothing 
 the better, but rather the worse. " Physicians of 
 no value " are all they who would " heal slightly 
 the hurt of the daughter of my people " (Jer. vi : 
 
 14). 
 
 Says S. Baring Gould, " Some years ago an in- 
 stitution for the blind was erected in one of our 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 91 
 
 large towns. The committee put their wise heads 
 together and decided that as the building was for 
 the blind, — for those who could not see, — there 
 was only waste of money and no reason in going 
 to the expense of windows. Scientific ventilation 
 and heating were provided, but no windows; be- 
 cause, as the committee very logically put it, it was 
 no use in the world in providing light for those 
 who cannot see. Accordingly the new blind 
 asylum was inaugurated and opened ; and the poor, 
 sightless patients settled into the house. 
 
 " Things did not go well with them however. 
 They began to sicken one after another. A great 
 languor fell upon them. They felt always dis- 
 tressed and restless, craving for something they 
 hardly knew what; and after one or two had died 
 and all were ill, the committee sat on the matter 
 and resolved to open windows. Then the sun 
 poured in and the white faces recovered their color 
 and the flagging vital energies revived, the de- 
 pressed spirits recovered, and health and rest re- 
 turned. I think that is not unlike the condition of 
 a vast number of people." 
 
 Even the spiritually blind of this world receive 
 untold benefits from Christ; but how much more 
 do they receive whose eyes are opened by him. 
 The Gospel convicts me of spiritual blindness. It 
 reveals to me my condition, as a miserable captive, 
 bruised and scourged by sin. It makes known to 
 me the plague of my heart, and convinces me that 
 
92 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 it is a disease without remedy by human means. 
 And, better than all this, it points me to the Healer, 
 the Deliverer, the Comforter. It proclaims the 
 great truths of immortality, of the forgiveness of 
 sins, of the presence of God, of the comfort of the 
 Holy Spirit, of the Christian's triumph over death, 
 of the life everlasting. It sets the promises thick 
 as stars in the night of my affliction. It places be- 
 neath the weak and the faltering the " Everlasting 
 Arms." It hushes the tempest raised in the bosom 
 by conscious guilt, with the words, " Peace, be 
 still ! " It stands by the side of the mourner and 
 comforts the. stricken heart with the assurance, 
 " Thy son, thy daughter, liveth." It reconciles the 
 sufferer to the Cross and calls forth praises from 
 the lips that quiver with pain. It lights up the 
 Father's house for the wandering and travel-worn 
 children of men. It is simple in its terms, reason- 
 able in its requirements, truthful in its teachings 
 and authoritative in its proclamations. It is a 
 faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. 
 
 It was the Author of salvation who stood in the 
 little synagogue at Nazareth and proclaimed " the 
 acceptable year of the Lord." The true Jubilee, 
 deliverance from the yoke and burden of sin. But 
 " His own received Him not." 
 
 This same Jesus speaks to us now. It is " a 
 time accepted, — a day of salvation." No one of 
 you, my readers, will be saved as a matter of course. 
 You are sinful, and you need this Savior. With- 
 
GLAD TIDINGS AT NAZARETH 93 
 
 out Him you are lost forever. But His mercy in- 
 vites you to penitence and to prayer. " Because 
 thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, 
 and have need of nothing, and knowest not that 
 thou art wretched, and miserable and poor and 
 blind and naked, I counsel thee," says the Savior, 
 " 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. iii: 17, 18). 
 
 At Nazareth, Christ was wounded in the house 
 of his friends. Alas for you if you send Him 
 away, rejected from your heart to-day ! 
 
VII 
 IN THE HOLY MOUNT 
 
 WHAT matter whether the Transfiguration 
 of our Lord took place upon Mount 
 Tabor or upon Mount Hermon? Not 
 the place, but the scene claims our chief attention. 
 The lessons to be learned are not of local interest, 
 and the privilege of sharing for a little time, the 
 companionship of the Master, is worth infinitely 
 more than the most exact knowledge of the locali- 
 ties of His life and death. Let us not then con- 
 cern ourselves with questions of chronology or of 
 geography. Our aspiration is loftier. We would 
 see " Jesus only." It is enough as we ascend with 
 Him, either this mountain or that, that we are fol- 
 lowing in the footsteps of the Son of God. It is a 
 mountain apart ; and we need fear no interruption. 
 It is high; and here we may remain for a little 
 season above the world, in a heavenly place. 
 
 We infer that it was the evening hour, when 
 Jesus led His disciples up the mount. Luke says 
 He descended the next day, and we know that it 
 was no uncommon thing for our Lord to spend the 
 night in prayer. 
 
 We are told that he went apart to pray 
 94 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 95 
 
 (Luke ix:28) and the opportunity was afforded 
 the disciples also for prayer; but, with them, if 
 the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak. Night 
 is the natural time for rest; and though the 
 favored three were perhaps the most devout of His 
 followers, " Peter, and they that were with him 
 were heavy with sleep." 
 
 He who was called the " Rock," and they who 
 were " Sons of Thunder " were men, of like 
 passions as we are. Let us not envy them their 
 privileges, since they make so poor a use of them. 
 Let us consider that, if we may not see the glory of 
 the Holy Mount, nor hear a voice from heaven, 
 speaking through a mysterious cloud, we may learn 
 better lessons than did Peter and James and 
 John. 
 
 The shadows deepen upon the mountain, for the 
 day is declining. The glimmering landscape that, 
 stretching far and wide, but a little while ago em- 
 braced in its compass the hills of Galilee and per- 
 haps the valley of Megiddo and the western sea, 
 now fades from sight. The busy hum of industry 
 on the plains below has ceased; and, save the 
 stirring of the night winds through the branches of 
 the cedars and the trickling of the mountain rills, 
 all nature is hushed and still. The disciples are 
 asleep, and the Redeemer prays. 
 
 Let us pause upon the threshold, e'er we enter 
 the holiest of all these transfiguration scenes, and 
 ask, Why these prayers of Jesus? He had no 
 
96 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 sins to confess; no forgiveness to crave, yet no one 
 on earth ever prayed so fervently as the Son of 
 man. Especially at every marked crisis of His 
 life were His earnest supplications called forth. 
 On the mountain, in the garden, at the cross, He 
 prayed ! If He felt the need of prayer, much more 
 may we, when led, either by temptation or by 
 privilege, up " an exceeding high mountain apart," 
 when blessed with the fellowship of the Master, 
 or when shown for our trial all the kingdoms of 
 the world and the glory of them. For in either 
 case our only safety lies in a humility born of 
 prayer. 
 
 Could we listen to these earnest pleadings we 
 might indeed learn the true spirit of devotion as we 
 never learned it before; but we could not learn 
 from these supplications of our Lord alone what 
 things to pray for as we ought. We are sinful; 
 He was not. And the language of His lips, as He 
 sought not grace, but merited help from His divine 
 Father, would ill become us as we draw near to 
 God. Christ taught His immediate disciples, as 
 He teaches us, how to pray. He prayed for them, 
 as He prays for us. It may reconcile us to the 
 thought that the privilege of praying with the 
 Master, in bodily presence upon the earth, is not 
 granted us, to reflect that even had His own dis- 
 ciples not been overwhelmed with slumber, on this 
 occasion, they could not have joined Him in His 
 mountain prayer. He approached the Father by a 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 97 
 
 right they could not claim; they had petitions to 
 offer He could not share. 
 
 The disciples sleep and the Redeemer prays. 
 Though nearing the hour of His strange baptism, 
 and from this time on more frequently than before 
 pouring out His soul unto death, with strong cry- 
 ing and tears, He surely forgets not, in His suppli- 
 cations, these weary disciples. And surely if He 
 could then remember them, let none doubt His lov- 
 ing intercession now. " He that keepeth Israel 
 shall neither slumber nor sleep." 
 
 The hours wear on. The disciples sleep, and 
 the Redeemer prays; when lo, suddenly the soli- 
 tary place is flooded with a " great wakening light." 
 It is not the light of the moon, breaking from be- 
 hind a cloud ; nor has the sun risen upon the earth. 
 Never did moon or sun shine with such heavenly 
 splendor. 
 
 The three disciples awake and behold the form 
 of their Master transfigured. The fashion of His 
 countenance is altered. It bears no longer a line 
 or shadow, such as marked him hitherto as the 
 " man of sorrows." It is not a reflected bright- 
 ness, such as Moses bore upon his countenance 
 when he came down from Sinai; but a glory all 
 His own transforms the Son of man. Moses hid 
 the shining of his face behind a veil, but no cover- 
 ing can hide the glory of the Lord of Moses, trans- 
 figured upon the mount. For, through the fleshly 
 tabernacle there streams such radiance that His 
 
98 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 very raiment becomes shining exceeding white, 
 rivalling the snow-caps glistening upon the moun- 
 tain ridges, and " so as no fuller upon earth can 
 white them." Nature and art are both appealed to 
 in vain to furnish an image that shall set forth the 
 Redeemer's transcendent glory upon this occa- 
 sion. 
 
 Yet though the human form of Jesus was thus 
 transfigured before the wondering eyes of His 
 disciples, who never before saw His glory, this 
 was not a transfiguration of the Son of God. As 
 well might we say that the rift in the cloud that 
 permits the sun to shine forth, flooding the heavens 
 with glory, is the sun itself. Jesus upon the 
 Mount was transfigured as to His humanity; but 
 His humanity was itself a transfiguration, in 
 humiliation. 
 
 The Son of God was transfigured all the days 
 He spent upon the earth in the likeness of sinful 
 flesh. This was but a partial manifestation of 
 that glory He had with the Father before the world 
 was. It might be called the transfiguration of the 
 Son of man; but not the transfiguration of the 
 Son of God. On the mount His flesh streamed 
 with effulgent radiance; but even more glorious 
 was His appearance in the bosom of the Father; 
 even more glorious is His resurrection body now. 
 " For the glory of the celestial is one, and the 
 glory of the terrestrial is another" (i Cor. xv : 
 40). The disciples, though with dazzled eyes, look 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 99 
 
 upon this; they could not behold the unveiled 
 essential glory of their Lord and live. 
 
 But heavenly visitors, too, are here, who, in 
 some unexplained manner, are made known to the 
 disciples. Peter, James and John have not to ask, 
 " Who are these in bright robes, and whence came 
 they ? " They recognize them at once as Moses 
 and Elijah, the giver and the restorer of the law, 
 the greatest of all Israel's leaders and the greatest 
 of all her prophets; — two who were mighty in 
 their lives and who were both in a mysterious man- 
 ner taken from earth: the one hurried to an un- 
 known grave by the very Lord whose glory he 
 now comes to witness ; and the other snatched from 
 the jaws of death, and taken home to heaven in a 
 chariot of fire. The two men with mention of 
 whom the Old Testament closes; and the two 
 through whom prophecy is earliest vindicated in 
 the New. Moses said, " A prophet shall the Lord 
 your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like 
 unto me " (Deut. xviii : 15), (Acts iii : 22). And 
 the Spirit through Malachi declared, " Behold, I 
 send you Elijah the prophet before the great and 
 dreadful day of the Lord come." In Jesus Him- 
 self stood revealed the prophet like unto Moses; 
 and in John the Baptist He taught his followers to 
 recognize Elijah who was to come. The heir of 
 Pharaoh's crown, who esteemed the reproach of 
 Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt 
 and the solitary prophet whose watchword was 
 
100 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 " The Lord Jehovah liveth before whom I stand," 
 both now stand in the presence of the King. How 
 cheaply purchased, even by all the fiery trials of 
 their lives, this moment of triumph ! 
 
 Could two more illustrious personages have been 
 selected from the whole ancient Church to be eye- 
 witnesses with the apostles of our Lord's majesty? 
 Into the things of redemption the angels desire to 
 look, and surely redeemed men have a deeper in- 
 terest in every scene than they; for upon the con- 
 summation of the Redeemer's sufferings their 
 hopes, as well as the hopes of a perishing world 
 must rest. What wonder that every other theme 
 is forgotten; and though these visitors come as 
 messengers direct from heaven, their hearts are too 
 full to speak of aught but His decease which He 
 should accomplish at Jerusalem. 
 
 We have spoken of the joyful hours spent by 
 Jesus upon the earth ; and surely such a time as this 
 may well be recognized as a season of ineffable joy. 
 Heaven has never seemed so manifestly to come 
 down to earth. The glory of the world of light 
 is here, and here are heavenly guests, and a voice 
 from the visible Shekinah proclaims, " This is my 
 beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye 
 Him." And yet, over all this brightness there 
 falls the mysterious shadow of the Cross. They 
 speak of His decease. Jesus had told His disciples 
 of it just before this; and from this stage of His 
 ministry it is a theme frequently upon His lips, — 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 101 
 
 a pleasing, painful theme; a baptism toward which 
 He pressed forward with eagerness, for the joy 
 that was set before Him ; and yet from which He 
 shrank back, crying " Father, if it be possible, let 
 this cup pass from Me." 
 
 We infer that the slumbering apostles have 
 missed this heavenly converse, or at least the first 
 part of it. The theme was exalted, the speakers 
 were from heaven, the subject matter of their dis- 
 course deeply concerned them; but they were 
 asleep! Surely if they have heard what was said 
 they have strangely misunderstood its meaning; 
 and how inopportune seem the words of the half- 
 bewildered, yet now as ever forward Peter, 
 " Master, it is good for us to be here; if Thou wilt 
 let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee 
 and one for Moses, and one for Elias." 
 
 But if the apostles have failed to understand the 
 words of the prophets of the Old Testament and 
 the greater words of the Prophet of the New, it is 
 not meant that they shall fail to hear the voice 
 from heaven, which attests and confirms the mis- 
 sion of their divine Lord. God, who spake from 
 the cloud upon Sinai, appears in a cloud above the 
 awe-stricken three. It is the Shekinah, the symbol 
 of the divine presence. Not a dark, but a lumi- 
 nous cloud. Yet even the brightness of the 
 Shekinah is as a veil before the " light unapproach- 
 able and full glory," where the essential Godhead 
 dwells. 
 
102 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Moses at Sinai cried, " I exceedingly fear and 
 quake;" and the apostles fear as their Lord and 
 His prophets enter into the cloud. Yet there are 
 here no such voices and thunderings as made 
 Mount Sinai to shake. The glory of the mount 
 of Transfiguration eclipses the glory of Sinai as 
 much as grace eclipses legality. The servant was 
 sent from the latter, with glory on His counte- 
 nance, and with delegated authority to speak for 
 God. The Son Himself, resplendent with His 
 own glory upon the former, speaks as Master and 
 Lord, and the emphatic command of the Father is, 
 " Hear ye Him." 
 
 Dazzled with the excess of glory, the apostles 
 seem to avert their eyes, and when they look again, 
 the scene is changed. The heavenly visitors have 
 departed as mysteriously as they came; the voice 
 has died away ; the supernatural light and the over- 
 hanging cloud are gone ; and they see no man, save 
 jesus only! 
 
 Many questions of surpassing interest start up, 
 as we reflect upon this glorious scene in the life 
 of our Lord. We might contemplate the " unity 
 of the Old and New Testaments, as attested by 
 this apparition of the Princes of the Old, in 
 solemn yet familiar converse with the Lord of the 
 New " (Trench); of the immortality of the soul, 
 as evinced by the presence of men who, for more 
 than a thousand years had passed away from earth ; 
 of the doctrine of the resurrection and of the na- 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 103 
 
 ture of these risen and changed bodies; of the 
 recognition of friends in heaven, since Peter, James 
 and John, though they have never seen these 
 prophets before, yet so readily distinguish them; 
 of the question as to whether this is a solitary in- 
 stance of departing saints visiting the earth. We 
 stay to discuss none of these matters now; and 
 mention them only to indicate how fruitful for 
 meditation is the scene of the Transfiguration. 
 A few other things, however, we will observe. 
 
 Note the testimony given to Christ by the voice 
 from heaven. Not only did it manifest the com- 
 munion and sympathy of the Father, and 
 strengthen the Son for the hour of His suffering; 
 but it attested to His followers the supremacy of 
 His claims. Though much of the conversation of 
 the shining ones was unintelligible to the disciples 
 at the time, so profound was the impression made 
 by this announcement of the Father that it never 
 faded from their minds. 
 
 More than thirty years afterward the apostle 
 Peter referred to it in the emphatic language, " For 
 we have not followed cunningly devised fables, 
 when we made known unto you the coming and 
 power of our Lord Jesus Christ; but were eye- 
 witnesses of His majesty. For He received from 
 God the Father honor and glory, when there came 
 such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 
 * This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 
104. THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 pleased.' And this voice which came from heaven 
 we heard when we were with Him in the holy 
 mount" (i Pet. i: 16). 
 
 Mark the deference paid to Christ by the great- 
 est teachers of the Old Testament. To Him gave 
 all the prophets witness ; and surely there is special 
 significance in the fact that Moses, who gave the 
 Law on Sinai and Elijah who vindicated it upon 
 Carmel, here appear to bear witness to the superior 
 claims of Jesus of Nazareth. " Again, as at the 
 Jordan, did the representatives of the two Cove- 
 nants meet," and the language of the Baptist 
 evinced the spirit of his prototype, " He must in- 
 crease, but I must decrease." The law and the 
 prophets find their complete fulfillment, as they 
 find their solution, in Jesus only. 
 
 Moses and Elijah appear as redeemed saints, 
 who owe their salvation to Christ's atoning work. 
 
 " Not all the blood of beasts 
 On Jewish altars slain, 
 Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
 Or wash away the stain. 
 
 But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, 
 
 Takes all our guilt away. 
 A sacrifice of nobler name, 
 
 And richer blood than they." 
 
 Moses and Elijah, though they had shed the 
 blood of countless victims, yet looked forward, 
 with keenest personal interest, to the " bringing in 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 105 
 
 of a better hope," as " they spake of His decease, 
 which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." 
 
 We may learn anew the lesson that we have 
 higher privileges than Peter, James and John 
 enjoyed. 
 
 Better to sit at Jesus' feet, in the quiet seclusion 
 of the sanctuary, than to witness His glory with 
 dazzled eyes and trembling hearts and minds so be- 
 wildered that we know not what to speak. Better 
 is our understanding of the scenes of the 
 Transfiguration itself than was theirs; "For we 
 have also a more sure word of prophecy, where- 
 unto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light 
 that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn 
 and the day star arise in our hearts." 
 
 It is good for us to be here; but, unlike Peter, 
 we care not to detain Moses and Elijah. Our 
 chief interest and affection center upon Jesus 
 only. 
 
 Jesus only. Let it be our watchword while life 
 lasts ! Systems of philosophy may come and go ; 
 the only teachings that have permanent power to 
 still the tumult of our passions and bring peace to 
 our troubled hearts find their embodiment in Jesus 
 only. 
 
 Friends may come like angels from the skies, 
 kindling in our breasts the flames of warm affec- 
 tion; and leaving us as they depart the hollow 
 mockery of broken friendships, or the voiceless 
 clay that responds not to our call. The Friend 
 
106 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 who never forgets, never forsakes, never dies, is 
 Jesus only. 
 
 We cannot, indeed, dwell always upon the 
 mount. We must descend, as did the disciples, 
 and often learn how near together are the scenes 
 of glory and of wretchedness; but we shall be bet- 
 ter fitted for the ministry of love if, after com- 
 muning with Jesus only as He leads us thus apart, 
 we follow Jesus only as He leads us down the 
 mount. 
 
 Whether on the heights of some mount of 
 privilege or in the deepest vale of humiliation and 
 sorrow, " God forbid that we should glory save in 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And when 
 the sacerdotal prayer of our Lord is fulfilled, 
 " Father I will that they also whom Thou hast 
 given me be with me where I am, that they may 
 behold my glory which Thou hast given me;" — 
 when the " righteous shall shine forth as the sun 
 in the kingdom of their Father; " — when, not with 
 two or three of His saints only, but with " the Gen- 
 eral Assembly and Church of the first born, whose 
 names are written in heaven," we shall behold face 
 to face the beauty of the King, in that " city that 
 hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to 
 shine in it, because the glory of God doth lighten it 
 and the Lamb is the light thereof; " our glad song 
 of praise shall declare that heaven knows no attrac- 
 tion that does not meet in Jesus only. 
 
 " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from 
 
IN THE HOLY MOUNT 107 
 
 our sins in His own blood ... to him be glory 
 and dominion forever and ever amen! (Rev. i :5, 
 6). 
 
 Jesus, thy love alone, alone thy love 
 
 Refresheth me; 
 And for that love of thine, that freshening love, 
 
 I come to thee. 
 
 It is thy cross alone, alone thy cross 
 
 That healeth me ; 
 And for that cross of thine, that healing cross, 
 
 I come to thee. 
 
 It is thy blood alone, alone thy blood, 
 
 That cleanseth me, 
 And for that blood of thine, that cleansing biood, 
 
 I come to thee. 
 
 It is thy life alone, alone thy life 
 
 That saveth me; 
 And for that life of thine, that saving life, 
 
 I come to thee. 
 
 It is thy joy alone, alone thy joy, 
 
 That gladdens me ; 
 And for that joy of thine, that gladdening joy, 
 
 I come to thee. 
 
 Savior, 'tis thou thyself, alone thyself, 
 
 Art all to me; 
 And for that all, of everything I need, 
 
 I come to thee. 
 
 Bonar. 
 
VIII 
 SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 
 
 PETER'S heart was right, though his mind 
 was somewhat bewildered. It was not 
 with the Transfiguration in view that he 
 ascended the mount. None of the chosen three 
 knew what was in store for them when Jesus 
 called them aside. They loved the Master's so- 
 ciety, and they followed at His bidding. Luke 
 says, " He took Peter, John and James and went 
 up into a mountain to pray." They knew, as they 
 toiled up its steep ascent, that they were with Jesus, 
 and that was enough. We may well believe that 
 none of them would have been chosen to behold 
 this glorious Epiphany if they would not as readily 
 have followed their Lord into humiliation and 
 suffering. Yet we are not surprised that the com- 
 placent satisfaction of the impulsive disciple finds 
 expression at the unexpected vision, " Master, it is 
 good for us to be here." 
 
 Let us notice Peter's appreciation of the best 
 things. He was loyal to Christ, through and 
 through, this Man of Rock. His choice had been 
 made with decision, and he ovvned no other master. 
 No impartial student of the Scriptures can doubt 
 
 108 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 109 
 
 his thorough conversion, despite his subsequent 
 fall, under the sore siftings of Satan. His faults, 
 like his virtues, are prominent ; but Jesus had won 
 his heart, and henceforth the things of the kingdom 
 of heaven were dearer to him than earthly pos- 
 sessions, friendships and honors. He was glad to 
 be in solitude with his Savior, that he might enjoy 
 his company and receive his instruction ; and when 
 this unexpected vision burst upon him his heart 
 was filled with rejoicing. 
 
 Not every one who knew of the Savior, when 
 He lived among men, would have been affected as 
 Peter was at such an event. Could Herod, or the 
 High Priest, or Judas have witnessed the Trans- 
 figuration their attitude toward Jesus would have 
 remained unchanged. Had this great event taken 
 place before the multitude many would doubtless 
 have been dazzled by the vision, but it is not likely 
 that a single heart would have responded, " Master, 
 it is good for us to be here," who had not before 
 that hour acknowledged Him to be their Lord. 
 
 Miracles do not compel faith. The Israelites 
 worshipped the golden calf under the very crags of 
 Sinai where they had heard Jehovah's voice, and 
 many saw the works of Jesus in the flesh only to 
 despise and wonder and perish. It was because 
 Peter possessed a devout heart that he rejoiced in 
 this wonderful display of divine glory. His in- 
 terest was not that of an entranced spectator of a 
 new wonder, seen but once in a lifetime; or that 
 
110 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of the 
 past, stood before Him. 
 
 Doubtless it would have been difficult for Peter 
 to have analyzed his feelings. Luke plainly tells 
 us that he knew not what he said; but who can 
 doubt that he spoke out of the abundance of his 
 heart, and that his deepest emotions were of a 
 spiritual nature? The vision was supernatural; 
 but this was not the chief matter. Every circum- 
 stance and incident of the Transfiguration centered 
 in the glory of Christ. This radiant countenance, 
 these dazzling robes, these heavenly visitors, this 
 mysterious cloud, this approving voice, all testified 
 that Jesus was the beloved Son of God. What 
 wonder that a disciple whose love was so ardent, 
 whose loyalty was so unquestioned, should rejoice 
 in this supreme moment of triumph and feel that 
 it was indeed good to be there! 
 
 We shall none of us ever witness in this life a 
 scene like the Transfiguration. But like emotions 
 have often stirred the hearts of God's people when 
 the Master's presence has been manifested with 
 power. Indeed an important test of true piety is 
 found in the interest men take in religious privi- 
 leges. 
 
 Wherever the Church of God is found " the 
 thoughts of many hearts are revealed " by the atti- 
 tude they assume toward it. It is in Zion that God 
 reveals His presence with peculiar power. Yet 
 men's minds are affected in a very different man- 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 111 
 
 ner by the claims of the sanctuary. There were 
 multitudes in Galilee who would rather have wit- 
 nessed a theatrical show, a triumphant procession, 
 or a king's coronation, than have seen the glory 
 of our Lord upon the mount. But Peter and his 
 fellow disciples felt that it was better to see what 
 they saw than to see the splendor of earthly courts, 
 or to have places of honor assigned them in the 
 most powerful of earthly kingdoms. Multitudes 
 in our day prefer the glamor of the world to 
 Christ. It is nothing to them that the Church 
 throws open her doors, that the infinite Jehovah 
 has promised to meet His people at the place of 
 prayer ; that there scenes often transpire that give 
 joy in heaven; that there is told the marvelous 
 story of redeeming love; that there God speaks to 
 the people through His living word, and through 
 the voice of the living minister, whenever the truth 
 as it is in Jesus is proclaimed; that there often are 
 seen the transformations of grace when souls are 
 born again. There are many who hear of all these 
 things with utter indifference, who rarely cross the 
 threshold of the sanctuary or if, stimulated by 
 curiosity or influenced by friends, they lend their 
 occasional presence, their hearts are unmoved. 
 
 We need to have it impressed upon us that the 
 only thing that imparts spiritual power to the 
 Church is the presence of the Lord of glory. It 
 is not the furnishing of the house, not the eloquence 
 of the preacher, not the sweetness of any singer's 
 
112 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 voice, not the assembled multitude, but the Spirit 
 of God that gives Zion her peculiar blessings. 
 "The Lord hath chosen Zion." "The Lord 
 loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwell- 
 ings of Jacob." 
 
 God blesses the homes of all who love Him. He 
 is the God of the household. We rejoice in that. 
 But God dwells in Zion as He dwells nowhere else ; 
 and His true people are homesick when they are de- 
 prived of the privileges of meeting Him in His own 
 house. Like David they are ready to cry, " As the 
 hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God." " My soul thirsteth for 
 God, for the living God" (Ps. xlii : i, 2). Per- 
 haps some of us attend the house of God with no 
 expectation of witnessing any unusual displays of 
 His presence, as the disciples toiled up the moun- 
 tain with Jesus with no anticipations of His Trans- 
 figuration. It is good for us to be there, even if we 
 witness nothing that we have not seen before, if 
 only we are assured that His Spirit is with us, if 
 we can pour out our hearts in prayer before Him, 
 if we can appropriate the promises and can say 
 when we return to our homes, " Did not our 
 hearts burn within us " while we met the Lord 
 yonder ! 
 
 But again, Peter's language expresses his ap- 
 preciation of special privileges. Not all the' 
 disciples were called up to the mount. There was 
 an inner circle among the twelve. Why Jesus used 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 113 
 
 this discrimination we do not know ; but we cannot 
 doubt that the temper of mind and fitness for serv- 
 ice seen in the favored three explain the Lord's 
 preference. They only were with Him at the 
 Transfiguration; they only, of all the disciples, 
 were admitted to the chamber where Jairus' daugh- 
 ter was raised to life; and they only were with our 
 Savior in the garden of Gethsemane. 
 
 Peter may mean to recognize the distinguishing 
 favor that permitted them to behold a vision that 
 other disciples did not share when he says, 
 " Master, it is good for us to be here ! " 
 
 And assuredly we have sometimes seen displays 
 of God's goodness in the sanctuary that our fellow 
 Christians have not witnessed. We have sat to- 
 gether in heavenly places, and our hearts have 
 burned within us as the truth of the Gospel has 
 come home to us with peculiar power; or we have 
 seen the joyful sight of many joining themselves 
 to the Lord; or the Sacramental ordinances have 
 been in an especial manner blessed to the whole 
 congregation. God's Spirit has been suddenly 
 poured out, melting and subduing and filling the 
 hearts of His waiting people, until the language 
 of their souls is one, " It is good for us to be here." 
 Not all our seasons of service are marked by 
 equal enjoyment. There are transfiguration 
 scenes and scenes of trial. The disciples were on 
 the mountain with Jesus one night and the next 
 day were with Jesus amid the troubled company 
 
114 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 surrounding the paralytic boy. With Jesus on 
 both occasions; but with what different emotions! 
 There are heights and depths of religious expe- 
 rience. We speak now of scenes of spiritual joy 
 in the sanctuary, when more than wonted impres- 
 sions have been made upon the heart. Every be- 
 liever may recall such seasons. When some friend, 
 long prayed for, came out upon the Lord's 
 side. When some sermon touched the heart with 
 unusual power. When some burden, long borne, 
 was lifted. When the Holy Communion, perhaps 
 the first, was especially precious. All these were 
 transfiguration scenes. 
 
 Sometimes in very small assemblies, even where 
 but two or three are gathered, the blessing of the 
 Spirit is given. There were but three witnesses of 
 the Transfiguration ; and many a time since Christ 
 has shown the light of His countenance to the little 
 company that has been gathered together in His 
 name. 
 
 We greatly undervalue our privileges if we 
 judge that the chosen three on the mount of Trans- 
 figuration had superior advantages to those that we 
 enjoy. They saw indeed a visible glory of Christ; 
 they met Moses and Elijah face to face; they 
 heard the voice of the Father, speaking from the 
 luminous cloud ; but the vision was transient, their 
 minds were bewildered, their understanding was 
 imperfect, and they were unprepared, even by 
 these unusual scenes, to enter into sympathy with 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 115 
 
 their Master, as He discoursed to them while com- 
 ing down the mount, of His approaching death 
 and resurrection. " We have a more sure word 
 of prophecy," — a fuller revelation of divine truth; 
 the principles of our salvation are more clearly 
 established ; the Holy Spirit is given to us in larger 
 measure; and we can understand better than could 
 the apostles, had they even been awake, the things 
 of the kingdom of God, of which Moses and 
 Elijah discoursed as " they spake of His decease 
 which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." And 
 the glory of Christ seen in the sanctuary is not a 
 less desirable thing to behold than His Transfigura- 
 tion upon Tabor or Hermon. Let us appreciate 
 our privileges. Others have not the blessings we 
 possess, or have them in smaller measure. Let us 
 always remember that it is good for us to be here ; 
 and let our gratitude go forth to Him who so often 
 favors us above others with displays of His grace 
 when, 
 
 " Heaven comes down our souls to greet, 
 And glory crowns the Mercy Seat." 
 
 Once more, Peter's words may mark his dis- 
 cernment of an important event in our Lord's 
 ministry. He had been accustomed to see mir- 
 acles, as he followed Him " who went about doing 
 good." Here, however, was a surpassing wonder. 
 The Son of man appears not in His humiliation, 
 but assumes something of the glory He had for a 
 
116 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 time laid aside. The giver of the Law and the re- 
 storer of the Law appear with Him in glory. A 
 voice from heaven attests His divine claims; and 
 the command is given, " Hear ye Him! " 
 
 It was indeed an important stage of our Savior's 
 career. 
 
 " This weighty event," says Alford, " formed 
 the solemn installation of our Lord to His suffer- 
 ings and their result." It may be called the 
 meridian of His day of earthly labor. As at the 
 beginning of His ministry a voice from heaven 
 proclaimed, " This is my Beloved Son," and a voice 
 at the close answered the prayer, " Father, glorify 
 Thy name;" so, in the full tide of His redeeming 
 work, the heavenly voice is heard, setting the seal 
 of divine approval upon Him, as the Messiah whom 
 God has sent. Here begins the second grand stage 
 of His life-work. From this time forward the 
 shadows of the cross fell more heavily upon His 
 pathway. He spoke to His disciples more plainly 
 of His approaching sufferings and sought to pre- 
 pare them, as they were able to bear His words, for 
 the place they must assume in His heavenly 
 kingdom. 
 
 We are far from intimating that the true signifi- 
 cance of this unique scene was discerned by Peter. 
 But some impressions, vague and shadowy as they 
 were, he must have received. He understood not 
 what the Transfiguration meant; but he knew it 
 was not without significance; and even if he 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 117 
 
 wrongly imagined it to be the inauguration of the 
 temporal reign of the Messiah, he was right in 
 esteeming it good to be present, and thus to be in a 
 measure prepared for the future developments of 
 the kingdom of Christ upon the earth. More than 
 thirty years after this event Peter writes of it as 
 having stamped itself indelibly upon His mind, — 
 " For we have not followed cunningly devised 
 fables, when we made known unto you the power 
 and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; but were 
 eye-witnesses of His Majesty; for He received 
 from God the Father honor and glory, when there 
 came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 
 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased. And this voice which came from heaven 
 we heard, when we were with Him in the holy 
 mount" (2 Pet. i: 17, 18). 
 
 It is indeed a privilege to witness any marked 
 display of divine power that may indicate a for- 
 ward movement in the Church of God. And if 
 ever the signs of the times claimed the discernment 
 of men, they do now. These are days when God 
 is working wonders in the earth. Not only are 
 the minds of men stirred to unusual activity, not 
 only are discovery and invention and enterprise 
 making giant strides in material things ; but Provi- 
 dence is marshalling all the resources of the earth 
 and combining all the forces that have influence in 
 society to carry out His vast designs. Great events 
 have occurred within our memory that have had 
 
118 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 direct, though entirely unlooked for, bearing upon 
 the interests of the Church. We need not rehearse 
 the wonderful story of man's conquest over the 
 forces of nature in this age, when earth, air and 
 sea have so largely given up their secrets. With 
 so many amazing attainments already made, we 
 may yet be only on the frontiers of discovery ; and 
 Sir Isaac Newton's modest claim to be only a 
 gatherer of shells on the sea-shore may be repeated 
 by our most advanced scientists. This only we 
 may say with confidence, that all these things are 
 part of the divine plan to secure the glory of the 
 Church, and that, far beyond the thoughts of men, 
 God will make use of them for the advancement of 
 His kingdom. 
 
 We live in the great missionary age. Now, as 
 never before, is Zion called upon to " lengthen her 
 cords and strengthen her stakes" (Isa. liv:i). 
 And though the nations are now in the commotion 
 of almost universal war, and the wisest Statesman 
 cannot predict the issue, and all missionary enter- 
 prises present new obstacles that try our faith, we 
 are well assured that the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against the Church, and, even through the 
 unhappy conflicts of men " deliverance and enlarge- 
 ment shall arise" (Esther iv: 14). 
 
 It is good to live in these days, even though 
 scoffers walking after their own lusts say, " Where 
 is the promise of His coming? " (2 Pet. iii : 2, 4). 
 It is good to read with discerning eyes the opening 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 119 
 
 pages of the Book of Providence, and though the 
 significance of the vision may be hidden from us, 
 be so impressed with the conviction that Christ is 
 being glorified in the earth that we shall be pre- 
 pared for our place in His kingdom when He calls 
 us to any service. 
 
 The best point of view from which to watch the 
 movements of history is the church of God. " O 
 thou, that bringest good tidings to Zion, get Thee 
 up on a high mountain" (Isa. xl : 9 Am. R. V). 
 There are many things in Providence that we can- 
 not understand. There are movements forward 
 and backward, as in complicated machinery. 
 There are mysteries that baffle our understanding, 
 and evils that try our faith. There are new instru- 
 ments from time to time discovered in the hands of 
 God of which we cannot see the use; and some- 
 times we blindly judge that they have no use; but 
 if we carefully study the progress of events we 
 shall catch such glimpses of the purposes of grace 
 as will convince us that not one useless thing has 
 transpired and not one instrument fashioned but 
 has its place in the far-reaching plans of God for 
 the progress of Zion. It is the past only that is 
 luminous. Principles are slowly grasped. We 
 understand the ancient world better than the an- 
 cients did. Better histories of Greece, and Rome 
 have been written in the present generation than 
 the scholarship of the world had been able before 
 to produce; and the Church of God understands 
 
120 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 to-day more clearly the principles of the kingdom 
 of heaven, and has an ampler vision of the glory 
 yet to be than any previous age has known. 
 
 It is good to be with the army of the living God, 
 when the great Captain of our salvation is leading 
 it on to triumph. It is good to be in sympathy 
 with His cause, though our understanding of many 
 things is so imperfect; for by and by we shall see 
 clearly, and I doubt not shall discern that even the 
 visible transfiguration of our Lord in Galilee was 
 not a more glorious thing to see than the glory of 
 Christ in the earth in the days in which we live. 
 These are times when all the various activities of 
 the Church, in missions, brotherhood fellowship, 
 young people's societies, social reforms and wide 
 spread relief may find scope and opportunity as 
 never before. " It is good for us to be here ! " 
 
 One other possible explanation of the text is 
 adopted by Meyer. It is fortunate that we 
 disciples are here. Peter's controlling impulse 
 may have been to be of service. And his addi- 
 tional suggestion, " Let us make here three taber- 
 nacles " seems to give some support to the rendi- 
 tion. Though confused and amazed, Peter desired 
 to be useful. He may have thought that the con- 
 struction of leafy booths would be desirable, if the 
 heavenly visitors were to remain, or at least that 
 thus the disciples might show their willingness to 
 honor their Lord and them. But even if He pro- 
 poses what he would not have thought of had his 
 
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS RECOGNIZED 121 
 
 faculties been more alert, he evinces his readiness 
 to do something that should be acceptable to his 
 Master. And we may accept this as our closing 
 lesson. It is well to be so impressed with the pres- 
 ence of Jesus in the sanctuary that we shall inquire, 
 like Paul, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? " 
 We may well question the religious emotion that 
 evaporates when the congregation melts into the 
 multitude of the world, and the impressions of the 
 sanctuary are forgotten. It is good for us to be 
 here. Here, in the Church of the living God, as it 
 exists among men. Here in the sacramental host 
 of God's elect. Here, in the great family of which 
 God is the Head and Jesus the Elder Brother, and 
 all are one! In this day, when the call for en- 
 listment is so insistent, and the opportunities of 
 service are so abundant, it is good for us to be 
 here. 
 
122 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Cast thy Bread upon the waters, 
 Give to all Christ's hungry poor. 
 
 Think not aught too mean to offer, 
 Which He blesses, of thy store. 
 
 Give, then, of thy worldly substance, 
 
 Fear not thou shalt go unfed; 
 He who feeds the fowls of heaven 
 
 Will supply thy daily bread. 
 
 Break the Bread of Life to others. 
 
 Give, as Christ has given to thee; 
 Though thy store seem small and worthless, 
 
 He'll increase it wondrously. 
 
 Crowds cry, perishing with hunger, 
 "Who will show us any good?" 
 
 Show them Christ, the Bread of Heaven; 
 Feed them with this heavenly food. 
 
 Everything you do for Jesus, 
 
 Humble though the service be, 
 Helps some soul to feed upon Him ; 
 
 Hence the Lord hath need of thee! 
 
 Ours the service, His the blessing; 
 
 Thus the multitudes we feed ; 
 Thus the Master still is working 
 
 Miracles of grace indeed. 
 
 J. G. L. 
 
IX 
 FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 
 
 THE only true accusation the enemies of 
 Jesus ever brought against Him is His 
 crowning glory; " This man receiveth sin- 
 ners." 
 
 Immediately after a wonderful discourse of 
 our Lord, which closed with the memorable words, 
 " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest," occurred the 
 scene to which we now give our attention. Let us 
 see Jesus rejoicing in the restoration of the fallen 
 and lost. 
 
 Perhaps the " Woman that was a sinner " heard 
 from the lips of the Master this gracious invita- 
 tion; and, full of penitence and gratitude, embraced 
 this her first opportunity to show love for the 
 Savior. 
 
 A Pharisee " who bore the very common name 
 of Simon," invited Jesus to dine with him. What 
 his motive was in so doing is not clear. He cer- 
 tainly was not a sincere friend of our Lord. Per- 
 haps he was merely curious to see Him at nearer 
 view. Perhaps he wanted to make up his own 
 mind as to the merits of His claims, and in the 
 123 
 
124 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 meantime, while he was willing to show Jesus a 
 measure of favor, he would not compromise his 
 own dignity and standing by offering more than 
 the barest civilities to his guest. His hospitality 
 was not free and liberal, but condescending, patron- 
 izing and scanty. Indeed little more was done 
 than to admit our Lord to a place at the table of 
 the great man. 
 
 No kiss of welcome greeted Him. No water 
 was brought to refresh His weary feet, as the 
 dusty sandals were laid aside. No sweet smelling 
 perfume anointed His head. 
 
 It could not but be apparent to the other guests, 
 and to the lookers on that He whom even Simon 
 called " Master " was treated with studied neglect. 
 
 " An Englishman's house is his castle." It is 
 not so in the Orient, and especially when a great 
 feast was made the host was forced to keep open 
 doors. None approached the table but invited 
 guests, but a great company of the poor was ad- 
 mitted about the doors, and to them was consigned 
 freely whatever was left after the feast was ended. 
 
 Among the throng that came thus to Simon's 
 house, on this occasion was one whose presence 
 was more than undesired. It was offensive. " A 
 woman that was a sinner," apparently well known 
 in the city, finding that Jesus was dining at the 
 Pharisee's house, pressed her way into the room 
 hoping for some opportunity of manifesting her 
 love. 
 
FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 125 
 
 Perhaps she had witnessed, with sorrow and 
 regret the indignity done the Savior by His host, 
 and resolved to perform the neglected service; and 
 so she hastens home and seizes the most costly 
 thing in her possession, an Alabastrum, a vessel 
 filled with precious perfume, and returns, hoping 
 to find some way to pour it upon the head of 
 Jesus. 
 
 But as the company sat, or rather reclined, at 
 the table, she could not approach near enough for 
 this. For the Roman custom of resting at meal- 
 time upon a triclinium, or dinner-bed, now pre- 
 vailed among the Jews, and was doubtless prac- 
 ticed upon this occasion. Half lying thus upon 
 the left arm, with the head toward the table, the 
 feet of the guests were thrown behind, so that the 
 servants might easily perform the office of washing 
 them. 
 
 If the woman may not anoint the head of Jesus 
 she may at least reach His feet, and so she ap- 
 proaches from behind. But as she bends over to 
 perform this lowly act of grateful homage, unde- 
 terred by the forbidding looks of the Pharisee, 
 though doubtless disturbed by them, her pent up 
 emotions can no longer be controlled. Thoughts 
 of all that she has been, and of what Jesus has 
 become to her, quite overcome her, and with 
 mingled joy and sorrow, the tears of the penitent, 
 falling in a plentiful shower, wash the feet she 
 had come to anoint. 
 
126 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 She is not repulsed, and she ventures upon a 
 further service. With her long flowing hair, her 
 only towel, she wipes away her fallen tears; she 
 kisses the feet of Him who has bidden her come 
 to Him for rest, and then pours the costly nard 
 upon them. 
 
 Jesus had not turned around as yet, but He well 
 knew who was performing this grateful service. 
 
 He could read, too, the thoughts of Simon, who 
 perhaps sat opposite, though with studied uncon- 
 cern the Pharisee may have striven to recover 
 himself and to compose his countenance. 
 
 And, without appearing to observe what had 
 been done, or to have any reference to it, the great 
 Teacher propounded a simple question of social 
 life. " There was a certain creditor, who had two 
 debtors. The one owed five hundred pence and 
 the other fifty. And when they had nothing to 
 pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me 
 therefore which will love him most." 
 
 There is a touch of superciliousness in Simon's 
 reply — as if this were child's play — an idle ques- 
 tion for one to propose who claimed to be a great 
 prophet and the Master of Israel. 
 
 And he answers readily enough, not seeing the 
 pitfall of the little parable. The debtor who was 
 forgiven five hundred pence might be expected to 
 love more than he whose debt was only one-tenth 
 that amount. 
 
 As little did David anticipate Nathan's applica- 
 
FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 127 
 
 tion, " Thou art the man," as did Simon expect 
 our Lord's reply: "Thou hast rightly judged." 
 Then came the moral of the simple tale, " couched," 
 as Farrar remarks, " in that rhythmic utterance of 
 antithetic parallelism which our Lord adopted in 
 His loftier teachings, appealing like the poetry of 
 their own prophets to these Jewish hearers — the 
 sterner for its very gentleness." 
 
 Our Lord turned full upon the penitent who was 
 perhaps still kneeling at His feet. Confused and 
 abashed as she doubtless was at having the atten- 
 tion of the whole company directed to her, it was 
 with increasing joy and gladness that she heard the 
 Savior speak. She could, as easily as we, supply 
 the words between the lines in our Lord's ad- 
 dress — "Simon, seest thou this woman? (so far 
 removed in the social scale from thyself). I 
 entered thy house (at thine own invitation) ; thou 
 gavest me no water for my feet; (though even the 
 poorest hosts are accustomed to offer this courtesy 
 to their guests) — but she (because she could not 
 otherwise perform the service) hath washed my 
 feet with tears and wiped them with the hair of her 
 head. Thou gavest me no kiss (the customary 
 greeting) but this woman, since the time I came in, 
 hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with 
 (even common olive) oil thou didst not anoint; 
 but this woman hath anointed my feet with 
 (precious) ointment. Wherefore I say unto you, 
 her sins which are many are forgiven ; for she loved 
 
128 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same 
 loveth little." 
 
 And He said unto her — "Thy sins are for- 
 given." And then that He might show that for- 
 giveness was not purchased by the much love, He 
 points to the condition in herself that warranted 
 His unqualified declaration of pardon — " Thy faith 
 hath saved thee, go in peace." We are not told 
 what effect this reply had upon Simon; but the 
 guests, whether in admiring surprise or in disap- 
 probation, we know not, began to muse in their 
 hearts, "Who is this that forgiveth sins also?" 
 We hear no more of this woman. Her name is not 
 given. Tradition and popular interpretation have 
 indeed long identified her with Mary of Magdala, 
 out of whom our Lord cast seven devils, and who 
 afterward, with other women, ministered to Him 
 of her substance. But it is quite unlikely that they 
 were the same persons. 
 
 When Luke mentions " Mary called Magda- 
 lene " in the beginning of the next chapter, he in- 
 troduces her as a new and separate character. 
 
 Still more inexcusable is the blunder which con- 
 founds Mary the sister of Lazarus, who anointed 
 the feet of Jesus at Bethany with " the woman that 
 was a sinner." The scene of this anointing was 
 at the house of Simon the Pharisee, in Galilee ; the 
 second anointing, long subsequent to this, was at 
 the house of Simon the Leper, at Bethany (Matt. 
 xxvi : 6). 
 
FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 129 
 
 Nor need we be misled by the name Simon, 
 occurring in each narrative. There was a large 
 family of Simons. They may be called the Smiths 
 of the Gospels; while Judas is by no means a 
 singular name, even among the apostles. 
 
 Sir Edwin Arnold in his poem, " The Light of 
 the World," not only adopts the baseless tradition 
 of the Dark Ages which affixes a stain to the name 
 of Mary Magdalene, but assumes that Mary of 
 Bethany is also the same person — thus blending in 
 one character three different individuals, represent- 
 ing three most distinct types of womanhood. Yet 
 this may surprise us less than to find Professor 
 David Smith in " The Days of His Flesh " accept- 
 ing the same verdict. 
 
 We carefully distinguish between these three 
 women. One came to Christ burdened with the 
 consciousness of sin. She sought pardon, and re- 
 ceived it. Jesus said to her " Go, in peace." He 
 did not bid her to come after Him as one of His 
 attendants. That was the woman that was a sin- 
 ner of the text, who loved much — we do not know 
 her name, and have no right to call her Mary. 
 
 The second woman came to Christ for heal- 
 ing; — for demoniacal possessions implied only in- 
 firmity and not guilt — and Christ healed her; and 
 moved with gratitude she followed Him and min- 
 istered to Him of her substance. That was Mary 
 Magdalene. 
 
 The third woman, the sister of Lazarus and 
 
130 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Martha, was drawn to Christ by her love of the 
 truth. She chose the better part, and delighted to 
 sit at the feet of Him who was the honored guest 
 in her home, and hear His words. That was Mary 
 of Bethany. 
 
 Disassociating then this " woman that was a 
 sinner " from the two Marys of subsequent history, 
 let us gather up the lessons we may learn from her 
 touching interview with Jesus. 
 
 i. Jesus Christ is accessible. 
 
 He never hid Himself, when He was on earth, 
 from any earnest seeker. Even when beyond the 
 borders of Israel He entered into a house and 
 would have no man know it, " He could not be 
 hid," when a heathen woman pressed for a blessing 
 upon her afflicted child. 
 
 Even when He had retired for rest, after the 
 busy toils of preaching and of healing, He could 
 not deny the importunate multitude that appealed 
 to His compassion, as sheep, having no shepherd. 
 
 It was only from the self-seeking, pride and un- 
 belief of men that He withdrew. He was a man 
 of the people. He was willing to be known as " a 
 friend of publicans and sinners." He brushed 
 away all artificial barriers — all class distinctions — 
 that forbade his mingling with rich and poor alike 
 so far as they would receive Him. The common 
 people heard Him gladly, and even the Publicans 
 and harlots many of them entered the kingdom, 
 won by His faithful, loving ministry. The Scribes 
 
FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 131 
 
 and Pharisees would have been welcomed as freely, 
 had they not been too full of themselves to come to 
 Him as sinners. 
 
 Never did a public teacher mingle more freely 
 with His disciples — never was a skillful physician 
 more ready to relieve distress than was Jesus of 
 Nazareth. 
 
 Let the sin burdened come to Him. Yet it is a 
 remark worth oft repeating that we have no re- 
 corded instance of His inviting any one to come 
 to Him for bodily healing. He never turned a 
 single applicant away. But He made prominent 
 the great end of His mission to heal the sin-sick 
 souls of men rather than their bodies, by urging 
 them everywhere to come to Him for pardon and 
 for rest. The blessing He delighted most to con- 
 fer was that bestowed upon this sinful woman. 
 " Thy sins are forgiven." " Thy faith hath saved 
 thee, go in peace." Surely then He who never 
 turned away those smitten with bodily maladies, 
 though we have no recorded instance of his taking 
 the initiative in bidding them seek healing of Him 
 ■ — unless we except the case of the impotent man at 
 the pool of Bethesda — will never turn a penitent 
 seeker away who comes to Him encouraged by 
 His multiplied, tender and urgent invitations. 
 
 No matter how far you have wandered — how 
 many are your sins — how aggravated your offenses 
 ■ — how deep your sense of unworthiness and of 
 guilt, there stands the promise gleaming in letters 
 
132 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 of gold over the open door of Christ's love — " Him 
 that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." 
 
 2. Let us learn that no obstacles can prevent a 
 sinner from finding pardon in Christ, who is 
 earnestly bent upon obtaining it. This world is 
 full of enemies to grace. Many are they who will 
 not enter into life themselves but who will hinder 
 those who would enter. Well does Bunyan repre- 
 sent Christian as he was about to enter the wicket 
 gate, as being shot at by the archers of the Evil 
 one. 
 
 Says a pithy writer, " There never is a knock at 
 heaven's gate but it sounds through hell, and devils 
 come out to silence it." " Whenever a soul is 
 striving for heaven, or heaven striving for a soul, 
 which is but another side of the same truth, there 
 are two worlds at strife." * 
 
 An ungodly world throws its whole influence 
 against every sinner that is pressing into the king- 
 dom. Often a man's foes are they of his own 
 household — for the worldly members of a family 
 are not pleased to have one of their number turn 
 Christian — and sometimes sarcasm, scorn and 
 petty annoyances must be endured from dearly 
 loved friends by those who seek refuge in Christ. 
 But most marvelous of all is the opposition that 
 sometimes meets awakened sinners on the part of 
 the professed disciples of Christ. The followers 
 of our Lord rebuked Blind Bartimeus for crying 
 *Dr. Hoge, "Blind Bartimeus," p. 116. 
 
FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 133 
 
 out for mercy. They would have had Him send 
 the Syrophcenician woman away unheard. They 
 would even have driven away the little children 
 that nestled in His protecting arms! And this 
 Simon of Galilee was a member of the Jewish 
 Church. How scornful was his attitude toward 
 the lowly penitent that found refuge at the Savior's 
 feet! He who had no welcome for the Savior of 
 sinners in his home had no pity in his heart for the 
 sinner who sought Him there. 
 
 But notwithstanding every opposition the soul 
 that is bent upon obtaining salvation shall find it. 
 Zaccheus triumphed over obstacles and placed him- 
 self in the Savior's way. The Paralytic found a 
 way to Him even through the roof of the house. 
 This poor woman came to Him tho' all society rose 
 up to oppose her, and tho' the very owner of 
 the house in which the Master was would have 
 driven her forth unblessed. 
 
 The Savior of sinners threw the ample shield of 
 His protection and love about her and she was 
 safe. So will every soul find refuge in Him, who 
 undeterred by the world's criticisms, the world's 
 allurements, or even the opposition of professing 
 Christians, seeks Him with the humble cry for 
 mercy. 
 
 3. We should learn that the way to culti- 
 vate love for Christ in our hearts is to cultivate 
 appreciation of what He has done for us. We are 
 not to understand our Savior's little parable as 
 
134. THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 teaching that Simon had been forgiven either much 
 or little. It was not what his sins were, as con- 
 trasted with those of the woman's, but what he 
 thought about them, as contrasted with what the 
 poor woman thought about her own, that served 
 to point the moral of the tale. She knew that she 
 was a sinner. She mourned over her sins — She 
 believed the promises of the Gospel — She trusted 
 in the mercy of Jesus — She found joy and peace 
 in believing — and her heart overflowed with love 
 because she felt that she had been forgiven much. 
 
 Simon in the sight of God may have been just 
 as great a sinner — though his sins were of a dif- 
 ferent character — but full of pride — self-justifica- 
 tion and self-merit — he felt -that he had little need 
 of divine forgiveness, and hence there was in his 
 heart little love. 
 
 We wrong our own souls when we belittle the 
 sins that we believe our Savior's pardon has blotted 
 out. What wonder our hearts grow cold toward 
 Him when we come to think that we do not owe 
 Him much? That He has had less to forgive in 
 us than in other sinners, and that so far as we are 
 concerned, we might almost have been saved with- 
 out Him, by our pure goodness of heart or blame- 
 lessness of life or by our good intentions! 
 
 There is a habit of introspection indeed that is 
 to be condemned. It is not profitable to brood 
 over our sins until the heart grows sick and the 
 spirit is in despair and life is made miserable, and 
 
FORGIVEN AND LOVING MUCH 135 
 
 all helpful sympathies with the sorrows of others 
 evaporate in the fumes of our mistaken sacrifice. 
 
 The teaching of our Savior here is not " remem- 
 ber your sins and be miserable," but " remember 
 your sins and be happy in love." Whenever you 
 go into the dark cavern of the past, take Christ 
 with you. And as you see the pits from which 
 His love has drawn you, and discern now more 
 clearly how, here and there " your feet were almost 
 gone," and how His mercy held you up when you 
 were slipping, you will grasp more firmly that lov- 
 ing hand that holds you still. And learning more 
 and more how much you owe, and how much you 
 have been forgiven, the bond that binds you to 
 Him will become closer and stronger. 
 
 Forgiveness means more than final salvation. 
 The better you understand forgiveness the more 
 will you realize that you need it — and know that 
 you possess it — and this sense of forgiveness will 
 beget love; and this sense of need will beget 
 humility, and your life will be filled with a peace 
 and joy that passes all understanding. 
 
 When we enter heaven at last the great wonder 
 of our hearts will not be that Manasseh could be 
 saved, or that Saul of Tarsus could be saved, or 
 that the dying thief could be saved, or that the 
 woman that was a sinner could be saved, but each 
 one of us with a heart overflowing with love, be- 
 cause we then for the first time fully appreciate 
 how much we owe to Christ in the pardon of our 
 
136 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 sins, will say " The wonder of wonders is that / am 
 saved-" 
 
 "Witness, all ye hosts of heaven, 
 My Redeemer's tenderness ! 
 Love I much? I'm much forgiven; 
 I'm a miracle of grace." 
 
 Jesus! the very thought is sweet; 
 
 In that dear name all heart-joys meet; 
 
 But sweeter than the honey far, 
 
 The glimpses of His presence are. 
 
 No word is sung more sweet than this, 
 No name is heard more full of bliss, 
 No thought brings sweeter comfort nigh 
 Than Jesus, Son of God most high. 
 
 No tongue of mortal can express, 
 No letters write its blessedness ; 
 Alone, who hath thee in his heart, 
 Knows, love of Jesus, what thou art ! 
 
 Jesus, the hope of souls forlorn ! 
 How good to them for sin who mourn ! 
 To them that seek thee, Oh, how kind ! 
 But what art thou to them that find? 
 
 O Jesus, King of wondrous might! 
 O Victor, glorious from the fight ! 
 Sweetness that may not be expressed, 
 And altogether loveliest! 
 Translation of an old Latin Hymn, by St. Bernard, A.D., 115. 
 
X 
 
 ANOINTED AT BETHANY 
 
 SIX days before the Passover our Lord came 
 to Bethany. This was the home of Lazarus 
 and his two sisters. Jesus was well known 
 in the village having been before this the guest of 
 this interesting household — and especially was His 
 fame established there since the resurrection of 
 Lazarus. His coming at this time therefore awak- 
 ened more than ordinary interest and four days 
 after His arrival, two days before the Passover, a 
 feast was made in His honor at the house of Simon 
 the Leper. Who this Simon was we do not know. 
 He may have been the father or the husband of 
 Martha. He may have been healed of his leprosy 
 by Jesus. He may have left Martha a widow. 
 All this is mere conjecture, but Martha appears 
 entirely at home in the house, busied in the undis- 
 puted service that she loved, while Mary as of old 
 lingered near the Savior's feet. Lazarus was con- 
 spicuous among them that sat at meat, for his 
 recent resurrection both endeared him the more to 
 his own little family and illustrated the power of 
 the Prophet whom they all delighted to honor. 
 137 
 
138 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 While the company sat — or rather reclined — at 
 the table, Mary anointed both the head and the 
 feet of Jesus with a costly ointment, doubtless with 
 tokens of tender affection which were not unbecom- 
 ing in a disciple who had already been admitted 
 to loving intimacy with the Master and whose 
 warm gratitude for a brother's restoration thus 
 sought expression. The term alabaster-box is mis- 
 leading. There is no word for box in the Greek 
 text. The vessel in which the ointment was con- 
 tained was an alabastrum — so-called from the ma- 
 terial of which it was formed — in shape like a vial 
 and sealed at the top. Usually but a drop at a 
 time was suffered to escape; but Mary broke the 
 seal, or the narrow neck of the bottle, and poured 
 out the precious contents without stint. We need 
 to consider Eastern manners to understand this 
 scene. In Oriental lands perfumes and highly 
 scented ointments were used with a profusion far 
 beyond our Western customs or tastes. The Bible 
 reveals much of this fondness for spices and sweet 
 odors and anointings. 
 
 There was no exception taken to Mary's act as 
 unusual or inappropriate. The only murmuring 
 was at the apparent lavishness of the offering. 
 Judas, who bore the purse, and whose covetous 
 eyes were open to all possible means of peculation, 
 exclaimed in well-simulated, pious horror — " Why 
 was not this ointment sold for more than 300 pence 
 and given to the poor ? " And so unaccustomed 
 
ANOINTED AT BETHANY 139 
 
 are men to independent thought that the other 
 disciples joined in the condemnation. 
 
 It was indeed a goodly offering and is suggestive 
 of the wealth of the family. When we remember 
 that Philip estimated that two hundred pence would 
 nearly suffice to buy food for five thousand per- 
 sons, we may esteem three hundred pence a costly 
 price for a single pound of perfumery. Yet our 
 Savior justifies Mary's act and throws the shield 
 of His protection about her before the company, as 
 He had once before vindicated her from Martha's 
 censorious complaint. 
 
 " Let her alone. Why trouble ye the woman ? 
 For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For 
 ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever 
 ye will ye may do them good ; but me ye have not 
 always. She hath done what she could. She is 
 come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. 
 Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel 
 shall be preached throughout the whole world, this 
 also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a 
 memorial of her." Perhaps we can better under- 
 stand the motives that impelled Mary to this un- 
 usual service if we discern not merely her gratitude 
 and affection, but her conspicuous faith. It may 
 not be too much to say that this humble disciple 
 understood better than even the apostles of our 
 Lord His frequent revelations concerning His ap- 
 proaching death. 
 
 Jesus had spoken plainly to others of His suffer- 
 
140 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 ings — and while He had not told her more than 
 others as she sat at His feet, her simple faith may 
 have believed His words, when others, who ought 
 perhaps to have understood them better, were stag- 
 gered by them. And our Savior may mean to de- 
 clare the actual intention of Mary in the words, 
 " She is come beforehand to anoint my body to the 
 burying." 
 
 What she could not hope to do after the Savior's 
 death, since He had foretold that He must die by 
 violence, she would do beforehand — and thus 
 evince both her faith and her devotion. 
 
 Four things we desire to notice in this offering 
 of Mary: 
 
 Its costliness : It was very precious ointment. 
 
 Its timeliness : It was given on the only available 
 occasion for the Savior's burial. 
 
 Its acceptability : Jesus said, " She hath done 
 what she could." 
 
 Its far reaching fame and influence : Wherever 
 the Gospel is spoken of throughout the whole 
 world her Memorial is found. 
 
 And, first, let us observe that this was no mean 
 offering. Anointings among the Jews were com- 
 mon enough, but not with ointment so precious and 
 in such abundance. It was perhaps the spikenard 
 of India, not only precious but pure ; fit for a mon- 
 arch's coronation. It was for one who had the 
 highest claim upon her devotion that Mary brought 
 her tribute of love, and she felt like David when 
 
ANOINTED AT BETHANY 141 
 
 preparing for the temple building — " I will not 
 offer unto the Lord of that which doth cost me 
 nothing." 
 
 Had Mary been poor, a less valuable offering 
 might have expressed her feelings just as truly and 
 as acceptably to Jesus — for we remember His com- 
 mendation of the poor woman who cast two mites 
 into the treasury — being all her living. But two 
 mites expended by a wealthy woman in her 
 Savior's honor would have been mean indeed. 
 That it is done for Christ is enough to vindicate the 
 lavishness of the most costly offering ever laid at 
 His feet, and to dignify the humblest gift into the 
 quality of a royal service. The Church has wit- 
 nessed many a princely benefaction since Mary's 
 day — And examples of munificent giving to the 
 cause of Christ, when bestowed with Mary's faith 
 and in Mary's spirit, are gratifying to all who love 
 the Lord, as they are also pleasing to Him. But it 
 needs not abundance of means to give a worthy 
 offering to Jesus. That only is a costly offering 
 that is the fruit of self-denial. 
 
 It is indeed a contemptible gift when a pro- 
 fessed follower of Jesus drops dimes or even 
 nickels into the contribution plate when a collection 
 is taken for some benevolent object, while he 
 spends dollars for luxuries and even superfluities; 
 but a penny is not mean from any one who must 
 practice self-denial to give frequently even so much 
 as this. No thoughtless contributor, who care- 
 
142 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 lessly drops a coin into a Church collection, 
 because he is expected to give something, has 
 any share in Mary's devotion — who gave be- 
 cause she loved to give, and gave the best she 
 had. 
 
 There are those who give to Christ in other 
 forms than that of worldly substance. That life 
 that Polycarp joyfully laid down in martyrdom for 
 the Lord whom he would not live to deny; that life 
 that Elliott spent among savage Indians; that life 
 that John G. Paton spent in the isolation of the 
 New Hebrides; that life that many a devoted mis- 
 sionary is to-day pouring out in self -sacrifice in 
 heathen lands for Christ — all these are alabastrums 
 of very precious ointment — offerings that cost, and 
 are grateful as a sweet-smelling savor to Him for 
 whom they are joyfully made. 
 
 There are not wanting those in every age who 
 cry, in the spirit of the traitor, at every offering 
 made in Christ's name, " To what purpose is this 
 waste? " The claims of the poor are often urged 
 by those who conspicuously fail by their own 
 benevolence to demonstrate that they care for the 
 poor. It is easy to make objections-to the form in 
 which any loving heart chooses to express its devo- 
 tion to Christ. " What a mad scheme is this of 
 Haldene's ! " said many in England, when one 
 hundred years ago a magnificent estate was sold 
 and the proceeds of the sale devoted to Christian 
 missions in India. " How many poor people 
 
ANOINTED AT BETHANY 143 
 
 might that money have fed and clothed." * Yet 
 perhaps the poor received a greater blessing than 
 would have been theirs had the princely offering 
 been devoted solely to their bodily relief. 
 
 Our Savior says nothing in disparagement of 
 that benevolence that seeks to lighten the burdens 
 of poverty. " The poor ye have always with you." 
 But because we remember this duty we must not 
 forget another as imperative. While we feed the 
 hungry with the bread of this life we must not for- 
 get the spiritual needs of the perishing at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 Nor may we forget that the Church of Christ is 
 the source of all the world's boasted charities — that 
 the motives that impel true benevolence into activity 
 are operative chiefly as the gospel of our Savior 
 flourishes — and that to give lovingly in any way to 
 strengthen His cause is to insure the relief of the 
 poor whom the gospel forbids its followers to for- 
 get. Yet the world's cold and calculating and 
 often selfish interest in Christian giving regards the 
 stream as more important than the fountain ! 
 
 But that our offerings may be justified, even in 
 unusual form, we may see illustrated as we con- 
 sider, secondly, the timeliness of Mary's anointing. 
 It was for the Savior's burial that she brought the 
 precious unguent. Whether her superior faith dis- 
 cerned all that His approaching death involved or 
 not, she had good reason to know that what she did 
 * Hanna's " Life of Christ," II, 346. 
 
144 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 to testify her devotion must be soon done. She 
 found and embraced her opportunity. 
 
 We may see in her action and in our Lord's 
 words, that costly offerings, even when apparently 
 wasteful and inappropriate, may be justified partly 
 by the motive of duty itself, which prompts them, 
 and partly by the transient opportunity of doing 
 that which must be done soon, or not at all. 
 
 The claims of the poor are recognized by our 
 Lord — but here was an opportunity for a service 
 that could only once be accomplished. And the 
 fact that such a life was to be offered, in such a 
 death and for such an end, fully justifies the most 
 costly offering love can bring to show its faith and 
 its sympathy. The poor might be relieved many 
 times before and after the crucifixion. Christ's 
 body was anointed but once for burial. 
 
 There are occasions that call for unusual sacri- 
 fice of our means for Christ's cause, when it is our 
 privilege to give as we may not always do. And 
 the opportunity of doing something that shall bring 
 honor to our Lord, and prove a lasting blessing to 
 mankind may justify and even demand an offering 
 far beyond our usual benefactions to the poor. 
 
 To give an offering that costs when the ques- 
 tion of establishing the Church of Christ in a com- 
 munity in strength or in lingering weakness may 
 be virtually decided upon by the liberality displayed 
 upon a certain occasion — as when a church debt is 
 to be raised — or a pastor secured — or a church is to 
 
ANOINTED AT BETHANY 145 
 
 be built or refurnished — to respond with a dona- 
 tion that marks great self-denial when a new insti- 
 tution is to be set upon its feet, whose influence, if 
 it be founded wisely, promises to be wide and far 
 reaching in time — to support some faithful toiler 
 in mission work, whose work will soon be over — 
 all this is to break the Alabastrum for Christ. 
 And the fact that the value of what we are called 
 to do often depends upon our seizing present yet 
 fleeting opportunities justifies us in an expenditure 
 that to less reflecting minds may be judged waste- 
 fulness. 
 
 While writing these lines my heart has been 
 saddened by the news in a Denver paper of the 
 death of a Christian philanthropist who was not 
 content to respond to calls that were forced upon 
 him; but who, like Mary of Bethany, sought oppor- 
 tunity to do what he could. Forced to Colorado 
 by failing health, he found in the neglected youth 
 of a growing city the privilege he coveted of show- 
 ing his love for Christ. He gathered the children 
 who were roaming the streets into a Mission Sun- 
 day School. He associated others with him in his 
 good work. He gave with unstinted liberality of 
 his means. He won the love of a very large com- 
 munity of young people by his devotion to their 
 interests, and in his will he provided for the sup- 
 port of the school he had founded, that it might 
 be thoroughly equipped with all that could make it 
 a power for good in that important city in coming 
 
146 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 years. There were those doubtless in Denver, as 
 they watched Mr. Crane's zeal in building, and in 
 otherwise expending his means, who said " To 
 what purpose is this waste ? How many poor, and 
 how many invalids this money might have re- 
 lieved ! " — Yet, while always liberal to the poor, 
 this far-sighted friend of the Master saw something 
 that must be done for Him at once, or never done 
 so well or at all. The children in whom He saw 
 His loving Lord must be gathered early into His 
 fold, or ripen in sin which the united efforts of all 
 the churches of a great city could not arrest. And 
 surely the opportunity is afforded many a loving 
 disciple of Jesus in any community — it may be 
 with smaller means and with less observance — to 
 " go and do likewise." 
 
 It was a delicious and delicate fragrance that 
 immediately diffused itself through the whole 
 house as Mary poured the costly ointment upon the 
 Savior's person; and taking her hair, which is 
 woman's glory, tenderly and lovingly wiped His 
 feet. She stood behind Him, in speechless devo- 
 tion, but He needed not to be told who it was that 
 touched Him, nor what was the significance of the 
 service she thus rendered. And more acceptable 
 to Him than was the odor to the senses of the 
 assembled guests was the vital savor of piety that 
 marked the holy action. 
 
 " She hath done what she could ! " What 
 higher meed of approval could any disciple claim?, 
 
ANOINTED AT BETHANY 147 
 
 Yet that this shall be awarded to all who lovingly 
 devote their service to Christ's cause we have the 
 Master's own explicit testimony. 
 
 It is not every one who can afford a gift so ex- 
 pensive and so rare. Nor are conspicuous oppor- 
 tunities of performing service for Jesus equally of- 
 fered to all. But a cup of cold water any one may 
 give in Christ's name — and in the walks of daily 
 life may be found a thousand occasions of multiply- 
 ing deeds of love that shall be as sweet fragrance to 
 Him who has said " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me." 
 
 We can scarcely wonder then in view of all 
 that has been said, at the far reaching fame and 
 influence of Mary's offering. The penetrating 
 power of odoriferous molecules, it is well known, 
 is very remarkable. Haller kept for forty years 
 papers perfumed with one grain of ambergris. 
 After this time the odor was as strong as ever. 
 The house of Simon was filled with the odor of 
 Mary's ointment — but the Church of God, which 
 is a larger house, has been filled ever since with a 
 fragrance that has delighted the whole family in 
 heaven and on earth. 
 
 How strikingly has our Lord's prediction been 
 fulfilled ! " Wheresoever this gospel shall be 
 preached throughout the whole world, there shall 
 also this, that this woman hath done, be told for 
 a memorial of her ! " We are fulfilling His words 
 
148 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 to-day. Indeed it would seem that every gospel 
 teacher is under commission from the Master to 
 rehearse a story that He has linked so inseparably 
 with the very gospel itself and that has in it such 
 precious lessons. 
 
 It is of the nature of Christian influence to 
 propagate itself in undying power for good. An- 
 drew brought his brother Simon to Jesus — and 
 Simon Peter won three thousand souls for Christ 
 upon the day of Pentecost; and the multiplying 
 fruit of that wonderful day only eternity can re- 
 veal. And so Andrew's work still goes on. 
 
 Yet Mary received a mention and a memorial — 
 a wide spread reputation — an unending remem- 
 brance — that has been accorded to no other believer 
 in Bible times. 
 
 This is the sole occasion in which Jesus ever 
 spoke of the after-fame of any service done for 
 Him — and this is no light proof of the illustrious 
 faith that seized the import of His teachings con- 
 cerning His death. And this memorial of Mary 
 will be the more valuable to us if it shall incite us 
 to follow and obtain " like precious faith." 
 
 Chrysostom, when discoursing upon this incident 
 said — " While the victories of many kings and 
 generals are lost in silence, and many who have 
 founded states and reduced nations to subjection, 
 are not known by reputation or by name, the pour- 
 ing of ointment by this woman is celebrated 
 throughout the whole world. Time hath passed 
 
ANOINTED AT BETHANY 149 
 
 away, but the memory of the deed she did hath not 
 waned. But Persians and Indians and Scythians 
 and Thracians and the race of the Mauritanians, 
 and they who inhabit the British Isles, publish 
 abroad an act which was done in Judea privately in 
 a house, by a woman." " Fourteen hundred years 
 have passed and gone," says Dr. Hanna in quoting 
 this passage, " since in the great Church of St. 
 Sophia at Constantinople, Chrysostom uttered 
 these words, referring to the British isles as one 
 of the remotest places of the then known world. 
 The centuries that have rolled by since then have 
 witnessed many a revolution, not the least wonder- 
 ful among them the place that these British isles 
 now occupy, but still wider and wider is the tale of 
 Mary's anointing of her Master being told, the 
 fragrance of the ointment spreading, yet losing 
 nothing of its sweetness, such fresh vitality, such 
 self-preserving power, lodging in a simple act of 
 pure and fervid love." * 
 
 Mary's precise opportunity will never be ac- 
 corded to another. Mary's memorial may not be 
 yours — But other service you may render that shall 
 be as truly done to Christ and as pleasing in His 
 sight — And this shall be your eternal memorial 
 " That your names are written in heaven! " (Luke 
 x:2o). 
 
 * " Life of Christ," Vol. II, p. 350. 
 
150 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Three women crept at break of day 
 A'grope along the shadowy way, 
 Where Joseph's tomb and garden lay. 
 
 Each on her throbbing bosom bore 
 A burden of such fragrant store 
 As never there had lain before. 
 
 Spices, the purest, richest, best, 
 That e'er the musty East possessed, 
 From Ind to Araby-the-Blest. 
 
 Christ did not need their gifts; — and yet, 
 Did either Mary once regret 
 Her offering? — Did Salome fret? 
 
 Myrrh-Bearers still, — at home, abroad, 
 What paths have holy women trod, 
 Burdened with votive gifts for God, — 
 
 Rare gifts, whose chief est worth was priced 
 By this one thought, that all sufficed ; — 
 Their spices had been bruised for Christ ! 
 
 Margaret J. Preston. 
 
XI 
 OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL FAMILY 
 
 SOME of the most significant sayings of our 
 Savior were called forth by interruptions in 
 His discourses. The parable of the Rich 
 Fool sprung out of the untimely request of a 
 covetous hearer that Jesus would take sides with 
 him in a family dispute over an inheritance. As 
 in the fissures of the rocks, rent by the volcanic fires 
 of a by-gone age, may now be found some of the 
 most beautiful mountain trees and flowers, so out 
 of these rent discourses of our Lord have sprung 
 teachings that are impressive and valuable.* 
 
 Let us consider another of these detached say- 
 ings that have their source in interruption. It will 
 bring before us a peculiar phase of our Savior's 
 joy. While Jesus was talking to the multitude in a 
 private house, His mother and His brethren, stand- 
 ing without, sent a message to Him that they 
 desired to speak to Him. We do not know what 
 prompted them to make this request. No doubt 
 their motives were good, and presumably they were 
 unselfish. Solicitude for His safety is the most 
 
 * The suggestion is from Dr. Arnot. 
 151 
 
152 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 plausible explanation we can find. He had but 
 lately broken with the Pharisees. The news had 
 quickly spread. His friends said, " He is beside 
 Himself." His nearer relatives, too, were filled 
 with alarm; and Mary, His mother, seemed to 
 feel the prophetic sword pierce through her own 
 soul. Swayed by motives of policy, and forgetful 
 of the words in the Temple, which she had laid up 
 and pondered in her heart, she thinks now to inter- 
 pose and save Him from the ruin He is precipi- 
 tating for Himself. These family friends of Jesus 
 think He does not Himself appreciate the dangers 
 to which He is exposed. They would put Him on 
 His guard, or withdraw Him to a place of safety; 
 and they cannot wait until He finishes with the 
 people, lest at any moment He may say or do some- 
 thing that shall fan the rising opposition into the 
 white heat of a consuming fire. Like His disciples 
 on other occasions they presume to instruct Him. 
 His answer rebukes at once their presumption and 
 their worldly policy, while it defines the intimate 
 relationship that exists between Him and all who 
 are found in harmony with the divine will, " My 
 mother and my brethren are these who hear the 
 word of God and do it." 
 
 It is a sufficient answer to those who assign to 
 Mary, the mother of our Lord, " the place of a god- 
 dess in the Roman mythology," that she, on the 
 one hand does not here assert her authority over 
 her divine Son, and that He on the other, does 
 
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL FAMILY 153 
 
 not hesitate gently to rebuke her, as He did in Cana 
 of Galilee, at the Marriage Feast. 
 
 She does not here command, but sends a message 
 to Jesus. He apparently does not even grant her 
 request for an interview. It was important that 
 His own family, as well as the multitude, should 
 understand that His relations to His mother and 
 His brethren were not on the same footing with 
 those of other men; and that even the claims of 
 kindred were to be subordinated to His divine call- 
 ing. 
 
 We may learn this lesson in passing, that when 
 we meet with hindrances and obstructions in the 
 path of duty, even when they have their source in 
 the solicitude of our kindred, we are warranted 
 in disregarding them. Lesser claims must yield to 
 greater. Even a brother, a sister, a mother must 
 have less regard than Christ. Our duty to God 
 must have the preference. A parent has no right 
 to command our obedience in anything that contra- 
 venes the will of God. It is hard, sometimes, to 
 make the choice between earthly and heavenly 
 authority ; but we have divine warrant for holding 
 that " we ought to obey God rather than men." 
 And our Savior has said, " Whoso loveth father 
 and mother more than me is not worthy of me." 
 
 Yet we are to be careful, on the other hand, not 
 to make so-called religious duties an excuse for 
 neglecting our kindred; for abating natural affec- 
 tion, showing disrespect to parents, or manifesting 
 
154 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 impatience with those who, however wrong they 
 may be in their opposition, have a right to our con- 
 sideration and esteem. Our Lord does not here 
 disparage His mother or His brethren. He does 
 not mean to disown them. Only He affirms the 
 superior claims of His heavenly Father, whose 
 will He was seeking to fulfill, and He makes the 
 earthly relationship a standard of comparison by 
 which He may declare His love for all who will be 
 His disciples. 
 
 It is as if He had said, in answer to the one who 
 told Him, " Behold Thy mother and Thy brethren 
 stand without," " You recognize my affection for 
 my kindred. Let this illustrate my love for 
 my larger circle of true believers. I have another 
 family, — a spiritual household. It embraces all 
 who love to do the will of God. My mother is in- 
 deed highly favored and has been called blessed 
 among women; but rather blessed are they who 
 hear the word of God and keep it. My brothers 
 according to the flesh are honored and beloved ; but 
 the least and humblest among men may share equal 
 privileges, ' For whosoever shall do the will of my 
 Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother 
 and sister and mother.' " 
 
 Matthew and Mark have preserved for us a 
 picture of our Lord's attitude upon this occasion. 
 " He looked round upon them which sat about 
 Hrm." Oh gaze of affectionate and tender recog- 
 nition! How much may be expressed in a look! 
 
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL FAMILY 155 
 
 He looked round, as if seeking His own; and 
 when His eyes lit upon them He stretched forth 
 His hand toward His disciples, as if to point 
 them out to others, and said, " Behold, my mother 
 and my brethren." It was as if He said, " I am 
 not bound as are other men to a single household ; 
 but embrace as equally dear to me all who do the 
 will of my Father in heaven." 
 
 Let us consider the condition upon which we may 
 become members of Christ's spiritual household, 
 and the privileges of this connection. 
 
 Will controls all intelligent action. The only 
 question is whose will shall control. Ungodly 
 men do the will of the Evil One. They are " taken 
 captive by him at his will" (2 Tim. ii:26). 
 Weak men do the will of others. The maxims of 
 society have more weight with them than the law 
 of God. Fear or favor easily moves them. They 
 have not the courage to say " We ought to obey 
 God rather than men." Self-willed men are a law 
 unto themselves. They do not recognize God's 
 authority. They never bow their knees to Him in 
 prayer. They never inquire what He would have 
 them do. They follow, so far as possible, the bent 
 of their own wishes. They are self-indulgent, 
 self-satisfied, " lovers of pleasures more than 
 lovers of God." 
 
 In contrast with all this is character of the true 
 Christian. The language of his heart is, "Not 
 my will, O God, but Thine be done." He delights 
 
156 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 in God's holy law. He sees in God a Father to 
 whom he owes a filial devotion, a Sovereign to 
 whom he owes absolute obedience, a Benefactor to 
 whom he is bound by ties of gratitude, a Savior 
 who holds his heart to loyalty by the constraint of 
 an overpowering love. He obeys not as a hireling 
 nor as a slave but as a son. He bows before God 
 in prayer with the constant petition in his heart, 
 " Teach me to do Thy will." He searches the 
 Scriptures that the law of his God may be in his 
 heart, and he finds there his sufficient guide. 
 " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto 
 my path." In affliction he is submissive, in pros- 
 perity he is humble, in active duty he is zealous, 
 in all things he strives to have a conscience void of 
 offence toward God and toward men. 
 
 Some do the will of God partially. They excel 
 in certain duties that are congenial to their tastes 
 or desires and disregard others that are irksome or 
 that call for self-denial. Some are ready to visit 
 the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, but 
 not ready to relieve their distress. Some are faith- 
 ful in their attendance upon the sanctuary, but they 
 do not give as God has prospered them for the 
 support of religion. Some give to the Church, 
 but forsake the assembling of themselves together 
 for worship. Some bow in the sanctuary who 
 never pray in the closet. Some are kind with their 
 hands but sharp with their tongues. Some pay the 
 debts they owe to society but forget the debts they 
 
OUR LORDS SPIRITUAL FAMILY 157 
 
 owe to the cause of Christ. Some keep the vine- 
 yards of others with great care, but are quite 
 neglectful of their own. Some are careful not to 
 defraud others of their substance but thoughtless of 
 the damage they may inflict upon their good name. 
 Some are generous in giving money but grudging 
 of their time and service and hospitality. The re- 
 quirements of our holy religion are indeed far 
 reaching. " Thy commandment is exceeding 
 broad." The will of God embraces general prin- 
 ciples and particular laws. He only is in sympathy 
 with God who delights to do in all things just as 
 God would have him do. Who obeys God not be- 
 cause it suits his humor, but because it is right, 
 and who makes no choice of duties, saying, " these 
 I will do and these I will leave undone ;" but cheer- 
 fully recognizes every duty as important and trans- 
 gression in any particular as perilous. As no one 
 can possibly tell what great issues may hang upon 
 the smallest action done or omitted, the only safety 
 lies in complete obedience to the entire will of God. 
 The aim and prayer of the Christian continually is 
 " Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." 
 God's will is done in heaven impartially, perfectly, 
 continually and lovingly; and earth is like heaven 
 only as men learn to practice with like spirit a 
 willing obedience. 
 
 Now it is not claimed that the condition of ad- 
 mission into our Savior's family is that of perfect 
 obedience. Christ has no perfect saints on earth. 
 
158 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 All have various imperfections. All come short 
 in many particulars. There has been but one sin- 
 less character among men and He is our great Pat- 
 tern and Exemplar. But he who would be num- 
 bered among Christ's followers must make it his 
 aim to obey God in all things. It must be his de- 
 light to do God's will and his grief to discover at 
 any point that he is deficient in obedience. The 
 controlling principle of his life must be that of Him 
 who said, " My meat is to do the will of Him that 
 sent me and to finish His work." And the prayer 
 of Epaphras for the Colossian Christians is one he 
 makes continually for himself, that he may " stand 
 perfect and complete in all the will of God." 
 
 These are the characters whom Christ loves. 
 They possess His spirit; they bear His image; they 
 love what He loves ; they pursue what He pursues ; 
 they hate what is hateful to Him; they pity those 
 whom He pities ; forgive those whom He forgives, 
 even their enemies, and they seek the lost as He 
 seeks them and rejoice over their salvation as He 
 rejoices. In all cases the image is not the perfect 
 pattern; but it is like it. Believers are not gods; 
 but they are new creatures, and gazing upon Him 
 whom their souls love they are changed into the 
 same image, from glory to glory. 
 
 Christ delights in the fruits of holiness seen in 
 His people, imperfect as they are. And on some 
 accounts they are more pleasing to Him than those 
 seen in the angels in heaven. " Holiness in 
 
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL FAMILY 159 
 
 heaven," says Dr. Edward Payson," is like flowers 
 in Spring or fruit in Autumn, when they are ex- 
 pected ; but holiness in a world so depraved as this 
 is like fruit and flowers in the depths of winter; or 
 like the blossoms and almonds on Aaron's rod, 
 which proceed from a dead and sapless branch. 
 When the delicious fruits of Southern climes can 
 be made by the gardener's skill to flourish in our 
 Northern regions, they are far more admired and 
 prized than while growing in rich abundance in 
 their native soil. So when holiness, whose native 
 soil is heaven, is found in the comparatively frozen 
 and barren soil of this world, which lieth in wicked- 
 ness, it is viewed by the Lord of heaven, with 
 peculiar pleasure and delight." 
 
 So much in description of those whom Christ 
 counts among His spiritual kindred, and calls by 
 the endearing names " my mother, my brother, my 
 sister." And now briefly let us consider the privi- 
 leges embraced in this relationship. 
 
 The first is that of honor. It was a distinguish- 
 ing honor to belong to the family of Jesus. The 
 angel who announced His birth spoke of Mary as 
 highly favored and blessed among women; and 
 truly she was. And whether these brethren were 
 also the sons of Mary or only the cousins of our 
 Lord, they might well prize a relationship that 
 brought them within the circle of His kindred ac- 
 cording to the flesh. No members of a royal 
 family ever attained to so high a position, by virtue 
 
160 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 of their connection with the monarch who sat upon 
 the throne. Though Jesus of Nazareth dwelt in 
 lowly estate among men, these humble peasants of 
 Galilee who were His kindred friends will be re- 
 membered while time shall last, though thousands 
 are forgotten whom the Caesars, the Alexanders, 
 and the Napoleons of the world have raised to 
 honor. But the honor of being thus highly con- 
 nected was not confined to the so-called " holy 
 family." Jesus extends the prerogatives that are 
 His as Lord of all to every one whom He has 
 adopted into the household of faith. " For whoso- 
 ever shall do the will of my Father in heaven the 
 same is my brother and sister and mother." 
 
 " To you therefore which believe He is 
 precious " (Pet. ii : 7). The R. V. reads " To you 
 ... is the honor." What honor is like that of 
 kinship with the Lord of glory?" To have a 
 President, a Governor or an Emperor press our 
 hand in some distinguished assembly and address 
 us in the terms, " My brother, or my sister," would 
 be a small thing compared with the glory that is be- 
 stowed upon us when He who is King of kings 
 and Lord of lords declares He is not ashamed to 
 call us brethren ! To belong to Christ, — to be near 
 to Christ, — to be like Christ, — this is the privilege 
 of believers, — and greater glory is to follow; for 
 our Elder Brother has declared, " Whoso shall 
 confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man 
 also confess before the angels of God " (Luke xii : 
 
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL FAMILY 161 
 
 8) and again, "To him that overcometh will 
 I grant to sit with me in my throne" (Rev. iii : 
 
 21). • 
 
 Again, the privilege accorded those who are in 
 the household of Christ is that of instruction. 
 Christ's brethren are His disciples. They learn of 
 Him. They are taught of the Lord. They have 
 advantages of knowledge that others do not share. 
 Family secrets are not disclosed to strangers. 
 " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear 
 Him, and He will show them His covenant." 
 There are truths of religion that can be grasped 
 only by a mind submissive to Christ. " If any man 
 will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine 
 whether it be of God." 
 
 How blessed a thing it is to have for our in- 
 structor one who says " Whosoever shall do the 
 will of my Father which is in heaven the same is 
 my brother and sister and mother." 
 
 They who thus belong to Christ He loves with 
 peculiar affection. The divine love is indeed of- 
 fered to all. " God is love." And " God so loved 
 the world." But love admits of difference both in 
 quality and degree. God cannot love angels, saints 
 and sinners with the same affection. Ties of kin- 
 dred assert their claims among men and are of di- 
 vine ordering. The proverb is significant, if lack- 
 ing in dignity, " Blood is thicker than water." We 
 cannot love all men with the emotions that stir us 
 when we think of a brother, a sister, a mother. 
 
162 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Now Christ's love for those who bear His image, 
 however imperfectly, is like that which we ought 
 to cherish toward those who stand nearest to us 
 in these earthly relationships. A mother! Who 
 can measure the love called forth from the heart 
 of dutiful sons or daughters toward one who has 
 given them birth, nourished and cared for them in 
 infancy and childhood, and poured the wealth of 
 her sympathy, tenderness and instruction upon 
 them as long as she lived ? Jesus Himself has set 
 us an example of filial gratitude and devotion, 
 when on the cross He turned His dying gaze to- 
 ward Mary and the disciple whom He loved and 
 said to him, " Son, behold thy mother ! " His last 
 office of love before He died was toward her that 
 bare Him. Seeing the sword piercing her soul, 
 He forgot her not in the midst of His torments but 
 commissioned John to take her to his own home. 
 Yet this was but a type of His love for all who love 
 the things that He loves. 
 
 How affecting was that scene in the upper room, 
 where Christ had His last interview with His dis- 
 ciples. His love how amazing, how condescend- 
 ing, how tender, stronger than death, more endur- 
 ing than time, passing knowledge ! " Having 
 loved His own which were in the world, He loved 
 them unto the end." " Greater love hath no man 
 than this," He said, " that a man lay down his life 
 for his friends." " Ye are my friends, if ye do 
 whatsoever I command you." " For whosoever 
 
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL FAMILY 163 
 
 shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven 
 the same is my brother, and sister and mother." 
 
 If you thus belong to Christ " you are no more 
 strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of 
 the saints and of the household of God." " Set 
 your affection on things above." Christ is there. 
 Those who have gone before are there. There 
 shall all who do the will of God be finally gathered 
 to go no more out. And there, with Him who 
 has loved us and washed us from our sins in His 
 own blood, we shall forever be at home. 
 
164 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 " I worship thee, sweet will of God, 
 
 And all thy ways adore; 
 And every day I live, I long 
 
 To love thee more and more. 
 
 Man's weakness, waiting upon God, 
 
 Its end can never miss ; 
 For men on earth no work to do 
 
 More angel-like than this. 
 
 He always wins who sides with God, 
 
 To him no chance is lost ; 
 God's will is sweetest to him when 
 
 It triumphs at his cost. 
 
 Ill, that God blesses, is our good, 
 
 And unblest good is ill ; 
 And all is right that seems most wrong, 
 
 If it be his dear will. 
 
 When obstacles and trials seem 
 
 Like prison-walls to be, 
 I do the little I can do, 
 
 And leave the rest to thee. 
 
 I have no cares, oh, blessed will! 
 
 For all my cares are thine ; 
 I live in triumph, Lord, for thou 
 Hast made my triumphs thine." 
 
XII 
 
 THAT GOOD PART 
 
 'T"| [~1HAT good part." Thus our Lord desig- 
 nates the portion Mary of Bethany had 
 chosen. How striking and significant is 
 His expression, and yet how simple it is! Only 
 three short monosyllables, yet in them He sums 
 up the blessings of the Gospel. " Never man 
 spake like this man." The pearls he lets fall in all 
 His teachings are well worth picking up; for He 
 never spoke one idle word, and even His most 
 casual remarks are full of instruction. 
 
 They who work in gold treasure up the smallest 
 portions of the precious metal, and even the dust 
 of the floor of the mint is found to be worth pre- 
 serving. More precious than gold is every word 
 of the Lord, and we may find enough to occupy us 
 in profitable meditation if we consider only this 
 brief characterization of true religion as that good 
 part. 
 
 We need have no loss to understand what the 
 Savior means by these words. Mary's example 
 sufficiently explains them. Let us recall the scene. 
 
 Jesus is in the home at Bethany as an honored 
 guest; but Martha, flustered, heated, troubled to 
 
 165 
 
166 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 irritation, literally distracted, missed the essence of 
 true hospitality. 
 
 In what does it consist? Not in elaborate en- 
 tertainment and painful service which often causes 
 embarrassment rather than enjoyment to those 
 who are invited to share it ; but in so deferring to a 
 guest's tastes and wishes that he may feel at per- 
 fect ease, while such real bodily wants as he may 
 have are taken care of. 
 
 Jesus cared more for the society of His Bethany 
 friends than He did for feasting. The Son of 
 man came not to be ministered unto but to minister. 
 He prized the engagements of social life for the 
 opportunities they afforded Him of profitable con- 
 versation in familiar friendly intercourse. He had 
 a wealth of instruction to impart, and nothing de- 
 lighted Him more than to have a willing hearer 
 drink in the gracious words that proceeded out of 
 His mouth. Mary discerned this. She saw what 
 Jesus chiefly longed for, and she did what was most 
 congenial to His spirit. It was not that she was 
 neglectful of the duties of the household, but that 
 she prized the companionship of the Master, and 
 knew that He rejoiced to have her there that she 
 " sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word." It was 
 indeed a delightful season in the joyful hours of 
 Jesus ; and we may better understand, when we re- 
 member this, His ready defence of this loyal and 
 loving disciple; " Mary hath chosen that good part, 
 which shall not be taken away from her." 
 
THAT GOOD PART 167 
 
 Why is this thing that Mary chose, — fellowship 
 with Jesus, true religion, vital piety, — distinctively 
 "that good part? " It is evident that the meaning 
 here is pre-eminently good. Every good gift is 
 from above; but there is a choice of good things. 
 " Get the best " is a slogan that may well apply to 
 religion. Why is the religion the Savior here com- 
 mends not only good but the best; so that it is em- 
 phatically that good part ? 
 
 We answer, first, because it is needful. There 
 are many things that are desirable that are not 
 needful. A watch presents a better appearance 
 in a gold case than in one of baser metal. The 
 gold case is not needful, it is only ornamental. 
 But if the main-spring be lacking, the watch ceases 
 to be of any value as a time piece, no matter how 
 rich the case that encloses the works. 
 
 So, steam is needful, or essential, for a steam en- 
 gine; and no amount of glitter and display, how- 
 ever attractive, can make up for its loss. So there 
 are many things in life that are desirable at times, 
 in their proper places, that are not needful, or 
 essential, to our well-being and happiness. This is 
 true even of our physical life. Rich dainties are 
 luxuries and sometimes the appetite craves them. 
 It is not needful that we feast upon them; but 
 without substantial food we must starve. Our 
 daily bread is needful for the body. It is not 
 needful that we breathe sweet perfumes; but our 
 lungs must have air, if we are to live. Beautiful 
 
168 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 pictures and pleasing landscapes are not needful 
 to the sight ; but we must have light in order to see 
 at all. Life itself is needful for our enjoyment of 
 any material, intellectual or social good. Take 
 away what this one word life represents, and what 
 are wealth, or honors, or pleasures or friendships? 
 They are absolutely valueless. " All that a man 
 hath will he give for his life." All the possessions 
 of body and mind vanish if life is lost. It is need- 
 ful for our present well-being. 
 
 If this is true of the natural life, it is also true 
 of the spiritual life of the soul. There can be no 
 spiritual prosperity and happiness without spiritual 
 life. 
 
 Our Savior says, " Except a man be born 
 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And 
 this life, which begins with the new birth, can be 
 found only in Christ. " He that hath the Son hath 
 life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not 
 life." " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God, 
 and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." 
 Christ is the one thing needful to the beginning of 
 the spiritual life, and to its continuance and com- 
 pleteness. Some things are made needful by acci- 
 dent or circumstance. They are occasionally need- 
 ful. But Christ is always, absolutely and su- 
 premely needful. Needful for every one, and for 
 all men. Needful in health and in sickness; in 
 poverty and in wealth ; in loneliness and in society, 
 in loss and in gain; in dishonor and in favor; in 
 
THAT GOOD PART 169 
 
 defeat and in triumph; in life and in death; in 
 
 time and in eternity; and never more needful than 
 
 when all other things are gone and there is nothing 
 
 else! 
 
 "Jesus, engrave it on my heart 
 That Thou the one thing needful art. 
 I could from all things parted be ; 
 But never, never, Lord, from Thee. 
 
 Needful is Thy most precious blood 
 To reconcile my soul to God ; 
 Needful is Thine indulgent care ; 
 Needful Thine all prevailing prayer." 
 
 What wonder that Jesus says, " Seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God, and His righteousness." And 
 he adds the promise, " All these things shall be 
 added unto you." This is that good part, then, 
 further, because it embraces all other good things. 
 " He that spared not His own Son, but delivered 
 Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also 
 freely give us all things? 
 
 We are not to understand that we are promised 
 absolutely all things of a worldly nature; but He 
 will give us all such things as are needful for our 
 welfare, and all things absolutely that are needful 
 for a complete Christian character and an abund- 
 ant inheritance in Christ. There are many things 
 that we need in order to salvation, but they are so 
 united that they are virtually one thing, and are 
 all embraced in that good part. We are saved by 
 faith alone ; but not by the faith that is alone. The 
 apostle Peter enjoins us, " Giving all diligence, add 
 
170 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 to your faith virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and 
 to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, pa- 
 tience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, 
 brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, 
 charity." These are not independent virtues, suc- 
 cessively attained, but all meet and harmonize in 
 the same Christian character. 
 
 So is it with all other blessings of salvation; 
 justification, the forgiveness of sins, sanctification, 
 prayer, repentance, strength and willingness to do 
 God's will, are all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. 
 If we have any one of these things we have them 
 all in some measure. 
 
 We may find illustration of this unity of the 
 things that accompany salvation when we consider 
 our physical being. There are many things neces- 
 sary to a complete physical manhood. A good 
 heart, healthy circulation of the blood in the veins 
 and arteries, sound lungs, a well-balanced nervous 
 system and brain, the organs that take care of the 
 digestion and the assimilation of food; all these 
 things are vital ; but they are so connected that if 
 we have any of them we have them all. 
 
 So is it with the spiritual man. The vital things 
 that belong to our salvation and spiritual life are 
 so bound together that we cannot have any of them 
 without having the rest; though, as is often the 
 case in the physical man, certain needful elements 
 of our spiritual life are more strongly developed 
 than others. 
 
THAT GOOD PART 171 
 
 There is nothing, however, conflicting among 
 them. One grace is never cultivated at the ex- 
 pense of another. They mutually support and 
 strengthen each other. Faith promotes prayer; 
 and prayer increases faith. Humility promotes 
 penitence, and penitence increases humility. Love 
 opens the heart to spiritual knowledge, and knowl- 
 edge deepens love. Faith, knowledge, humility 
 and patience strengthen hope; and hope maketh 
 not ashamed, because the love of God is shed 
 abroad in the heart. In fact, we may consider the 
 bearing of one Christian grace upon another, in 
 endless variety, without finding any jarring or con- 
 flicting interests among them. 
 
 The reverse is true of the various things that 
 men esteem needful apart from Christ. Riches 
 are often amassed at the expense of health, and 
 sometimes of character and reputation. Coveted 
 positions are often obtained at the sacrifice of 
 friendship or of honor. To acquire learning, men 
 give up money-making, social engagements and 
 pleasures; while those carried away with sensual 
 indulgence must pay the price in money, health, 
 reputation and ease of conscience. And the 
 passions themselves that are aroused in the pur- 
 suit of these separate and lower ends are no less 
 antagonistic. Avarice and prodigality, pride and 
 jealousy, envy and love of ease assert themselves 
 with conflicting insistence in the heart of the 
 worldly-minded. And the means by which these 
 
172 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 things that seem so necessary are sought are alike 
 varied and conflicting. There is no harmony, no 
 united action, possible in worldly ends; and since 
 the objects themselves that are deemed necessary 
 to happiness or success are continually changing, 
 there can be no unity of purpose or consistent en- 
 deavor in their indulgence. They are not one 
 thing, but many things, illusory, transient, disap- 
 pointing. 
 
 Salvation is one consistent whole, though it em- 
 braces so many parts. In Christ Jesus we have the 
 blessed unit of spiritual good. In the Gospel we 
 acquire one pearl of great price; in a word, that 
 good PART. 
 
 Again, the religion of Jesus is that good part, 
 because it emphasizes the best part of our nature. 
 Every good gift is from above; but we may repeat 
 the remark that some good gifts are better than 
 others. When our Savior bids us seek first the 
 kingdom of God and His righteousness, He points 
 us to the higher things of life and bids us seek them 
 not only first in the order of time and first in the 
 order of desire, but first in the order of impor- 
 tance. 
 
 In every other sphere but that of religion men 
 readily recognize a difference in values. Lesser 
 interests are subordinated to greater. Things 
 eagerly sought after at one time are lost sight of 
 as more important claims are recognized. Here is 
 a farmer, busily engaged in gathering in his grain 
 
THAT GOOD PART 173 
 
 from the fields before the impending shower falls, 
 when he finds his barn threatened by fire. He 
 leaves the grain and hastens to the barn, only to 
 find that his house is now in danger. But grain, 
 barn and house are alike left to perish when he dis- 
 covers that he must save a wife or child from some 
 forgotten room of the burning dwelling. He is 
 willing that everything else shall be lost that a 
 precious life may be saved. So men continually 
 show their estimate of comparative values in the 
 things of this life. Religion does not rebuke this, 
 but points to interests superior to them all and bids 
 us covet earnestly the best gifts. We are not to 
 despise the claims of the body or of the mind; but 
 the soul is worth infinitely more than either. He 
 only chooses that pre-eminently good part who is 
 rich toward God, because he is wise unto salvation. 
 
 The permanence of this possession is no small 
 element of its value. Other good things are tempo- 
 ral; this only is eternal. Riches take to them- 
 selves wings. Honors are fleeting. Friendships 
 may be lost in one short hour. Pleasures are 
 short-lived. Health is uncertain. Life itself must 
 eventually fail; but that good part shall never be 
 taken away from any who have truly possessed it. 
 The gifts and calling of God are without re- 
 pentance. If our names are written in heaven, we 
 have a treasure there that faileth not and that will 
 enrich us to eternity. 
 
 This good part must be chosen. It will not come 
 
174 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 to any soul that remains passive and indifferent. 
 Mary found it because she desired it and esteemed 
 it above everything else and earnestly sought it. 
 She sat at Jesus' feet and heard His words. She 
 believed to the saving of her soul. She opened her 
 heart to His love, and she loved Him who first 
 loved her. She took the place He assigned her, 
 and was ready for waiting or for service, as His 
 will was revealed for her obedience. All these 
 were voluntary acts; but they were definite, de- 
 cisive, controlling. So must it be with every one 
 who obtains that good part. 
 
 Salvation and eternal life will never come to you, 
 my reader, as a matter of course, without your voli- 
 tion and definite choice. You will never wake up 
 some morning and find that you have drifted into 
 the kingdom of heaven. You will not find rest- 
 ing on your bosom, by any sort of spiritual magic, 
 the pearl of great price. Salvation is free, and 
 the grace of God is for all who will receive it; but 
 receive it you must, if you would be saved. Who- 
 soever will may come ; but you must come to Jesus 
 Christ, if you would have life. 
 
 Whatever your attainments in possessions or 
 gifts may be, your life will end in disaster without 
 the salvation of your soul. Whatever your disap- 
 pointments or losses may be in this world, happy 
 will be your lot if you have chosen that good part 
 which shall not be taken away from you. 
 
THAT GOOD PART 175 
 
 " Oh, that the loving woman, she who sat 
 So long a listener at her Master's feet 
 Had left us Mary's Gospel ; — all she heard 
 Too sweet, too subtle for the ear of man." 
 
XIII 
 THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 
 
 WE have spoken of the fellowship of the 
 Father as a supreme element in our 
 Savior's joy. We have not many 
 prayers of Jesus recorded; but in the seventeenth 
 chapter of John's Gospel we have what has rightly 
 been called His High-Priestly prayer. He prayed 
 aloud; and evidently that He might thus initiate 
 His disciples into close fellowship with God, and, 
 as it were, " lift them into that divine sphere in 
 which He Himself dwelt" (Godet). 
 
 The most significant feature of this prayer is its 
 note of victory. " I have glorified Thee on the 
 earth," is His cry to the Father, " I have finished 
 the work which Thou gavest me to do." It is the 
 exultant cry of a runner, with his hand upon the 
 goal. The triumph of one who was more than 
 conqueror. Nor does it detract from the signifi- 
 cance of His words that the great consummation, 
 His victory over death, was yet to be accomplished. 
 He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world. " I came into the world," He says, " not 
 to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent 
 me." As the time approached that He should be 
 176 
 
THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 177 
 
 received up, he steadfastly set His face to go to 
 Jerusalem. " I have a baptism to be baptized 
 with," He cries, " and how am I straitened till 
 it be accomplished." His whole soul was bent 
 upon meeting the final crisis, and it was as impos- 
 sible that He should fail as it is that God should 
 lie ; that the promises that had been multiplying for 
 four thousand years should fail; that the walls 
 of the Church that had been steadily rising 
 throughout so many dispensations should crumble 
 into ruins; and that the Savior's mission to the 
 earth and His life-work upon it should all be in 
 vain. In the certainty of this final victory our 
 Lord speaks of it as already won, and includes it in 
 the account of His stewardship, as He declares 
 " I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do." 
 And by thus looking toward the glory that lay be- 
 yond the cross he fortified His soul for the agonies 
 of death. 
 
 Our blessed Lord glorified the Father upon 
 earth, first, by His holy life. The conception of 
 such a character as Jesus of Nazareth exhibited 
 would entitle any writer of fiction to imperishable 
 fame. That such a life should have actually been 
 lived on this sin-stricken earth is the great miracle 
 of the ages. The life of Jesus Christ is the one 
 bright figure that appears on the dark background 
 of human depravity. This is the one stainless robe 
 worn by humanity. Among the jewels of the 
 King of kings this is the pearl of great price. 
 
178 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 The light of the law shone on the Jews; Christ 
 is the life and the light of men. This one peerless 
 life mankind may study through all the ages and 
 never exhaust. To reproduce it in forms more 
 impressive than those given by the Gospel writers 
 is a hopeless task. Who can paint the opal, with 
 its lustre and flash and play of colors? Who can 
 depict upon canvas the brilliancy of the diamond, 
 with its many-sided splendor? Who can set the 
 glory of the sun before us in such gorgeous color- 
 ing as that in which it lights up the mountains, 
 the sea, or the evening sky ? And who but a divine 
 Artist could give us a picture of the Sun of 
 Righteousness, shedding His glory among men? 
 Yet here is not fancy but sober history. This per- 
 fect life has been. His sinlessness was His glory 
 and the glory of the Father who had sent Him. 
 " God is best known in Christ ; the sun is not seen 
 but by the light of the sun." * 
 
 And so it is declared, " He was the brightness of 
 the glory of the Father and the express image of 
 His person" (Heb. i:3). "He did no sin, 
 neither was guile found in His mouth " ( i Pet. ii : 
 22). His life was a life of holy obedience. His 
 constant prayer was " Not my will but Thine be 
 done." He was Incarnate Benevolence. He 
 went about doing good. The character of Jesus 
 Christ stands alone. We find nothing in all his- 
 tory adequately to foreshadow or anticipate it; 
 * Bridge, 1600-1670. 
 
THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 179 
 
 nothing in all nature to illustrate it; no conception 
 of man's imagination to equal its reality. There 
 is no stronger proof of the truth of Christianity 
 than this unique portrayal of the Gospel narra- 
 tives. That it is only the product of human 
 imagination is the most incredible of all supposi- 
 tions. 
 
 . . . Jesus Christ glorified the Father by His 
 reverence. He never for one moment forgot that 
 He was sent from God. He had placed Himself 
 in the hands of the Father for a specific mission, 
 and the one end of His earthly life was to do the 
 will of Him that sent Him. He never dishonored 
 God by a single complaint at the allotments of 
 Providence. He never murmured at any burden 
 He was called to bear, nor at any service that He 
 was called to render. He never spoke of God 
 save in the terms of the deepest devotion. He 
 honored the divine name among men as no other 
 man that ever lived honored it. His faith in God 
 was supreme; and though there were some things 
 hidden from Him, as the Son, He believed un- 
 swervingly in the wisdom of those appointments 
 the Father had put in His own power. 
 
 There is perhaps no lesson that the people of 
 God need more to learn than this of reverence for 
 the Divine Name. It is amazing to consider how 
 God and His ways are often spoken of by His pro- 
 fessed followers, as if it were continually an open 
 question whether God is wise and good and 
 
180 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 whether the Judge of all the earth will do right. 
 In these days of speculation and conflicting opinion 
 the very foundations of religion are being con- 
 tinually assailed. Men not only doubt concerning 
 the deeper mysteries of our faith, but they doubt 
 even the inspiration of the Scriptures and the being 
 of God. Doubt will never die out of the world 
 until sin dies out of it. Faith will never be found 
 where there is not spiritual life. But, however 
 the great verities of the Christian faith are called 
 in question by an unbelieving world, that knows 
 nothing of the power of Christ in the heart, it is 
 amazing that one who has experienced the forgive- 
 ness of sins, who has felt the power of the divine 
 life within, who knows that Jesus Christ is the 
 Divine Son of God, because the love of God has 
 been shed abroad in His heart by the Holy Ghost, 
 should ever be found virtually arraigning the plans 
 of Providence or calling in question the divine 
 honor. 
 
 Jesus Christ never argued about the truths of 
 religion. He revealed them, affirmed them, em- 
 phasized them, appealing only to His works as bear- 
 ing witness that He spake in God's name. But in 
 all His mention of the Father He maintained that 
 holy reverence which lies at the basis of all true 
 piety. The prayer of His whole lifetime found ex- 
 pression at the end of His course, " Father, glorify 
 Thy name " (John xii : 28). " I have manifested 
 Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out 
 
THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 181 
 
 of the world." " I have declared unto them Thy 
 name and will declare it " (John xvii : 6—26). 
 
 But, more than this, Jesus glorified God on the 
 earth by His revelations of divine truth. He was 
 the Light of the world. He was the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life. He brought life and immor- 
 tality to light through the Gospel. He was 'the 
 divine Word, the only possible expression of the 
 Deity that men could understand. Never man 
 spake like this man; for never had man such lofty 
 truths to utter, or could express them in such simple 
 yet significant and sublime language. He was, be- 
 yond all comparison, the great teacher. Well 
 might His hearers, who yet so imperfectly under- 
 stood them, marvel at the gracious words that pro- 
 ceeded out of His mouth. The world has been 
 marvelling at them ever since. Whole libraries 
 have been written upon them, yet their fullness is as 
 inexhaustible as ever. God had been communicat- 
 ing His word to men through all the ages past. 
 Moses and the prophets had spoken; and the 
 volume of Revelation was already ample; but, in 
 comparison with the fuller teachings of Jesus, all 
 that had been given to men before His advent was 
 as the morning twilight to the rising sun. Not 
 only did He reaffirm, emphasize, and set in clearer 
 light truths concerning God that had been already 
 revealed, but He set before the astonished gaze of 
 men " things that had been kept secret from the 
 foundation of the world" (Matt. 13:25). He 
 
182 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 was the most original of all teachers for He first 
 proclaimed in their fullness many important truths 
 among which we may enumerate the purpose of 
 God in redemption, the work of the Holy Spirit, 
 the spirituality of the Church, immortality, resur- 
 rection and the final judgment. But God was no 
 less glorified by the gracious words of the Savior 
 that made known so clearly to men the love of the 
 Father. What could better glorify the divine 
 name than such declarations as these; " For God so 
 loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
 Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not 
 His Son into the world to condemn the world; but 
 that the world through Him might be saved " 
 (John iii : 16, 17). " God is a Spirit, and they that 
 worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in 
 truth . . . The Father seeketh such to worship 
 Him" (John iv:24, 23). "All that the Father 
 giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh 
 to me I will in no wise cast out " (John vi: 37). 
 And in all these marvellous words He glorified the 
 Father by constantly affirming, " My doctrine is 
 not mine but His that sent me" (John vii : 14). 
 In His sacerdotal prayer He says to the Father, " I 
 have given them Thy word " (John xvii : 14). 
 
 Beyond all this, Jesus glorified the Father by His 
 wonderful works. Miracles had been wrought by 
 the Old Testament prophets; but the miracles of 
 Christ were greater wonders than had ever been 
 
THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 183 
 
 seen on earth, were wrought in greater profusion 
 than those of all the prophets together, were accom- 
 plished in the name of Christ Himself as the sent of 
 God, and were miracles of mercy, designed to call 
 the attention of the world to Him who had taken 
 upon Himself the infirmities of sinners, that so 
 taking He might heal them. What wonder that 
 when the paralytic was healed and forgiven, " the 
 multitude marvelled and glorified God who had 
 given such power unto men" (Matt. ix:i8). 
 What wonder that when Bartimeus received His 
 sight " all the people when they saw it gave praise 
 unto God " (Luke xviii : 43). What wonder that 
 after a day of multiplied mercy " the multitudes 
 wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the 
 maimed to be whole, the lame to walk and the blind 
 to see ; and they glorified the God of Israel " (Matt. 
 xv : 31). What wonder that the disciples, as they 
 drew near the holy city, at the time of Christ's 
 triumphal entry, began to praise God with a loud 
 voice for all the mighty work that they had seen; 
 that children's hosannahs were heard in the temple, 
 or that our Lord should say, in exultation, of the 
 divine glory, " I tell you if these should hold their 
 peace, the stones would immediately cry out ! " 
 (Luke xix : 4). 
 
 Yet what were all wonders wrought by Christ 
 compared with the miracles of resurrection; when 
 He stood by the grave of His dead friend and said, 
 " Lazarus, come forth ! " when he took the sleep- 
 
184 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 ing maid by the hand and said, " I say unto thee, 
 arise ! " when he stopped the mournful procession 
 at the gate of Nain, and delivered again to his 
 mother the son mourned as dead; and surpassing 
 all else, when He demonstrated by His own rising 
 from the dead the truth of those sublime words, 
 " I am the resurrection and the life ! " 
 But most of all was God glorified by our ador- 
 able Redeemer in the great work of salvation. 
 This is the one stupendous wonder of the universe, 
 the one great mystery into whose depths angels de- 
 sire to look, the one achievement that stretches into 
 eternity with its far reaching effects. 
 
 It would be aside from our purpose to dwell 
 upon the fact that redemption took place upon so 
 insignificant a place apparently as our little earth 
 among the splendid worlds that are under the gov- 
 ernment of God; yet this fact must forever center 
 the eyes of all intelligent beings upon this favored 
 planet as the theater for the most stupendous ex- 
 hibitions of divine power and the most amazing 
 displays of divine grace that eternity can ever pro- 
 duce. These three little words localizing His work 
 deserve special emphasis, " I have glorified Thee 
 on the earth." So far as we know, this is the 
 only world where ever has been proclaimed the 
 forgiveness of sins. The only world where the 
 ruin of sin has been met and the holy law of God 
 vindicated in mercy. And in this world, where 
 God had been avowedly dethroned by the rebellion 
 
THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 185 
 
 of the being appointed to rule as lord under Him, 
 Jesus Christ glorified God by setting up His ever- 
 lasting kingdom, the glory of which is love. 
 
 It greatly adds to the wonders of redemption 
 that it was accomplished amid such exhibitions of 
 moral corruption as even this sin-cursed world had 
 never before seen. 
 
 What a picture do the Evangelists present to us 
 as they hold up before us, in their artless and unaf- 
 fected narratives, the blind rage of the Pharisees, 
 the mocking scorn of the Sadducees, the brutal 
 cruelty of the Romans, the ignorant frenzy of the 
 multitudes; and amid it all the divine Sufferer, 
 majestic in His meekness, unruffled, unmoved, un- 
 daunted, unreviling, pouring out His soul unto 
 death, a voluntary victim, against whom, but for 
 His own purpose to save, His guilty murderers 
 could have had no power at all ! 
 
 What a spectacle! The Son of God, expiring 
 amid mockery and shame that He might give life 
 to the very men who had become His betrayers and 
 murderers! Praying in the midst of His dying 
 agonies for His unrelenting persecutors; snatch- 
 ing from the very jaws of destruction one of the 
 guiltiest of the race, that He might have in the 
 hour of His death a signal trophy of redeeming 
 grace, and in the forgiveness of the penitent thief 
 proclaim salvation to the chief of sinners! 
 
 Thus, as has been truthfully affirmed, " It was at 
 the very place where man was most dishonoring 
 
186 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 God that His representative was honoring Him. 
 Where man was exhibiting the most appalling 
 wickedness, there His mercy was giving the most 
 signal displays of goodness. Where man, break- 
 ing loose from all restraint, was abandoning him- 
 self to open rebellion, there his substitute was be- 
 coming obedient even unto death. Where the 
 wildest passions that ever stirred the human heart 
 were raging uncontrolled, there One, in our own 
 name and nature, was giving the most loving dis- 
 play of a tenderness that could not be ruffled and a 
 love that could not be quenched. Where sin 
 abounded there righteousness did much more 
 abound. The representative is lifted high upon 
 the cross that He might become a spectacle ; and in 
 the view of all men, in the view of wondering 
 angels, in the view of God, glorify God, wherein 
 He had been most dishonored." * 
 
 Nor is the glory of God in redemption confined 
 to the transactions of Calvary. The whole his- 
 tory of the Church is a manifestation of the divine 
 glory, established in the earth by the life and 
 death of Christ. The triumphs of the Cross have 
 been wonderful, and the design of the Redeemer is 
 that unto God shall be " glory in the Church by 
 Christ Jesus throughout all ages " (Eph. iii : 21). 
 
 No creature can glorify God as Jesus has glori- 
 fied Him upon the earth; yet God will be con- 
 tinually glorified as Christ is glorified by His peo- 
 * McCosh, " Divine Government," p. 474. 
 
THE CROWNING SATISFACTION 187 
 
 pie. Every soul for whom Christ died may glorify 
 God by forsaking sin for the service of Christ, by 
 believing in the Son of God and by open con- 
 fession of His name. Every believer may glorify 
 God by being transformed in character by the re- 
 newing of the Holy Ghost ..." and we all, 
 with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory 
 of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from 
 glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord " 
 (2 Cor. iii : 18). Yet only in the new heavens and 
 the new earth, where all the ransomed of the Lord 
 shall be gathered and the Church shall appear be- 
 fore God, " not having spot or wrinkle or any 
 such thing," will the full significance of the 
 Savior's words be known, " I have glorified Thee 
 on the earth; I have finished the work which thou 
 gavest me to do." 
 
 HALLOWED BE THY NAME 
 
 O holy prayer ! too deep, too pure 
 
 For lips unsanctified ; 
 O full petition ! all too broad 
 
 For man's self-righteous pride; 
 Too high, too near the throne of God 
 
 For earth-born men to reach; 
 Thou God alone, our sinful lips 
 
 Its utterance can teach ! 
 
 Our graceless prayer falls drearily 
 
 Upon the sterile ground ; 
 And listless hang our empty hands 
 
 By unseen fetters bound; 
 
X88 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 Our lifeless souls can never rise 
 
 Above the mists of earth, — 
 Faith folds her wings — love languishes 
 
 Forgetful of her birth! 
 
 Great Spirit! change these rebel hearts, 
 
 Wash out each crimson stain ; 
 Purge them with hyssop, Lord, that so 
 
 They may be white again. 
 O deign these stammering, untaught lips 
 
 To sanctify anew, 
 Teach thou our chastened hearts, dear Lord, 
 
 To suffer and to do. 
 
 O teach us in th' Eternal Ear, 
 
 With penitential love, 
 To breathe the One prevailing Name, 
 
 All other names above ; 
 Like precious ointment poured forth 
 
 That Name shall calm the breast, — 
 So rich, so full to satisfy 
 
 The soul that longs for rest ! 
 
 O sacred, thrice exalted Name, 
 
 We worship and adore ; 
 Help us in spirit and in truth 
 
 To praise thee evermore; 
 O holy, holy, holy Lord, 
 
 Thy love we will proclaim, 
 Till earth and heaven shall join to say 
 
 All hallowed be thy Name! 
 
 Myra. 
 
XIV 
 HEARTS AFLAME 
 
 OUR Lord was crucified on Friday. The 
 next day was the Jewish Sabbath, and 
 the disciples rested according to the com- 
 mandment. Yet what a sad and peculiar Sabbath 
 it was to the infant Church! And how strangely 
 joyless was the dawning of the first Lord's Day! 
 
 Never had the hearts of the disciples been filled 
 with deeper despondency than on the morning of 
 the resurrection. 
 
 Their Rulers had triumphed. The cause they 
 loved had suffered defeat. Their beloved Master 
 had been put to a cruel and shameful death. 
 They had themselves borne Him to Joseph's tomb, 
 and in that rocky sepulchre they buried with Him 
 their Messianic hopes, and could only say, " We 
 trusted that it had been He which should have re- 
 deemed Israel!" (Luke xxiv:2i). 
 
 Yet, as the hours of this eventful morning wore 
 away their hearts were strangely agitated with new 
 fears and hopes. The sepulchre had been early 
 visited by the women who intended to embalm the 
 Savior's body. They returned with minds stirred 
 and excited to report that the tomb was empty, and 
 
 189 
 
190 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 that they had seen a vision of angels who told them 
 that Jesus was risen from the dead. 
 
 The story was so far confirmed by others that 
 it was soon known that the body was not in the 
 sepulchre; but the further testimony of the women 
 seemed to the disciples as idle tales, and they be- 
 lieved it not. 
 
 Yet while none perhaps believed in our Lord's 
 resurrection save those to whom he had thus far 
 personally appeared, it was impossible that such 
 things should be reported without strongly affect- 
 ing all their minds. Conflicting emotions of sur- 
 prise, hope, fear, doubt, and vague expectation took 
 possession of them, so that they could talk of little 
 else than the wonderful things that had hap- 
 pened. 
 
 It was on the afternoon of this eventful day that 
 two of the disciples started for Emmaus, a village 
 seven and one-half miles from Jerusalem, where 
 one of them probably resided. 
 
 The road leading out of the City passed by 
 Calvary, and perhaps they could see still standing 
 that fatal cross where so lately their Lord had 
 hung. What wonder that as they walked they 
 were sad? What wonder that one theme above 
 every other absorbed their thoughts " as they com- 
 muned together and reasoned?" 
 
 And now as they talk a stranger joins them. 
 Perhaps their first feeling is one of disappointment, 
 but they soon find that the conversation need not 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 191 
 
 be diverted from the channel it had been pursuing. 
 
 There is something winning in the new-comer's 
 address and he seems to enter with heartfelt sym- 
 pathy into their grief. Yet they confess their 
 surprise that any one should be long in Jerusalem 
 and be at a loss to understand what would naturally 
 be the subject of conversation between Israelites 
 at such a time. The Unknown draws from them 
 the story of the wonder-working Prophet of Naza- 
 reth. They speak of His teachings and of His 
 miracles; of the good He accomplished among 
 the people; of the hopes of deliverance He in- 
 spired — of the rising jealousy of the high priests; 
 of the apprehension — the crucifixion — the burial; 
 and end with the strange story of the women 
 who visited the empty tomb, which evidently they 
 do not credit, for their last words are in mournful 
 cadence, " but Him they saw not." 
 
 And now their sympathetic hearer becomes their 
 Instructor. Their implied rebuke of His ignorance 
 of the great events of the passover week is turned 
 upon them with pointed effect, " Oh, fools and slow 
 of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
 spoken ; ought not Christ to have suffered these 
 things and to enter into His glory " (Luke xxiv: 
 26). 
 
 Yet " faithful are the wounds of a friend " 
 and the Stranger's rebuke wins instead of repelling 
 these disciples, as He takes up the writings of the 
 Old Testament, with which they are thoroughly 
 
192 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 familiar, and explains them as they have never 
 heard them explained before. 
 
 We know the sequel, and cannot maintain the 
 disguise if we would. It is Jesus who talks with 
 them; but as yet they know Him not. 
 
 What wonder must have seized their minds as 
 they heard so entrancing a discourse from a Pass- 
 over pilgrim. We can almost hear them exclaim 
 "What learned Rabbi is this? What gracious 
 words proceed out of His mouth ! What clearness 
 of statement! What cogency of reasoning! 
 What new views of the prophecies ! What absorb- 
 ing interest does this stranger himself take in the 
 Messiah ! " 
 
 Let us also draw near and attend. — Jesus the 
 Christ expounding in all the Scriptures the things 
 concerning Himself — What a teacher and what a 
 theme ! 
 
 Let us consider first the discourse itself, and sec- 
 ondly its effects upon the two disciples. 
 
 The Evangelist has not indeed recorded for us 
 this remarkable exposition of the Scriptures, by the 
 greatest of all the prophets, but the brief outline 
 Luke gives us suggests an orderly method begin- 
 ning with the first promise given in Eden of the 
 coming Deliverer and following the track of 
 prophecy growing broader and more distinct until 
 Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, 
 points to John whose mission was to proclaim, 
 " Behold the Lamb of God." 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 193 
 
 He doubtless unfolded to them the meaning of 
 that mysterious promise, that is the germ of all 
 subsequent prophecy, that the seed of the woman 
 should bruise the serpent's head. 
 
 He explained to them the significance of that 
 strange scene upon Mount Moriah where Isaac 
 was spared and a ram provided for sacrifice. He 
 declared the meaning of the Passover and the 
 sprinkling with blood. He recalled the history of 
 the fiery serpents in the camp of Israel, and the 
 method of recovery divinely ordained, and caused 
 them to remember the saying of their now crucified 
 Lord " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted 
 up." He spoke of the manna given to Israel, until 
 they saw new meaning in their Master's words " I 
 am the living bread which came down from 
 heaven." 
 
 He discoursed of the smitten rock; and they re- 
 membered how Christ said, "If any man thirst let 
 him come unto me and drink." But especially He 
 gave interpretation to every type and ceremony that 
 regarded Messiah's death. He gave light to the 
 darkest parts of the Law, order to the most con- 
 fused and significance to the most unmeaning. 
 
 He told them that the tabernacle was but a 
 shadow ; that the solemn day of atonement, the en- 
 tering in of the High Priest, the sacrifices made 
 year by year continually were not the very image of 
 the things. Not a lamb, nor a kid, nor a dove, but 
 
194 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 was a type of Christ. The solemn laying on of 
 hands, the gushing blood, the smoking altar, the 
 fragrant incense, all had their significance and 
 pointed to the Messiah. And in all the Scriptures 
 Christ was predicted as one who should be rejected, 
 and suffer and die. 
 
 He was, indeed, foretold as a blessing. Jacob 
 named Him " Shiloh," and Balaam a " Star," and 
 Isaiah " the Mighty God " and " the Great Shep- 
 herd " of Israel. But it was through His suffer- 
 ings He was to enter into His glory and redeem 
 His people. 
 
 " Do you not see," this wonderful interpreter 
 must have said, " how remarkably the prophecies 
 seem to be fulfilled in just such sufferings as you 
 declare your Jesus has undergone ? Did not David 
 say that His own familiar friend should betray 
 Him ; that His enemies should mock Him ; that they 
 should shoot out the lip and shake the head at 
 Him; that the wicked should encompass Him and 
 vex Him; that they should give Him vinegar and 
 gall to drink; and that they should pierce His 
 hands and His feet; should part His garments 
 among them and cast lots upon His vesture ; should 
 bring Him into the dust of death, and yet His soul 
 should not be left in the grave, nor His flesh see 
 corruption? 
 
 " What but a suffering Christ did Isaiah describe 
 when he said He should give His back to the 
 smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 195 
 
 hair, and should hide not His face from shame 
 and spitting? Did not Isaiah expressly say that 
 Christ should be despised and rejected, that He 
 should bear our griefs, that He should be led as a 
 lamb to the slaughter? Was He not to be num- 
 bered with the transgressors— to bear the sin of 
 many, to make intercession for the transgressors — 
 to make His soul a sin-offering — to die with the 
 wicked yet to make His grave with the rich? 
 
 " Did not Daniel say that Messiah should be cut 
 off, but not for Himself? And Zechariah that He 
 should be sold for thirty pieces of silver, the pur- 
 chase money of the potter's field? And again 
 that men should look upon Him whom they had 
 pierced ? And indeed apart from these Old Testa- 
 ment prophecies, were not the hills and valleys of 
 Judea still ringing with the prophetic voice of one 
 crying in the wilderness, ' Behold the Lamb of 
 God, the sacrifice for the world's sin ! ' Oh, 
 fools and slow of heart to believe all that the 
 prophets have spoken — ought not Christ to have 
 suffered these things and to enter into His 
 glory?" 
 
 The way to Emmaus was long; but it had never 
 seemed so short before. For two hours this en- 
 trancing exposition may have proceeded, and yet it 
 has seemed all too brief to these willing hearers. 
 What an inestimable treasure is the word of God 
 hidden in the heart ! Had these disciples been en- 
 tirely unacquainted with the teachings of the 
 
196 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 prophets, their hearts would not have been set on 
 fire that day as this unknown Teacher expounded 
 unto them the Scriptures. 
 
 But now these wonderful words have awakened 
 strange emotions within them, and they cannot let 
 the stranger go. Jesus deals with them " as He 
 had done with the two blind beggars ; with the dis- 
 ciples in the storm; with the Syrophoenician 
 woman." * He draws out the strength of desire 
 and affection and then yields to the urgency He has 
 Himself excited. 
 
 He appeared ready to pass on, but they con- 
 strained Him, saying " Abide with us, for it is to- 
 ward evening and the day is far spent — and He 
 went in to tarry with them." 
 
 Perhaps continuing His discourse He now uses 
 words they have heard before from His own lips. 
 He takes bread as they have heard before from 
 the apostles Jesus took it at that last Passover 
 feast, He breaks it as Jesus then did, while tone, 
 countenance and manner all are changed. The 
 veil has dropped — the scales have fallen from their 
 eyes — the Savior has started from disguise. They 
 know Him now, yes, Jesus, to whom their hearts 
 were never so knit before! But e'er they can em- 
 brace Him, He has vanished from sight! What 
 wonder they say one to another " Did not our 
 heart burn within us, while He talked with us by 
 the way and while He opened to us the Scriptures." 
 
 * Hanna. 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 197 
 
 How were the minds of these disciples affected 
 by the Savior's words? 
 
 (i) Their hearts burned with surprise and ad- 
 miration. 
 
 They were surprised at the stranger. Such 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, such skill in interpre- 
 tation, such success in making what had been ob- 
 scure clear to their vision might well awaken their 
 wonder and fill them with admiration of the great 
 plan of salvation itself. 
 
 They were surprised at the new views of revela- 
 tion they now grasped. How wonderful God's 
 ways! How different from all their former 
 thoughts of a Messianic Kingdom! Yet how 
 honoring to God that even in Salvation divine 
 justice may not give way, and divine love stops not 
 at the most costly sacrifice ! With hearts stirred 
 by these new truths, they were kindled with eager 
 longing to know more. Yet burning with desire 
 for further instruction they must have had some- 
 thing of Paul's awe-struck admiration of the great 
 mysteries of redemption and have said within their 
 hearts "Oh, the depths!" 
 
 (2) Their hearts burned with shame at their 
 own ignorance and unbelief. 
 
 Many of these things the stranger told them 
 they now remembered to have heard before. Did 
 not Jesus Himself tell them the Son of man must 
 be lifted up? Had He not plainly declared " I lay 
 down my life that I may take it again?" Nay, 
 
198 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 had He not even predicted His resurrection on the 
 third day? Why were their minds so dull, why 
 were they so slow of heart to believe all that the 
 prophets had spoken ? 
 
 (3) Their hearts burned with the kindling joy 
 of a new hope. 
 
 Never had they known such sadness as when 
 they left Jerusalem. And, as we have said, the 
 sight of Calvary must have revived their sorrow. 
 There Jesus had died. There with their own eyes 
 they had seen Him hanging in mortal agony. 
 They had heard the bitter taunts of His enemies, 
 as they bade Him come down from the cross. 
 Yet He seemed helpless in the hands of wicked 
 men. They had heard His expiring cry. They 
 had helped to take Him down and knew that His 
 form was lifeless and cold. They had seen Him 
 laid in the tomb — and this was the third 
 day since these things were done. Their Lord 
 was gone from them forever. Hope there was 
 none. 
 
 But as the stranger opened the Scriptures, and 
 spoke of a suffering Messiah, how their minds must 
 have been stirred with conflicting emotions of fear 
 and hope. Could it be after all that the very things 
 that had plunged them in despair were the strongest 
 proofs of the Messiahship of Jesus? 
 
 Yet how remarkably prophecy and history 
 agreed as they were placed side by side! Clearly 
 the death of Jesus fulfilled all the conditions of 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 190 
 
 prophecies that were extended over more than 3000 
 
 years 
 
 Was it too much to believe that there was more 
 in the story of the empty tomb and the vision of 
 angels seen by the women that very morning than 
 they had been disposed to credit ? What if it was 
 all right after all, and Jesus was risen as He said ? 
 What wonder their hearts burned within them at 
 the very thought ! 
 
 (4) Their hearts burned with gratitude toward 
 the stranger. He had given them new views of 
 truth. He had showed them the warmest sym- 
 pathy in their deepest sorrow. He had manifested 
 a rare power of discernment and skill in probing 
 and healing the wounds of their spirit, and they 
 were drawn toward Him with love and confidence. 
 How could they let Him go, who had given them 
 the only comfort their stricken hearts had known 
 since their Lord was taken away ? It was not con- 
 ventional courtesy — nor merely consideration for 
 Him, that drew from their yearning bosoms the 
 earnest invitation — " Abide with us ! " 
 
 (5) Their hearts burned with eager desire to 
 tell others of their new hopes. The convictions 
 that had been growing within them as Jesus talked 
 with them by the way became certainty as He was 
 made known to them in the breaking of bread ; and 
 assuredly the inward flame was not quenched by 
 this welcome revelation. 
 
 Tidings such as they could now bring to the 
 
200 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 other disciples might not be withheld until morn- 
 ing. Darkness was already gathering over the 
 earth, and they had walked a long distance that 
 afternoon, but with what eagerness do they now 
 retrace their footsteps ! With what different emo- 
 tions do they hasten back to Jerusalem from those 
 that possessed them as they left the Holy 
 City ! " And they rose up the same hour and re- 
 turned to Jerusalem," surely with winged feet, 
 " and found the eleven gathered together and them 
 that were with them " — and best of all they found 
 their hearts also burning with new hope ; for they 
 were saying " The Lord is risen indeed and hath 
 appeared to Simon." " And they told what things 
 were done in the way, and how He was known to 
 them in the breaking of bread." 
 
 Oh, joyful meeting! Oh, wonderful tidings! 
 Oh, eventful day! Hearts that had burned alone 
 all too long, consumed with inward musing, now 
 leaped together into flame. Who can doubt that 
 that saying which afterward became so dear to the 
 early Christians was repeated again and again — 
 " The Lord is risen indeed ! " tho' the tidings 
 seemed " too good to be true " and none could be- 
 lieve or realize them at once as they desired to do 
 (Mark xvi : 13). 
 
 And now, to the little assembly thus prepared for 
 His presence, Christ is revealed ! We need not 
 wonder that fear mingled with their joy; but their 
 fears were soon quelled. No other form could 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 201 
 
 yield such proofs, in pierced hands and feet and 
 gaping side, that the Crucified stood before them. 
 No other voice could speak with such loving au- 
 thority allaying the rising billows of fright as He 
 had stilled the tempest upon Galilee, saying " Peace 
 be unto you ! " 
 
 " Then were the disciples glad when they saw the 
 Lord ! " " Then opened He their understanding 
 that they might understand the Scriptures " (Luke 
 xxiv : 45 ) . 
 
 And what shall we say of the rapture that filled 
 the Savior's heart, as He stood triumphant in 
 the midst of this wondering band of disciples? 
 Surely among the most joyful hours of Jesus we 
 may name this interview and His conversation with 
 the disciples on the way to Emmaus. 
 
 Christian brethren, have not our hearts burned 
 within us many times, as taught by the blessed 
 Spirit Christ has promised, we have been instructed 
 in the way as He has opened to us the Scriptures? 
 Have not we too tested and proved the value of 
 Christian conference and found the Master's pres- 
 ence with us as we have talked with Christian 
 friends of all these things which happened so long 
 ago, but are just as important for us as if they had 
 just transpired ? Then if with hearts burning with 
 desire and love we come together, to commune with 
 each other and with Him, He will meet with us and 
 make our hearts glad. 
 
 He is not indeed even here the object of bodily 
 
202 THE JOYFUL HOURS OF JESUS 
 
 vision : " for we walk by faith not by sight." But 
 if we listen to His teachings and our hearts burn 
 within us as on our pilgrim journey He opens to us 
 the Scriptures; in the end of the way He with 
 whom we have so lovingly walked will be revealed. 
 Our eyes shall no longer be holden. We shall see 
 the king in His beauty, and He will not vanish 
 from our sight. " As for me, I will behold thy 
 face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I 
 awake with thy likeness " (Ps. xvii : 15). 
 
 Here we close our meditations on the joyful 
 hours of jesus. Let it be with grateful hearts 
 that we recognize His deep-seated happiness in His 
 life-work, and even in His death; and let us never 
 forget that His joy was the joy of service and of 
 sacrifice. It was for us that He spent these joyful 
 hours upon the earth. If our hearts burn within 
 us as He opens to us the Scriptures, let Him lead 
 us to a like surrender to the will of God and to like 
 happiness in the joy of the Lord, which is the 
 strength of the soul. Let us see new significance 
 in the words addressed to the servant who has been 
 faithful over a few things and has thus become 
 qualified to understand the true secret of a happy 
 life; " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
HEARTS AFLAME 
 
 203 
 
 Tis evening now ! 
 O Savior, wilt not thou 
 Enter my home and heart, 
 Nor ever hence depart, 
 Even when the morning 
 And earth again awakes 
 Thou wilt abide with me, 
 And I with thee! 
 
 breaks, 
 
 The world is old ! 
 
 Its air grows dull and cold; 
 
 Upon its aged face 
 
 The wrinkles come apace; 
 
 Its western sky is wan, 
 
 Its youth and joy are gone, 
 
 O Master, be our light, 
 
 When o'er us falls the night. 
 
 Evil is round ! 
 Iniquities abound ; 
 Our cottage will be lone, 
 When the great Sun is gone; 
 O Savior, come and bless, 
 Come, share our loneliness, 
 We need a Comforter, 
 Take up thy dwelling here. 
 
 Bonar. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
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 "Thoroughly health-giving, evangelical and consequently 
 hopeful. The author possesses the power of felicitous ex- 
 
 the pc 
 ful ilk 
 
 pression, and gives us many helpful illustrations." — Episcopal 
 Recorder. 
 
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 The World to Come 
 
 The Progressive Manifestation of the Kingdom of 
 God Among Men. i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 
 
 Points out that Christ's Messianic Kingdom, when com- 
 pleted, will be followed by that of the Father, and indicates 
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 place in the development of the Kingdom of God. 
 
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 ^——^^—^^—^—^—^— and the New Psychology" 
 
 The Supernatural : or Fellowship with God 
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 flabby faith. The author sends his earnest message from the 
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LIGHT ON THE GREAT WAR 
 
 ' - ■ II - .u. . 
 
 JAMES A. MACDONAI.D, LL. D. E d,t,r Toronto Gt.te 
 
 The North American Idea 
 
 The Cole Lectures for 1917. i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 
 
 The famous Canadian editor enjoys an established and 
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 — — — — ^— — ^— ^— — — Religions Questions" 
 
 What Did Jesus ReallyTeach AboutWar? 
 
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 Unquestionably war is a matter of oonsoi&aoe. But in Dr. 
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 some questions, 
 
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 • "The Foreign Missionary ," etv. 
 
 Russia in Transformation 
 
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 Years may pass before New Russia will sottle down t» 
 stability of life and administration. Meanwhile we may be 
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 The Voice of God in the Present Hour 
 
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 A new collection of sermons by the famous pastor-evan- 
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 JAMES M. GRAY, D.D. Dean of ike 
 
 ' Moody Bible Institute, Chisago 
 
 Prophecy and the Lord's Return 
 
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 What is the purpose of God in connection with the present 
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ESSAYS AND STUDIES 
 
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 ——^———^^— ———'—— Mission Council" 
 
 The Religious Foundations of America 
 
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 EPGAR WHITAKER WORK, D.P. Author " The Fasci- 
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 The Bible in English Literature 
 
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 WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 
 
 Heart-to-Heart Appeals 
 
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 Q. E. D., or New Light on the 
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 The author, an acknowledged conservative, lias in his sev- 
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 frankly calling in question many recent popular hypotheses. 
 
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 The Real Key to Christian Science 
 
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 by them of a large part of his analysis, together with the un- 
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 critics of, this rapidly growing system of ethics. The work 
 is unique — unlike any previous study of the cult." 
 

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