Christ Glorifiedby JOSEPH IRONS - Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Sunday Morning, June 4th, 1848
My mind has been led forth in a strain too much for the body upon the subject of the person, work, and office of my precious Lord, for these three weeks past; and the singing of the last hymn (the 321st) seems to have brought my soul to the climax of heavenly joy. You will recollect that we have occupied four sermons with the priestly character and office of Christ, and that the next four were occupied with the ascension of Christ to the Father's right hand; and I trust that the Lord hath put some portion of his spirit, and light, and power into these subjects. I could not dismiss them from my thought, and trust that I never shall; and I felt, in looking forward to this day, half a longing to go over the same ground again, to take the same text, and to endeavour to preach the same ideas. This, however, was overruled by my mind being directed, first of all to the passage, which I have just read, in which the person of Jesus is evidently spoken of, and spoken to, and the triumphs of His kingdom, cross, and work, set forth in language that is well calculated to captivate the soul of every one who feels himself to be redeemed by His most precious blood. "Behold," saith the Father, "I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people." And then the fifth verse reveals the response of the church. In the fourth verse He is spoken of in the third person; here He is directly spoken to. "Behold, thou shall call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee." I know that some persons consider this as addressed to Israel of old; whilst others regard it as addressed to the church spiritual. But I cannot conceive the language as suited to either. My intention is to limit my thoughts and words, as far as possible, to the last clause of the fifth verse, "He hath glorified thee." Now, short as my text is, it seems to me to require a whole eternity fully to expound it. It appears to take the whole length of the cord of everlasting life to measure it, to contain such a depth, that nothing but the infinite mind of Jehovah can fathom it, and to have such a lofty eminence, that I might climb the third heaven, and sit with Him on the throne, before I could comprehend its topless height. What! the Father himself hath glorified the Son! Then, who would not make an effort to illustrate it, if it were not that the feelings of the soul, the joy of the heart, the employments of heaven, and the terrors of hell, are all glorifying the Son of God? I do not wonder, therefore, that the Son of God Himself, in His humiliation, as we read in the 17th of John, should cry, "Father, glorify thy Son!" This seems to have been the great object, which He always kept in view, the joy He set before Him, for which He "endured the cross, despised the shame," and is now highly exalted above every name that is named in heaven and on earth. That I may condense as much as possible within the limits of our time, I shall invite your attention to the declaration of my text, first as it relates to the headship of Christ; then, secondly, as it relates to the economy of grace in which He is pre-eminently glorified; then, thirdly, as it relates to the achievements of His life and death, in all which He manifested forth His glory, as it is written of Him; and then, finally, as it relates to the dignity of His throne, upon which He is now glorified within the veil. 1. There is no one subject that so overwhelms me with astonishment, and so extensively proves to me the defectiveness and ruin, and the narrow and shallow capacity of poor fallen man, as the very circumscribed and impoverished manner in which we attempt to glorify Christ. Our notes fall at the foot of the throne; or expressions of praise are but the most stammering, lisping, and defective, when we speak of His Father having exalted and glorified Him. But first look at His headship, in which the Father has glorified Him. "He hath glorified thee" as the Head of His body the Church; for it is written, that He gave Him to be Head over all things to His Church. So that we are carried back to the ordination of our precious glorious Christ to this headship from everlasting by the sovereign appointment of the Divine will. And therefore, in the 10th chapter of the Acts, we read concerning Him that He is ordained to be Judge of the quick and the dead. "He hath appointed a day, in the which," saith the apostle, in the 17th chapter, "He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained." The Head and the members are all ordained; but concerning the latter it is said, "As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed." So that Jehovah knew the covenant members in Him, there is the glorious ordination of God appointing him to his office, and their reception by, and personal union with Him. Look at the sacred and solemn position in which our glorious Lord stood to be glorified, relative to His headship; that the headship of authority, that the headship of influence, and the headship of life, all should be concentrated in Him; that in the church there should positively be no authority, no life, no Divine influence but what we have in Christ our Head; that His headship over the Church being that of authority, holds all worlds in abeyance, all enemies in subjection, all circumstances under His control, all souls at His command, all servants at His bidding, all ordinances and privileges for His bestowing; and it is by His authority alone that they are communicated. The centurion of old seemed to be sweetly conscious of this authority when he wanted Him to come and heal his servant. "Lord, trouble not thyself," said he, "for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. Wherefore, neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee; but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority." Now, whether he had a ray of light from above, discovering the person of Christ in His ordination, I will not attempt to determine; nor whether he was led under the spirit of prophecy to speak what he did not understand, as had sometimes been the case; yet the facts are the same, "For I also am a man set under authority; and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." As though he had said, "Thou, Lord, hast all authority and power entrusted unto thee in heaven and in earth, and only hast to say unto disease, Go, and it goeth; and to health, Come, and it cometh; or to say to the Church, Go, and she goeth; and to the sinner, Come, and he cometh." And whether it is for the breaking of the sinner's heart, comforting the mourner's soul, or loosening of legal bonds, it requires but His word, and it is done. I might speak until I had no breath left, and yet nothing be done. Jesus speaks, and it is done. He commands, and it stands fast. He is the Head of all authority, and as such is glorified. Moreover, He is the Head of all life; for when the apostle John was directed by the Holy Ghost to speak of the Father' gift of Christ, he says, "This is the record that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." So that every particle of spiritual life, which is received and possessed by a son of Adam emanates from the Saviour. And what an amazing fullness must be in Him! All the life of our souls, our privileges, joys, sorrows, praises, and prayers, comes from Him; and altogether poor nature's life is dry without Christ. He is glorified then, in that at this moment there are millions on millions of souls enjoying life divine from Christ, and receiving fresh communications from Him hour by hour. So also He is the Head of all influence in His Church, for it is His prerogative to send the Holy Ghost. Thus, when the Spirit descends to communicate those fresh anointings, which it is His to impart, Jesus is at the helm, because He sits enthroned and glorified. Recollect that it is positively written, that "He shall take of mine and show it unto you." So that Jesus is glorified by the Holy Ghost in every communication of grace, which is made to poor ruined sinner's heart. Let us dwell for a moment on His faithfulness and fullness in this glorious headship, in which He is and shall be eternally glorified. The fullness is described thus: "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell" (Col. 1:19). And again, "In Him is treasured up all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). And hence the evangelist John, in writing his gospel, saith, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father," whom, according to my text, the Father hath thus glorified, "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14), and adding, "of His fullness have all we received." Therefore we are positive witnesses, living witnesses, undoubted witnesses, because "of His fullness have we received, even grace for grace" that is, every grace received by us is implanted by the Holy Ghost in the soul, and gains its reinforcements, supplies of strength and quickening power in all its actings immediately from the fullness of Christ, and ministered by the Holy Ghost. So also He is glorified in His faithfulness. You will recollect, when we dwelt on Christ's priestly office, that we drew the comparison which the Holy Ghost commanded the apostle to set down between the faithfulnessof Moses as a servant, and the faithfulness of Christ as a Son. It was an honour done to Moses that his faithfulness should be approved; and Moses was undoubtedly a faithful servant to his God. But here we have something higher to talk of. Christ, as a Son over His own house, was found faithful, faithful to His covenant engagements, to the work He had undertaken, to the responsibility which was laid upon Him in His ordination, faithful to the honouring and glorying of all the infinite perfections of Deity, faithful to the care and charge of the entire Church committed to Him, and to the holiness and purity of the Divine law, of which we are told that not one jot or tittle should fail, faithful to the demands and requisitions of inflexible justice, so that all shall be met, and not one single iota thereof abated, faithful to all the perfections of Deity, so that not one should be tarnished, faithful to the engagement of the first promise that He should "bruise the serpent's head" (Gen. 3:15), and He did it effectually; nay, more, He vanquished the power of darkness, led captivity captive, spoiled principalities and powers, and made show of them on His cross (Col. 2:14,15), and never went from the field of battle until He could shout, "It is finished" who proclaimed His faithfulness with His departing breath, as He "bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." Never had the Captain of our salvation been admitted within the realms of glory; never had the proclamation gone forth, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in" (Ps. 24:7); had He not been found faithful. But being found faithful, and having finished the work entire, and accomplished all that for which He was sent, and glorified the Father's name, He could calmly and gloriously demand, "Now, Father, come I unto thee; and therefore glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5). This must suffice for the first particular of our subject, glorifying Jesus as the Head of His Church. 2. Let us now see how the Father glorified Him in the economy of his salvation. I use the term "salvation," in order to include the entire economy of grace; for if that does not bring us full and complete salvation, it is not an economy that is worthy of God, and will not glorify Christ. In the economy of salvation I include the election of grace, the redemption of the Church, the justification of their persons individually, the sanctification of the powers of their souls by the implantation of new life, and their glorification at the right hand of God. I know there are some persons who snatch out one feature of it to make it contingent, and then all the rest must be a positive failure. Redemption they will take away and export it to Rome for a while, that there it may be double-dyed in the poison of Anti-Christ, and brought back with the inscription "universal" upon it. My hearers, it is better to keep it at home, to look at it as the old English divines preached of it, and as some few do now; and we shall find that the redeemed are redeemed from among men, and are not the whole of mankind in a mass. Then we shall include eternal redemption, and the other phrases I have employed in the one term "salvation." Now this economy of salvation is complete, perfect, and infallible. Let me remind you that Jesus was glorified in the acceptance of His bond, and in the performance of His work. First, in the bond of covenant engagement, set forth in His "Lo, I come! In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will" (Heb. 10:7). That bond of covenant engagement was consequent upon the ordination of which we have been speaking, when the Father set his King on the holy hill of Zion, and pronounced his decree (Ps. 2:6,7), and when that decree of the ordination of Christ was made, Jesus, as covenant Head, voluntarily exclaimed, "Lo, I come;" and then the volume of the book had the record entered in it. His "Lo, I come," was written in the volume of the book of fixed decrees, the book of life, and then copied unto the volume of the book of inspiration for you and me to read. So that Christ is glorified in that engagement above, in the revelation of it here, in the acceptance of that bond on behalf of His Church, by virtue of which acceptance, all the Old Testament saints went to glory before a single drop of His blood was shed, by virtue of that covenant bond being accepted by the Father. So that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets and Old Testament saints, took their seats in glory as redeemed, pardoned, justified, sanctified, glorified, when Christ had not become incarnate; and the sole ground of their admission was, that the covenant bond of Christ was accepted. But not only was His covenant bond accepted, but His work also as the result of it. When he came on earth He said, "I come not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me" (John 6:38). And this He ever kept in view. He was about His Father's business from His youthful days, though He entered specially upon it for only three years in the land of Judea. But blessings upon His holy name; when His work was completed, He could say so by way of appeal, "I have finished the work, which Thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4). And had He not done that work, verily the whole race of Adam must have perished irretrievably and for ever. Talk they of chance and contingencies, talk they of the will of man, and of the power of man; let them talk thus; let them use those paltry expressions of the Apocalyptic beast; but at the bottom of them all we write the word "damnation," as their sure result. Oh, how blessed it is to view Christ, so glorified that His entire responsibility, His perfect work, and the immutable bond of engagement to which He has set His signet, are accepted of the Father on behalf of the Church. Not only have all the sins of His Church been laid upon Him, as is recorded by Isaiah, "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6), (the sheep) but even all the concerns of the Church. Paul, being only a poor worm of the earth, complained of the heavy weight which the superintendence of the Churches was unto him; but what saith our Saviour to this? He complains not at the work, which He had to do. The whole of the concerns of His Church and people are laid upon Him. Their transgressions, or as it is written in the Old Testament phraseology, "All their transgressions in all their sins" as if a great many transgressions were in every one sin, are laid upon Him. Their very names appear on His breast-plate, are engraven on His heart and on the palms of His hands. All their conversions, the time when, the manner how, and the instrumentality by which they may be effected. All their blessings, how and when they shall have the seal of forgiveness, the joy of God's salvation, the privileges of adoption, and the blessings pertaining to it, poured upon their souls; all are in Christ. He is the Head of His body the Church; and there is not a moment of comfort or of joy, a promise fulfilled, or a blessing communicated, and not a step of advancement made in the divine life, but He is superintending it all, ordering the steps of His chosen, fixing the bounds of their habitations, and regulating all the affairs of Providence that relate to them, so as to make all things work together for good, "unto them that love God, and are the called according to His purpose." The world and the devil may put forth their efforts for their destruction, but both shall be frustrated; for Jesus is to be glorified in this way, and He hath the concerns of the Church laid upon Him. Moreover the glorification of the Church is laid upon Him, and He is Surety that he who overcometh shall sit with Him on His throne. It is the will of His Father that of all whom He hath given unto Him, He shall lose none. How blessed to look forward to this! My soul was almost overwhelmed with the thought whilst you were singing, "Amen I'll cry, when standing there, And Jesus shall the glory wear." It all belongs to Him, Just see also how glorified Christ is in the sacred fact that the Father loves the members of Christ in Him as Himself. I only speak His own language when I say this. "Oh, righteous Father," said He, "Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me" (John 17:23). Overwhelming thought! My soul loved as much as Christ Himself. A poor worm of the earth loved as much as Christ! I never could have believed it if He had not assured me that it is so. But this is the way the Father hath glorified Him by loving all His members as Himself, parts of Himself, inseparable from Him, as dear to the heart of Jehovah, registered in the same book, destined to the same glory; and therefore the precious glorious Head, thus glorified in them, could exclaim, "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one." 3. Let us now say a word of the glorifying of Christ by the Father in the achievements of His life and death. "He hath glorified Thee." If spared until the evening, we are to commemorate the death and sufferings of our precious Saviour, according to His command at His table; but previous thereto let us for a few moments contemplate what that life and death were, by which He achieved so much, as we have already hinted, and more which we shall yet have to state. His life was a life of sinless obedience; His death a death of ignominy and suffering; His life holy, harmless, separated from sinners; during His infancy subject to His parents; up to His manhood, even to the thirtieth year of His age, in obedience to His parents, and according to the customs of the Jews, working at a trade. In taking upon Him that part of the curse, this must have been His portion, or He could not have carried away the curse, which says, "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." I propose for a moment here to take a view of my precious Christ in my nature, earning His daily bread by the sweat of His brow, no doubt from the time that He was capable of work, until the period of His entering upon His ministry. Hid away, unknown both to the world and the Church. The wonder excited at His birth seemed to have subsided, and Jesus passes on quietly, perhaps, from His fourteenth to His thirtieth year; but during these fourteen or fifteen years He was obeying the law, living a sinless life, glorifying the Father's name, accomplishing all that was contained in the grand scheme of salvation for the removal of the curse, the taking away of sin, and vanquishing the powers of darkness, before He came to His open ministry; and from His birth to His death he could turn to the eagle-eyed Pharisees and say, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" "He hath glorified thee." Help me so to do, Lord! And when we come to His death, mark how He is glorified in it; that He must tread the wine-press alone, that there should be none with Him, no helping hand, not a pang spared, but the whole weight of human transgression laid upon His spotless soul, and the entire load of divine justice endured by Him. The cry of "Awake, oh sword!" was met with holy composure and fixed faithfulness by Him; and therefore, when the sword was about to awaken on Gethsemane, and the ruffian mob were about to pounce upon Him, He went out to meet them. When the sword was awake to smite the shepherd that the sheep might go free, He went to meet it; and even when in the depth of His agony he cried, "Father, save me from this hour," He immediately adds, "but for this purpose came I to this hour." The spirit, indeed, was willing, though the flesh was weak; and herein was He glorified; and not all the thorns and briers, the buffetings and scoffings, not all the hue and cry of "Away with Him-crucify Him," not all the piercings of the spear, not all the tortures of the nails which were driven through the tenderest parts of His holy frame, could shake His faithfulness. He is glorified in it all; so that whilst He glorified the Father in His life and death, the Father glorified Him in giving to Him that which we are about to state. The achievements which must redound to his honour and praise through all eternity, are, Zion emancipated, and infinite glory brought to the perfections and attributes of the Deity. Does not this glorify Christ? Zion emancipated! those who has been in thraldom, and slaves, carried away captive! Zion emancipated, set free of Satan's yoke, of sin's thraldom, and a worse enemy than these, self. When I find a soul set free from self, I have no longer apprehension relative to his present peace or his future and eternal welfare. Let that worst of all enemies be subdued, and the soul stands on safe ground. But how blessed these achievements of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ! His entire Church, all that the Father hath given Him, the whole covenant family, without one single exception, or the possibility of a failure, emancipated from the tyranny of Satan, delivered by His mighty hand, translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, taken possession of as His own children, His own body, His members, His jewels, never, never to be recaptured, and carried away by the Prince of Darkness; an emancipation from the power of sin in this life, and ultimately entire emancipation from the sphere of its existence. At present we have to complain of sin that dwelleth within us; but if Christ hath made us free from Satan's tyranny, I am sure He has also made us free from the reigning power of sin, and from the love which the poor old fleshly nature always had for it. It is henceforth hated, loathed, crucified, mortified, denied, and put under; and all by the power of mighty grace. And while the blessed privilege of emancipation from its curse, and wrath, and condemnation, is claimed and appropriated by faith, that same faith inscribes on Zion's portals the motto, "Sin shall not have dominion. Grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." But mark the importance of deliverance and emancipation from self, the great difference, I beg you to observe it closely, the great difference between the religion of the Christian and the religion of the hypocrite is this: the Christian gets all his from Christ; the hypocrite gets all his from himself. I have heard persons talk of having their resources in themselves, and of being able to live so entirely in retirement, that they did not want the engagements of the gospel of life. Why, if I had no better resources than those which I find in myself, I should indeed be a wretched being. Oh, no! my resources are only in the fullness of Christ, in His glorious covenant headship, in the fullness of that covenant of which He is the Head. All my resources are in Him, and they comprise a boundless store which can never, never be exhausted. A whole eternity must roll away ere they can be exhausted. Let the poor being who lives upon his own blood be content if he can. The emancipation from sin, which glorifies Christ, delivers the poor soul from itself and its indwelling corruption and defilements, and gives it power to live above its own vain mind, its own free-will, and all the religion which had its origin in himself, is rejected and trodden under foot that he may find his all in Christ. And, oh, how He is glorified then! And mark now how all the infinite perfections and attributes of the Deity are glorified and honoured in our precious Christ. The justice of God is ever exercised upon fallen angels and lost souls in pouring out vengeance and "wrath to come." "Wrath to come!" and it will still be ever "wrath to come." But when our glorious covenant Head stood forth to meet inflexible justice, He poured out His wrath upon Him, so as to completely empty the vial, the cup of His wrath; consequently there is no wrath to come for His elect, for those who confide in Him. It is exhausted. It is poured out. He drank it up in His own personal sufferings, and there is no wrath to come, therefore, for the followers of the Lamb. Glory to His name! That mercy was honoured by Him, love displayed by Him; "For God so loved, that He gave His only-begotten Son." Glory to His most precious name! that His truth is honoured by Him, that His faithfulness is honoured by Him, and that His immutability is honoured by Him; for though He had sworn that He would by no means clear the guilty, yet said the glorious covenant Head, "I will take away their guilt, and they shall no longer be guilty." So that in taking their guilt upon Himself, and suffering the consequences in His own person, He by no means changes in His determination. Now mark the most important reply to the most important question that a Christian can put. Methinks by this time a number of my hearers may be saying, "If God has glorified Jesus thus, how shall I glorify Him? Oh that I had the power, in some measure, and in some sense, to glorify Him!" I will tell you. The most effectual way in which a poor sinner can glorify Christ, is by trusting to Him, and leaving everything with Him. I know there are lesser ways: in glorifying Him by the proclamation of His name, in singing His praises, in letting your light shine before men, in walking circumspectly, and in bringing forth the fruits of righteousness. But the way that leads to all the rest, is that of trusting the soul and all its concerns in His hands, your entire salvation, perseverance, and growth in grace, leaving all in His hands to be advocated by Him, sustained by Him, preserved by Him, and consummated by Him, that He may eternally wear the glory. 4. A word or two, in the fourth place, relative to the dignity of His throne. The prophet Daniel had a beautiful vision of this, when he was directed to speak of the different kingdoms that should be set up. "In the days of these kings," said Daniel, "shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Dan. 2:44). That is no other than the kingdom of Christ. Moreover, says he, the glory and riches of the kingdom shall be given to, and be possessed by, the saints of the Most High in the kingdom that belongeth unto God, the kingdom that is His own, and which shall be exalted above all kingdoms and over all dominions. Now, this exactly accords with the language of the apostle, who, speaking of this glorious kingdom of Christ, says, "that it is at the right hand of the Father in the heavens," "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." Surely, Paul, thou wert caught up to the third heaven, when uttering and penning these expressions. Is it possible, then, that Christ's brethren can lack anything, that they can be lost, or that any one of them can perish, when Jesus is thus exalted, and is not ashamed to call us brethren, and to plead for us as such? This is the way in which He is glorified. Oh, could we look within the vail of bliss, And hear the golden harps, the rapt'rous sounds, That echo thence, amidst ten thousand times Ten thousand tongues, of ransom'd souls, With hallelujahs glorifying Christ; How should we long to quit the cage of clay! Freed from the earthly house where we have dwelt, And soaring to the house not made with hands, To join the amen chorus near the throne; We would ascribe all glory to the Lamb, Whom God the Father hath so glorified! Well, then, roll on revolving suns, go round Succeeding weeks, draw to the ev'ning tide Old worn-out time; my soul shall outlive all, And soar away to gaze on Jesus' face, Where clouds and darkness never intervene. No foes nor fiends shall interrupt the joy, Nor wandering thoughts, nor vile corruptions rise To chill the love, or dim the glorious blaze, Where all are wrapt in Deity!!! One word more. Christ, in His dignity and glorification, upholds the national glory of Zion; the national glory of His redeemed kingdom; the national glory of the holy nation, the "peculiar people" that He claims as His own, and that must spend an eternity in His presence. We hear mortals talk a vast deal about national glory, and almost all nations seem to have claimed it in their turn. I bless God, however, that dear old England shines brighter than them all, and that she is preserved in peace in the midst of all her wickedness and sins, the worst being her encouragement and countenance of Popery; but even this she shall see by-and-bye. But what is national glory looked at literally, as compared with the national glory of the kingdom of Christ? They talk of national glory, in the wisdom of the senate, the excellence of the law, the privileges of the subject, our prowess in arms, our wealth, and many other things might be enumerated. Well, perhaps in all these England excels and has excelled all the nations of the earth. But what is there in England's national glory as compared with Christ's glory? Talk we of the wisdom of the senate; in the counsels of the Prince of Peace there is infinite wisdom. Talk we of wholesome laws; here is the Statute-book, and this precious code, the Word of God, copied from the counsels of peace and the covenant of grace. It must never be infringed upon; it must neither be added to nor taken from; it is a perfect code of itself; its laws are divine, infallible, and immutable. Talk we of prowess in arms; why, "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5). You never knew a conqueror who did that on earth; "cast down every high thought." Supreme prowess in arms belongeth to Zion. She shall overcome and be more than conqueror, through Him who hath loved her. She shall overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Death itself shall be overcome for her. "The last enemy that shall be overcome is death" (1 Cor. 15:26). And as to wealth; the riches in glory by Jesus Christ all belong to Zion, and are enjoyed by every broken-hearted sinner who is drawn to the feet of Jesus. Blessed Son, and blessed covenant Head! Blessed glorious Father of mercies, for appointing the covenant Head, accepting His bond, and then sending down thy Spirit to reveal it to our hearts, to constrain us to love, trust in and adore Him, and long for grace to honour Him more and more, until we dwell with Him within the veil. May He command a blessing on these few hints, and His dear name shall have all the glory. Amen. |