echoing the predicted cry of His enemies, There is no salvation for Him in His God' (Ps. iii. 2). At any rate the words imply the utter destitution which was realised on Calvary.

6

Thus was Christ to fulfil the work which the prophet had marked out for Him. He would not triumph by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of the Lord' (Zech. iv. 6) wherewith He was anointed. He was the Headstone that should be brought forth with shoutings, saying, Grace, grace unto it' (Zech. iv. 7), the stone which the builders refused, which was nevertheless to become the Head of the corner (Ps. cxviii. 22).

Though He was to be cut off, nevertheless He was to confirm the covenant with many for the remainder of the week. The sacrifice and the meatoffering of the temple were to cease from the moment of His cutting off, for thenceforth they became valueless. The new covenant being brought in shows that the old covenant was ready to vanish away (Jer. xxxi. 31; Heb. viii. 13).

Blessed then were they who welcomed Messiah. As for those that would not receive Him, the Romans were to take away their place and nation. The flood of desolation which overspread both the city and the sanctuary has had no parallel in all the ages of the world; but Messiah came as it was written of Him. He established a new covenant in the power of His resurrection. He died not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad' (John

See note at end of Meditation.

xi. 52).

Thus it beloved Christ to suffer and to enter into His glory.

O Jesu, gather us all into the unity of Thy risen life, into the glory of Thy Divine Sonship.

My son, I have made with thee My covenant of peace. Abide with Me, and let My words abide in thee.

Yea, Lord, every nation and people that will not serve Thee shall perish. O let me serve Thee that I may live for ever. Hasten the time when those who rejected Thee shall look on Thee Whom they pierced, and mourn for Thee as one mourneth for his only son.

NOTE to p. 363.

The words There is no salvation for Him' are almost like the name of Messiah, for in Hebrew numerically they equal 888. He had no Saviour. So His enemies taunted Him. He needed no Saviour, who was Himself the Saviour of all. This they knew not. This numerical coincidence is all the more remarkable as it occurs in the third Psalm, which is in a sense the first, for the wo first Psalms really constitute a preface to the Psalter.

365

MEDITATION XXXII.

Constraining Jesus to Abide.

And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go further. And they constrained him, saying. Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in to abide with them. St. Luke xxiv. 28, 29.

1. JESUS SEEMING AS IF HE WOULD GO FURTHER. THE companion who expounded to these two disciples many of those passages which we have now been considering, and many others also, awakened in their hearts a strong desire that He should continue to teach them. But it seemed as if His own business led him elsewhere.

So is it with us and the risen Lord. It seems as if there were many who had a claim upon Him, as if He could not limit Himself to ourselves. If we catch a glimpse of the vastness of His work we seem to feel that He must be occupied in making it known to others. We do not realise the satisfaction which He experiences in just teaching our own selves if we are indeed willing to be taught by Him.

Truly He wants us to feel this large-heartedness of purpose which belongs to Him. He does want to go further. We cannot appreciate His goodness in staying with ourselves unless we do see how He desires all men to come to the knowledge of the

truth. What is more: if He does stay with us, it is in order that He may go further. He goes further by making us to be His instruments through whom to work on others, and thus going forth along with

us.

The journey of Jesus has no earthly close. He goes forth to all creation, and does not rest satisfied with creation, but goes onward to God, bringing creation along with Him. These disciples were not yet united to Him. He could not take them on. He tarries that He may make them fit to go on along with Him.

They do not in any way understand His purpose, for they do not know Himself. We must know Christ if we are to know the ways and works of Christ. How little do we understand the relation between our own growth in holiness and the advance of Christ's church in the world! Our outward occupations often seem to us a hindrance to our own sanctification. It appears as if Christ would go on, as if, while our outward nature is serving Him, our inner selves were left behind uncared for. But it is He does not want to leave us, though He wants to go on. He wants us to go on along with Him-and that, not because of what He wants us to do for others, but because He wants us to attain to the life of God.

not so.

Where would He go then? He came forth from God and He was going to God. We cannot know Jesus unless we know Him thus always progressing towards the Father. This progress is the approach of filial love. By His Divine Sonship He is ever one with the Father. In His manhood there is the

continual approach of all the faculties which He has assumed, so that they may find an eternal satisfaction in the Divine Nature wherein they are glorified.

We are not to think of Christ's Humanity as if it now rested in the idle joy of having attained to the summit of creation. He rejoices as Man in His continued fellowship with the Father by the anointing Spirit, both Lord and Christ' (Acts ii. 36).

This is indeed what constitutes His perpetual intercession for us as His members. All that the Father has is given to Him, and yet He is receiving all continually, for that which He receives is not a dead substance received once for all, but a living power received by Him eternally in communion with the source from whence it comes. As He receives so He gives, distributing that eternal life to be the progressive principle of glory to His members. He Himself lives along with them. He goes forward that we may go forward and that He may be glorified in us and we in Him.

If we would retain Christ then, we must be going forward in the holy life of God along with Him. We must not let Him go so as to leave us. We must not want to stay behind as if it were enough for us to know Him as we know Him now. The best experiences of earth must not satisfy us. We must not know Jesus merely after the flesh. Our life is hid with Him in God, and we can only know Him by the exercise of Divine faculties. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, but they are foolishness unto him, because they are spiritually discerned' (1 Cor. ii. 14).