3. FOLLOWING Christ.

At length the Apostle is called to follow Christ. While Jesus was upon the earthly side of the grave He would not suffer Peter to follow. Had Peter followed Jesus only as a dying Saviour he would have perished in this following. Now is Christ risen from the dead. Now He calls Peter to follow Him, for the grave has lost its power. Those who follow Jesus the risen Saviour live with the life wherein He Himself is risen again.

Jesus has destroyed him that had the power of death, and yet none can follow Jesus save by dying. We cannot meet Him that died and find our entrance into His kingdom by some other way, so as to escape the grave. We must follow Jesus step by step along the way of sorrows, the blood-stained highway of the holy Cross. Thus dying we enter into life, but we cannot have eternal life unless we part with the life of earth. We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life (Rom. vi. 4). In every suffering, disease, weakness, death, let us see Jesus standing before us. We look through the opened gate of the grave to where He ministers at the right hand of God. The voice which calls us to follow Him fills the grave with the majesty of His triumph, so that we may be transformed into the image of the living Saviour even by the power of His Spirit. The grave is a triumphal gateway on the road along which Jesus went before.

The power of death is not destroyed except for those who through death look to Jesus the everliving. Never must we allow ourselves in any path of seeming glory unless it lead through the grave of Jesus.

Continually are we tempted to think that we may have the glory of Jesus without the suffering. But it cannot be. Whatever He gives us in this world He gives us as a help that we may die to the world. The only true enjoyment is through death, and any earthly enjoyment which does not bind us to Jesus in some form of mortification hinders some gift of the joy which is beyond.

How ready we are to put this away from ourselves in practice although we acknowledge it in theory! Satan is ever striving to make us think that some form of earthly joy will help us to the life eternal, as if Jesus had trodden the way of sorrows in order that we might pass onward to heaven by a pathway of pleasure. Visions of earthly heavens rise up before our minds continually, and we find it hard to put away the thought of them. They mock us with a seeming reality, like the mirage of the desert.

Still we must be listening to the voice which calls us, Follow Me, and still it leads us through the chambers of the world's condemnation and mocking to the pillar of the scourging, to the Cross of shame outside the camp; to the loneliness, the nakedness, the pain, the darkness, the desolation, the feebleness, the thirst, of Calvary.

O Lord, shall I draw back from following Thee?

O strengthen me, that I may persevere unto the end. Not in the accomplishment of that which I have planned would I seek to triumph, but in the fellowship of that which Thou hast suffered I will feel sure of victory.

Yea, My son. Take courage. Follow Me!

Surely though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou, Lord Jesu, art with me: Thy rod and Thy staff comfort

me.

Look thus to Me, My son, and follow Me. Surely, O Lord, in the midst of this great darkness I find a glow of heavenly light shining upon me. Through the grave as I enter into it I feel the bright and kindly lustre of the life beyond. As I see Thee there I find myself refreshed.

Yea, My son, look unto Me and be saved. Still follow Me.

O Lord, while I hear Thy voice the visions of earth's brightness pass away, and I see no brightness anywhere save in the grave, from which at first I shrank.

Yea, My son, thou shall see greater things than these. Still follow Me.

O Jesu, as darkness and sorrow come round about me, I seem to have visions of glory which are are not of earth, and to hear words such as no human lips could utter.

Yea, My son. Come up hither, step by step, where I have trodden. I will show thee mysteries of eternal life if thou wilt follow Me.

O Lord Jesu, would that I had wings like a dove to flee away, for surely Thou callest me still to the land which is very far off.

It is far, My son, from those who live to the world, but if thou art dying to the world thou hast not far to go. I will uphold thee. Follow Me.

O Lord, there are many enemies through whom I have to pass. Shall I not fear the pains of death and the powers of hell?

Nay, My son, fear nothing, for I will be with thee. When thou goest through the fires I will be with thee, and through the waters they shall not overwhelm thee.

O Lord Jesu, how sweet it is to die along with Thee. O let me die unto the world day by day, that I may live with Thee eternally. Sweet it is to die with Thee in this world of sin. What shall it be to live with Thee where sin shall be no more?

Arise, My son, for from the mountain of myrrh and from the hill of frankincense I will conduct thee to the everlasting heights where thou shalt see all My beauty. Multitudes wait upon Me there, rejoicing in Wy brightness. All of them have trodden the way of sorrow and of death even as thou. Fear not therefore. Follow Me.

Yea, Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest, if only Thou wilt be my strength, my guide, my life. O let every other voice die from mine ears. One only voice I desire to hear, Thine own voice, ever saying Follow Me.

585

MEDITATION L.

Tarrying for Jesus to Come.

Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following; which also leaned back on his breast at the supper, and said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth thee? Peter therefore seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, that he should not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? St. John xxi. 20-23.

1. THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST had opened his ministry with the announcement that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. So also had Jesus Himself spoken. The disciples were familiar with the idea of our Lord's future manifestation from the very first. Indeed when we put together the proclamation of the approaching kingdom and the declaration of Jesus as being the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, we seem already from the very outset to see the vision rising up before us which many years afterwards was vouchsafed to the aged exile of Patmos, when he saw the throne set in heaven, and in the midst of the throne a Lamb as it had been slain (Rev. v. 7).

Even the thief upon the cross had sufficient knowledge of Messiah's claims to look forward to Christ's coming, and on the eve of His Passion Jesus had spoken to His chosen Apostles in detailed pro