Not that nature is not lovely; it is lovely in its ruins, plaintively attractive in its deep groans— "The whole creation groans, But waits to hear the voice, As to the world itself—the world that murdered Christ-it is still a Sodom; and because of Christ, whom I now love, I am changed towards it. I do not want the follies of the world, or the pleasures of the world. But I say to every one who will have the world," Have it; but do not say you have come out of it." Abraham to get to Canaan had to get out of the old country. You cannot be out of it when you are still in it! Do not wear our pilgrim livery unless you belong to our company. Do not speak of the God of glory, if you are still serving the god of this world. "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other." You must be one thing or the other: there is no midway, no compromise-you must be of the earth, earthy, or of the heavens, heavenly. Ye must be born again. Thus, when Abraham's father was dead, Abraham was not the same person, nor was Charran the same place. That one death! it changed the scene entirely. Abraham at once went out on a long emigration; stranger hands no more impede him; not only so, he walks on and on to the heavenly glory. He is plainly seeking a country. For not only, as said, "He removed him into the land wherein ye now dwell," but see now how, besides being dead to Charran, Abraham is reminded of his divine calling. He becomes re-awakened. The call of the God of glory is revived in him. And further remark, how his walk in life comes in here. We must know our full calling, or our life and walk will ever be defective. While Abraham was living as if forgetting that God had called him to Canaan, he was satisfied with the country in which he tarried. It was not till solemnly awakened by the death of his father, which weaned him from Charran, that he was alive to what God had called him. Dear Christians, this is a practical point for us. If I do not see for what Christ has called me, that it is a heavenly calling, my life will not be heavenly. If I forget I am called to be a king, a priest, an heir, how defective my walk. But if I live in the energy of the truth that I am a priest, then shall I seek to stand before Him in all the sacred attire and service of that position. If I see that I am as Christ, how spotless my words, how taintless my affections, my life! But, if I am forgetful of the glorious hope of my calling that He is coming again to receive me unto Himself that where He is, in His own home, there I may be also, I shall fail to stand adjusted for that coming; practically I shall not be ready for that home. Death weans, but glory allures. To illustrate the latter: the Queen says, "There is a person whom I want to bring from a foreign land, to occupy an important position; he is to take care of my treasures-the treasures which belonged to the departed prince. Tell him I have thought of him to keep and preserve everything sacred to me of his." When the messenger has reached him, it may be in some remote part of Europe, or in the far East, and has given him the message, everything around him becomes changed. He leaves his relations, his home and clime; thinks nothing more of the spices of Ceylon; or if born in India, of the golden rivers, or native sands, or Himalayan snows; and if asked to enlist in a foreign army, to serve in the service of some foreign king, he would say, "Nay, impossible!my calling is a different calling; I cannot wait." Or if another said, "Here are the boundless billows; I want you to command a splendid ship;" "Nay," he would say, "My calling is different." And, believe me, if he thought the Queen would all the more like him in some particular attire, he would put it on, and would adjust himself according to his calling. O Christian, you understand me. The picture speaks for itself so sing we and speak we, according to our heavenly calling. We say, We say, "I'm a pilgrim bound for glory, I'm a pilgrim going home." I have a crown in the promised land, gleaming with the rays of uncreated splendour. I have a harp in the promised land, tuned by no created fingers. I have a mansion in the promised land. He who made all things says, "I go to prepare a place for you." "Angels beckon me away, Jesus bids me come;" ;" "my Father calls me, I must go to meet Him in the promised land." I am not of the world that fadeth away "Calm the dying taper's light Let me go home; For within those realms above, Purchased by redeeming love, Treasures are to which I move Let me go home." The object, next to Himself, which the God of glory presented to Abraham, was that city of which Paul speaks, where, in Heb. xi. 10, he says, " He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God; and, doubtless, of which John, in Rev. xxi. 2, speaks, saying, "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride [so beautiful and taintless] adorned for her husband." What a city for a pilgrim to see, and to call his own!-a city of "pure gold," having "jasper walls," needing no sun neither moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, "and the Lamb is the light thereof." Such was Abraham's city. And what allured Abraham, whether from out of the snares, riches, and entanglements of Egypt, or amidst the deep sorrows of the desert, was the promise by God of this city. Glancing at its peace and its love, and coming up from Egypt, to which he and Sarah had wrongfully gone, he could have said Well may the hope of such a city allure, even as death and sorrow may wean. Brethren, it is the same with our own hope. Ours is not so much a city—it is a higher thing. How blessed is it! How blessed now! To be associated with the Lord Himself!-to sit down as He is, in a divine perfectness, before God!-to reign endlessly with Him, to be a king and a priest; when He comes, to come with Him; when He reigns, to reign with Him; when He stands on Mount Zion with the hundred and forty and four thousand, like Moses and Elias, in the glory, to stand with Him, and know His love, and grace, and form, and voice for ever and for ever! Ah! this is glory! It is a sea 66 without a shore! -an ocean that cannot be fathomed! And for ever and for ever shall we stand over its mighty amplitude, casting down our line, saying, " Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Brothers and sisters, can we want anything more than this? There is nothing more. This is what we want the sinner to see. When the sinner does see it, he wants it. He does not want it if he does not see it. "Eye" (the natural eye)" hath not seen, nor ear" (the carnal ear) heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." But if thou art truly wanting them, thou hast seen them. God hath revealed them unto thee by His Spirit; the heavenly Paraclete, the divine Eliezer hath revealed to thee the glory and the riches of the heavenly Isaac. This is His office. This He delights to do-reveal Jesus. And this is what Jesus Himself delights in, to be revealed and accepted. Will you now accept Him? He presents Himself: you accept. When any ordinary suitor wants a bride there is needed only one thing for him to do, (how sweet a touch of the whole Gospel!) simply to present himself! When the Lord Jesus wants a sinner for Himself, what does He do? He just presents Himself. When Eliezer said to the damsel, Wilt thou go?" her heart had gone! The tidings of Isaac, his riches, and the jewels, had already done their work. O sinner, know the riches of our Divine Isaac. Know His love. See Him as He now presents Himself, and to you, in the Gospel. Beloved saints, such, in a few words, is the order of Christian life. 1. God the beginning of everything. 2. Not a negative God, but a God who calls by and to His glory. 3. Nature coming in preventing our course. 4. Death coming in, and so setting aside the power of na |