the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. - Galatians 6:14.
ONCE, in the experience of the apostle, the world looked very fair and very inviting; but now it appeared to him like a dead thing. Once he valued it much, and depended upon it too confidingly; now it is regarded by him as a corpse of a crucified malefactor,-as mean, worthless, infectious, corrupt, and unfit for any kind of reliance. Now, says he, “I am crucified unto the world.” I was once alive to it; it was my portion to enjoy, it was my idol to worship, it was my prince to serve. Now I am dead to it, so as to be insensible of impression from it: neither its threatenings nor its allurements can influence me. Such is the change that is to take place in every Christian, in reference to the things of this world.
Does he then resign all the enjoyments of life? Does he retire to a cell of filth, and keep a death’s-head before him upon the table? Does he abandon his civil concerns? Does he flee from society? No; this would not be fighting the good fight of faith, but declining the contest. No; he fills up every relation in life, he discharges every duty, not as a slave, but as an obedient child. No; “he labours, working with his own hands;” and he “abides with God in his calling.” And whether on board a ship, in the market, or in the field, he is still serving God. Whether he eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God. He is in the world, but not of it.
The world cannot engage his affections now. His affections are “set on things above, not on things on the earth.” Now his “conversation is in heaven, whence also he looks for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change his vile body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body.” The world’s fame cannot affect him now, for he is seeking the honour that cometh from God only. Its frowns cannot intimidate him, nor its smiles entice him. He feels now no relish for its sinful enjoyments, since he has found higher, more substantial and refreshing good. He now says, in the beautiful lines of Newton,-
“Let worldly minds the world pursue;
It has no charms for me:
Once I admired its trifles too,
But grace hath set me free.”
A man may, in a measure and degree, be dead to the world from his natural powers, from the infirmities and decays of the body, and from the stings of disappointment. And sometimes, indeed, we find persons complaining of everybody and of every thing. Thus, a man being jaded with frequent disappointment from the world may find a temporary disrelish for its pursuits and enjoyments, but, unless the heart be changed, he feels a repetition of similar desires after this present world, till the lamp of life is extinguished, and death closes the scene of his mortal career. But it is otherwise with the heirs of immortality. Possessing the same means and resources with others, yet they voluntarily forego the gratifications of earth, finding them not only unfriendly, but insipid, and not only insipid, but unsuitable to the nature and wants of an immortal spirit. They resemble the patriarchs, of whom it is said, “They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country; and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.”
Why do they not? Because they have something better in view. Because they seek a better country, even a heavenly; and “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.” There are some who leave the world as Lot’s wife left Sodom, for her heart was there still; therefore she looked back, and became a pillar of salt. Some leave the world as the Jews left Egypt, but they turned back in their hearts after the flesh-pots and the leeks they had left behind them.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. - Malachi 3:1.
WE know that John the Baptist is here intended. The language is metaphorical, and the allusion is to kings and princes, who are preceded by heralds and harbingers, to make ready for their approach. When an eastern monarch travels, a forerunner gives notice of his coming, and the pioneers are employed to remove every obstruction to his advance.
If we can depend upon their own history, some of them on these occasions effected extraordinary things. We read of their having filled up chasms and levelled eminences, and opened passages where otherwise the places would have been impassable. When Isaiah would illustrate great things by very little ones, he said, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” In other words, John was to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” And accordingly he aroused their attention, he removed their prejudices, he awakened their consciences, he announced the nearness of Messiah’s approach, proclaimed the nature of his reign, convinced them of sin, and showed them that they stood in need of a much greater salvation than deliverance from the Roman yoke.
His mission originated not with himself, neither was he employed by any governing power. “The word of the Lord,” it is said, “came to him.” “There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” And here we are called upon to behold him as the Lord’s messenger. When thirty years old he obeyed the heavenly vision. We may easily imagine the scenery. Behold him in raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, sitting under the shade of a rock or of a tree, eating his frugal repast of “locusts and wild honey;” and when he saw any person passing by, he arose, and approaching them, exclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
These soon expressed this to others, and those to more, and “then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.” But when the sun arises, the morning star is concealed. We may look at the forerunner while he is alone, but when we have heard the exclamation, “The king! the king!” every eye will be naturally and unavoidably turned away from him.
And John would acquiesce in this; he did acquiesce in this; he said to those who came to inform him that he whom he had baptized, and to whom he had borne witness when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” “The same baptizeth, and all men come unto him”-I am glad of it, says the messenger; “ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
