In accordance with the words we have been singing, we have just now to behold our High Priest by faith. It would be a very great stimulus to our profession, if we could for one moment enjoy the privilege which many of the disciples in the first century enjoyed; if we could but for a moment see our High Priest. This privilege we are denied, and so far, we are at a disadvantage; but our very disadvantage may work glorious things for us in the future. We draw consolation from the words of Jesus to Thomas, “blessed are those who have not seen me, and yet have believed.”-(John 20:29). We look forward with consolation to the prospect of seeing him, after believing. We shall see him, then, as the disciples saw him not. They saw him in his humiliation; they companied with him in the flesh for three and a half years; and there is no doubt he was great company even then: for the testimony of his enemies was that he spake as never man spake.

We can quite understand the strong feelings of affection that would be developed in the breasts of the disciples, by keeping the company of such a man for such a period. But they did not understand him as we understand him, and as we shall understand him when we see him; for they did not comprehend the full bearing of his mission, nor the full richness of his nature. They did not understand fully who he was; they believed that he was the Lamb of God, appointed to take away the sin of the world; but as to the way in which that was to be done, they evidently had no conception; for we find that when Jesus apprised them of the then imminent event by which the work was to be accomplished, they remonstrated against it. They did not understand him when he said he was to be taken away from them, and when he spoke about being delivered into the hands of the Scribes, Pharisees and Gentiles; and being mocked and spat upon, and despitefully entreated, and put to death, and that he would rise again the third day. It is said that they understood none of these things.

Their attitude on several occasions would show that they had not risen to the full appreciation of the master whom they loved and served; nor the position which they themselves occupied in relation to him. You will remember that on one occasion when Jesus sent two of his disciples to a certain village, to prepare the way for his advance journey, the people in the village would not allow him to pass through; and the disciples, James and John, whom Jesus surnamed Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder-which suggests that they were fiery men, of zealous mind and prompt action-asked him if he would allow them to do as Elijah once did, call fire down from heaven to destroy the rebellious. Jesus said “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of:” that is, the spirit to which they were related-the calling to which they had been called. They knew what their individual spirits were; but Jesus meant to say that they did not comprehend the spirit of their calling; for he said, the Son of Man had not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. The disciples, however, were right to a certain extent. The destruction of the rebellious is a divine purpose. Christ came to save men’s lives, but it is also true that he is coming to destroy them. The disciples were wrong in the sense of being premature, and, perhaps, wrong in the particular motive that actuated them.

Christ did not come to destroy men then, but he is coming to destroy them; for it is one of the most emphatic testimonies concerning him, and one that occurs very often, in a variety of forms, that he is the instrument by which God’s vengeance is to be inflicted on the world. He is to tread the winepress of God’s anger, to plead with all flesh, and give them that are wicked to the sword. He is coming to destroy men’s lives, and there will be such a time of destruction, both of life and property, as the world has never known. When God enters upon the scene, to work upon the area of the whole world, as he will, you may depend upon it that something, of which we have no conception, will mark such a great interposition. We have only to look for confirmation of this to what he did on a small scale, whilst bringing his people from Egypt. This will give us some notion of what he will do when he takes them out of every nation under heaven.

The Egyptians were subjected to continual and all manner of suffering. At one time, swarms of flies afflicted them; at another, loathsome frogs corrupted the land by their abundance; at another, the forces of heaven would contend visibly against the people, killing their cattle in the field, destroying their crops and killing all those persons who did not, on the intimation of Moses, withdraw to the protection of their houses; and, to wind up the dreadful tragedy, we find that a whole army was buried in the Red Sea. That is a small illustration of what God does when He interferes. It was not a matter of favouritism towards the children of Israel, and partiality against the Egyptians, for we find that the Israelites themselves, whilst wandering in the wilderness, were the objects of repeated acts of divine anger.

The Israelites were, of course, a mere rabble of slaves when they came out of Egypt, untutored idolaters. We learn from subsequent prophets that in Egypt they worshipped idols, and that they brought the institutions of Egypt into the wilderness, and for forty years carried their idolatrous gods with them. Well, we find that a whole generation of them perished in the wilderness; but before that generation died out, what repeated manifestations of God’s displeasure took place. The people were incessant in their rebellion against Moses, and had not Moses been kept up by divine power, it would have been impossible for him to have maintained the leadership of so untractable a people, or to have consummated the object of the exodus. The people would have destroyed Moses and Aaron, and all connected with them, and would have straggled back to the land of the flesh-pots; but God repeatedly interfered just at the critical moment, and destroyed great numbers of them; and on one occasion a great company was swallowed up by the earth, with their wives and children and all that they had.

So that we can form some conception from what God has done, of what He will do in the greater time to come, when a greater work is to be done; for it is a far greater work to break the power of all nations than to break the power of one; to teach all the world than to teach one people. God’s object, in the Egyptian tragedy, was to teach Israel and all nations that there was a God: and that work was achieved, and effectually achieved.

The Jews at the present day are standing witnesses of the effectiveness of what God did, for it is simply a moral impossibility to eradicate from the Jewish mind the belief in their God. Three thousand years have passed away, and still we find this faith in full and tenacious possession of every Jewish mind. The work was done most effectively, and the work in the age to come will also be done most effectively; but it is a more important work, and will involve more potent machinery; for God is to coerce the power of all men, and He has to write for Himself a name in the minds of untutored millions, and not the least difficult to manage of those untutored millions will be the civilised millions. These have in them a sort of intellectual insubordination that will constitute a greater obstacle than the ignorance of barbaric races, who will readily give way before what will irresistibly be done.

So the disciples were quite right in thinking that it was part and parcel of God’s dispensation in Christ, that his power should be made manifest; only, they were before the time. Everything is right in its place; out of its place, everything is wrong, and it was wrong that they should attempt any acts of judgment at that stage of affairs; and it is quite wrong for us to perform acts of judgment in our state of affairs. It is part of our calling at the present time that we are not to resent, that we are to suffer, that we are to be passive like Christ. We are not to vindicate ourselves, but to suffer wrong, take it patiently, put our trust in God. Some people think it strange that God’s will should be that we should suffer wrong. If they would think a little, the difficulty would disappear.

It is God’s will that we should suffer wrong, not because it is right that wrong should be inflicted, but because it is good for us to endure. God is very angry at wrong being done, but for our sakes, He permits it at present. It is part of the trial by which He is preparing a people who shall be capable of wielding power judiciously when the time comes for Him to transfer the power of the whole world to the hands of Christ’s people. We know that nobody is fit to rule except those who have suffered. Put authority into the hands of a novice, or one who has not learnt wisdom and mercy by suffering; and the result is, caprice and tyranny. Those who have been at the bottom, as it were-those who have learnt by adversity the varied needs, the varied rights, and let us add, the varied wrongs connected with existence; those who have been disciplined to endurance, and patience, and self-denial, by suffering-those only are fitted to rule; not those who impatiently pull the shoulder from the burden, who impatiently speak fiery words and do fiery deeds.

We can have this principle exemplified on a small scale as well as upon a large one. It has effect upon our little affairs now. God will judge us in reference to the things belonging to us, and within our power, whether large or small. If we are, in a small scale and in trifling matters, short-tempered, and speak impatiently, and do obstinate things, we are not fit to be entrusted with the rule of others. So that the object of the discipline to which we are subjected at present, is in great part, that we may be tried, prepared and educated to patience and submission, by the evils of the present, in order that we mat be fit to undertake the merciful and judicious work of ruling men for their own benefit, when the time comes. Jesus had not come to destroy men’s lives at that time, but to save them.

That exactly expresses our present relation to mankind. Our position at present is altogether one of benefaction to others; we are not at liberty to do any harm to anyone, even in self-defence; we are prohibited from doing harm. We must be like Christ: he was not only holy, but harmless. Now this means much that is above the ordinary practices of men. There are many ways of doing harm, of letting out your pique, of venting your spleen upon the object of your dislike. You leave him in the lurch in some matter, and rejoice secretly at his misfortune. This must not be. You must help your enemy when he needs it. We must do good: it is not sufficient that we refrain from doing harm. It is good to refrain from doing harm, and it is incumbent that we should. If we do not, we shall not be children of the Highest. How could we be children of the Highest, who only doeth good, and who when He performs acts of severity, does them for good-if we say and do malicious things, which, if ever so small in their way, are spiteful and hurtful? We must not only refrain from doing harm: we must do good; and this is a very different thing from the negative sort of virtue that is applauded in the world.

There is a far greater number of persons who refrain from doing harm, than those who do good. That is only saying that there is a far greater number who will not be saved, than there is of those who will be saved; for you may take it as a rule to which there will be no exception, that everyone who will be saved, will be one who does good. You may see many persons that don’t do any harm: they do not steal, they do not tell lies, they do not do anything very much out of the way; but no one ever heard of them doing good. No one ever knew of their doing a noble deed, or planning a disinterested enterprise. They are all the time taken up with themselves. They think only of themselves, and serve only themselves. It never occurs to them to think about other people, or do a thing that is only intended to promote the benefit of other people. If they do anything that has the semblance of a good deed about it, it is that they may receive a benefit in return. They are like the Pharisees, ancient and modern, who ape the forms of goodness, but take care to practise them under circumstances where they are profitable. They do good to those who do good unto them. Their very acts of charity are besmeared with selfishness. Such people are not the children of the Highest: they are not fit to enter into the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is an institution, the very object of which is to do good in the highest form, and the administration of which is to be entrusted to the hands of those who learn to do good, under circumstances of trial and evil, and who will, therefore, be qualified to do good, and to do it effectively when circumstances are prosperous.

Jesus gives us the principle in the words:

On the other hand, he says-

The true riches are a life never-ending, a body that will never decay, riches that will never take flight, joy unspeakable and full of glory. The management of our own little affairs is, by Jesus, made the rule by which our position in relation to the kingdom of God will be determined.

It is most important that we should remember this, instead of deceiving ourselves amidst present faithlessness, with a sort of blind confidence that all will be right when Christ comes. All will not be right when Christ comes, unless all is right before he comes. Those who are wrong now will be wrong then. Those that are selfish now will be selfish then. Those who are unfaithful now will be unfaithful still; those who are unjust will be unjust still; and he who is holy will be holy still. Everything depends on the present; our own little circle is the sphere in which we make or mar our future destiny; and, therefore, let every man and every woman, to the extent of their means, however little, and their opportunities, however few, see to it, that they do good, that they be faithful stewards, so that at the return of the master, to whom they hold a stewardship, they may be able to render a satisfactory account.

Let us hope that the time is not far distant when we shall cease to have to call our “humble faith” into exercise, in order to “behold our great High Priest above.” May the time soon come when we shall see him as he is. The arrival of that time will, doubtless, produce different effects upon different persons. There are some whom it will throw into a shrieking fit, who will simply become frantic, because utterly unprepared for such an event. They have deceived themselves with the idea that they are Christ’s, because they have professed the truth, and passed current amongst its friends, although in quiet moments, they do not feel so. They have been hoping in a dim and fatuitous way that when Christ comes, it will be all right with them. They have not allowed themselves to realise the coming of Christ. They do not reserve a sufficient surplus of the strength God has given them to realise what Christ is. Their little strength is eaten up in purely “temporal” matters. All their energy is expended upon the flesh, so that the mind never has any chance of getting into the spiritual channel. They do find time for the imperative things of the flesh, but none for the imperative things of the spirit. Indeed, the things of the spirit are not imperative with them. Being after the flesh, they mind the things of the flesh, leaving the things of the spirit to be attended to by other people, in the delusive hope that some day, things will alter. When they hear that Christ has arrived, it will go through them like a cannon ball. It will take away all presence of mind. They will be petrified with affright, because they have not the answer of a good conscience; but of a very bad one. Shame and confusion will be their portion.

There are others who will feel differently. While struck with awe, their fear will be mixed with an inconceivable sense of relief and joy. The knowledge that Christ has come at last, will bring consolation unspeakable. To think that the right hands have now taken hold of the work-that Christ himself is now at the helm, will be a joy the world knows not of. There are others, and perhaps these will be the largest class, who will not know how to be affected, in whose breasts hope and fear will struggle with uncertain conflict. They are conscious of having done something, and they fear not having done enough. They feel that to some extent, the flesh does not rule them; yet they are afraid that the spirit has not been powerful enough with them; and so, in a state of agonising uncertainty, they await THE MEETING that will decide their fate. That meeting will no doubt be a much more straightforward transaction than some of us are in the habit of thinking. Orthodoxy has given us the idea, (and we have a difficulty in throwing it off) that it will be a sort of flash-of-lightning affair, in which miracle will blaze about in all directions, working instantaneous transformation on no intelligible principle whatever. Now this fallacy arises from the predominant sentiment of orthodoxy, under which we have all, more or less, been in bondage, that the established rules are not God’s rules, but the devil’s-that all God’s rules are up in heaven, and apply only to immortal souls; and that with regard to earth and material life, the Prince of the power of the air has it all his own way. But casting such Pagan trash to the moles and to the bats, and recognising the fact that all established rules are God’s, we see things in a different light.

We shall simply hear that Jesus has come, and shall be invited and compelled to go to him. To those who have at all realised the great calling to which they are called, it will be a relief and a joy to go. When a friend whom we love arrives from a distance, what a thrill of delight we feel when we are informed of his arrival, and if that friend-besides the pleasure of friendship, brings-good news of substantial advantage-say that you have become heir to a fortune; how greatly would the pleasure of his arrival be enhanced. In the case of Christ, it is precisely so. He is the best friend we can have. He is interested, and deeply so in those who are his true friends. He is jealous, just as a man betrothed to a woman is jealous; he is exacting just as friends are exacting, and will view with displeasure any inordinate love of other objects than himself, and visit treachery and coldness with severity. But if as wayfarers and as pilgrims, we engage in this world’s business merely as a matter of necessity, and with reference to the higher objects presented in the gospel, then Christ is the best friend we can possibly have.

Christ’s kindness passes knowledge. It is something beyond all the love that can ever flow in the bosom of the dearest mortal friend. It is something infinitely above our sin-smitten minds. It is something that will dissolve us in tears of everlasting joy. If we have our heart right towards him, what a joyful intimation it will be that he has come. But to be right then, we must be wrong now, in one respect, that is, to be rich then, we must be poor now; to be honoured then, we must be despised now; to be mirthful then, we must, to some extent, be sorrowful now. Jesus has said-

Paul says,

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