TO THE FRIENDS OF TRUTH.
One of the most desirable things to me, is to know the truth practically. The apostle says,
“They who are Christ’s, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
He says,
“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: for the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
We find these sayings in his Epistle to the Galatians. In the same epistle, he declares the works of the flesh to be manifest, which are these, “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Should we not examine ourselves closely, to ascertain whether we are living in the works of the flesh? It is a tremendous catalogue of them, which he sets forth. In his Epistle to the Colossians, he calls them our members which are upon the earth. He means the same, when he says,
“The old man with his deeds.”
This old man of the flesh, must be mortified or put to death by crucifixion. Now what can induce and strengthen us to endure the cross. Jesus was crucified, having been nailed through the hands and through the feet. — Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, says that it was for the joy, which was set before him, he endured the cross, and despised the shame. Peter says the same substantially, as recorded in Acts 2nd.
“I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved; therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy one to see corruption.”
Peter applied this to the Messiah, citing it from the 16th Psalm. — Turning to the context in the Psalm, we hear Messiah saying in David:
“In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for ever more.”
Now we must be influenced in the same way, and strengthened to deny self, to carry the cross, to follow Jesus. Accordingly, he has given us the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and in this fulness of joy, and the pleasures, which shall be for ever more. — If we deny our flesh with the affections and lusts, we are said to crucify them, and in practising this self denial and crucifixion, we need powerful considerations to strengthen us, to enable us to go through. These considerations we find in the gospel, glory, honour, incorruptibility, eternal life, &c., &c., &c.
By faith in the prophetic and the apostolic testimonies, let us contemplate Messiah in Jesus, in words, and in mighty deeds, and in sufferings, unto death. Let us stand where Mary his mother and John his beloved disciple stood, nigh the cross, and learn from the great Master how and why to endure. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Shall we sin again those sins for which he died?! O let us stand and gaze, until we get our consent to be crucified with him, putting to death, all our own lusts. Brethren and friends do we expect him from the heavens? Do we look for his kingdom? Are we hoping to sit with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, in the Kingdom? — Let us then strive to enter in the straight gate; we must enter through afflictions and trials. Let us then live in the Spirit. Let us meditate in the word of God, day and night, in order that we may not fall. Many are called; few are chosen. May the gracious Lord Almighty strengthen us, establish us, and make us, worthy through the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be awful to be disapproved at last. Let us love one another, let us encourage, and help one another, to conquer and to triumph. Adieu, dear brethren.
ALBERT ANDERSON.
