Our Captain-Leader, the Lord our Lover

 

 

Dear Sir,

There may be obstacles and hindrances in the building and beauty of the spiritual temple, in the edification and glory of the gospel church. But the work is of God, and it shall prosper in the hands of our Zerubbabel. His hands, which have laid the foundation—even His hands shall finish it—and He shall bring forth the top-stone thereof with shouting, crying, "Grace, grace unto it." Nor shall any impediments ever stand in the way of the Savior's rising interest, but what shall serve as a foil to illustrate the brightness of that omnipotent power, infinite grace, truth, and faithfulness, which soon, very soon, will redound to His and the Church's glory, in spite of all opposition from the powers of darkness.

Not the least breathing of your enlarged heart, not a desire of your capacious soul, nor the least attempt you ever made for the advancement of the Redeemer's interest, but is recorded by Him in the book of His remembrance, and shall be rewarded of Him at His appearance. And, lo, this Lord and King of Glory will Himself will be your exceeding great reward! And can you fathom the measure of your glory in your immeasurable Lord? No! heaven's bliss, is immense.

But think, O think with pleasure, on those sweet foretastes of God with which your happy soul has been favored in times past! What peace and rest, what refreshing joy, has been given to your spirit when Jesus drew near! Was not your bliss in those happy moments ineffable—your joy full of glory unspeakable—and your reward abundantly great and full? And yet think, O think with rising joy, that the whole of your heart-ravishing bliss, of your soul-satisfying reward hitherto, if compared with that which is to come in the immediate presence, and full eternal enjoyment of God and of the Lamb, is no more than a drop in an immense ocean! Joy enters into you now; but then, you shall enter into joy, even the joy of your Lord. God puts a glory upon you now; but then, your God will be your glory! Rejoice, therefore, as an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ!

And until you come to your eternal inheritance, give your Father leave to choose your time-portion of trials, which are to prepare you for your eternal lot of glory. And think it not strange, if so dear a favorite of heaven should meet with a variety and perpetuity of griefs on the earth, nor yet if your greatest trials should be reserved for the last. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? Shall we walk joyfully in the light, and not patiently in darkness? Especially since we have so sweet a companion in tribulation as our Lord Jesus, who loves us immensely, and will speak to us comfortably. God our Father has given Christ to be our Leader—to be the Captain of our Salvation—and, as such, he is continually with us, and goes before us. Through all the wilderness-way, even to the last step of it, he will never leave nor forsake us. He will tread down the briars and thorns before us, to make the way passable for us, and easy for our tender feet.

And no grief will He ever allow to touch us but what He sees to be absolutely necessary for us, and what He Himself, by an infinite sympathy, will bear together with us. The most tender pity of the nearest and dearest relative is not worth a thought, if compared with the infinite affection of Christ, our Immanuel, our Husband, Brother, Friend, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. In our Jehovah-Jesus there is a fullness of tender mercy, whence He can be, and is, inwardly touched with the feeling of our misery. And in Him also there is a fullness of power to relieve and deliver, which from an infinity of love, grace, and faithfulness, He does and will exert to save us to the uttermost. Our Captain-Leader, the Lord our Lover, goes before us as a mighty conqueror, to vanquish all our enemies, to make our distress subserve our bliss, to swallow up death in victory, and to raise us up with Him to reign in life and immortal glory.

Let us, then, in faith, and without having fear, commit ourselves entirely to our Lord's all-wise and all-gracious conduct, and cheerfully come up from the wilderness leaning upon our Beloved. For lo, we shall be fully persuaded "that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hallelujah! And again let us say, "Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns!"

That His rich, reigning grace may be with your spirit, and upon you in your work, until you rest from your labors and are received up to glory, in my hearty desire.

Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects

 

 

Dear Sir,

As pride is a sin that abides and works in all Christians in this world, let us all then, as the servants of Christ, trusting in Him—our victorious, sin-pardoning, sin-subduing and grace-giving Master—watch and oppose the enemy whenever attacked fiercely.

1. The sin of pride is the child of unbelief. Pride springs from a disbelief of God to be what He is, in His immense and essential glory, in His infinite, underived, all-comprehending, incomprehensible self-sufficiency; and from a vain conceit of the creature's being that which indeed it is not—that the creature is something independent of God. Whereas, without His all-supporting and all-supplying hand, it would soon sink into its first nothing, and be, as in and of itself it is, a mere vacuity, less than nothing, and vanity.

2. This sin of pride which turned myriads of angels of light into legions of black devils, and that for this they were hurled down from heaven to the bottomless pit of hell.

3. Pride was the sin which cast down Adam, and in him all his posterity, even to the last, from the height of created, natural, and princely excellency, into an unsearchable depth of spiritual slavery, and the just desert of eternal misery.

4. Pride is a sin by which the whole law of God, in each of its ten commandments, is broken.

5. This sin of pride, as it springs from gospel-unbelief, is directly opposite to the gospel of Christ. Pride rejects the Savior, in whole or in part, and would rival it, in extreme vanity, with the Lord of glory. Pride would rob the Savior of His invaluable crown, who died in the sinner's room, to raise him from death to that eternal life of a seat with Him of His high and everlasting throne. Yes, pride is directly contrary to the great design of God the Father in the gospel, which is, to make Himself an everlasting name, to display the exceeding riches of His free grace, in the whole and in every part of a sinner's salvation and bliss, to the eternal praise of His own glory.

But pride—horrid pride—will not endure that the Lord should have the entire glory of His saving grace, of His free, rich, boundless grace, but sets up wretched self in Jehovah's place, to nullify, as much as in it lies, the sinner-saving, the God-glorifying, project of eternity! Pride sets up the creature as a co-partner with the Creator; a creature of time, a mere nothing, upon a level with the eternal I AM! Yes, pride excludes God—the everlasting God—and takes to a man, Jehovah's essential, eternal throne, and in the height of insolence, says, "I AM! And there is none besides me."

6. Pride renders the creature, man, though new-created in Christ, after the image of His purity, and as such, bearing upon him a fresh impress of divine glory, the most unlike to the Holy Jesus, who, by way of eminence, and to an all-surpassing excellence, was meek and lowly!

7. Pride makes a member of Christ to bear upon him the horrid image of the devil! Nothing gives such a hellish visage to a spirit of heavenly extraction as the sin of pride, the spawn of the old serpent, the infernal abomination.

8. This sin of pride, the first-born of unbelief, as springing from it, and living in it as a branch from and in the life of the root, is a pregnant monster that contains in itself, and is fertile to bring forth, a fullness of all sin.

9. Nothing like the sin of pride unfits us for divine service. It renders us incapable, so far as it prevails, of any acceptable service either to God or man.

10. That this sin of Pride, dragon-like, stands ready with open mouth to devour every heavenly birth as soon as it is brought forth. And it would destroy effectively all the saints' fruits which they by faith bring forth unto God by Christ, as soon as they appear, were they not caught up instantly by as Almighty hand unto God upon the throne of grace for security to His and His people's joy and glory.

11. Pride is that vile abomination which the Lord hates, and which He will not allow in those whom He loves. This sin of pride, if the heart is not humbled for it deeply, and if not repented sincerely, will bring down upon the children of God His fatherly chastisements severely.

12. This sin of pride is a master-thief, as it robs God of that honor which would be given Him by His people if humble, and of that joy which He takes in their humility. Pride also robs believers of their present joy and comfort.

13. Pride is a sin that militates directly against the whole of divine glory as displayed and ascribed. It turns away its lofty eye from that illustrious display of the glory of God the Father in election, of God the Son in redemption, and of God the Holy Spirit in effectual calling, and thwarts thereby, as far as it may, the great design of the God of glory, which in and by this bright display is to make us meek and lowly that we might be happy here and hereafter in being holy. Pride will not allow us to give unto the Lord in any of these respects the glory due unto His name. It robs God as well as His people, and in robbing them it aims at Him.

This horrid sin of pride will make the Lord's friends to behave as his enemies, yes, to fight against Him with His own mercies, and even with His freest, richest mercies, to act the greatest hostilities. This monster, pride—this hellish sin—will excite a man to render hatred to God for His greatest love, to wound His honor, to pierce His heart, to stab to death His infinite life, by those choicest favors which it turns into the keenest daggers, which, in his immense bounty, he bestows upon the most unworthy, and with which he crowns, unto life and immortal glory, the most rebellious subjects, who, for renewed acts of enmity, deserve to die continually, and eternally.

14. Pride is such an abominable sin that no tongue or pen can express a thousandth part of its aggravated guilt. None but the Lord Jehovah, in His understanding infinity, can search the immense depth of this great iniquity.

Then, if pride is so great a sin, and has in it such a fullness of malignity against God and man, no wonder that the people of God are tempted to it by Satan, who hates God, who hates us. Hence we may learn to admire the infinite wisdom and love of God, which devised and provided a way, by and through the death of His only Son, to save His people from this abominable sin—to save them from its dominion here, by grace—and from its very being hereafter in glory.

We hence admire the invincible strength of Jehovah's favor, in that He casts not away His chosen servants from their appointed services, though God-provoking pride makes its appearance in their best performances. We are forever amazed at that immeasurable grace which forgives this great iniquity, and continues to love us freely, notwithstanding for the Lord's choicest mercy we return enmity!

Hence we learn the infinite merit of the Redeemer's blood which atoned for this sin of an infinite guilt, and reconciled such 'children of pride', to an infinitely holy God, and which cleanses us continually from the filthy stains of this deep-dyed iniquity. And let endless wonder strike our hearts unto rising praises, and eternal ages, at and for the omnipotent grace of the Holy Spirit—Who has begun in us pride's destruction, and will perform it to our soul's perfection, and full and everlasting joy and glory.

If pride is such a great iniquity, let us . . .

bewail it bitterly;

humble ourselves before God, on account of it, deeply;

wash in the fountain set open, instantly;

and entreat forgiving and subduing grace constantly.

Again, if pride is such an abominable sin, let us set ourselves against it with all our might, or rather, to oppose and destroy it, let us be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And since we cannot serve God as we would and should in this world, while this subtle, potent sin works within us, let us long for the nobler joys of the saints in glory; where by pride, nor by any other sin, we shall dishonor, wound, nor grieve our great and good God, the God of grace and love, no more forever.

The good will of Him that dwelt in the bush be with you, and prosper you exceedingly, until time fades into eternal glory.