SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

" SHOW ME NOW THY WAY." [BY REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A.]

"Now, therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee."—Exodus xxxiii., IS. As the demand of the intellect for truth proves that there is truth for the intellect, and the demand of the heart for love proves that there is love for the heart, so the yearning of your heart to know God is a proof that God is waiting to speak to your heart. Rejoice that your desire to know God has been answered by God; rejoice that it is a prediction by God's Spirit that it shall be every whit fulfilled. But there are one or two conditions that Moses followed, and which we need to follow for ourselves. We must I. SEEK THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYER IN THE RIGHT FJ.ACE. You want to know God. Will you remember that one of the disciples wanted to know God, and said, "Show us the Father and our Saviour answered, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." If you want to see God and to know God, you must look upon the face of Him who is standing in our midst to-day; for the light of the glory of God is on the face of our present Saviour, Jesus Christ. So often in convention meetings and elsewhere we hear people saying, Have you got it? I have got it. Have you got the blessing? Now, we have not come here for the blessing, but for the Blesser, and our thought must be fixed not on sanctification, but on the Sanctifier ; not on justification, but on the Justifier; not on guidance, but on the Guide. You will mark that Moses said, " I want to know Thee." It does not matter whether you get newtruth, or whether you are further enlightened about the mysteries of His Word. Dear friend, thou hast to do with Jesus Christ Himself, and thou needst to look up into His face. We need to know God in Christ. "Show me Thy way that 1 may know Thee." There is yet another condition. It is that 11. WE MUST SEEK AN ANSWER TO OUR PRAYER ON THE RIGHT GROUND. Mark what Moses said, " If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thy way, that I may know Thee.'' The Almighty answers his claim in the 17th verse by saying, " I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken ; for thou hast tound grace in My sight." We must be on the binding of grace, if we can at all hope to behold the glory of God. You remember the Apostle tells us, " We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Have you by faith come on to the standing of grace to-day, for everything that is likely to come to you to-day, to-morrow, and the next day ? It is not that you are to merit it bv putting yourself into a certain attitude. You are not to win the knowledge of God by feeling right, or doing right, or thinking right. Every glimpse of the face of God will be of His grace to you We need but to look up to the unmerited favour aud mercy of God, saying, " If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee." Let me ask, Are we always careful enough to distinguish between our judicial standing and our personal experience? Our judicial standing is what we are in our blessed Lord. That is a very different thing from our personal experience. The one never changes; it is like the unchanging hills. The other is sometimes fitful, like the light and shade that pass across them. Let your soul ever, in the midst of your changing and fluctuating experience, rest itself upon this: that your judicial standing in the sight of Cod in Christ is unaffected' by your personal transient experience and emotion. And if at this moment through faith vou are standing complete in Jesus, it is of His grace that you ma.v 'lfvt any hope to-da> ot having your pray answered, that you shall know Chris., ■mo ■"< ,v". i > Him There is one other con- • ilitif * ■ !*. is that 111. WE SHOULI» LOOK FOR THE ANSWER OUR PRAYER FROM THE RIGHT QUARTER. Accentuate and underline " show me." If I had a little child rather less bright in her mind than my other children, and while the other children were able at a single glance to take in some new word or some bright thought or story, the little child of dull intellect came to me, and said, " Father, I don't see it; please explain it to me, and show it to me, one would not be cross with the little thing because she could not take in so quickly what the others saw at a glance. One would bend over her, and take even more care and time to explain to her that which she longed to know in answer to her request, " show me; show me it." You may hear many things which will trouble you at first. You will not understand them. You will strain your mind, as others have done before you, trying to understand what was meant. Let us look beyond the Teacher, beyond Moses and Elijah. It may be that God will hide them in the cloud, and take them away; but, if he should take them away, and leave you Jesus only, that is enough; and. as you come down from the cloud, Jesus will undertake the responsibility of making you understand, though you are a dull scholar; for He has got an infinite patience. He will open your ear morning by morning, and teach you, and make you to know Him. There is yet one further condition : be sure that you seek for an answer to your prayer. IV. FOR THE RIGHT END ; FOR THE RIGHT AIM. Mark that Moses sought it for the good of his people, as we see in the 13th and 16th verses : " Consider that this nation is Thy people. Wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Ihy sight:" "so shall we be separated, I and 1 hy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth." Now, let us be clear, Why do we want this blessing? Do you want to know God simply that you may stand on the same level as your friend or friends who have come up to it in former years ? Is it your only motive that you may acquire a similar experience? If so, it is an unworthy motive. * Do you want to see God s face in Christ simply because it will make you so much more comfortable? I know it will. You have had a wretched experience like a see-saw, up to-day, down to-morrow, constantly falling, overcome by sin. You are weary of it, and want to be lifted out of it. I will not say that God will not meet you even on that motive. But it is not the highest motive; it is not that higher motive of which Moses speaks. He wanted to see God's face that he might better work among the people. There are good people that want to get a better knowledge of God that they may pass on the glimpse of God's truth they have got to others. They hold to him firmly with the one hand, that they may be able to reach the other better to the weary strugglers in the sea. But there is a higher motive still than any of these we have mentioned. It may be expressed thus : " I want to know Thee for Thine own glorious sake." You want to see the glory of God that He may be glorified with your experience; that your experience may somehow flash back His glory. It is for this, the loftiest motive for which we can live, that we have come here to-day. Your feeling may be expressed thus : " Father, let me see Thy face." "My blessed Lord, let

me se<'s The«, so that in seeing Th , " see my Father, that my life rnav V glorify Him, and bring a revenue of His name." ' 10r 71» My friend, supposing it would t , rrr God s glory better for you to or, a . ■ lir ° rr ' o? « this convention in the dark VP' tr °Si single gleam of light—are yo U ' so r ' 4 so consumed with a desire for tmT'H God— if it were more for His M, 5 ' <i it is conceivable in some way it in;.?r ' 4lV * for God sometimes permits His ohli in the case of Madame Guion, to"-/,- ?^ n > : 'h years of darkness, because in some L ' u, ' c -"i to promote His glory-are you Pr( . go away without the blessing you j'! 1 ?'" 1 to for; are you so consumed with a f ! ■ Co!r> His glory that, if it might glorify HinT 6 '<* you would be willing to spend the - r > your life without seeing the Kino- 3 1 ' ; ' t o; so, be sure you will be tilled with Hi' 6 ; I close by referring to one further condition : ' 4 tot; V. WE MUST ASSUME THE RIGHT Att You will notice that, in the case 0 he was, as it were, a piece of i,la = »; °, s *. He gave up his will to God ; and « ! Ci ■ the Almighty said was the attitude rh should assume he was prepared to t i God said, You must be alone. ~He w ir ' pared to be alone; he came up ea^-'' re " stood on the rock because God put him 1 ;' ' 5 He was content to be hidden away : ' : " darkness of the cave, under the sir d" "'•= the hand of God; and he had in hj- ° '< those tables of stone for God to write J,"' 1 :' that your position to-day? Are v,? r " *' i pared to stand in any position in wiiir'l I'" puts you? Are you prepared to J ,-"' 1 away into the dark, if He so order r ' { isolated and alone, if it is His j>leasuV ° " to stand before Him with tablets— the i ° r ' of your life —if He choose, without a 11 ' :i item of writing upon them, for (JodVV'' there just the writing He may wish' "V ' that plastic attitude it is your will 3 v 15 everything, to yield it up to God— to h,' ' tent to be anything or nothing to l )( l 1 : " where that He may select—theiTvou ;i Z l'" ? seeing His face; and will you' nn.i*-!.'" s'" this, that if you shall say to Him " i Un; not exactly feel that I am willing -'j ~, sure; my will is so affected ; i don't l "' ,: that I could say that lam willing for ' give blessing in any way He choos-i ■"'? l '' utter that lavourite prayer, " 'lam V"-' 5 to be made willing;' take my will n" > fashion, and shape it, and put me anvwW Thou wilt; only let me see Thy face a-'' ls me know Thyself in Christ." ' " u ■' ; -

JESUS OUR CENTRE, AS THE HOLY ONE. Um

"I am God, and net man : the Holv One ■ • midst of thee."Hos. xi., 9. ' " : i Our thoughtsof adoring praise Mo . r > our blessed Lord Jesus as the PriestX'f' midst, from whom we have our full No words can hold the grateful joy V' see Him clearer and clearer as the One has finished transgression and made an ; of iniquity. * " But He comes before us in another cbter. " The Holy One in the midst of tiV,- ' (Hosea xi., 9). Do we welcome Him u the same joy in this light? It is a searching thought, "Am I as g!adV~.i Jesus in the centre as the Otic ],'. vi-n cleanse me from the power of sin, as I a *i see Him as the One who has redeemed Z from the penalty of it?" Must uV' p honesty, say, "No." Is it possible th«t ■ " are practically saying, " Lord .Jesus, I a ,.. v ,'. Thy pardon very gratefully; I admit'iX* as my Priest, but. I cannot permit Ti,.*."-', take possessiot of me as the Hoy t> ; '- We are so afraid that to admit Him a"* » Holy One means only pain ami woe. di-v. pointment, temples emptied, idols 'X. throned; we think that while the 1' Cbears a blessed charter of free ami lull" r. giveness, the Holy One has a knife, a sew-* of small cords, a burning tire, which (£,. w! ruthlessly use to drive out and consul many a thing we do not wish to part with. ' And we are right in a measure; for lie jj so resolved that His temples shall becie.tv.'l that He will use a scourge of small cord- >> drive out all that is defiling it (John ii., J.". Yea, He will come again (Matt. xxi..' and clear out all the things which, m: .••• the guise of daily, even sacred, duties aid cares, are choking up the places which ou: it to be sacred to Him, and which are tin thieves robbing us of the power of prayer and of true worship. But He only ron.es His way in after having vainly waited to re admitted willingly. Where we sunvudet ourselves to His searching, His ways „:•» very different. We think of His titled..:" the "Holy One" as a name of awe and dread, but just see the unutterable tenderness with which He brings this name of His before Hid wandering children. " How shall I rive thee up, Ephraim ? * * * for lam God, and not man ; the Holy One in the midst of thee'' (Hos. xi., 8, 9). The very reason <■: His tenderness and compassion is His heiic the Holy One. Trace tlirouL'h Isaiah how often He calls Himself the HoW One, joining it so constantly with His name of P-e.k-.-mer (Isa. xliii., 14, Arc.), and often also usinc i; in connection with some very blessed promise, such as, " When thou passest throWh the waters, I will be with thee * * * ! >:• I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour" (Isa. xliii., '2, ;Vj. If He is to be fully our " Redeemer," He must 'e our " Holy One for the full purpose of His death was not only to deliver from the guilt, but from the power of sin, and, as long as we are willing that any sin should have dominion over us, we do not know Him fully as the Holy One. Can we not trust His wound -1 hands to deal gently, as well as faithfully with us?— Sophia M. Nugent.