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Thus exalted in the highest heaven,
Christ is become what the prophet Daniel, in the words
chosen for this day's text, in prophetic vision, saw Him to
be: " One like the Son of man," to whom " was
given—dominion, and glory, and a kingdom." It is this
triumphant Saviour of whom all the prophets spake from the
foundation of the world, and whose
glorious ascension into the highest heavens is more
especially suited to the spiritual ends intended by the text
before us. I would urge the consideration of this text, in
the interest which, conscious to ourselves or not, we each
have in the Redeemer's glory, to the two opposite classes of
the outward hearers of the word, who are now before me: to
those,
first, whose souls have been awakened to the truths of
Christianity as really their own individual concern; and,
secondly, to those who would not be without the forms,
though thoughtless of the spirit, and unacquainted
with the power of vital godliness." (pp. 406, 407)
The unawakened soul cannot read Christ in
any of His providences: they may lead to inquiry; they may
produce surprise, but they will not unveil the Saviour. How
does the word of Christ expose the ignorance upon these
points of a merciful interference for the soul's ultimate
good, in the soul unlearned in the school of Christ! What
Christ answered to the woman of Samaria is but the unfolded
state of the natural man in every nation under heaven,
before the soul begins to consider ordinary or special
providences as "the finger of God:"
"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who
it is that saith to thee, give me to drink; thou wouldest
have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living
water."
It will not be an unprofitable lesson to
us, my brethren, to look into our own experience, and see
whether we have not ourselves often resisted, whether we do
not still resist some argument urged by the good providence
of the Lord, with some such reasoning as this woman used
against the power of the Saviour to give her " living
water." While the heart
remains ignorant of the love and redemption of Christ, it
constantly argues against the providence of Christ, as did
the woman of Samaria against the power of Christ to give the
gift He offered; " Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living
water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us
the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and
his cattle ?" By nature, all our reasoning against what the
Lord would do for our souls, is as blind and worldly as was
such an answer to the Lord's personal assurance that He had
" living water" to bestow, from this ignorant Samaritan. But
what does Christ herein ? By mercy upon mercy, one
providence after another, He more and more puts the true
nature, and the blessed power and effects of His great
salvation before our naturally unwilling souls.
What was His reply to this woman, but, in
substance, the very same argument He ever uses against all
our vain reasoning and excuses for not accepting the free
offer of His love: " Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall
thirst again:" the soul made sensible of its wants, yet
knowing not the Lord, seeks other remedies than that only "
name whereby it can be saved;" but still remains forlorn and
unsatisfied: must " thirst again." It is Christ alone who
can administer that balm which heals the wounded spirit" (p.
130,131)
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that
I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life." There are few hindrances to the true
and saving knowledge of Christ so inveterate as the want of
a right understanding of what Christ here so plainly
declares: that this " living water," this " everlasting
life," the means and the end, are His peculiar gift. We are
tempted to mix, in our hope, something from ourselves with
much that we may be really seeking from God. But until we
ask as entirely destitute; until we seek as having yet found
nothing from any other resource, we ask and seek in vain. "
The Lord alone must be exalted in that day;" and if we would
receive anything from Christ, we must ask it as His free and
unmerited gift with the heartfelt prayer and acknowledgment
of—" Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God." (p. 131)
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