The Mind of Jesus Part 1

The Mind of Jesus.

by John R. Macduff.

THE MIND OF JESUS! What a study is this! To attain a dim reflection of it, is the ambition of angels--higher they can not soar. "To be conformed to the image of His Son!"--it is the end of G.o.d in the predestination of His Church from all eternity. "We shall be like Him!"--it is the Bible picture of _heaven_!

In a former little volume, we pondered some of the gracious _Words_ which proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus. In the present, we have a few faint lineaments of that holy _Character_ which const.i.tuted the living exposition and embodiment of His precepts.

But how lofty such a standard! How all creature-perfection shrinks abashed and confounded before a Divine portraiture like this! He is the true "Angel standing in the sun," who alone projects no shadow; so bathed in the glories of Deity that likeness to Him becomes like the light in which He is shrouded--"no man can approach unto it." May we not, however, seek at least to approximate, though we can not adequately resemble? It is impossible on earth to a.s.sociate with a fellow-being without getting, in some degree, a.s.similated to him. So, the more we study "the Mind of Christ," the more we are in His company--holding converse with Him as our best and dearest friend--catching up his holy looks and holy deeds--the more shall we be "transformed into the same image."

"Consider," says the Great Apostle (literally '_gaze_ on') "Christ Jesus" (Heb. iii. 1). Study feature by feature, lineament by lineament, of that Peerless Exemplar. "_Gaze_" on the Sun of Righteousness, till, like gazing long on the natural sun, you carry away with you, on your spiritual vision, dazzling images of His brightness and glory. Though He be the Archetype of all goodness, remember He is no shadowy model--though the Infinite Jehovah, He was "the _Man_ Christ Jesus."

We must never, indeed, forget that it is not the _mind_, but the _work_ of Immanuel, which lies at the foundation of a sinner's hope. He must be known as a _Saviour_, before He is studied as an _Example_. His doing and dying is the center jewel, of which all the virtues of His holy life are merely the setting. But neither must we overlook the Scripture obligation to walk in His footsteps and imbibe His Spirit, for "if any man have not the _Spirit of Christ_, he is _none of His_!"

Oh, that each individual Christian were more Saviour-like! that, in the manifestation of a holy character and heavenly demeanor, it might be said in some feeble measure of the faint and imperfect reflection--"Such was _Jesus_!"

How far short we are of such a criterion, mournful experience can testify. But it is at least comforting to know that there is a day coming, when, in the full vision and fruition of the Glorious Original, the exhortation of our motto-verse will be needed no more; when we shall be able to say, in the words of an inspired apostle,

"We _have_ the MIND OF CHRIST!"

Contents.

PAGE The Mind of Jesus 3 Compa.s.sion 9 Resignation in Trial 13 Devotedness to G.o.d 17 Forgiveness of Injuries 21 Meekness 25 Thankfulness 29 Unselfishness 33 Submission to G.o.d's Word 37 Prayerfulness 41 Love to the Brethren 45 Sympathy 49 Fidelity in Rebuke 53 Gentleness in Rebuke 57 Endurance of Contradiction 61 Pleasing G.o.d 65 Grief at Sin 69 Humility 73 Patience 77 Subjection 81 Not Retaliating 85 Bearing the Cross 89 Holy Zeal 93 Benevolence 97 Firmness in Temptation 101 Receiving Sinners 105 Guilelessness 109 Activity in Duty 113 Committing our Way to G.o.d 117 Love of Unity 121 Not of the World 125 Calmness in Death 129

Let

THIS MIND

Be in you,

Which was also in

Christ Jesus.

First Day.

COMPa.s.sION.

"I have compa.s.sion on the mult.i.tude."--Mark, viii. 2.

What a pattern to His people, the tender _compa.s.sion_ of Jesus! He found the world He came to save a moral Bethesda. The wail of suffering humanity was every where borne to His ear. It was His delight to walk its porches, to pity, relieve, comfort, save! The faintest cry of misery arrested His footsteps--stirred a ripple in this fountain of Infinite Love. Was it a _leper_,--that dreaded name which entailed a life-long exile from friendly looks and kindly words? There was _One_, at least, who had tones and deeds of tenderness for the outcast. "_Jesus_, being moved with compa.s.sion, put forth His hand, and _touched_ him." Was it some blind beggars on the Jericho highway, groping in darkness, pleading for help? "_Jesus_ stood still, and had compa.s.sion on them, and touched their eyes!" Was it the speechless pleadings of a widow's tears at the gate of Nain, when she followed her earthly pride and prop to the grave?

"When the _Lord_ saw her, He had compa.s.sion on her, and said, Weep not!"

Even when He rebukes, the bow of compa.s.sion is seen in the cloud, or rather, that cloud, as it pa.s.ses, dissolves in a rain-shower of mercy.

He p.r.o.nounces Jerusalem "_desolate_," but the doom is uttered amid a flood of anguished sorrow!

Reader! do the compa.s.sionate words and deeds of a tender Saviour find any feeble echo and transcript in yours? As you traverse in thought the wastes of human wretchedness, does the spectacle give rise, not to the mere emotional feeling which weeps itself away in sentimental tears, but to an earnest desire to _do something_ to mitigate the sufferings of woe-worn humanity? How vast and world-wide the claims on your compa.s.sion!--now near, now at a distance--the unmet and unanswered cry of peris.h.i.+ng millions abroad--the heathendom which lies unsuccored at your own door--the public charity languis.h.i.+ng--the mission staff dwarfed and crippled from lack of needful funds--a suffering district--a starving family--a poor neighbor--a helpless orphan--it may be, some crowded hovel, where misery and vice run riot--or some lonely sick chamber, where the dim lamp has been wasting for dreary nights--or some desolate home which death has entered, where "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not," and where some sobbing heart, under the tattered garb of poverty, mourns, unsolaced and unpitied, its "loved and lost." Are there none such within your reach, to whom a trifling pittance would be as an angel of mercy? How it would hallow and enhance all you possess, were you to seek to live as almoner of Jehovah's bounties! If He has given you of this world's substance, remember it is bestowed, not to be greedily h.o.a.rded or lavishly squandered. Property and wealth are talents to be traded on and laid out for the good of others--sacred trusts, not selfishly to be _enjoyed_, but generously to be _employed_.

"The poor are the representatives of Jesus, their wants He considers as His own," and He will recompense accordingly. The feeblest expression of Christian pity and love, though it be but the widow's mite, or the cup of cold water, or the kindly look and word when there is neither mite nor cup to give, yet, if done in _His_ name, it is entered in the "book of life" as a "loan to the Lord;" and in that day when "the books are opened," the loan will be paid back with usury.

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Second Day.

RESIGNATION IN TRIAL.

"Not my will, but Thine be done!"--Luke, xxii. 42.

Where was there ever resignation like this! The life of Jesus was one long martyrdom. From Bethlehem's manger to Calvary's cross, there was scarce one break in the clouds; these gathered more darkly and ominously around Him till they burst over His devoted head as He uttered His expiring cry. Yet throughout this pilgrimage of sorrow no murmuring accent escaped His lips. The most suffering of all suffering lives was one of uncomplaining submission.

"Not _my_ will, but _Thy_ will," was the motto of this wondrous Being!

When He came into the world He thus announced His advent, "Lo, I come, I delight to do _Thy will_, O my G.o.d!" When He left it, we listen to the same prayer of blended agony and acquiescence, "O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pa.s.s from me! _Nevertheless_ not as _I will_, but as _Thou wilt_."

Reader! is this mind also in _you_? Ah, what are your trials compared to His! What the ripples in your tide of woe, compared to the waves and billows which swept over him! If He, the spotless Lamb of G.o.d, "murmured not," how can _you_ murmur? _His_ were the sufferings of a bosom never once darkened with the pa.s.sing shadow of guilt or sin. _Your_ severest sufferings are deserved, yea, infinitely less _than_ deserved! Are you tempted to indulge in hard suspicions, as to G.o.d's faithfulness and love, in appointing some peculiar trial? Ask yourself, Would Jesus have done _this_? Should _I_ seek to pry into "the deep things of G.o.d," when _He_, in the spirit of a weaned child, was satisfied with the solution, "_Even so, Father, for so it seems good in Thy sight_"?

"Even so, _Father_!" Afflicted one! "tossed with tempest, and not comforted," take that _word_ on which thy Lord pillowed His suffering head, and make it, as He did, the secret of thy resignation.

The sick child will take the bitterest draught from a _father's_ hand.

"This cup which Thou, O G.o.d, givest me to drink, shall I not drink it?"

Be it mine to lie pa.s.sive in the arms of Thy chastening love, exulting in the a.s.surance that all Thy appointments, though sovereign, are never arbitrary, but that there is a gracious "need be" in them all. "My Father!" my Covenant G.o.d! the G.o.d who _spared not Jesus_! It may well hush every repining word.

Drinking deep of his sweet spirit of submission, you will be able thus to meet, yea, even to welcome, your sorest cross, saying, "Yes, Lord, all _is_ well, just because it is Thy blessed will. Take me, use me, chasten me, as seemeth good in Thy sight. My will is resolved into Thine. This trial is dark; I can not see the 'why and the wherefore' of it--but 'not my will, but Thy will!' The gourd is withered; I can not see the reason of so speedy a dissolution of the loved earthly shelter; sense and sight ask in vain why these leaves of earthly refreshment have been doomed so soon to droop in sadness and sorrow. But it is enough.

'The Lord prepared the worm;' 'not _my_ will, but _Thy_ will!'"

Oh, how does the stricken soul honor G.o.d by thus being _dumb_ in the midst of dark and perplexing dealings, recognizing in these, part of the needed discipline and training for a sorrowless, sinless, deathless world; regarding every trial as a link in the chain which draws it to heaven, where the whitest robes will be found to be those here baptized with suffering, and bathed in tears!

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Third Day.

DEVOTEDNESS TO G.o.d.