The Mind of Jesus Part 5

Twentieth Day.

NOT RETALIATING.

"Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again."--1 Peter, ii. 23.

What a common dictate of the fallen and regenerate heart to resent and recriminate! How alien to natural feeling to answer cutting taunts, and meet unmerited wrong with the Divine method the Gospel prescribes--"Overcome evil with good!" It was in the closing scenes of the Saviour's humiliation, when, silent and unresenting, He stood "dumb before His shearers," that this beautiful feature in His character was most wondrously manifested; but it beams forth, also, for our imitation in the ordinary and less prominent incidents of His pilgrimage.

When He met Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, He found him clinging to an unreasonable prejudice--"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" The severe remark is allowed to pa.s.s unnoticed. Overlooking the unkind insinuation, the Saviour fixes on the favorable feature of his character, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" After His resurrection, He appears to His disciples. They were cowering in shame, half afraid to confront the glance of injured goodness. He breathes on them, and says, "Peace be unto you!" Peter was the one of all the rest who had most reason to dread estranged looks and upbraiding words; but a special message is sent to rea.s.sure that trembling spirit that there was no alienation in the unresentful Heart he had so deeply wounded; "Go and tell the disciples ... and _Peter_!" Even when Judas first revealed himself to his Lord as the betrayer, we believe it was not in bitter irony or rebuke, but in the fullness of pitying tenderness, that Jesus addressed him, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" Tears and prayers were His only revenge on the city and scene of His murder. "Beginning at Jerusalem," was the closing ill.u.s.tration of a spirit "not of this world"--a significant parting testimony that in the bosom that uttered it retaliation had no place.

More than one of the disciples seem to have imbibed much of this "mind"

of their Lord. "We owe St. Paul," says Augustine, "to the death of Stephen;" "they stoned Stephen ... and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord! lay not this sin to their charge."

Take another example: The great Apostle of the Gentiles felt himself under a painful necessity faithfully to rebuke Peter in presence of the whole Church. He had _recorded_ that rebuke, too, in one of his epistles. It was thus to be handed down to every age as a permanent and humiliating evidence of the wavering inconstancy of his fellow-laborer.

Peter, doubtless, must have felt acutely the severity of the chastis.e.m.e.nt. Does he resent it? He, too, puts on record, long after, in one of his own epistles a sentence regarding his Rebuker, but it is this--"Our _beloved brother_ Paul!"

Reader! when tempted to utter the harsh word, or give the cutting or hasty answer, seek to check yourself with the question, "Is this the reply my Saviour would have given?" If your fellow-men should prove unkind, inconsiderate, ungrateful, be it yours to refer the cause to G.o.d. Speak of the faults of others only in prayer; manifesting more sorrow for the sin of the censorious and unkind, than for the evil inflicted on yourselves. _Retaliate!_ No such word should have a place in the Christian's vocabulary. _Retaliate!_ If I cherish such a spirit towards my brother, how can I meet that brother in heaven?--"But ye have not so learned in Christ."

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Twenty-first Day.

BEARING THE CROSS.

"And He bearing His cross."--John, xix. 17.

When did Jesus bear the cross? Not that moment alone, surely, when the bitter tree was placed on His shoulders, on the way to Golgotha. Its vision may be said to have risen before Him in His infant dreams in Bethlehem's cradle; there, rather, its reality began; and He ceased not to carry it, till His work was finished, and the victory won! A _cloud_, of old, hovered over the mercy-seat in the tabernacle and temple. So it was with the Great Ant.i.type--the living Mercy-Seat--He had ever a cloud of woe hanging over him. "He _carried_ our sorrows."

Reader! dwell much and often under the shadow of your Lord's cross, and it will lead you to think lightly of your own! If _He_ gave utterance to not one murmuring word, canst _thou_ complain? "If we were deeper students of his bitter anguish, we should think less of the ripplings of our waves, amidst His horrible tempest."--(_Evans._) The saint's cross a.s.sumes many and diverse shapes. Sometimes it is the bitter trial, the crus.h.i.+ng pang of bereavement--desolate households, and aching hearts.

Sometimes it is the crucifixion of sin, the determined battle with "l.u.s.ts which war against the soul." Sometimes it is the resistance of evil maxims and practices of a lying world; vindicating the honor of Christ, in the midst, it may be, of taunt, and obloquy, and shame. And as there are different crosses, so there are different ways of bearing them. To some, G.o.d says, "put your shoulder to the burden; lift it up, and bear it on; work, and toil, and labor!" To others, He says, "Be still, bear it, and _suffer_!"

Believer! thy cross may be hard to endure; it may involve deep struggles--tears by day, watchings by night; bear it meekly, patiently, justifying G.o.d's wisdom in laying it on. Rejoice in the a.s.surance that He gives not one atom more of earthly trial than He sees to be really needful; not one redundant thorn pierces your feet. In the very bearing of the cross for _His_ sake, there are mighty compensations. What new views of your Saviour's love! His truth, His promises, His sustaining grace, His sufferings, His glory! What new filial nearness; increased delight in prayer; an inner suns.h.i.+ne when it is darkest without! The waves cover you, but underneath them all, are "the everlasting arms!"

Do not look out for a situation _without_ crosses. Be not over anxious about "smooth paths;"--leaving your G.o.d, as Orpah did Naomi, just when the cross requires to be carried. Immoderate earthly enjoyments--unbroken earthly prosperity--write upon these, "_Beware!_"

You may live to see them become your greatest trials!

Remember the old saying, "No cross, no crown." The sun of the saint's life generally struggles through "weeping clouds." One of the loveliest pa.s.sages of Scripture is that in which, the portals of heaven being opened, we overhear this dialogue between two ransomed ones--"And one of the elders answered saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, _These are they which came out of great tribulation!_"

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Twenty-second Day.

HOLY ZEAL.

"The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up."--John, ii. 17.

"Zeal, is a principle; enthusiasm is a feeling. The one is a spark of a sanguine temperament and overheated imagination. The other, a sacred flame kindled at G.o.d's altar, and burning in G.o.d's shrine."--(_Vaughan._) Such was the holy, heavenly zeal of our Great Exemplar! His were no transient outbursts of ardor, which time cooled and difficulties impeded. His life was one indignant protest against sin;--one ceaseless current of undying love for souls, which all the malignity of foes, and unkindness of friends, could not for one moment divert from its course. Even when He rises from the dead, and we imagine His work at an end, His zeal only meditates fresh deeds of love.

"Still His heart and His care," says G.o.dwin, "is upon doing more. Having now dispatched that great work on earth, He sends His disciples word that He is hastening to heaven as fast as He can, to do another." (John, xx. 17).

Reader! do you know any thing of this zeal, which "many waters could not quench"? See that, like your Lord's, it be steady, sober, consistent, undeviating. How many are, like the children of Ephraim, "carrying bows"--all zealous when zeal demands no sacrifice, but "turning their backs in the day of battle!" Others "running well" for a time, but gradually "hindered," through the benumbing influences of worldliness, selfishness, and sin. Two disciples, apparently equally devoted and zealous, send through Paul, in one of his epistles, a conjoint Christian salutation--"Luke and Demas greet you." A few years afterward, thus he writes from his Roman dungeon--"Only _Luke_ is with me," "_Demas_ hath _forsaken_ me, having loved this present world!"

While zeal is commendable, remember the Apostle's qualification, "It is good to be zealously affected always in a _good_ thing." There is in these days much base coin current, _called_ "zeal," which bears not the image and superscription of Jesus. There is zeal for church-members.h.i.+p and party; zeal for creeds and dogmas; zeal for figments and non-essentials. "From such turn aside." Your Lord stamped with His example and approval no such counterfeits. _His_ zeal was ever brought to bear on two objects, and two objects alone--_the glory of G.o.d_ and _the good of man_. Be it so with _you_. Enter, first of all (as He did the earthly temple), the sanctuary of _your own heart_, with "the scourge of small cords." Drive out every unhallowed intruder there. Do not suffer yourself to be deceived. Others may call such jealous searchings of spirit "sanctimoniousness" and "enthusiasm." But remember, to be _almost saved_, is to be _altogether lost_!--to be zealous about every thing but "the one thing needful," is an insult to G.o.d and your everlasting interests!

Have a zeal for _others_. Dying myriads are around you. As a member of the Christian priesthood, it becomes you to rush in with your censer and incense between the living and the dead, "that the plague may be stayed!"

Be it yours to say, "Blessed Jesus! I am _Thine_!--Thine only!--Thine wholly!--Thine for ever! I am willing to follow Thee, and (if need be) to _suffer_ for Thee. I am ready at Thy bidding to leave the homestead in the valley, and to face the cutting blasts of the mountain. Take me--use me for Thy glory. 'Lord! what wilt Thou have me to do?'"

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Twenty-third Day.

BENEVOLENCE.

"Who went about doing good."--Acts, x. 38.

"Christ's great end," says Richard Baxter, "was to save men from their _sins_; but He delighted to save them from their _sorrows_." His heart bled for human misery. Benevolence brought Him from heaven; benevolence followed His steps wherever He went on earth. The journeys of the Divine Philanthropist were marked by tears of thankfulness, and breathings of grateful love. The helpless, the blind, the lame, the desolate, rejoiced at the sound of His footfall. Truly might it be said of Him, "When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me." (Job, xxix. 11.) All suffering hearts were a magnet to Jesus. It was not more His prerogative than His happiness to turn tears into smiles. One of the few pleasures which on earth gladdened the spirit of the "Man of sorrows" was the pleasure of _doing good_--soothing grief, and alleviating misery. Next to the joy of the widow of Nain when her son was restored, was the joy in the bosom of the Divine Restorer! He often went out of His way to be kind. A journey was not grudged, even if _one_ aching spirit were to be soothed. (Mark, v.

1; John, iv. 4, 5.) Nor were his kindnesses dispensed through the intervention of others. They were all personal acts. His own hand healed. His own voice spake. His own footsteps lingered on the threshold of bereavement, or at the precincts of the tomb. Ah! had the princes of this world known the loving-tenderness and unselfishness of _that_ heart, "they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory"!

Reader! do you know any thing of such active benevolence? Have you never felt the _luxury_ of doing good? Have you never felt, that in making _others_ happy, you make _your self_ so? that, by a great law of your being, enunciated by the Divine Patron and Pattern of Benevolence, "it is more blessed to give than to receive"? Has G.o.d enriched you with this world's goods? Seek to view yourself as a consecrated medium for dispensing them to others. Beware alike of penurious h.o.a.rding and selfish extravagance. How sad the case of those whose lot G.o.d has made thus to abound with temporal mercies, who have gone to the grave unconscious of diminis.h.i.+ng one drop of human misery, or making one of the world's myriad aching hearts happier! How the example of _Jesus_ rebukes the cold and calculating kindnesses--the mite-like offerings of many even of His own people! "whose libation is not like His, from the brim of an overflowing cup, but from the bottom--from the _dregs_!"

You may have little to give. Your sphere and means may be alike limited.

But remember G.o.d can be as much glorified by the trifle saved from the earnings of poverty, as by the splendid benefaction from the lap of plenty "The Lord loveth a _cheerful_ giver."

The n.o.bler part of Christian benevolence is not vast largesses, munificent pecuniary sacrifices. "_He went about_ doing good." The merciful visit--the friendly word--the look of sympathy--the cup of cold water, the little unostentatious service--the giving without thought or hope of recompense--the kindly "considering of the poor"--antic.i.p.ating their wants--studying their comforts; these are what G.o.d values and loves. They are "loans" to Himself--tributary streams to "the river of _His_ pleasure;" they will be acknowledged at last as such--"Ye did it unto _Me_."

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Twenty-fourth Day.

FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION.

"Jesus saith unto him, Get thee hence, Satan."--Matt. iv. 10.