sackcloth, and a rope, and ashes, and tears, and prayers,
like Abraham, and David, and Isaiah, and Paul, and
John Bunyan, and Bishop Andrewes? And, whatever
may be the end, do you say that henceforth and for
ever you must both love and fear that Prince?
’Though He slay me,’ said Job, ‘yet
I shall both love and trust Him.’ Well,
the Prince is the Prince, and He will take both His
own time and His own way of taking off your rope and
putting a chain of gold round your neck, and a new
song in your mouth, as He did to Job. There may
be more weeping yet, both on your side and on His
before He does that; but He will do it, and He will
not delay an hour that He can help in doing it.
Only, do you continue and increase to love His beauty,
and to fear His glory. And that of itself will
be reward and blessing enough to you. Nay, once
you have seen both His beauty and His glory, then
to lie a dog under His table, and to beg at His door
with a rope on your head to all eternity would be
a glorious eternity to you. Samuel Rutherford
said that to see Christ through the keyhole once in
a thousand years would be heaven enough for him.
Christ wept in heaven as Rutherford wrote that letter
in Aberdeen, and if you make Him weep in the same
way He will soon make you to laugh too. He will
soon make you to laugh as Samuel Rutherford and Mr.
Desires-awake are laughing now. Only, my brethren,
answer this—Are your desires awakened indeed
after Jesus Christ? You know what a desire is.
Your hearts are full to the brim of desires.
Well, is there one desire in a day in your heart
for Christ? In the multitude of your desires
within you, what share and what proportion go out and
up to Christ? You know what beauty is.
You know and you love the beauty of a child, of a
woman, of a man, of nature, of art, and so on.
Do you know, have you ever seen, the ineffable beauty
of Christ? Is there one saint of God here,—and
He has many saints here—is there one of
you who can say with David in the text, One thing
do I desire? There should be many so desiring
saints here; for Christ’s beauty is far better
and far fairer, far more captivating, far more enthralling,
and far more satisfying to us than it could be to
David. Shall we call you Desires-awake, then,
after this? Can you say—do you say,
One thing do I desire, and that is no thing and no
person, no created beauty and no earthly sweetness,
but my one desire is for God: to be His, and to
be like Him, and to be for ever with Him? Then,
it shall soon all be. For, what you truly desire,—all
that you already are; and what you already are,—all
that you shall soon completely and for ever be.
Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is
none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My
flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength
of my heart, and my portion for ever.