CHRIST EVER THE SAME\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Palms of Elim John MacDuff,1879<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose\u201d\u2014\u201dJesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.\u201d Hebrews 13:8<\/p>\n
We may well sit under this shadow of the Beloved with great delight. Human life, outwardly, inwardly, is a \u201cshifting spectacle;\u201d so says the apostle of it. He compares it to the moving scenes or characters in the old Grecian theater\u2014\u201dthe fashion\u201d (or the drama)<\/em> \u201cof this world passes away.\u201d Over the \u201cyesterday\u201d of the past, and the \u201ctoday\u201d of the present, the clouds of heaven are chasing one another. The waves of its seething, restless sea, are tossing and tumbling in fretful disquietude. And whether these changes have been from prosperity to adversity, or adversity to prosperity; converting life, with some, into a golden bridge, with others, into \u201ca bridge of sighs,\u201d they both lead to the one final goal. The path of sorrow as well as the path of glory \u201cleads but to the grave.\u201d<\/p>\n Believer, amid the fitfulness and uncertainty of earth and earthly things, come and seat yourself under this verdant Palm of a Savior\u2019s unchanging faithfulness.<\/em> \u201cTrust not in man, who cannot save.\u201d It may be, that some who read these pages may have had, or may be even now having, painful personal proof of that change and uncertainty, that fading and fleeting. You may have felt by experience, how often those joys, which like the bright berries in the summer woods are beautiful to the eye, prove bitter to the taste; how often the loveliest cloud in the life-sky condenses at last into a shower and then falls; how the loveliest rainbow-hue dissolves; how riches take to themselves wings and fly away; capricious fortune forsaking, often just when the golden dream seems most surely realized!<\/p>\n But \u201cHE has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.\u201d Have you never observed, that while, in the course of a long succession of years, the scenery on a river\u2019s bank may be changed, the river itself remains the same? Formerly it was accustomed, it may be, to flow through secluded woods\u2014its waters, murmuring by forest glades, where the wild deer stole down in the silent eve undisturbed by human step. Now hives of industry are lining its course. Ponderous wheels are revolving and the clang of hammers are resounding, where the woodman\u2019s axe alone was heard a short while ago. But the river itself, unchanged and unchangeable, carries its unfailing tributary-torrent to the main.<\/p>\n So it is with Him who, as \u201cthe River of God which is full of water,\u201d rolls its own glorious volume of everlasting love. \u201cThere is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall!\u201d \u201cBehold,\u201d says the same Immutable One, in another metaphor, \u201cI have engraved you on the palms of My hands.\u201d Not on the mountains, colossal as they are, for they shall depart; on no leaf of Nature\u2019s vast volume, for the last fires shall scorch them; not on blazing sun, for he shall grow dim with age; or on glorious heavens, for they shall be folded together as a scroll. But on the hand which made the worlds, the hand which was transfixed on Calvary,<\/em> the hand of might and love\u2014I have engraved you there. No corroding power can erase the writing, obliterate the name\u2014you are Mine now, and Mine forever!<\/p>\n The travelers come and go in the desert\u2014the canvas tent erected today, is down tomorrow, but the sheltering palms remain. The great Apostle speaks of \u2018tribulation\u2019\u2014\u2019distress\u2019\u2014\u2019persecution\u2019\u2014\u2019famine,\u2019 and other adverse forces as so many waves dashing against The<\/em> Rock<\/em>\u2014trying to \u201cseparate\u201d\u2014gathering their united strength to sweep from the secure shelter. But in vain. They are beaten back in succession with Faith\u2019s challenge\u2014the reproof, not of bold arrogant presumption, but of lowly believing confidence and heavenly trust\u2014\u201dIn the name of a Mightier, we bid defiance to your might!\u201d \u2018Who shall separate us?\u2019 \u201cI stand upon a Rock,\u201d says Chrysostom, \u201clet the sea rage, the Rock cannot be disturbed.\u201d<\/p>\n Bereaved<\/em> Christian, you who have been called more specially to experience the sorrows of life; how comforting to know that there is One Prop<\/em> that cannot give way<\/em>, One Friend beyond the reach of change, who is working out your soul\u2019s everlasting well-being in His own calm world, far above and beyond the heavings and convulsions of ours. One who is the same in storm and sunshine, births and deaths, marriage bells and funeral knells: of whom you can say, amid the wreck of all human confidences, \u201cThey shall perish, but You shall endure!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis same Jesus!\u201d Oh how sweetly Fall those words upon the ear, \u201cHe who spoke as none had spoken, Angel wisdom far above, \u201cFor this word, O Lord, we bless Thee, Bless our Master\u2019s changeless name; \u201cTrust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CHRIST EVER THE SAME\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Palms of Elim John MacDuff,1879 \u201cThis is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose\u201d\u2014\u201dJesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.\u201d Hebrews 13:8 We may well sit under this shadow of the Beloved with great delight. Human life, outwardly, inwardly, is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-christ-his-person-and-excellencies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2340,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions\/2340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLike a swell of far-off music In a night-watch still and drear.<\/p>\n
\nAll forgiving, ne\u2019er upbraiding, Full of tenderness and love.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus Christ is still the same.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n