Psa. 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity\ncaptive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that\nthe LORD God might dwell among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a painful thing it is to be rebellious! There is hardly any feeling\nworse than rebellion to a man whose conscience is made tender in God’s fear. To\nhave rebellion against a holy and wise God; rebellion against his dealings with\nus in providence; against his teachings in grace; because we have not more of\nthe light of his countenance; because we have not more and clearer testimonies\nand manifestations! We know in our judgment that God cannot err in any of his\ndealings, and yet to find at times such dreadful rebellion against God, O how\npainful it is! The least trifle can work up rebellion. It does not need a storm\nor a gale to lift up its proud waves. The slightest breath, the faintest breeze\nthat blows, will at times stir up the billows of the rebellious heart, and make\nit swell with tumultuous heavings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what a mercy it is to the poor souls that groan and grieve under a\nrebellious heart, that this ascended Mediator has received gifts for them! It\nis not your patience, meekness, and good temper, nor your gentle and quiet\ndisposition, that bring down grace into your hearts; but God the Father has\nlodged all the graces and gifts of the Spirit in his dear Son, and they are\ngiven to you because you have a saving interest in his blood and righteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lord teaches us this. If we were always patient, meek, holy, submissive,\nnever harassed by the devil, and never felt the workings of corruption, we\nwould begin to think we had some power to please God in ourselves, and would\nslight and neglect a precious Savior. But when taught by painful experience\nwhat a depraved nature and rebellious heart we carry in our bosom, when the\nLord lets down a little mercy and grace into our soul, we then know the blessed\nquarter whence it comes, and learn to abhor ourselves and bless his holy name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Lord went before them by night in a pillar of fire.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is. 42:16 And I will bring the\nblind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not\nknown: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.\nThese things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know\nhereafter.”\u2014John 13:7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A twin voice speaking from the Glory-Cloud. That Cloud, as of old, often\nconducts, as we have again and again noted, not by the short and easy way to\nthe true Canaan, but through formidable leagues of desert. The cry of the\nfainting Hebrew host is repeated still: “We are entangled; the wilderness\nhas shut us in.” So great also, now and then, is the gloom, that with\nmisgiving hearts we ask\u2014Can the testimony in our case, be indeed true\u2014”He\nled them ALL the night with a light of fire”? “O rest in the Lord,\nand wait patiently for Him.” The luminous token, temporarily obscured,\nwill in due time appear. He will subject you to no unnecessary peril, no\nneedless circuitous road. Trust this promise; trust it in the dark; trust it\nwhen you fail to trace\u2014”I will lead the blind down a new path, guiding\nthem along an unfamiliar way. I will make the darkness bright before them and\nsmooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will\nnot forsake them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a wondrous succession of wilderness watch-words! all crowned by the\ngracious assurance that HE “appoints all”; and that though the light\nof the Pillar-cloud may seem to us fitful and wavering, He does not, and will\nnot, abandon His covenant Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was but the other day I saw a picture of a blind man. The name\u2014the\nimpressive title\u2014given to it by the artist, was “Lighten our darkness, O\nLord!” The subject of the picture was reading from the raised letters of a\nBible. A lamp was throwing its brightness on the reader’s countenance, and on\nthe hieroglyphics of the sacred page. God, who commanded the light to shine out\nof darkness, was then and there shining into his heart with the light of the\nknowledge of His own glory. The principal figure seemed from the reflected glow\non the face to say, “And HE took the blind man by the hand and led him”\n(Mark 8:23). Here surely are suggestively portrayed what the Lord does with our\nrayless souls in the gloom of blinding trial\u2014”If I say, Surely the\ndarkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me” (Psalm\n139:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love the thought\u2014God the Leader of the blind; and in their very blindness\ninterpreting His ways!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turn we now to the added motto-verse. We have spoken of it specifically in a\nprevious page. But we may recur to it here as a New Testament parallel with the\nOld. “What I do you know not now.” The Divine Brother in our nature,\nabout to expiate the sins of the world by laying down His own life, uttered the\nsaying. The time He uttered it was that, when surely, beyond all others, an\nelectric chord of sympathy was linking Him with universal suffering humanity.\nHe could then and there, with a deeper intensity and pathos, use the\ndeclaration He made of old in the night of the Exodus\u2014”I know your\nsorrows.” The same balm-word was whispered in this the most solemn crisis\nof all time. It came from the lips of dying love. ‘I am about,’ He seems to\nsay, ‘to encounter the hour and power of darkness for you. Will you not accept\nMy own self-surrender and sacrifice, My tears and groans and agony, as the\npledge that I can enter, from personal experience, into your uttermost griefs?\nI can send no unnecessary trial. Trust My “hereafter promise.” And,\nmeanwhile, let the reverential saying be your own\u2014the saying I am about to\nutter in the garden-shade, in the name of all sufferers\u2014”This cup which My\nheavenly Father gives Me to drink, shall I not drink it?”‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, “hereafter.” “I will make” (not “I have\nmade”) “crooked things straight.” “Hereafter”\u2014Reader,\nlet that word ring its solitary chime in your darkness. We cannot too often\nrecall, how emphatically the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews loves to echo\nthe same\u2014”Nevertheless AFTERWARD” (Heb. 12:11). It is the Divine\norder and sequence. Present ignorance, future unfoldings. Present darkness,\nfuture illumination. Present blindness, the full vision of God; His “light\nof fire” transforming the arid wastes and sands of the wilderness into a\npathway of safety and peace. Even in this world, when, as just noted, the\natmosphere is dulled with haze and mist and cloud, we have flashing gleams from\nthe Pillar\u2014revelations, partial and incomplete it may be, of the ways of the\nAlmighty, strange minglings of light and shadow. In the unblighted home above,\nthere will be a finished retrospect of wisdom and faithfulness, the light of\nfire without the murky cloud\u2014the pathetic appeal of the patriarch sufferer\nheard no more\u2014”When shall I arise and the night be gone?” (Job 7:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recognize, then, sorrowing one, God’s hand and presence in this, and all the\nsolemn passages of your life; the day-cloud given to temper the heat of\nprosperity, the fire-cloud to counteract the noxious exhalations of adversity.\n“When I am weary and disappointed,” says a sympathetic writer,\n“when the skies lower into the somber night, when there is no song of\nbird, and the perfume of flowers is but their dying breath; when all is\nunsetting and autumn; then I yearn for Him who sits with the summer of love in\nHis soul, and feel that earthly affection is but a glow-worm light, compared to\nthat which blazes with such effulgence in the heart of God.” Other lights\nmaybe obscured or missing; yours may possibly even now be either the mourner’s\nwatch, with its hushed vigils, or you may be sundered by death from dearly\nloved ones, yearning for “the touch of the vanished hand.” You cannot\nbe away from the touch of God. “The Lord your God is with you wherever you\ngo.” Grow not weary of His correction. He loves you through your anguish,\nand will yet assuredly vindicate the rectitude of all His procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lines seem so appropriate, in closing this meditation, that their\nfamiliarity will not deter transcribing them. They form the prayer and solace\nof all “Pilgrims of the night,” as they look upwards to their Guiding\nPillar\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead me on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The night is dark, and I am far from home,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead me on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
O keep my feet: I do not ask to see<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The distant scene\u2014one step enough for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So long Your power has blest me, sure it still<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will lead me on<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over moor and marsh, over crag and torrent, until<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The night is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with the morn those angel faces smile<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ceasing unavailing tears, look forward to the time when the promise of earth\nwill be perpetuated without symbol in the heavenly city: and when a new meaning\nwill be given to the old words of the Wilderness Leader\u2014”But all the\nchildren of Israel had light in their dwellings.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cruel bondage!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (from Octavius Winslow’s,\n“The Spirit of Adoption”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The world holds all its\ndevotees in cruel bondage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It enslaves….<\/p>\n\n\n\n the intellect by its\nopinions,<\/p>\n\n\n\n the heart by its pleasures,<\/p>\n\n\n\n the imagination by its\npromises,<\/p>\n\n\n\n the soul by its religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For the law of the\nSpirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and\ndeath.” Romans 8:2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n We by nature and practice\nare slaves to sin and Satan. We are the sport of the prince of the power of the\nair, who takes us captive at his will. We are held down also by many hurtful\nlusts; or, if free from gross sin, are slaves to pride, covetousness, or\nself-righteousness. Perhaps some idol is set up in the chambers of imagery\nwhich defiles all the inner man; or some snare of Satan entangles our feet, and\nwe are slaves, without power to liberate ourselves from this cruel slavery. We\ngroan under it, as the children of Israel under their burdens, but, like them,\ncannot deliver ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But sooner or later the\ntruth comes to our aid; the truth as it is in Jesus flies to the rescue of\nGod’s oppressed family; the blessed Spirit opens it up and seals it upon the\nheart with a divine power. As, then, under his gracious influences they believe\nthe truth, and feel its power and savor in their heart, a liberating influence\nis communicated; their fetters and shackles are loosened; the bondage of sin\nand Satan, and the power and strength of evil are sensibly broken, and a\nmeasure of holy freedom is enjoyed. There is no other way of getting from under\nthe bondage of the law but by the application of the gospel, and by believing\nwhat the gospel reveals. As the truth, then, comes to the heart as the very\nword of the living God, power comes with it to believe; faith is raised up to\ncredit the testimony; and as faith begins to credit the truth of God and\nreceive it in hope and love, there is a sensible loosening of the bonds; and\nthen the chains and fetters drop off of themselves. It is with the soul as it\nwas with Peter in prison–when the angel came, and a light shined in the\nprison, and the angel’s words fell upon his ears, “the chains fell from\noff his hands.” There remained nothing then to bar his exit; for “the\niron gate that leads unto the city opened to them of its own accord.” So\nwhatever chains or fetters may hold the soul, let the angel of mercy come; let\nthe message of salvation be revealed, the chains of unbelief drop off, the iron\ngate of hardness gives way, and the truth makes the soul blessedly free (John\n8:32).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Psa. 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. J.C.Philpot What a painful thing it is to be rebellious! There is hardly any feeling worse than rebellion to a man whose conscience is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761","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=5761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5762,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761\/revisions\/5762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}