Matt. 8:18-27.

The gospel narratives appeal very strongly to the heart and affections, telling us, as they do in such a simple way, of the life of Him whose love has won our poor love for Himself. His meekness, gentleness, love and grace all unite with His every act in a harmony of moral glories. Jonathan of old, his soul knit to the soul of David, and his love manifesting itself in the stripping off of his robe, even to his sword and bow and girdle, speaks in a typical way of how our own hearts have been won to the true David, and how, correspondingly, there should follow the complete stripping of ourselves of all for His sake,-the abasement of self that He may be exalted. It is this blessed lesson that is pressed upon us in the passage we are considering.

Three incidents are brought to our notice. First of all, we find a scribe declaring his purpose to follow Jesus wherever He may go. The Lord's answer to him is that "foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." The thought the Lord seeks to press is that if he follow Him he must be prepared to accept the same place of rejection as the Master occupied. It is consistency with relationship that is insisted upon. And when we consider how glorious a relationship we have been brought into, consistency with it is the highest standard for our walk. "Walk worthy "says the apostle, "of the vocation wherewith ye are called." How much this means for us, when we think of the position in which we stand as being linked with Christ! We are made the righteousness of God in Him; the judgment and the death penalty we deserved having been borne by Christ as our Substitute, so that now we stand in righteousness before God. We are quickened together with Him into newness of life. And not that merely:we are raised up with Him; we are introduced into the sphere to which this new life attaches, new creation, in which old things have passed away and all things become new. We are seated together in Christ in heavenly places.

How all this separates us from what we were formerly linked with, so that now we have no other link! And what other would we have, but that which is ours in new creation with the risen and glorified Lord of His people? As it has been beautifully expressed:"If the cross has been realized in its effect as to sin, the flesh, the world, what else is there to know but Christ? what other knowledge can we call knowledge? You, yourself, the great hindrance after all,-is gone. Only Christ remains."

This is the blessed summit of Christian position; and now as those who have been raised up to this glory, we are sent back into the world as representatives of the Lord in whom we have been exalted, to bring back with us the atmosphere of heaven itself. We come back to a world which still rejects this glorious One, and in which it is still true, at least in principle, that the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.

Consistency with this relationship, and constancy to Him with whom we have been called into fellowship, require us to occupy a position of rejection with Him in the scene of His rejection. Surely this means much for us in one way; but what of it all in view of the blessed One with whom we are linked, and the glory of our calling in Him? "Yea doubtless, and I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."

And this brings in, of necessity, the thought of obedience to Him as the Master we are following. It is the very essence of consistency with our relationship to Him as the Head of new creation,-in very deed the Lord of His people. May God in His mercy minister the needed grace to enable us to stand in the separated place, to take the rejection the world will give us if we are faithful to Him. Shall the visions of earth draw our hearts away, or the desire for ease or rest in this scene lure us from the loyalty we owe to our Lord?

Gaze into yon opened heavens, and see the glorious face of the Man Christ Jesus. Think how that face was once marred more than any man's, as it depicted the awful depth of sorrow that filled His heart, infinitely tender in its compassion for man, and feeling beyond all expression the sadness of the place He was in ! Yet, that blessed face struck with the hand of man's hatred, only brought out the manifestation of divine love in His heart for them; He was spat upon, and His brow pierced with thorns by those His heart yearned after-though mocking and vilifying Him ! The hatred of hearts, steeled with the bitter enmity of the carnal mind was poured out against Him. Divine love and infinite power manifested in a wealth of moral glory and beauty in the Man Christ Jesus-rejected! Can we compromise with a world that has acted thus ? Paul saw Him, and his heart was captivated; Christ in the glory becoming his object henceforth, so that as to this scene he could say, " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me and I to the world." May it be in very deed so with us, although it means the stripping off of all that men count dear, the losing of this life only to gain in fulness the life to come.

But devotedness to Him, with whom we are thus associated, is needful, and so it is this that the Lord now presses in the case of the disciple who would go and bury his father. His answer is, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead." The character of devotedness must supplement the one which we have been looking at. It alone gives real worth to it in His sight. The disciple is seeking to manifest a devotedness for earthly things which would give the Lord second place, and the Lord calls upon him to render devotedness to Him in leaving all behind, and following in His path. Surely no other character but this should be ours when we realize what is implied in our relationship with Christ. It is that "following after," forgetting the things which are behind and pressing forward toward the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.

That is the true spirit of devotedness; and with it animating us, we will manifest devotion to Christ in leaving all, out of which we have been taken by the existing relationship. Surely we must mourn our lack in this. We may understand the consistency that becomes the relationship in which we are, but shall we not say that we come short in that devoted-ness that should characterize our association with Him as rejected of men ? If we were for Him what we should be, would we not be more like He was when on earth? "To me to live is Christ." No keynote for the life like that ! Christ, nothing but Christ ! Glorious Object – the goal which drew the apostle ever forward with increasing desire for the end to be reached in its unsullied glory and cloudless joy ! What joy like that of seeing Him! How the heart will break forth in its eternal song of praise to Him. That face once so marked with the lines of pain and grief ! For us, in the devotedness of His love, did He bear such suffering and death. Is it much for Him to seek devotedness in us in the midst of a scene which cast Him out ? Surely, no other character than this should be ours.

Finally, we have the disciples in the tempest, and the power of the Lord manifest in being able to perfectly keep His own. Sweet assurance to receive from Him whom we are to follow in a path of rejection with its trial and tribulation ! But if walking consistently, and with devotedness to the Lord, we will take it from His hand who loves us, as the means of refining by which our faith shall be found unto His praise and honor and glory. There will be the quiet resignation of a subject spirit, from which will flow praise to His name, instead of the unbelieving prayer of a wavering faith. Lack of that spirit which receives all as from His hand arises from the absence of those two characters we have been considering. Is it not indeed "little faith " that is the root of failure in this direction ? But what matchless grace shines out over all! He arises, ever ready to answer the need of His people:and how blessedly, when He comes in, do the winds and the sea abate ! There follows that "great calm,"-the peace of Christ ministered to us, as He draws us into the secret of His own presence, where we learn how sweet the rest is that He gives ! Surely it is as abiding in His presence that we find the true incentive for a walk worthy of our high calling. May God in His mercy in these closing days,-the perilous times,-grant that we may walk in accord with His will, to the glory of the name of Christ our Lord. J. B. Jr.