To whom shall we go ?" Not "where." The world I had become to them an empty void. In the fourteenth chapter, the Lord is about to leave them, and there is really no one else for them to turn to; their hearts are attached to Him. Their hearts tremble in anticipation of His departure, and the Lord ministers to them. He seeks to take their affection away from this world altogether, by showing them their prospect in the Father's house, where He is going. They are looking for a place on earth:the Lord transfers their affections to heaven. He seems to take their attention right away from this scene, and leave them as strangers and pilgrims, but not as orphans. I need not say that it is only those who are out of this world in heart and affection who are fit to go through it according to what is of God.

These remarks remind us of one of the apostle's straits in the epistle to the Philippians. It was when he could say, " I have a desire to depart and be with Christ," that God could say, You are just the man I can leave down there. What for? For the "furtherance and joy of faith" of God's people. Nevertheless, though the hearts of the Lord's people were thus attached to Christ, we find here that even they go to their place of rest; but there is one here who seems for the moment to be in just the place Christ occupied in this world-no place to lay her head,-no place for her in this scene where her Lord was not. She is there at the sepulcher a mourner.

There are different degrees of affection ; this none of us doubt. Sometimes Jonathan's affection to David is pointed to as a specimen of Christian devotedness. I would not in the slightest degree despise Jonathan's love; indeed, I think we may often take it as a reproach to ourselves, and ask ourselves if our love and devotedness to the Lord comes up to it; nevertheless, we have a standard, and we shall find, according to it, Christian love is higher than Jonathan's to David. Jonathan stripped himself of all that he possessed; he loved David as his own soul, and yet he returned to the palace. Even his love could have gone a step further, and therefore cannot be love of the highest degree, for he might have followed David into the cave. Love of the highest degree cannot, will not, rest short of the presence of its object. Orpah loved her mother-in-law, but went to her own country, which was something like the affection of Jonathan to David; but Ruth wept, and kissed her mother-in-law, and clave to her, saying, "Whither thou goest, I will go; and whither thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Nothing but the presence and enjoyment of the company of its object could satisfy such love as this, and that is what we have here in Mary. Her affection for Christ makes her a mourner here in this world where He is rejected.

As she is there at the sepulcher, mourning the absence of her Lord, the angel asks the question, " Why weepest thou?" She gives the reason :"They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." The absence of Christ was the cause of her mourning. Do we know, beloved brethren, what it is to mourn the absence of Christ in this world ? Everything tells of His absence. We have experienced, like Mary Magdalene, a great deliverance at His hands. Has He not won our hearts? Can we get along through such a world without Jesus? Are we mourners because of His absence?

Now the Lord appears. He appears to Mary, and repeats the angel's question, but asks another, which comes much nearer her heart:He says, " Why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou?" This seems to take Mary Magdalene right beyond herself, and she says, " Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." Occupied as she is with her Lord, she concludes that he will know whom she means. It was the one who knew what it was to mourn the absence of her Lord who got the revelation of His presence. The more we mourn the absence of the Lord in this world, the more, I am sure, he will reveal Himself to our hearts; but if we think we can get along in this world without Him, He will leave us to ourselves until we turn to Him in contrition of heart.

Christ desires the company of His people. He has redeemed us, and He loves us; and love, with Him, will be satisfied with nothing less than the presence of its object. "That where I am, there ye maybe also." He desires us to be with Him forever. He desires that we may enjoy Him here, and that He may enjoy our company as we journey along through this world ; but if we are to company with Him, we must be suited to Himself. He will not suit Himself to our company, but we must be suited to His company.

Here we have a beautiful picture of the way the Lord fits us for His company. He has made provision for the removal of every thing that would hinder the enjoyment of His company, or that would make us unsuited to Himself. He desires our company, desires to dwell in our hearts,-not to come and visit now and then, but to dwell there. " That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."

The Word says, and it is blessed, that God has two homes,-one in the highest heaven and the other in the lowest hearts. Listen to that beautiful verse in the fifty-seventh of Isaiah,-" For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is 'Holy,' 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'" The One whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain dwells in the lowest hearts. What for? "To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." He desires our hearts. Some give their fortune, but withhold their hearts ; their talents, but withhold their hearts; their time, but withhold their hearts:all these are nothing without the heart. He wants our hearts. If He has them, He has all,-all is held by Himself; but, how marvelous ! if we will not give Him His place there, He stands outside and knocks, saying, " Open unto Me, and I will come in, and sup with you and you with Me." I know it is wonderful, but there it is set forth as clearly as possible in the Revelation of God's Word. There is nothing more wonderful in Christianity, I am sure, than the thought that the Lord Jesus Christ desires the company of His people,-yea, that the affection of the Father requires the gratification of the Father's desire-our presence in the house above.

It is more real heart-work that is wanted amongst us, I am sure; I feel it for myself. "The trees of the Lord are full of sap:" all that He hath not planted will be plucked out. It is more real, genuine freshness and power that is needed in our hearts,-in our condition amongst ourselves :it is more real sap of the freshness and power of the truth of God. " The trees of the Lord are full of sap," and I believe the secret of it is, to have the companionship of Christ; and if we know what it is in any measure to mourn His absence in this world, He will reveal Himself to us,-I am sure He will.

Here we find that Christ must have the first place, as we find it all the way through the New Testament; and you never yet enjoyed the presence of Christ without getting something from Him. Did you ever enjoy the presence of Christ, sitting at His feet, without getting a communication or communications from Him ? So here, after He has revealed Himself to Mary, and satisfied her heart by such a revelation, she gets a communication from Himself. "Go to" My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God." What a revelation! In the previous chapter, He was under the same condemnation; here, He takes them into the same relationship in which He stands. " My Father and your Father, My God and your God."

Now follows something else. Getting a communication from Himself, she becomes His messenger. "Go to My brethren." She becomes a witness of what she has learned from Himself. These three things you find all the way through the New Testament:Christ must be first; then, communication from Himself; and, third, witness for Himself in this scene.

In the twenty-fourth of Luke, we get it. Christ appears in the midst of His disciples. The first thing is, the revelation of Himself, which dispels their fear:their terror gives way to joy and wonder; and now, having Himself before them, the Lord recounts the things concerning Himself; He opens their understanding, that they may understand the things concerning Himself. Third, He says, " Ye are witnesses of these things." There is a fourth thing there too ; it is the power in which the witness is. They had to wait for the power. Though we have not to wait for it, we should wait upon it.

There is another instance where we get this same order. When Ananias went to Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, . . . . the Lord hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see -that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shall be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard." (Acts 22:12-15.) First, "that thou shouldest see the Just One;" second, " that thou shouldest hear the voice of His mouth;" third, that thou shouldest be His witness among all nations." This is the order; and so we find the very first utterance of Mary, when she got to His disciples, was, " I have seen the Lord." If we can say this first, when we go forth to be a witness, or to comfort the downcast saint, we shall be able to say what He has said to us. No doubt it was her proclamation of the risen Lord that brought them together, for in the next verse they are together.

There are three places where He is in the midst. In the nineteenth chapter, " in the midst" of two thieves. "On either side one, and Jesus in the midst." In the twentieth chapter, ver. 19, " in the midst" of His gathered people; in the fifth chapter of the Revelation, we find Him " in the midst" again-" a Lamb as it had been slain," – and, I say, what is a gathering of saints if .the Lord is not in the midst ? Nay, more, what is heaven if Christ is not there ? For a moment, Christ is hidden from the view of heaven, and a question is raised that cannot be settled :who can settle the question apart from Christ? The question is, "Who is worthy?" For a moment, Christ is hidden from view, and John begins to weep. Though in heaven there, yet he begins to weep because no one is found worthy to open the book, neither to look thereon. One of the elders says, "Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." In a moment, his tears are dried up. What are we without Christ ?

"The person of the Christ,
Enfolding every grace ;
Once dead, but now alive again,
In heaven demands our praise."

J. H. B.
Plainfield , July, 1892