Perfect eternal rest_ever to serve, adore Thee!
During the endless day, Thee, Lord, Thy saints shall praise.
Rapt, in mute ecstasy, casting their crowns before Thee,
Prone at Thy feet they fall, anthems of joy to raise!

Thee shall we contemplate_gaze on Thy face adoring,
Saviour and Bridegroom-Lord, Beauty Supreme above!
Sounding the soundless depths, measureless heights exploring_
Heights of Thy peerless grace, depths of Thy boundless love!

Jesus, from Thee alone borrowing light transcendent_
Sun, Thou, of righteousness, lending Thy lustrous rays_
Radiant, Thy bride shall wear, through the long age resplendent,
Glory immaculate, Thine own perfections’ blaze!

Us wilt Thou contemplate_pearl of Thy heart’s deep longing,
Travail of Thy lone soul, fruit of Thy wondrous cross!
Then wilt Thou rest in love! Thou wilt rejoice with singing,
Rest in triumphant love, singing for joy o’er us!

"We who have believed do enter into rest. . . . For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again He limiteth a certain day, saying in David . . ., Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if [Joshua] had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His" (Heb. 4:3-10).

Here the whole condition of blessing, so far as we are concerned, is faith. We who believe will enter into rest. The subject here is the future rest of God. The apostle says that in a certain sense God’s rest had been from the time of creation:"He spake … of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." God ended His work and then He rested. In that sense, the sabbath of God began. But as a matter of fact we read, when our blessed Lord was here upon earth, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work" (John 5:17). God’s rest, so far as this world was concerned, was marred by sin, for He can never rest in the presence of sin. As one has beautifully said, "Holiness cannot rest where sin is. Love cannot rest where sorrow is." "Ye have made Me to serve with your sins," He says. Men make God labor with their sins. There can be no rest for God save as He would immediately judge the ungodly. If He is going on with man in any way, He must resume a toil compared with which the work of creation was nothing. God ended that work of creation and rested; but the toil He entered upon as soon as sin came into this world through our first parents, went on and on increasingly, and goes on to this very day. As we may say, God is laboring. He labored all through the Old Testament; He sent His beloved Son into the world who continued that labor; He sent the Holy Spirit here at Pentecost, and now the Spirit of God is laboring. It is a scene of divine toil, when God is seeking to induce men by His toil to cease from their sin and to bring them into His rest.

He goes on further to David’s time. Joshua had brought them into the land of Canaan. He says if Joshua had given the people rest, there would have been the accomplishment of God’s purpose (verse 8). But many years later, in King David’s time, the people still did not have rest. And if we trace their history through, we find they have never had true and genuine rest. What is the result of this? "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (verse 9).

What is this rest? Is it the rest that comes through believing in Jesus, referred to by our Lord when He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28)? Not exactly, but the rest the Lord mentioned in this passage is a foretaste, for the soul, of the rest referred to in Hebrews 4. The rest for the people of God is found where Christ is now_in the glory. This is the final rest, and he who enters into that rest not only ceases from his work for salvation, but he ceases from all work. He ceases from toil in the sense of it being toil; for though activity and service will continue throughout eternity, it will never mar the sabbatic stillness of that blessed place where there is no sin and therefore no toil in that sense of the word.

How significant it is that God imposed toil upon man when sin came into the world! It was in the sweat of his brow that man was to earn his bread. At first he was put there to dress and to keep the garden, but the bitterness of service and toil was not there. So in that heavenly Paradise, the rest of God into which we eater, there will be service, there will be ministry throughout eternity; but there will be no weariness, no toil, no witness of the presence of sin.

That rest remains. How are we going to enter into it? "We who have believed do enter into rest" (verse 3). Is that the living, blessed reality that is before us now_the rest of God? the rest where sin never can come and which it never can mar?

Oh, we know what it is to have rest in believing in Jesus here; we know something, too, of what it is to have rest in bearing His light and easy yoke. But why do we groan? "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. 8:22). Why these sighs and groans?

We will not get the full thought of this rest until we see that it is primarily God’s, and not ours. A perfect Being can only rest where all is in accord with His nature. Thus even the first creation was completed and all pronounced "very good" before God rested. So in the new creation. All must answer to the divine thought. Sin must be eternally banished; evil in all its forms must be obliterated. The results of sin too_the sufferings, sorrows, woes of life, and death ("the last enemy")_must be done away. All, too, must have the stamp of permanence, in contrast with the change and decay which prevail now.

All the perfections of God’s being can then survey with delight His wide creation. The heavens will nevermore be disturbed in their harmony or stained with the pollution of Satan’s presence. The heavenly city which is the Bride, the Lamb who is its light and glory, and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness will all be the object of God’s supreme satisfaction. Again will those words "very good" be spoken, and God Himself will cease from His labors.

The work of Christ is the eternal basis of this rest. There the righteousness of God was glorified along with every attribute of the divine nature. That is why, after completing His work, our Lord sat down. He rests, waiting till His enemies are put beneath His feet. The final rest is the outcome of that accomplished work, and in spirit we can enjoy it now, though surrounded by so much that mars our outward rest.

Dear brethren, we are made for God’s rest, and until we enter into the sabbath of our God we will be a weary people. We are in the wilderness; the brightest scenes of earth_the joys of communion, the joys of fellowship one with another_are not these foretastes broken into or disturbed by the malice of the enemy? Is not the divided state of the people of God at present, and the unrest we all deplore, a witness that we are in the wilderness and have not entered into the rest of God? We are waiting for that rest, we are looking forward to that. Let us exhort one another that we do not settle down in our souls to any rest short of that eternal rest of God which He has prepared for us. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (verse 9).

(From Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews.)

As we have noted previously, the first four commandments have to do with man’s relationship with God and his recognition of the true nature and character of God. The first three commandments emphasize the truths that God is unique ("thou shalt have no other gods"), God is a spirit and cannot_indeed, must not_be represented by images of created beings, and God is holy and His name must always be used in a holy, reverent manner.

The fourth commandment brings before us the wisdom and power of God in His works of creation and in His deliverance of His people from their enemies. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, . . . and hallowed it" (Exod. 20:8-11). "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day" (Deut. 5:15).

The word ‘sabbath’ means ‘rest’; since God rested from His works of creation on the seventh day, this day was marked out as a day of rest_or sabbath. While in principle the sabbath was instituted on the day following the six days of creation, no command was given to man to observe the sabbath day until the law was given to the nation of Israel through Moses. Mention of the sabbath is made in Exodus 16 in connection with the manna, but this seems to have been in anticipation of the law that was to be given shortly thereafter.

By observing the sabbath, Israel was commemorating the old, original creation, acknowledging God’s power and wisdom in that creation. Every week when they rested from their work on the sabbath day, the people of Israel would be reminded that the God who created the heaven and the earth was their God. The Lord told Israel, "My sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. … It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed" (Exod. 31:13-17).

No doubt one of the side benefits of keeping the sabbath was improved bodily strength and health derived from giving the body and soul a break every seven days from the daily routine of hard labor in the field, household chores, and the like. This aspect is especially emphasized in regards to letting the fields rest every seventh year in order to recover their fertility (Lev. 25:4). Because of Israel’s failure to observe these seven-year sabbaths for a period of 490 years (70 sabbatical years), the Lord led them away captive to Babylon for 70 years to allow the land to recover fully from this neglect (2 Chron. 36:21). Is there a spiritual lesson in this for us? Does not the Lord sometimes allow us to be laid up with an illness or injury so that we will be forced to spend more time in quiet before Him and in reading and meditation upon His Word?

The fourth commandment is unique among the ten in that it is not carried over into Christianity. The other nine commandments are restated and often expanded upon (for example, Matt. 5:21-37; 6:9; Eph. 4:25-28; 1 John 5:21) in the New Testament ministry to believers in Christ (although, as we have discussed in previous issues, these are not presented as a means of salvation or a rule of life, but as minimal evidences that one truly is following Christ). However, nowhere are Christian believers commanded, encouraged, or instructed to observe the sabbath. In fact, Christians are warned against going back to sabbath-observance. In Col. 2:16,17 we read that "the sabbath days … are a shadow of things to come, but the body [or substance] is of Christ."

The prophetic scriptures indicated that Israel’s sabbaths would cease (Hos. 2:11) and that they will once again be resumed during the period of the great tribulation and the millennium when Israel will once again become God’s special people (Isa. 66:23; Ezek. 46:1; Matt. 24:20), Thus it would appear that the sabbath observance was meant particularly and specifically for the nation of Israel, and_unlike the other nine commandments_not applicable to God’s people, the Christians, in the present age.

Recall that the sabbath is a commemoration of the old creation, described in Genesis 1. But this creation was marred by sin, so that now the "whole creation groaneth" (Rom. 8:22). To the honest heart, observance of the sabbath day could not really give rest and peace to the soul, knowing that sin had come in to ruin the beauty and perfection of that creation. This is confirmed by the fact that in spite of the prohibition of work of all kinds on the sabbath (Lev. 23:3; Num. 15:32-36; Neh. 10:31), yet the priests were to offer sacrifices on the sabbath day as on every other day (Num. 28:9,10).

On the other hand, with the death and resurrection of Christ we have the bringing in of a new creation:"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [or new creation]; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). Is it not appropriate, therefore, that the followers of Christ commemorate the new creation on the first day of the week_that day on which Christ arose triumphant over death and the grave, having gained the victory over sin and Satan and all that has come in to mar the old creation!

There are a number of scriptural facts_besides that marvelous, stupendous fact of Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the week_that lend support to the notion that God has established the first day of the week as the day for Christians to devote to worshipping, serving, and learning about Christ:

1. In late afternoon of the resurrection day, Jesus Christ broke bread with some of his followers (Luke 24:30).

2. On two occasions during that resurrection day, Christ met with His followers and disciples and taught them out of the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24:27,44,45).

3. In the evening of that resurrection day, Christ commissioned His disciples to testify of His death and resurrection beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47,48).

4. Exactly one week later, on the first day of the week, while Christ was meeting with the disciples, He received worship ("My Lord and my God") from Thomas when he beheld Christ’s nail-pierced hands and feet (John 20:28).

5. The Holy Spirit came down to indwell the believers on the day of Pentecost_a Jewish feast day that always occurred on the first day of the week (Lev. 23:15,16)_marking the beginning of the Church (Acts 2).

6. The disciples who lived in Troas gathered together the first day of the week to break bread and to hear the apostle Paul preach, even though Paul was in Troas an entire week and they could theoretically have met together any other day of the week (Acts 20:6,7).

7. The believers at Corinth were instructed by the apostle Paul to set aside their monetary offerings for the Lord’s work on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:2).

Thus we have ample scriptural evidence both that the Lord does not want Christians to observe the Jewish sabbath (that is, the seventh day of the week), and that He is pleased if we devote the first day of the week to commemorating the new creation based on the death and resurrection of Christ.

It is important to note that Christians are nowhere commanded to set aside a particular day of the week for worshipping and serving the Lord. Rather, God has presented to us in the New Testament a series of wonderful truths and facts relating to the first day of the week, and in the spirit of the grace wherein we stand, it is left up to our own heart’s desire as to whether we devote that day to the Lord.

Under the system of law, the people may have derived benefit from obedience to this or that commandment, but God did not receive much glory if the people refrained from stealing or adultery or observed the sabbath only as a matter of duty, or out of fear of God’s punishment for disobedience. Under grace, however, the Christian has the precious privilege of doing all things to the glory of God. This is carried out as a matter of Christian liberty, motivated by love and appreciation toward God in response to His manifold grace and mercy shown to us, rather than by fear of the consequences of going our own way.

Thus the first day of the week, for the Christian, is quite distinct from the Jewish sabbath. It is not necessarily a day of rest and quiet but, it may be, a day devoted to worshipping the Lord, remembering Him in His death, being taught God’s Word, and serving Him in the gospel. Under the law, the people worked the first six days of the week and rested from their works on the seventh. This is in keeping with the demands of the law which required man to do good works first in order to receive God’s blessing (Deut. 11), even though, manifestly, no one (excepting the Lord Jesus Christ) ever succeeded in doing those good works required to enter into rest. In contrast to this, under grace, the Christian’s week begins with a day of blessing before any works are wrought, and this helps to give him the spiritual strength to keep close to the Lord and work for the Lord throughout the next six days. This is a beautiful picture of God’s ways with the believer in Christ:He first brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ, gives us a new nature, and sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us. Then He sends us, appropriately equipped, back into the world (at work, school, our neighborhood, etc.) to work for Him and bear fruit for Him.

What now, fellow Christian? Given that we are not to observe the Jewish sabbath and given that we have no commandment in the Bible to observe the first day of the week, what shall we do? Shall we use our Christian liberty to spend that day of Christ’s resurrection to cater to our own personal pleasures, to engage in activities that have nothing to do with our resurrection life in Christ and that will be burnt up as wood, hay, and stubble at the judgment seat of Christ? Shall we spend that day that commemorates the birth of the Church by forsaking the gathering of ourselves together? (Heb. 10:25). Shall we consider that we have fulfilled our Christian duty by attending only the Lord’s day morning breaking of bread meeting while neglecting the Bible studies, lectures, prayer meetings, and/or gospel meetings also conducted that day?

There is little question over how a well-instructed, Spirit filled believer should be occupied on the day that commemorates Christ’s resurrection, the new creation, and the beginning of the Church. If, perchance, the child of God is not yielded to Him, no unwilling observance of a day will correct his carnal heart nor would such observance be pleasing to God. The issue between God and the carnal Christian is not one of outward actions but of a yielded life.

May we each grow in our heart’s appreciation of our Lord’s love and grace shown to us, and may we thus respond to that grace by joining our fellow believers in devoting the first day of the week to the worship, ministry, and service of our wonderful Lord and Saviour.

FRAGMENT After weariness of heart in the world_after the Lord Jesus had gone through the world and found no place where a really broken heart could rest_He came to show that what could not be found for man anywhere else could be found in God. This is so blessed! that after all, the poor wearied heart, wearied with itself, with its own ways, wearied with the world and everything, can find rest in the blessedness of the bosom of the Father.

FRAGMENT It is Jesus who gives abiding rest to our souls, and not what our thoughts about ourselves may be. Faith never thinks about that which is in ourselves as its ground of rest; it receives, loves, and apprehends what God has revealed, and what are God’s thoughts about Jesus, in whom is His rest.

FRAGMENT
And here we walk, as sons through grace,
A Father’s love our present joy;
Sons, in the brightness of Thy face,
Find rest no sorrows can destroy.

FRAGMENT There is but one man who never had a place of rest. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." And if we now have a nest, a place of rest in God, it is because for our sakes Jesus was without rest on earth.

FRAGMENT After weariness of heart in the world_after the Lord Jesus had gone through the world and found no place where a really broken heart could rest_He came to show that what could not be found for man anywhere else could be found in God. This is so blessed! that after all, the poor wearied heart, wearied with itself, with its own ways, wearied with the world and everything, can find rest in the blessedness of the bosom of the Father.

FRAGMENT It is Jesus who gives abiding rest to our souls, and not what our thoughts about ourselves may be. Faith never thinks about that which is in ourselves as its ground of rest; it receives, loves, and apprehends what God has revealed, and what are God’s thoughts about Jesus, in whom is His rest.

FRAGMENT
And here we walk, as sons through grace,
A Father’s love our present joy;
Sons, in the brightness of Thy face,
Find rest no sorrows can destroy.

In the last issue we considered ten scriptural facts relating to the resurrection of Christ. Now we shall use these plus other facts of Scripture as well as other arguments to refute four false theories that have been propounded to explain away the resurrection of Christ.

FRAGMENT

Theory 1. Christ never actually died on the cross, but only swooned. This theory, which was first propounded about 200 years ago, suggests that Christ was in a sort of coma and only appeared to have died. It goes on to suggest that He was revived by the cool air of the tomb, got up, and walked away. This theory is refuted by the following arguments:

1. John reports that "When [the soldiers] came to Jesus, [they] saw that He was dead already" (John 19:33). If indeed these soldiers were mistaken, one of them made good and sure that there would be no mistake:"But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water" (verse 34).

2. Christ’s body was wrapped up in linen cloth, with 70 pounds of spices wound up in the graveclothes. Even if He had revived from the coma, it would have been quite a feat, with hands and feet tightly bound, with that load of spices weighing Him down, and being critically ill from loss of blood, to have unwrapped Himself. Besides, His head also was wound around with a linen cloth (John 20:7), thus impeding His ability to breathe. It would have required a miracle nearly of the magnitude of the resurrection itself for Christ to have freed Himself from the graveclothes.

3. When the three women came to put fresh spices on the body of Christ, they wondered among themselves, "Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" (Mark 16:3). If the three women were not strong enough to roll away the stone, would a man who had barely survived crucifixion, lost a lot of blood, just awakened out of a coma, and made a heroic effort to struggle out of the graveclothes that bound him, have had strength enough remaining to move the stone?

4. The afternoon after coming out of the grave, Jesus walked six miles, from Jerusalem to Emmaus, with two of His followers. Think of it! Two days after being crucified He walked six miles on His nail-pierced feet with no indication of hurting!

5. In all of Christ’s post-crucifixion appearances, He always gave the appearance of One who was strong and healthy, not One who was dying or who had just recovered from a close brush with death.

FRAGMENT Theory 2. Christ’s body was stolen away by the disciples. This is the oldest of the false theories concerning the resurrection, starting out as an outright lie when the priests bribed the guards to spread the story, "His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept" (Matt. 28:13). the following arguments might be made against this theory:

1. If the disciples had any reason to want to fool the public into thinking that Christ had risen from the dead, they surely would have waited until the next night to steal the body. Jesus had told them He would rise the third day, so the disciples would have waited to see if Jesus would be true to His word before taking matters into their own hands. Instead, the body was found to be missing very early on the third day.

2. If the disciples had stolen the body out from under the noses of the soldiers standing guard, surely they would not have taken the time and effort to unwind the linen cloths from off the head and body and then to rewrap the cloths the way they had originally been wound about the head and body! (John 20:6,7). So often it is easier to believe in miracles than to believe the alternative explanations that are proposed.

3. The story spread by the guards (Matt. 28:13) was totally illogical. If they were asleep, how could they know it was the disciples who stole the body? And if they were the slightest bit awake, they would have foiled the attempted theft since their very lives depended on their keeping the tomb secure from robbers.

4. According to Roman law, the guards should have been put to death for not securing the tomb against grave-robbers. Why, then, didn’t the priests demand that the guards be punished for allowing Christ’s body to disappear? It was because they knew that if the guards had gone on trial they would have proclaimed the truth about the earthquake and about the angel who descended from heaven and rolled back the stone (Matt. 28:2).

5. Very shortly after the crucifixion, the disciples started preaching to their fellow Jews the fact of Christ’s death and resurrection. If, indeed, they had stolen the body, what would have been their purpose in preaching a lie, especially since such teaching placed them in great jeopardy of their lives? How could a stolen body have transformed that group of fearful disciples (John 20:19) into bold and fearless witnesses for Christ?

FRAGMENT Theory 3. All of Christ’s supposed post-resurrection appearances were only hallucinations. In other words, the disciples, along with many others, only imagined that Christ appeared to them. Let us consider the following arguments concerning this theory:

1. Psychiatrists say that only particular kinds of people experience hallucinations. Also, it is unlikely that two people have the same hallucination at the same time. However, most of the reported post-crucifixion appearances of Christ were to groups of people ranging in number from seven (John 21:2) to over 500 (1 Cor. 15:6).

2. Those who claimed to see Jesus alive again after the crucifixion claimed not only to see Him, but they had conversations with Him (Luke 24:15-27; John 21:15-22), touched Him (Luke 24:39; John 20:27), and gave Him food and watched Him eat it (Luke 24:30,42,43; John 21:13).

3. The reported appearances did not just occur in nostalgic places, like the upper room where the disciples had experienced their last significant contact with Christ_but in many different places, such as in a boat, on a mountain, and on the road between Jerusalem and Emmaus.

4. When Christ first appeared to His disciples, they were forced to believe against their will (Luke 24:36-40; John 20:25-29). Also, when Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, she mistook Him for the gardener (John 20:14-16). Are these evidences for a hallucination?

5. These "visions" of Christ suddenly came to an end, after eleven people saw Him ascend bodily into heaven (Acts 1:4-13).

FRAGMENT Theory 4. Everyone went to the wrong tomb; the empty tomb was not the one Christ was buried in. Let us test this theory by the Scriptures:

1. When the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb, Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" were sitting opposite the grave, watching everything that was happening. When they went to the tomb early on the first day of the week, could they both have forgotten so quickly which tomb it was? Besides, at the tomb they went to they found an angel who said to them, "I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen" (Matt. 28:5,6).

2. The women came to the tomb "at the rising of the sun" (Mark 16:2). Thus, they should have been able to see whether they were at the right tomb or not.

3. Since the tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, surely he would have checked out the reports of the empty tomb and have verified whether the people had gone to the right tomb.

4. Since there was so much at stake in this matter, and since the Jewish priests and leaders very much wanted to keep the disciples from spreading word concerning the resurrection of Christ, surely they would have found the right tomb and produced the body, if the body had been there!

FRAGMENT What was it that changed a band of frightened, cowardly disciples into men of courage and conviction? What changed Peter from being so afraid that three times he denied knowing Jesus, into such a bold preacher of Christ? What is it that has given courage and boldness to many believers through over nineteen centuries of the history of the Church_such that many have been burned at the stake, thrown to the lions, and experienced many similar fates, rather than renounce Christ? It is the knowledge of the certainty of the death and resurrection of Christ. And this is not something we merely accept by faith; it is a confirmed historical fact.

The root of sin in us is self-will and independence from God. But in Jesus, the perfectly dependent Man, my heart has rest. Jesus was totally dependent upon His Father, whether in the midst of sorrow, in humiliation, or in glory. And when that blessed heart of Christ expressed its dependence in praying to His Father, did He get an answer? Yes, "The heaven was opened" (Luke 3:21). Does heaven open thus on me? It is open to me indeed, no doubt, but I pray because it is open, whereas it opened because He prayed.

This is indeed a lovely picture of grace, and we may be bold to say that the Father loved to look down, in the midst of all sin, on His beloved Son. "He that sent Me is with Me; the Father hath not left Me alone" (John 8:29). Nothing but what was divine could awaken God’s heart; yet it was the lowly, perfect Man whom God looked upon. Jesus did not take the place of His eternal glory as the Creator and the Son of God, but He stooped and was baptized. He said, "In Thee do I put My trust. . . . Thou art My Lord (Psa. 16:1,2), and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove on Him (Luke 3:22). What a fitting resting place for the Spirit was Jesus, in the deluge of this world. How sweet, too, that Jesus is pointed out to us as God’s object.

The Scriptures reveal to us the way the Father feels about His Son. Thus I am made His intimate, and admitted to hear Him expressing His affection for His Son. Thus I get rest, and my heart finds communion with God in His beloved Son. And if I find that which, in and about me, distresses the soul, I have in Him that which is unfailing joy and comfort. Even if heaven and earth were turned upside down, still I have a rest with Him. ,What blessedness it is for the heart to have the Object with whom God Himself is occupied.

"Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22).

(In Help and Food, Vol. 24.)