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CHAPTER VI.

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS.

THE second practical purpose to which I would apply our subject, is, that it affords a most decisive standard, by which a believer may judge of the state of his affections towards the Saviour, whether they are, as they ought ever to be, lively and progressive, or beginning to decline, and tend towards decay!

Connected, as we have observed the day of the second coming of the Son of God to be, with His seeing fully of the travail of His soul, and being satisfied, if we have been taught by the Holy Spirit to feel His inestimable preciousness, and our boundless obligations to His redeeming love, whenever our affections toward this Divine Benefactor, springing from the sense of all we owe Him-(Oh! what that one word all includes)-are in a healthful and happy frame, the attitude of our spirits will be that so beautifully described by the Apostle" looking, longing for, hastening unto the coming of the Lord" -anticipating the day of his appearing, with a holy ardour of intense desire, as being delighted with the prospect of the glory, the blessedness which we shall then see enjoyed by our best, our most beloved Friend-yet having this ardent desire chastened, and

preserved from the inquietude of feverish feelings, by a sweet and sober spirit of patient waiting for Christ!

On the other hand, if, from any cause, our love to our Heavenly Friend has begun to wax less warm, or to exercise a less supremely attractive influence over us-if any object of earthly affection has begun, imperceptibly, to ensnare us in the dangerous fascinations of an idolatrous attachment-if any vision of earthly enjoyment has begun to entice our souls away from the glorious prospects of celestial bliss, then, by an inevitable consequence, will our ardent longings for the day of Christ's appearing begin to abate-The eye of our souls will be no longer looking constantly and eagerly for this glorious event-The flattering hope, whose lying promises of satisfying felicity we have foolishly believed, will begin to be substituted for a believer's "blessed hope!" and when, either in the page of prophecy, or by some startling dispensation of Providence, or some fresh portentous sign of the times, the Saviour's voice seems to be heard, calling out, "Behold! I come quickly!" our hearts will no longer answer, with a joyful burst of holy desire" Even so come Lord Jesus!" but the voice will sound in our ears as an alarming thunder-peal, and the words, at which every affection and aspiration of our renewed nature ought to thrill with reverential rapture, will only fill our hearts with emotions of inquietude and fear!

Surely, when the appearing of the Saviour is not fervently desired by us, though numbered among His own redeemed and beloved people; when the anticipated approach of the day of His glory is contemplated, not with delight, but alarm-when, if it depended on our choice, our wishes would retard it, even for an hour-Oh, surely, then, our hearts can

not be right with our Saviour-God! His love cannot be reigning, as it ought, in supreme sovereignty on the throne of our affections-We are beginning to leave our first love-The principle of declension in our spiritual system has begun to work-and we would do well to take heed, and search diligently, and pray fervently, that the commencing mischief may be checked by the Holy Spirit, before the offended Saviour be provoked to hide from our backsliding souls the light of his countenance; or be compelled, in mercy and faithfulness, to visit us with some sore chastisement, and thus to scourge us back, with the rod of affliction, into the path of close walking and communion with Himself, from which we have so foolishly, and so ungratefully wandered.

We may derive some interesting illustrations of the truth of this position, from the relationships of earthly affection; for be it ever remembered, that the Saviour has condescended to image His infinite love for His people by those relationships, for the special purpose of intimating to us, that He, who is above all things jealous of our affections-He, whose demand from each of us is "Give Me thine heart," (which demand not being answered by an unreserved surrender, He would not accept, could we offer it without the heart, the surrender of our whole life to His service,) He who values nothing in us but our love; and values that as the most precious treasure, which earth can present to Him-He wishes that we should concentrate on Himself all that is most pure and precious in those endearing relationships of earthly love, which then assuredly fulfil their noblest destination, and yield their sublimest satisfaction, when they are made subservient towards assisting us to form a fuller and more delightful appreciation of His love for us, and to establish within our hearts a more entire concen

tration of our love, in its fullest strength and sweetness, on His blessed self!

Let us then follow up the train of thought thus suggested. The Lord Jesus Christ styles Himself the Friend of all His people! "Ye are my friends," (He says in his infinite condescension,) "if you do the things which I command you!"

Sweet proof of our friendship for the Saviour, that we should keep those commandments of His, which are only (such happiness is linked with obedience to them) so many expressions of a Saviour's love.

Now suppose we had a friend, who had lavished on us even the millionth part of the love that Jesus has shown us, and that we had long been parted from this beloved friend, and that, at length, a promise reached us of his speedy-perhaps his immediate return-and suppose, yet further, the day of his arrival was to be one, when he should bring to a successful termination some arduous enterprise, in which he had been long engaged, and on which he had expended all his wealth, and all his energies, and that he was then to reap the full reward of years of toil, and sufferings-Oh, tell me, if, as the day of his promised return drew near, we did not look forward to the moment of meeting our benefactor and friend, and seeing him in full possession of the recompense of all his labours and sorrows, with feelings of unmingled and unbounded gladness of heart, must there not be something radically wrong in the state of our affections toward that professedly beloved friend?

But if we suppose yet further, (to bring the parallel more close,) that during his absence, that friend had been unceasingly thinking of us, and labouring to promote our welfare, and was returning to enrich us with the wealth he had acquired, and to make us participators in the triumph of the glorious enterprise, which would be crowned with complete success, on

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the day of his return, that this was the very object our friend had in view in coming to us, this the prospect, to which, in absence, he had delighted to look forward —Oh, what must we think of ourselves, if under such circumstances as these, the day of our friend's arrival was not anticipated with intense gratitude and delight?

I will not waste one moment in the application. Reader, how does it tell, as to the state of thy heart towards Jesus Christ?

Now I can but regard it as a matter of peculiar importance, that we should be thus supplied with so decisive a test of the state of our affections towards the Saviour, because as all is right or wrong here, all is right or wrong in our spiritual system!

Let me, however, guard against my meaning being mistaken. I am far, indeed, from wishing to insinuate, that our acceptance with God rests on so insecure and uncertain a foundation, as the ever-varying state of our spiritual feelings, or is left to be perpetually fluctuating with their perpetual fluctuations. Were this the case, what believer could ever enjoy an hour's settled peace of mind, if his hopes of salvation were to be constantly rising or falling, as the thermometer of his spiritual feelings rose or fell? No, no, blessed be God! those who have fled for refuge to the hope set before sinners in the Gospel, have a stronger, a surer foundation on which to rest-an immoveable and indestructible rock-even the unchangeable faithfulness, divine atonement, and everlasting righteousness, of JehovahJesus-and all-sufficient and unfailing Saviour-God.

Still is it of immense importance to us, if believers, to watch the progress or declension of our love to the Redeemer; because it is both true, that our highest happiness will always be proportioned to the degree of intensity, with which this holy love burns, (for he as yet knows nothing of a believer's hidden life before

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