Chapter IV.
Of those who find comfort in the recollection of God, or are fittest
for His love
But it will be well to note what class of people takes comfort in the thought of
God. Surely not that perverse and crooked generation to whom it was said, 'Woe
unto you that are rich; for ye have received your consolation' (Luke 6:24).
Rather, those who can say with truth, 'My soul refuseth comfort' (Ps. 77:2). For
it is meet that those who are not satisfied by the present should be sustained
by the thought of the future, and that the contemplation of eternal happiness
should solace those who scorn to drink from the river of transitory joys. That
is the generation of them that seek the Lord, even of them that seek, not their
own, but the face of the God of Jacob. To them that long for the presence of the
living God, the thought of Him is sweetest itself: but there is no satiety,
rather an ever-increasing appetite, even as the Scripture bears witness, 'they
that eat me shall yet be hungry' (Ecclus. 24:21); and if the one an-hungred
spake, 'When I awake up after Thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it.' Yea,
blessed even now are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for
they, and they only, shall be filled. Woe to you, wicked and perverse
generation; woe to you, foolish and abandoned people, who hate Christ's memory,
and dread His second Advent! Well may you fear, who will not now seek
deliverance from the snare of the hunter; because 'they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts' (I Tim.
6:9). In that day we shall not escape the dreadful sentence of condemnation,
'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire' (Matt. 25:41). O dreadful
sentence indeed, O hard saying! How much harder to bear than that other saying
which we repeat daily in church, in memory of the Passion: 'Whoso eateth My
flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life' (John 6:54). That signifies,
whoso honors My death and after My example mortifies his members which are upon
the earth (Col. 3:5) shall have eternal life, even as the apostle says, 'If we
suffer, we shall also reign with Him' (II Tim. 2:12). And yet many even today
recoil from these words and go away, saying by their action if not with their
lips, 'This is a hard saying; who can hear it?' (John 6:60). 'A generation that
set not their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaveth not steadfastly unto God'
(Ps. 78:8), but chooseth rather to trust in uncertain riches, it is disturbed at
the very name of the Cross, and counts the memory of the Passion intolerable.
How can such sustain the burden of that fearful sentence, 'Depart from Me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels'? 'On
whomsoever that stone shall fall it will grind him to powder' (Luke 20:18); but
'the generation of the faithful shall be blessed' (Ps. 112:2), since, like the
apostle, they labor that whether present or absent they may be accepted of the
Lord (II Cor. 5:9). At the last day they too shall hear the Judge pronounce
their award, 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world' (Matt. 25:34).
In that day those who set not their hearts aright will feel, too late, how easy
is Christ's yoke, to which they would not bend their necks and how light His
burden, in comparison with the pains they must then endure. O wretched slaves of
Mammon, you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ while you trust
in treasures laid up on earth: you cannot taste and see how gracious the Lord
is, while you are hungering for gold. If you have not rejoiced at the thought of
His coming, that day will be indeed a day of wrath to you.
But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the
contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the glory
of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, that is
covered with silver wings (Ps. 68:13), white with innocence and purity, she
reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; and above all she
longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of Thy saints, gleaming with the
radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers shall be like gold, resplendent
with the joy of Thy countenance.
Rightly then may she exult, 'His left hand is under my head and His right hand
doth embrace me.' The left hand signifies the memory of that matchless love,
which moved Him to lay down His life for His friends; and the right hand is the
Beatific Vision which He hath promised to His own, and the delight they have in
His presence. The Psalmist sings rapturously, 'At Thy right hand there is
pleasure for evermore' (Ps. 16:11): so we are warranted in explaining the right
hand as that divine and deifying joy of His presence.
Rightly too is that wondrous and ever-memorable love symbolized as His left
hand, upon which the Bride rests her head until iniquity be done away: for He
sustains the purpose of her mind, lest it should be turned aside to earthly,
carnal desires. For the flesh wars against the spirit: 'The corruptible body
presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that
museth upon many things' (Wisdom 9:15). What could result from the contemplation
of compassion so marvelous and so undeserved, favor so free and so well
attested, kindness so unexpected, clemency so unconquerable, grace so amazing
except that the soul should withdraw from all sinful affections, reject all that
is inconsistent with God's love, and yield herself wholly to heavenly things? No
wonder is it that the Bride, moved by the perfume of these unctions, runs
swiftly, all on fire with love, yet reckons herself as loving all too little in
return for the Bridegroom's love. And rightly, since it is no great matter that
a little dust should be all consumed with love of that Majesty which loved her
first and which revealed itself as wholly bent on saving her. For 'God so loved
the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). This sets forth the
Father's love. But 'He hath poured out His soul unto death,' was written of the
Son (Isa. 53:12). And of the Holy Spirit it is said, 'The Comforter which is the
Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you' (John
14:26). It is plain, therefore, that God loves us, and loves us with all His
heart; for the Holy Trinity altogether loves us, if we may venture so to speak
of the infinite and incomprehensible Godhead who is essentially one.
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