The Desire to see Jesus
Octavius Winslow
“Sir, we would see Jesus”—John 12:21.
Those who originally made this deeply interesting request were Grecian
proselytes to the Jewish religion. Nurtured as they had been, amid the
abominations of their national idolatry, they yet had received sufficient
light to form some estimate of the Hebrew religion, and their hearts cordially
embraced it. Now, however, they hear of another religion other than the
Jewish, and of another Teacher other than Moses. His fame had reached
their ears. They heard that He was filling all Jerusalem with the excitement
of His doctrine and with the wonder of His works. They were told that
He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. That He opened
the ears of the deaf to the sweet sounds of melody; that He poured the
golden light of day upon the sightless eyeball; that, at a single word,
the paralytic cast from him his crutch, and leaped as a deer; that the
tongue which had never articulated an intelligent sound, at His touch
poured forth its sweetest praise; that diseases which had long existed—baffling
all human skill, and wasting all earthly substance—fled at His command;
and that even the dead—shrouded and entombed for days—at His
voice rose from their graves, and lived again in all the vigor and freshness
of youth.
Hearing of these wonderful works, these proselytes embarked upon a journey
to Jerusalem to verify their truth, and yet more, to see the wonderful
Being who had wrought them. Finding two of Christ’s disciples, they
presented their request, “We would see Jesus.” The result is
not recorded. But of this we may be assured that, if their inquiry was
spiritual and not carnal—if their search for Jesus was earnest and
not speculative, the promises were fulfilled in their experience: “They
who seek Me shall find me. Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall
find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. He has not said to the seeking
seed of Jacob, Seek My face in vain.” Doubtless they found Jesus,
and henceforth followed Him.
From this suggestive incident let us turn to ourselves. Is there nothing
in the interesting inquiry of these Greeks—nothing in the object
of their search spiritually instructive to our minds? Nothing to awaken
a yet deeper and holier echo in our hearts: “We would see Jesus “?
Oh yes, there is much! May the Holy Spirit aid and bless us while I endeavor
to present the Object of sight—then show what are some of the states
of mind to which this important inquiry will apply—concluding with
a reference to the hallowed and practical effect of a spiritual and believing
sight of Jesus. O holy and eternal Spirit! Author of spiritual life, from
whom all light and truth emanate, take not only of the things of Jesus
and show them unto us, but reveal to us JESUS Himself as a personal Savior—that,
with a spiritual eye we may see Him, and seeing, may admire Him; and admiring,
may love Him; and loving, may follow, serve, and honor Him all the days
of our life.
The Object of sight is JESUS. He is the most wonderful as He is the most
glorious Being in the universe. He is the Essential Son of the Father,
co-equal and co-eternal; of the same Divine essence as the Father, the
Maker of all worlds and the Creator of all beings; “Who is the image
of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. For by Him were
all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him, and He is before
all things, and by Him all things exist.”
It is Jesus who died for sinners on the cross, rose from the dead for
our justification, and ascended up on high and sat down at the right hand
of God, from where He will come again to receive His Church, and to judge
the world in righteousness. Angels worship Him, saints love Him, devils
fear Him, the world despises and rejects Him; but to those who believe,
He is precious—the “chief among ten thousand and the altogether
lovely One;” and “to those who look for Him will He appear the
second time without sin unto salvation.” Such, in a few words, is
the Object of the sinner’s spiritual sight. No other saving object
is presented to us in the Gospel—it is JESUS Only. It is JESUS the
divinest, the greatest, the most glorious and lovely Being in the universe.
There is but one Friend of sinners, but one Savior of the lost, but one
Star of Bethlehem—it is JESUS. God has concentrated all glory and
grace and beauty in Christ. Look to Him and you are saved; look from Him
and you are lost!
“We would see Jesus.” And first, this is the inquiry of the
penitent soul. So soon as the Holy Spirit convinces a man of sin, opens
the chamber of imagery, makes known the plague, and reveals the original
and deep depravity of the heart—sins exceeding the hue of scarlet,
and outnumbering the sands of the sea-shore,—there is at once a newly
discovered need in the soul—a strange and deeply felt need, such
as nothing seen within or found without can meet. And what is that necessity?
It is the deeply, intensely felt need of a Savior. Jesus is now the desire
of the soul; Jesus, and nothing less and nothing more. Awakened to a conviction
of its ruined, self-destroyed, and lost condition, the desire and yearnings
of the heart now go forth after one object—Jesus, the Savior and
Friend of poor sinners.
His language is, “I would see Jesus; I would see Him as my sin-bearer;
I would see Him suffering, dying, and as rising again in my stead as my
surety and substitute. I would see Him as discharging all my great debt
to Law and Justice; as making my peace with God; as cleansing me in His
blood, and as clothing me with His righteousness; thus bringing me into
a state of present salvation, peace, and hope.” If such is the true
desire of your soul, my reader, the Gospel just meets your case. It is
the mirror that reflects the person of Jesus; it is the frame that contains
the likeness of Jesus; it is the setting that encloses the beauty, and
luster, and glory of Jesus—this priceless, precious jewel.
Penitent soul! weeping over your sins, bemoaning your transgressions,
lying in the dust before God—self-abased, self-abhorred—look
up and see Jesus bending over you in all the gracious compassion of His
heart, speaking in accents of the tenderest love, “The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good
tidings unto the meek; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those
that are bound, to appoint unto those who mourn in Zion, to give unto
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness.” Look unto Me. Behold My hands and My
feet, pierced by and for your sins: believe and be saved.
“We would see Jesus” is the inquiry of the believing soul. Christ
once seen by faith becomes an object of ever growing desire. The believing
soul is never satisfied with the sight it has had of Jesus. The Apostle
Paul saw Jesus as none of the others had seen Him; and yet this was still
his great desire, “that I may know Him.” Thus the desires of
the renewed soul after Christ are unlimited and insatiable, and will never
be satisfied until it beholds Him in glory; nor even then! Eternity will
be occupied with Jesus; in contemplating His person, in admiring His beauty,
in beholding His glory, in studying His work, and in sweetly chanting
his high praise. But the Christ-loving soul wants to realize more of Jesus
now—more of His love and loveliness; more of His grace and graciousness;
more of the fitness and completeness of His sacrifice; more of His manifested
presence and sacred communion. There does not exist a stronger evidence
of our union with Christ, and of our interest in His salvation than this
one ardent desire of the soul after Him. Our views and thoughts and aspirations
concerning Jesus constitute the true test of the spiritual state of our
souls!
Wrong apprehensions of the person of Jesus, and false principles in relation
to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus are fatal to our everlasting well being.
There is but one way to heaven—if we walk not in that way we cannot
reach heaven. There is but one Door of salvation—if we enter not
into that Door we cannot be saved. If I set out for a given point, and
diverge into a road that conducts me to an opposite one, it is no marvel
that, mistaking, either through ignorance or wilful blindness, my way,
I never reach my intended destination.
We are all traveling—solemn thought!—to eternity, and thousands
hope to reach heaven who have never taken a step in the right road! They
have never been convinced of sin, have never felt their need of Christ,
have never seen their lost and undone condition as sinners, have never
been divested of their self-righteousness; in a word, have never fled
to Jesus with the agonizing cry, “Lord, save or I perish! God be
merciful to me a sinner!” Is it any marvel that all such miss eternal
happiness at last? that, when they have finished their solemn and eventful
journey, instead of finding themselves in heaven, they find themselves
in hell—the dread and interminable abode of all who walked not in
the narrow way that leads unto life, but along the broad way that leads
unto destruction.
Jesus said, “I am the Way;” and all who are walking in this
Way by faith—however feeble that faith, and trembling the footsteps,
and slow the progress–shall yet reach heaven at last; shall tread
its golden streets, and breathe its fragrant air; shall eat its precious
fruit, and drink its crystal waters; and, with an assembly which no man
can number, out of every tongue and nation and people, shall sing forever
the praises of the Lamb!
Let this, then, evidence the reality of your conversion, and the healthfulness
of your growing state; namely, your longings after Christ, your deepening
desire to see more of Jesus, to have more real transaction with Him by
faith, closer fellowship with Him, and to exalt Him more warmly and supremely
upon the throne of your love.
And such, too, is the burden of the tried and afflicted soul. “We
would see Jesus.” How partially is Jesus experimentally known by
the believing soul whose path lies not through trial and tribulation.
There must of necessity be much of His official history, much of His personal
character, much of His varied relations to His people, veiled from the
heart not acquainted with suffering and sorrow. Jesus was a Sufferer—a
Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. To know Him intimately and
experimentally as such, to have fellowship with Him in suffering, and
to be made conformable to His death, we must be, as He was, made perfect
through suffering.” Though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered.”
Now it is thus—tried, tempted, chastened we feel an earnest, pining
desire to see Jesus. We want to see Him ordaining the trial; we want to
see Him shaping the affliction; we want to see Him in the tribulation—we
want Him to be treading the fiery furnace at our side. Thus, like Joseph,
we become “fruitful in the land of our affliction.” Many lovely
flowers, many clusters of precious fruit grow upon the rude, rough stem
of affliction: and none more beauteous or costly than this—the closer
acquaintance into which it brings the soul with Jesus. None but a sight
of the Savior meets our desires now.
Sickness has rendered insipid the sweetness of the world; bereavement
has draped the sunlight of life; adversity has scattered, as with wintry
blast, the flower and foliage of domestic happiness, and the heart is
withered like grass, and existence seems as shrouded for the tomb. One
desire yet lives amid the torn affections, one hope yet blossoms amid
the blighted desolation, one blessing yet survives the wreck of earthly
joys—it is the heart’s, single, holy, and intense prayer—“I
would see Jesus!” Welcome blest affliction, that has led to a result
so hallowed! thrice blessed sorrow in which the heart, torn and bleeding,
the spirit shaded and sad, turns, pining and pensive, to Him who has smitten!
It is your privilege to see Jesus in your present calamity. It comes not
alone; it looks dark and angry; it is felt to be heavy and crushing; but
Jesus is seated in the cloud-chariot, Jesus holds the helm of the sinking
bark; Jesus is in the center of the burning bush, and you are safe. Much
of your succor and comfort will distill from the realized truth that Christ,
invisible, yet not less real, is in your present sorrow—for He is
not only all to His people, but He is in all their individual history.
He is in every beam that enlightens, in every cloud that shades, in every
incident that embitters, in every circumstance that gives a new bend and
tint to their life. And if this affliction but result in your closer intimacy
with Jesus, in making His love, sufficiency, and compassion better known
by you, you will reap the fruit of it through time, and praise Him for
it through eternity.
The sincere and devout communicant approaches the Lord’s table with
this language breathing from the heart—“I would see Jesus.”
For what other purpose was the Lord’s Supper instituted, but that
through this window of grace we might behold the Lord Himself? It is essential
to right partaking that we should have Scriptural and spiritual views
of the ordinance. The Lord’s Supper is but a sign and a symbol. It
possesses, intrinsically, no spiritual efficacy; it conveys, communicatively,
no sacramental grace; it neither imparts spiritual life nor sustains it;
it neither sanctifies nor saves. It is but the sacred memorial of a dying
Savior, the precious memento of a loving Friend, the expressive picture
of a suffering Christ, which we are to cherish, observe, and study in
remembrance of Him until He comes again.
As such, the Lord’s Supper is a precious means of grace, a sacred
channel of sweet refreshment and strength, endearing to us Jesus, cherishing
in our hearts the expectation of His second appearing. Let us, then, approach
the Lord’s Supper with this one sentiment and prayer breathing from
our hearts, “I would see Jesus.” I would see Him, by faith,
standing in the open window of this ordinance, bending upon me His eye
of love through the lattice, awaking the response of faith in my heart,
“He has loved me, and has given Him self for me.”
How blessed and enrapturing is this sight of Jesus! It is Jesus in His
most endearing form, His most winning attitude, His most expressive image.
Behold Him by faith in the bread, as giving His flesh for your nourishment;
behold Him by faith in the cup, as shedding His blood for your sins. Approach
this banquet desiring only to see Jesus; if He is not there, presiding
at His own table, it is a blank and meaningless ceremony. But Jesus is
there to welcome and commune with His saints. And if you humbly and believingly
approach with the request, “I would see Jesus in this ordinance,
I would see Him in His beauty, I would see Him as my Beloved, I would
see Him as my Sacrifice, I would see Him as saying to me, ‘What is
your request? Ask, and I will grant it you,’—the elevated experience
of your soul shall be, “While the King sits at His table, my spikenard
sends forth the smell thereof.”
A poor, half-witted boy, who had evidently manifested a tendency towards
religious and devotional feelings, asked permission to partake of the
Holy Communion with other members of the congregation. The clergyman demurred
for some time, under the impression of his mind being incapable of a right
understanding of the sacred ordinance. But observing the extreme earnestness
of the poor boy, at last gave consent. He was much affected, and all the
way home from church was heard to exclaim, “ Oh! I have seen the
pretty man.” This referred to his seeing the Lord Jesus, whom he
had approached in the sacrament. He kept repeating the words, and went
with them on his lips to rest for the night. Not appearing at the usual
hour for breakfast, when they went to his bedside they found him dead!
The excitement had been too much—mind and body had given way—and
the half-idiot of earth awoke to the glories and bliss of his Redeemer’s
presence.
“I love the windows of Your grace
Through which my Lord is seen;
And long to meet my Savior’s face
Without a glass between.
“O that the happy hour was come
To change my faith to sight;
I shall behold my Lord at home
In a diviner light.
“Haste, my Beloved! and remove
These interposing days;
Then shall my passions all be love
And all my powers be praise.”
“We would see Jesus,” is the language of the dying Christian.
Faith in Jesus changes the entire character and appearance of death. Jesus
is our life. Entering the soul by the Spirit, Jesus breathes into it the
breath of spiritual life, and so the believer becomes in the highest sense
a living soul. Having dislodged spiritual death from the soul, Jesus then
changes the character of the death of the body; and thus the departure
of the believer out of this life is not so much a death, as it is a sweet,
calm, peaceful sleep. Death in its most appalling aspect, its bitterness
and sting, retires from the scene, and one object alone is visible it
is JESUS the Life. Thus, the believer lives in death. Death, mortally
wounded by Christ when He died, now itself expires—while his victim,
whose mortal existence it has terminated, springs into glory, honor, immortality,
and eternal life!
Fear not, then, O believer, the hour of your approaching departure: by
faith you shall not see death. “Whoever believes in My words shall
not see death.” Shall not see it! What, then, shall he see? Upon
whom will those eyes, now glazing and darkening with the film of death,
fix their exclusive, their last and latest gaze? Upon JESUS, once Death’s
illustrious Victim, now Death’s triumphant Conqueror! Who can look
calmly upon death now, and hopefully upon him when he actually uplifts
his dart to strike us down, but as he sees Jesus? Upon what a lovely,
what a loving, what a powerful object does the departing saint fix his
dying gaze! Jesus, the chief among ten thousand; Jesus, full of grace,
and overflowing with love; Jesus, assuring us that whosoever lives and
believes in Him shall never die; Jesus, showing us in His hands, and feet,
and side, the tokens of His love and the evidences of our pardon. Jesus
bidding us fear not, and standing ready to receive our departing spirit.
Such is the object of spiritual sight.
Let us now briefly advert to the sanctifying influence of this spiritual
and blessed view of Jesus upon the believing mind.
First, it is a soul-elevating sight: it is the sight of God in Jesus.
Jesus came into this world as much to reveal God as to save man. He assured
Thomas, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” And the Apostle
says, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined on our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” What more divine, more elevating
sight than this—God manifest in Jesus! The saints in heaven may behold
this wondrous spectacle bathed in richer glory, with clearer views; but
not less real nor less precious is it to the believing saints on earth.
Jesus said, “No man knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom
the Son will reveal Him.” In Jesus we see God pardoning sin, and
accepting the sinner. We see God pacified towards us, for all that we
have done, and bending upon us the eye of a forgiving, reconciled Father.
O what a soul-elevating spectacle is this! It raises us above the guilt
of sin, the fear of death, the dread of condemnation—above sorrow
and trial, suffering and persecution; it inspires us with a superiority
to all present ill, fills the soul with the anticipation of all future
good, and lifts it into the region, and bathes it in the atmosphere of
another and a holier world!
O study this spectacle of God revealed in Jesus—seen in Jesus, near
to you in Jesus—if you would, you would live a hidden and an elevated
life. The loftiest, the most intellectual and sublime contemplation of
earthly things will but attract you earthward; but the spiritual, prayerful,
believing study of this Divine wonder—God in Jesus adopting, pardoning,
justifying sinners; adopting, pardoning, saving you; will attract you,
raise you, wing you heavenward; and so dwelling in the region and atmosphere
of heaven your mind, affections, and desires will grow heavenly.
The sight of Jesus is a soul-satisfying spectacle. The penitent soul is
satisfied, for it sees in Jesus a free pardon of sin; the condemned soul
is satisfied, for it receives in Jesus a free justification; the believing
soul is satisfied, for it discovers in Jesus a fountain of all grace;
the tried, tempted, sorrowful soul is satisfied, for it experiences in
Jesus all consolation, sympathy and love. O, what an all-satisfying Portion
is Jesus! He satisfies every holy desire, for He realizes it; He satisfies
every craving need, for He supplies it; He satisfies every sore grief,
for He soothes it; He satisfies the deepest yearnings, the highest aspirations,
the most sublime hopes of the renewed soul, for all these center and end
in Him!
Are you inquiring, “Who will show me any good?” Have you distilled
from every flower, and sipped from every spring, and drawn upon every
resource, and still feel dissatisfied with the world, with the creature,
yet more with yourself? Behold, in Jesus an all-satisfying Friend! One
believing sight of Him, one taste of His graciousness, one beam of His
love, one word falling from His lips will wake in the lowest depths of
your soul an exclamation responsive to the magnificent language of the
Psalmist—“Whom have I in heaven but You? and there is none on
earth that I desire beside You.”
“From pole to pole let others roam,
And search in vain for bliss;
My soul is satisfied at home,
The Lord my Portion is.
“His person fixes all my love,
His Word removes my fear;
And while He pleads for me above
His arm preserves me here.
“His Word of promise is my food,
His Spirit is my guide
Thus daily is my strength renewed,
And all my needs supplied.”
The sight of Jesus is veiling: it hides other objects from the eye. Take
an illustration of this from nature. Go forth and gaze for a while upon
the sun in its noonday splendor. Then direct your eyes again to earth,
and let them rest upon the lovely landscape, or upon the yet lovelier
forms of human beauty which pass before you. Can you see them? Has not
the greater effulgence of the sun blinded you, in a measure, to all other
objects? Thus is it with a spiritual sight of Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness;
it veils the objects of earth, of sense, and sin from the soul. Jesus
blinds us to their beauty, attraction, and power! The more we see of the
Divine glory, of the human beauty, of the sacrificial worth, of the Lord
Jesus, the less we shall see of our own glory, of the world’s attraction,
and of creature excellence. Jesus veils the eye of the soul to it all.
What Abraham was to Sarah, Jesus is to us. “Behold,” said Abimelech,
“He is to you a Covering of the Eye unto all that are with you.”
The Lord Jesus is a covering of our spiritual eye to all those objects
of sense which else might attract and seduce us from Him, thus eclipsing
His beauty and shading His love. O let Jesus be a covering of the eye
to self in all its hideous forms, to the world in all its bland attractions,
to the creature in all its powerful fascination. The more we see of Him,
the less we shall desire others. The higher and the brighter the sun ascends
and shines, the remoter will become and the paler will grow the constellations
that revolve around it. So all earthly objects disappear and pale when
Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, rises upon the soul with healing in His
beams. The terrestrial gives place to the celestial, self to Christ, the
creature to God.
This spectacle of Jesus is also soul-assimilating in its influence. It
is impossible to love Jesus ardently, to behold Him spiritually, and to
study Him closely, and not be molded, in some degree, into His lovely
likeness! “We grow like what we admire, and we become one with what
we love.” In the yet more striking and impressive language of inspiration—“Beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image,
from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.” The student
of art must first absorb in his own soul the wonders, beauties, and perfections
of his model before he can transfer them to his copy. It is not the physical
but the mental eye, not the external but the internal sight of the breathing
marble of Canova, or of the speaking canvas of Vandyke, that transfixes
its beauties upon the soul. The student of art must first make himself,
by close and persevering study, master of his model. He must, as it were,
incorporate it into himself, imbibing its beauties, its wonders, and its
perfections into his own mental and spiritual perceptions, so that his
picture shall become less a copy than a reproduction of the original,
almost an original work of art itself—the result of his individual
and high conception. Thus is it with our study of, and assimilation to,
Christ.
We must have union with Christ; Christ must dwell in us by the Spirit;
He must, as it were, be a part of our life, as we are partakers of His.
And so beholding Jesus we are spiritually changed into the same image
and grow Christlike. Is this one ambition our aim?—is it our experience?
Are we in the different relations of the family, in the discharge of our
duties as parents and children, as brothers, sisters, and domestics—seeking
to be copies of Jesus—reproductions, as it were, of the spirit, and
mind, and life of the Savior? O what a holy, happy family and household
will that be if each individual member becomes a picture, a living picture,
of Jesus,—enriching, sanctifying and adorning the very walls!
Amid the many responsibilities and duties, the trials and temptations
of home-life, there is no minister of truth, of counsel, and consolation
like Jesus. The ministry of home, unlike all other ministries, is of a
more individual, and practical character. Like a finished portrait pendent
on the walls, each individual in the room imagines it gazing upon himself,
so the Lord fixes His eye upon each member of the family circle, and says—“Be
imitators of God; be Christlike; be pure and holy, loving and kind; be
gentle and sympathizing; be upright and generous.”
Blessed home whose minister and model is JESUS! Of all whose members,
thus taught and molded,—men everywhere shall take knowledge that
they have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him. Has the Gospel of
Jesus made your temper milder, your heart purer, your life holier? Has
it softened your churlishness, subdued your moroseness, sweetened your
disposition, rendering you more attractable, admired, and loved? Has it
converted your penuriousness into liberality, your pride into humility,
your selfishness into disinterestedness, your love of ease and sloth into
active service for the Lord? Has it Christianized your home, consecrating
you its minister, and you who are members, as members of the household
of faith? O remember that the Gospel of Jesus has done but little for
us if it has not done this!
Seeing Jesus is a heart-comforting sight. The heart is the habitation
of sorrow, and it is here the springs of comfort flow. The words of Jesus
are, “Let not your HEART be troubled.” Jesus, who is acquainted
with the sorrows of our hearts, pities and knows how to soothe them. There
is not a being in the universe who has such access to our heart as Christ.
He loves to come and enshrine Himself in its lonely and deeply veiled
grief. And if our sorrow results in a more intimate fellowship with Him;
if, through our dimming tears, we yet see Him as more lovely, just as
the sun shines with variegated tints through the shower; we shall then
praise Him for the sorrow which rendered Him more beauteous to our eye
and more precious to our heart.
O what comfort, what strong consolation flows from a sight of Jesus in
the depth of His love, and in the tenderness of His sympathy! To see Him
making the dark cloud into which we tremblingly enter His chariot of love;
to see Him in all our affliction afflicted; to see Him walking at our
side and making our heart to burn within us, while sad and pensive we
journey homewards—this is comfort indeed. Look not, then, at the
storm, but at Him who makes it His wings; not upon waves, but upon Him
who controls them; not at your trials, afflictions, and needs, but at
Him who, though His way is hidden from you now, knows the way that you
take, and, when He has tried you, will bring you forth as gold.
Seeing Jesus will intensify the desire of your soul to be with Him. This
should be the goal of our spirit, the one desire of the soul, the daily
prayer of the heart—to be with Jesus! It was so with the holy Paul:
“Having a desire to depart and be with Christ.” The more he
saw of Jesus, the more ardently He longed to be with Him. And if the spectacle,
as beheld by faith, is now so transforming and so ravishing; if His beauty
is now so eclipsing and His glory so overpowering, what, O believer, will
be the sweet, the enrapturing vision of Jesus in glory, when you shall
see Him as He is! Does not the present sight, though distant and dim,
often compel you to exclaim, “The voice of my Beloved! behold He
comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. Until the day
breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be like a roe
or young deer upon the mountains of division.” Come Lord Jesus, come
quickly! So live and serve, so suffer and wait until you hear the voice
of Jesus saying to you, “Come up higher.”
My unconverted reader, have you no desire to see Jesus? Do you know nothing
of this spiritual sight? O turn not away from it in indifference and disdain.
The time is fast coming when you must see Him. You will see Him when your
soul is summoned hence to stand before His bar. You will see Him when
He comes in the clouds of heaven to hold His grand assize. “Behold
He comes in the clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” O may you by
faith see Him now presented as a Savior, before you behold Him coming
as your Judge, lest you take up the lamentation of Balaam, “I shall
see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not near!”
Believer in Jesus! Your eyes shall soon see the King in His beauty, and
you shall lift up your heads with joy, and exclaim, “This is our
God, we have waited for Him; this is our God, we will be glad and rejoice
in His salvation.” O how glorious, how ravishing, how transporting
will the sight be! Then shall you meet all those from whom you parted
in the faith of Christ and in the hope of His Gospel. Then shall you be
clothed with your glorified body, “and God shall wipe away all tears
from your eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away.” Lamb of God! I would see You now, and feast my eyes upon You
throughout eternity! Amen.