of the building-there is nothing more to be added to it. A king may be arrayed with robes of state, and he may be adorned with chains of gold-these also his nobles wear; but it is not till the crown is placed upon his head that he stands forth before the eye, in all the honor, and the glory, the fulness, and the perfection of majesty. So, figuratively, many of the common blessings of this life may be enjoyed by the believer; he may possess health, and wealth, and friends; he may experience providential deliverancesthese likewise unbelievers share; but it is not till the loving-kindness and the tender mercy of God in their bestowment, is discerned as a spiritual crown upon these otherwise common mercies, that they stand out in all their beauty, and their honor, their fulness, and their perfection, The love of God in Christ Jesus, is as a crown of gold upon the head of every true believer. The Giver is greater than the gift. The love that prompts is more precious than the boon it bestows. The believer, therefore, in receiving any, and every, gift from God, should feel and acknowledge that his life is thereby crowned with loving-kindness, and with tender mercies. This it was which gladdened David, and inspired his liveliest gratitude, This was the spiritual crown which he prized more highly than the diadem of pure gold that was set upon his head. He could truly say, "Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee." Psa. lxiii. 3. Man, taught by nature, has but one mode of valuing everything-its own worth. Man, instructed by the Divine Spirit, has a two-fold mode of valuation for all the things of time, first, as they are in themselves, and, secondly and specially, as they are the gifts of his heavenly Friend. When we receive health, and food, and friends, and raiment, with all the other wide-spread mercies of providence, ast daily, customary, and to-be-expected benefits, they become common in themselves, and excite no gratitude in our hearts; but when we receive them as tokens of the love of our Father in heaven, the King of kings, immediately they become to us no longer common, but royal blessings; and just as a courtier prizes very highly any gift conferred by his earthly sovereign, however small its value, so the believer prizes very highly the smallest, even the most common benefits which he enjoys on earth, because they are gifts and tokens of the loving-kindness, and the tender mercy of his heavenly Sovereign. The unbeliever may indeed see and partake of all these gifts, but he understands not their token, he discerns not the love of God in these earthly things, and therefore treats them as common matters, and neither receives nor acknowledges them as they deserve. The monarch, without his crown, passes unnoticed as a common man amid the crowd of human beings; and so, likewise, every temporal mercy, beheld without the love of God in Christ upon it, passes unheeded in the crowd of common blessings. The heathen, the untutored child, and the merely nominal Christian, may fix their eyes with admiration upon the bow of promise, circling resplendent upon the threatening cloud; but they see it not as a sign-they regard it not as a token of the love and the faithfulness of Jehovah. The eye of the true believer, however, no sooner rests upon that common sight, than he recognizes God in covenant, faithful to his promise for a thousand generations; it ceases immediately, therefore, to be a common, and becomes to him a royal rainbow, for its radiant span appears to his eye crowned with the loving-kindness and the tender mercy of the King of heaven. This is the true spiritual alchymy that turns all things to gold. This is the sure elixir of life. This is the pure joy. This is the one grand transforming and transporting thought, to see the love of our redeeming God in everything, and to behold all that we possess crowned with His loving-kindness and His tender mercies. Oh, thrice happy human spirit, that can thus search, and see, and meet with God. "In every smiling happy hour Be this our sweet employ: This thought refines our earthly bliss Behold the crown of the believer! It surpasses in lustre every earthly diadem. The materials of which that crown is composed, are as pure as they are imperishable. What are the gold and the jewels of the monarch, compared with this crown of the believing soul? Is it not wrought with the pure gold of Divine love? Is it not studded with the heavenly jewels of kindness and mercy, of tenderness and truth? O believer, let the loving-kindness of your God, be the crown of your existence, your boast and your glory, your honor and your joy. Whilst partaking of the varied blessings and benefits with which this world is stored. let your heart regard them as tokens of redeeming love, and then every earthly joy will be crowned to you with heavenly mercy. The Scripture calls upon us to thank God unfeignedly "for our creation, for our preservation, and for all the blessings of this life," but if we see neither love nor goodness in all these, how can we praise Him for them? If we conceive that we are created with no benevolent design,—or that we are preserved only till some affliction or destruction overtakes us,—or that the mercies we enjoy in the life that now is, are given merely to aggravate by contrast the miseries of that life that is to come, how can we regard our creation, our preservation, and our benefits, as real blessings, as substantial causes for thanksgiving? But when we learn this precious scriptural doctrine, and are taught to view all these as visible proofs and arguments of the invisible love and mercy of God in Christ, then indeed we begin to rejoice in them with a holy joy, and to receive them all as royal blessings, as crowned and perfected benefits. Instead of saying with the melancholy worldling, "I wish that I had never been born,” we will, on the contrary, laud and magnify our great Creator, because He called us out of nothing that we might become the joyful recipients of His temporal mercies, and of his everlasting loving-kindnesses. Oh! it is joy, it is bliss, it is life eternal to the soul of man to know God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent." John xvii. 3. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory 66 in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Jer. ix. 23, 24. This, O Believer, is the true secret how to use this world as not abusing it, to realize that we live and move, and have our being in God. Let everything, therefore, remind you of the love that God bears toward you. Let everything inspire you with gratitude to your Redeemer, who bought you with His blood. Then will everything be used by you to His glory, and to your own benefit. The very trials of life will cause you to praise Him who sustains you under them, and who has promised that He will either deliver you from their power, or cause them to work together for your good. Thus, also, the prosperities of life will cause you more abundantly to bless that God who bestows them upon you in such rich profusion, when you are altogether unworthy of the least. Thus amid all the changing scenes of time, and the endless diversity of worldly circumstances, whether you experience the "wonderful goodness" of God when wandering in the wilderness, or captive in the dungeon, when pining under sickness, or tossed upon the stormy deep; or, on the other hand, when multiplied greatly in fields and flocks, and blessed with health and all manner of prosperity; whatever may be your lot, and how many soever may be its changes; "whoso is wise and will observe these things, even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord." Psa. cvii. 43. |