Throughout life he was the " man of sor- rows." He was "acquainted with grief." And herein we see something more of the family badge, as it was displayed in the Elder Brother. Acquaintanceship with grief ! This is the description given us of it. It is not one visit that makes us acquainted with a fellow man. Companionship is the result of con- tinued intercourse. So one sorrow does not make us acquainted with grief, however deep and sharp its pangs may be. It may be the beginning of our acquaintanceship, but that 4
38 THE FAMILY BADGE.
is all. There must be daily, hourly inter- course. Thus it was with Jesus. Thirty- three years daily converse with grief made him acquainted with it. And so it is with us. The saints are men of sorrows still : and their acquaintanceship with grief must be ob- tained by daily fellowship. The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord. We need not think of another process than that which he underwent. He was made perfect through sufferings, and so must we. The Captain of our Salvation is, hi this respect, the model and pattern of his saved ones. We are " always to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body."*
It is the Lamb that we follow : the Lamb " as it had been slain." This surely speaks most plainly of the family badge. We are followers of the man with the pierced hands and feet ; the man who is covered all over with the marks of the buffet and the scourge and the spitting ; the man with the crown of thorns. Yea ; he is our Elder Brother. He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. * 2 Cor. iv. 10.
THE FAMILY BADGE. 89
And if we see so distinctly the family badge on him. shall we shrink from taking it up and binding it in triumph, as a jewel, on our forehead — as a crown upon our head ? Sure- ly the purple robe of mockery may beseem us better than it suited Him.
There is one mark by which, from the be- ginning, he has been distinguished as the woman's seed predicted in Eden. It is the bruised heel. This is, in truth, only another way of expressing his character as the suffer- ing, the crucified Son of Man. This was the mark which God gave by which he was to be known. Yet it was just at this stumbling stone that Israel stumbled. They had no eyes for the dying Saviour. The humbled Jesus found no favor with them. The bruised heel they could not awTay with. The very mark which God set upon him as Messiah was that on account of which Israel rejected him. Yet it is the bruised heel in which we rejoice. It is the man with the bruised heel that has won our hearts. It -is him that we follow : and his bruised heel we engrave upon our banner as our most honorable badge.
The like bruising we look for as our por- tion here. Nor are we ashamed of it. All
40 THE FAMILY BADGE.
the saints before us have experienced it, and are we better than they ? Shall the soldiers of the last days be ashamed to wear the uni- form which the army of the saints has gloried in for six thousand years ?
It is very remarkable that the Apostle fixes upon affliction as the mark of true Sonship. Truly he makes it the family badge. Nay, he makes it the test of our legitimacy. " What son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons."* Strong language this ! Had any but an inspired apostle used it, there would have been outcry against it as absurd and extrava- gant. Let us, however, take it as it is, for we know that it speaks the mind of God. Chas- tisement is, then, really one of the chief marks of our lawful 'and honorable birth. Were this characteristic not to be found on us, we should be lacking in one of the proofs of our sonship. Our legitimacy might be called in question. It might be said that he was not recognizing us as his true-born sons, and that either he had never received us as such, or had rejected us. There must be the family badge. * Heb. xii. 7, 8.
THE FAMILY BADGE. 41
to establish our claim of birth, and to be a pledge of paternal recognition on the part of God our Father.
It is a solemn thought. Flesh and blood shrink from it. We look around to see if there be no way of escaping, and ask if it must be so ? Yes, it must be, as we shall shortly see, and the attempt to shun it is vain. Yet it is also a blessed thought. It cheers us under trial to remember that this is the Father's seal set upon his true-born sons. Oh! how it lightens the load to think that it is really the pledge of our divine adoption.