He had no place wherein to lay His Head ; If I am burdened, He was burdened more. The cup I drink He drank of long before;
He felt the unuttered anguish which I dread ;
He hungered who the hungry thousands fed, And thirsted who the world's refreshment bore. If grief be such a looking-glass as shows
Christ's Face and man's in some sort made alike, Then grief is pleasure with a subtle taste: Wherefore should any fret or faint or haste ? Grief is not grievous to a soul that knows
Christ comes, — and listens for that hour to strike.1
5. And so the final thought is that this life of sacrifice is maintained by looking unto Jesus. " Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " (Phil. ii. 5). It is " the mind that was in Christ Jesus," when "for us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and was made Man, and suffered for us." Here was at once model and motive for the Philippian saints ; for Euodia, and Syntyche, and every individual and every group. Nothing short of the " mind " of the Head must be the " mind " of the member ; and then the glory of the Head (so it is implied) shall be shed hereafter upon the member too : " I will grant to him to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
T[ Oh, reason of reasons, argument of arguments — the Lord Jesus Christ ! Nothing in Christianity lies really outside Him. His Person and His Work embody all its dogmatic teaching. His Example, " His Love which passeth knowledge," is the sum and life of all its morality. Well has it been said that the whole Gospel message is conveyed to us sinners in those three words, "Looking unto Jesus." Is it pardon we need, is it acceptance, free as the love of God, holy as His law ? We find it, we possess it, " looking unto Jesus " crucified. Is it power we need, victory and triumph over sin, capacity and willingness to witness and to suffer in a world which loves Him not at all ? We find it, we possess it, it possesses us, as we "look unto Jesus" risen and reigning, for us on the Throne, with us in the soul. Is it rule and model that we want, not written on the stones of Horeb only, but " on the fleshy tables of the heart " ? We find it, we receive
1 Christina G. Rossetti. ACTS & ROM. — 6
82 THE SAVING NAME
it, we yield ourselves up to it, as we " look unto Jesus " in His path of love, from the Throne to the Cross, from the Cross to the Throne, till the Spirit inscribes that law upon our inmost wills.1
0 Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, And all things else recede ;
My heart be daily nearer Thee, From sin be daily freed.
More of Thy glory let me see, Thou Holy, Wise, and True;
1 would Thy living image be In joy and sorrow too.2
1 H. C. G. Moule, Philippian Studies, 102. 8 From the German of J. C. Lavater.
Faithful unto Death.
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Literature.
Brooke (S. A.), Short Sermons, 141.
Jerdan (C), For the Lambs of the Flock, 404.
Liddon (H. P.), Christmastide Sermons, 157.
Luckock (H. M.), Footprints of the Apostles as traced by St. Luke, i. 195.
M'Cheyne (R. M.), Additional Remains, 189.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions, Acts i.-xii. 226.
Moore (E. W.), Christ in Possession, 113, 124.
Punshon (W. M.), Sermons, i. 303.
Randall (R. W.), Life in the Catholic Church, 272.
Wordsworth (C), Primary Witness to the Truth of the Gospel, 104.
Christian World Pulpit, xxiv. 99 (Stevenson).
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Faithful unto Death.
They stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying1, Lord Jesus, receive ray spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.— Acts vii. 59, 60.
When we read St. Luke's Gospel and the Book of Acts we are constantly finding history presented in pictures which live in the imagination and which have been reproduced on the canvas of our great artists. This story of the martyrdom of St. Stephen is one of them. It has been regarded all through the Christian ages as a theme of never-failing and most touching interest. But it is more than this. It has been represented by Christian Art in devotional pictures more frequently perhaps than any subject not immediately connected with our blessed Lord. The few words in which St. Luke has recorded it are full of suggestiveness. In the vision, for instance, which was vouchsafed to nerve Stephen for his doom, we are told that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God ; whereas elsewhere in Scripture our Lord is described as sitting. This, however, is not the posture in which we should wish to find one to whom we went for help in time of trouble and distress. It was doubtless for this reason that when the veil was drawn, Jesus was manifested to His faithful servant as standing, as One who has risen from His seat and is stretching out a helping hand to him in the crisis of his need. The Church of England has been careful to preserve this beautiful idea in one of her most beautiful Collects : " Grant, 0 Lord, that in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of Thy truth, we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed ; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors, by the example of Thy first martyr, Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee, 0 blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God