as " the meat that perisheth." But the peace of God which passeth all understanding, the light of his reconciled counte- nance, a sense of his love shed abroad in the heart, the joy of the Holy Ghost, the earnests and foretastes of the heavenly bliss ; what shall I say of these ? what are earthly things in comparison of these ? what, but a taper before the meridian sun ? Besides, these endure for ever : they are " a meat that endureth unto eternal life ;" and, to whatever extent they are enjoyed, they are but as the dawn of future blessedness, the
first-fruits of an abundant harvest ■
Can any labour be too great for these ? The mind may easily be too intensely fixed on the vanities of time and sense, and the exertions made for them be too great: but it is not possible to have the desire after spiritual blessings too ardent, or the pursuit of them too laborious.]
Let us now turn our attention to,
II. The encouragement here afforded —
We may labour for the meat which perisheth, and be disappointed ; as thousands are, who, after years of incessant toil, have either acquired little, or per- haps been reduced to the lowest ebb of want and misery. But this shall never be experienced by those who labour for that better meat which endureth unto everlasting life. For, as a recompence of their labours,
1. The Lord Jesus Christ will give it to them —
[The Lord Jesus constantly calls himself " the Son of Man ;" because by that name, in particular, the Messiah was expected, and had been foretold k. " Him had God the Father sealed," and attested, by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon him, and by an audible voice from heaven1. By all his miracles, too, did God bear ample testimony to his Messiahship™, and, above all, in his resurrection from the dead, and his visible ascension to the highest heavens. There is he invested with " all power both in heaven and earth ;" and from thence will he communicate to all his believing people, according to the full extent of their necessities. The Lord Jesus Christ is of himself well disposed to give us all that we can desire : but, if it were possible to have any security beyond that which we possess in his own love and mercy, we have it in his ordination to that very office by the Father, and in his exaltation to heaven for that very end, " that he may be Head over all things to his Church," and " that he may fill all things" " out of the fulness that is treasured up in him11."]
k Dan. vii. 13. ] Matt. iii. 16, 17.
n' John v. 36. » Eph. i. 22, 23.