Religion has its present enjoyments. Speak, ye that know them, for ye
can tell; yet ye cannot recount them all. O, would ye give up your
religion for all the joys that earth calls good or great? Say, if your
immortal life could be extinguished, would you give it up, even for all
the kingdoms of this world? O, ye sons of poverty, has not this been a
candle to you in the darkness? Has not this lightened you through the
heavy shades of your tribulation? O, ye sons of toil, has not this been
your rest, your sweet repose? Have not the testimonies of God been your
song in the house of your pilgrimage? O, ye children of sorrow, racked
with pain, has not religion been to you a sweet quietus in your
sufferings? Is not religion worth having in the sick chamber? And ye men
of business, speak for yourselves. You have hard struggles to pass
through life. Sometimes you have been driven to a great extremity, and
whether you would succeed or not seemed to hang upon a thread. Has not
your religion been a joy to you in your difficulties? Has it not calmed
your minds? When you have been fretted and troubled about worldly
things, have you not found it pleasant to enter your closet, and shut to
the door, and tell your Father in secret all your cares? And, O, ye that
are rich, cannot you bear the same testimony, if you have loved the
Master? What had all your riches been to you without a Saviour? Can you
not say that your religion did gild your gold, and make your silver
shine more brightly? For all things that you have are sweetened by this
thought, that you have all these and Christ too. Was there ever a child
of God who could deny this? We have heard of many infidels who grieved
over their infidelity when they came to die: did you ever hear of any
one on his death-bed looking back on a life of holiness with sorrow?
Never, never did we know a Christian who repented of his Christianity.
We have seen Christians so suffering, that we wondered that they lived;
so poor, that we wondered at their misery; we have seen them so full of
doubts, that we pitied their unbelief; but we never heard them say, even
then, “I regret that I gave myself to Christ.” No; with the dying clasp,
when heart and flesh were failing, we have seen them hug this treasure
to their breast, and press it to their heart, still feeling that this
was their life, their joy, their all. O! if ye would be happy, if ye
would be saved, if ye would strew your path with sunshine, and dig out
the nettles and blunt the thorns, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and
His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek
not happiness first; seek Christ first; and happiness shall come after.
Seek ye first the Lord, and then He will provide for you in this life,
and He will crown it with everything that is glorious in the life to
come.
“ Our Lord Jesus. ”
Whatever blissful consequences flow from the perfect obedience, the
finished atonement, the resurrection, ascension, or intercession of the
Lord Jesus, all are ours by His own gift. Upon His breastplate He is now
wearing our names; and in His authoritative pleadings at the throne He
remembers us and pleads our cause. The advantages of His high position,
His dominion over principalities and powers, and His absolute majesty in
heaven, He employs for the benefit of them that trust in Him. His high
estate is as much at our service as was His condition of abasement. He
who gave Himself for us in the depths of woe and death, doth not
withdraw the grant now that He is enthroned in the highest heavens.
Christ hath no dignity which He will not employ for our exaltation, and
no prerogative which He will not exercise for our defence. Christ
everywhere and in every way is our portion, forever and ever most richly
to enjoy.