Evening, August 26
Go To Morning Reading
“The people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running
to him saluted him.”
Mark 9:15
How great the difference between Moses and Jesus! When the prophet
of Horeb had been forty days upon the mountain, he underwent a kind
of transfiguration, so that his countenance shone with exceeding brightness,
and he put a veil over his face, for the people could not endure to
look upon his glory. Not so our Saviour. He had been transfigured
with a greater glory than that of Moses, and yet, it is not written
that the people were blinded by the blaze of his countenance, but
rather they were amazed, and running to him they saluted him. The
glory of the law repels, but the greater glory of Jesus attracts.
Though Jesus is holy and just, yet blended with his purity there is
so much of truth and grace, that sinners run to him amazed at his
goodness, fascinated by his love; they salute him, become his disciples,
and take him to be their Lord and Master. Reader, it may be that just
now you are blinded by the dazzling brightness of the law of God.
You feel its claims on your conscience, but you cannot keep it in
your life. Not that you find fault with the law, on the contrary,
it commands your profoundest esteem, still you are in nowise drawn
by it to God; you are rather hardened in heart, and are verging towards
desperation. Ah, poor heart! turn thine eye from Moses, with all his
repelling splendour, and look to Jesus, resplendent with milder glories.
Behold his flowing wounds and thorn-crowned head! He is the Son of
God, and therein he is greater than Moses, but he is the Lord of love,
and therein more tender than the lawgiver. He bore the wrath of God,
and in his death revealed more of God’s justice than Sinai on a blaze, but that justice is now vindicated,
and henceforth it is the guardian of believers in Jesus. Look, sinner,
to the bleeding Saviour, and as thou feelest the attraction of his
love, fly to his arms, and thou shalt be saved.