Evening, June 10
Go To Morning Reading
“They are they which testify of me.”
John 5:39
Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant
theme of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of him.
At the creation we at once discern him as one of the sacred Trinity;
we catch a glimpse of him in the promise of the woman’s seed; we see him typified in the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham,
as he sees Messiah’s day; we dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the
gracious promise; we hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh;
and in the numerous types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly
foreshadowed. Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look
one way—they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to look within,
and to read the mystery of God’s great propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament we
find our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and
there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a
solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the New Testament
is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is bejewelled with
the Redeemer’s name. We should always read Scripture in this light; we should consider
the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven;
and then we, looking into it, see his face reflected as in a glass—darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation
for seeing him as we shall see him face to face. This volume contains
Jesus Christ’s letters to us, perfumed by his love. These pages are the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and
aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides,
and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures
are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you
find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.