Evening, October 29
Go To Morning Reading
“But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.”
Luke 24:16
The disciples ought to have known Jesus, they had heard his voice
so often, and gazed upon that marred face so frequently, that it is
wonderful they did not discover him. Yet is it not so with you also?
You have not seen Jesus lately. You have been to his table, and you
have not met him there. You are in a dark trouble this evening, and
though he plainly says, “It is I, be not afraid,” yet you cannot discern him. Alas! our eyes are holden. We know his
voice; we have looked into his face; we have leaned our head upon
his bosom, and yet, though Christ is very near us, we are saying “O that I knew where I might find him!” We should know Jesus, for we have the Scriptures to reflect his image,
and yet how possible it is for us to open that precious book and have
no glimpse of the Wellbeloved! Dear child of God, are you in that
state? Jesus feedeth among the lilies of the word, and you walk among
those lilies, and yet you behold him not. He is accustomed to walk
through the glades of Scripture, and to commune with his people, as
the Father did with Adam in the cool of the day, and yet you are in
the garden of Scripture, but cannot see him, though he is always there.
And why do we not see him? It must be ascribed in our case, as in
the disciples’, to unbelief. They evidently did not expect to see Jesus, and therefore
they did not know him. To a great extent in spiritual things we get
what we expect of the Lord. Faith alone can bring us to see Jesus.
Make it your prayer, “Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may see my Saviour present with
me.” It is a blessed thing to want to see him; but oh! it is better far
to gaze upon him. To those who seek him he is kind; but to those who
find him, beyond expression is he dear!