II. GRACE IS NOT GIVEN TO A CHRISTIAN TO BE THUS HIDDEN, BUT IT IS INTENDED
THAT, LIKE SPIKENARD, IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE IN EXERCISE.
If I understand a Christian aright, he should be a man readily discerned.
You do not need to write upon a box that contains spikenard, with the lid
open, the word “Spikenard.” You will know it is there; your nostrils would
tell you. If a man should fill his pockets with dust, he might walk where
he would, and though he should scatter it in the air, few would notice it;
but let him go into a room with his pockets full of musk, and let him drop
a particle about, he is soon discovered, because the musk speaks for
itself. Now true grace, like spikenard or any other perfume, should speak
for itself. You know our Saviour compares Christians to lights. There is a
crowd of people standing yonder; I cannot see those who are in the shadow,
but there is one man whose face I can see well, and that is the man who
holds the torch. Its flames light up his face, so that we can catch every
feature readily. So, whoever is not discovered, the Christian should be
obvious at once. “Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth, for thy speech
betrayeth thee.” Not only should the Christian be perceptible, but grace
has been given to him that it might be in exercise. What is faith,
unless it is believing? What is love, unless it is embracing? What is
patience, unless it is enduring? To what purpose is knowledge, unless
it is revealing truth? What are any of those sweet graces which the
Master gives us, unless they yield their perfume? I fear we do not
enough gaze upon that face covered with the bloody sweat, for if we
did, as sure as the King was thus in our thoughts sitting at his table,
we should be more like him; we should love him better; we should live
more passionately for him, and should spend and be spent, that we
might promote his glory. I just note this point, and then pass on, that
believers’ graces, like spikenard, are meant to give forth their smell.
But here is the pith of our whole subject, though we have little time to
linger upon it:–
III. THE ONLY WAY IN WHICH A CHRISTIAN’S GRACES CAN BE PUT INTO EXERCISE IS
THAT HE MUST HAVE THE PRESENCE OF THE MASTER.
He is called “the King.” I am told that the Hebrew word is very
emphatic, as if it said, “The King”–the King of kings, the greatest of
all Kings. He must be such to us–absolute Master of our hearts, Lord
of our soul’s domain, the unrivalled One in our estimation, to whom
we render obedience with alacrity. We must have him as King, or we
shall not have his presence to revive our graces. And when the King
communes with his people, it is said to be at “his table,” not at ours.
Specially may this apply to the table of communion. It is not the
Baptists’ table; it is not my table; it is his table, because if there is
anything good on it, remember, he spread it; nay, there is nothing on
the table unless he himself be there. There is no food to the child of
God unless Christ’s body be the flesh, and Christ’s blood the wine. We
must have Christ. It must be emphatically his table by his being
present, by his spreading it, his presiding at it, or else we have not his
presence at all. I find the Hebrew word here signifies a “round table.” I
do not know whether that is intended which I understand by it–
perhaps it is–it suggests to me a blessed equality with all his disciples;
sitting at his round table, as if there were scarce a head, but he was one
of themselves, so close the communion he holds with them sitting at
the table; so dear his fellowship, sitting like one of themselves, made
like unto his brethren in all things at his round table.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
