that they may be with me where I am

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory" (John 17:24)

1. All the presence that Christ affords, and his people now enjoy here, is, in regard of this, but absence from the Lord: (2 Cor. 5:6,8). Perfect presence is, when all on both sides is present ; all of Christ, and all of the Christian. But now all of Christ is not with us ; and all of us is not with him...this presence is imperfect, and mixed with much distance and absence.

2. This being with Christ where he is, hath in it perfect and full fruition and enjoyment of Christ.

3. This presence, this enjoyment, is in the best state and place. It is where he is.

4. This is to be for ever. The greatest blessing hath the longest duration.
...Would you secure heaven to yourselves? Seek to get into Christ by faith; seek acquaintance with him, press after communion with him. Let all your thoughts of heaven, all your care to secure your possessing of it, and all your exercise in pressing towards it, let all centre in this one person, Jesus Christ ...You need no more to secure your right to eternal life, than to be possessed of Christ by faith; and you need no better eternal life, than to be with Christ where he is. He himself describes it by this that they may be with me where I am. And surely Christ best knows what heaven is ; since he bought it, prepared it, and possessed it, for his people. And he knows the way to it ; for he is both the way and the guide to it. Hear his voice, therefore, and follow and he will give you eternal life ; and ye shall never perish (John 10:27-29. Rom. 8:35-39).

Learn to pray moderately for the lives of Christ's people. There are some of the godly that are very useful by their gifts and grace; and, if spared, might be of great profit to the church of Christ. Such we should be loth to lose, and their lives we may pray for; yet it must be done moderately. Who can tell but Christ and we are praying counter to one another. He may be saying in heaven, "Father I will have such a one to be with me where I am;" and we saying on earth, " Lord we would have him to be with us where we are:" we saying, "We cannot spare him as yet;" and Christ saying, "I will be no longer without him." It is the force of this prayer of Christ, "I will have them to be with me where I am," that is the cause of the death of the godly. It is the force of this prayer that carries away so many of the saints in our day. Christ is saying in heaven, "I will have them where I am. They are despised in the world, and badly used on the earth: "Father, let us have them where we are." Should not we pray modestly for their lives, while we know not his secret will? and should not we believingly submit to his will, when he reveals it ? Say, "Let them go from us, since Christ calls them to be with him." It is his will, and their great advantage, (Phil. 1:23).

Robert Traill

"Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men". (Psalm 12:1)

Volcanic Ash and the Balancings of the Clouds

The ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 challenged scientific knowledge. While further understanding has been gathered, the recent eruption of Grimsvotn has revealed much of the lack of knowledge on the part of many about these things in spite of their claims. Now the Government has appointed an Ash Cloud Tsar, a scientist who is to give them the exact knowledge they need. There has been much debate about the computer forecasts of the ash cloud made by the Met Office’s Volcanic Advisory Centre. The computer model – called NAME – takes into account wind and rain patterns to predict the movement and concentration of the ash cloud up to altitudes of 55,000 feet. It also estimates the type of ash spewing out of the volcano in terms of the size, shape and hardness of volcanic ash particles.

In spring 2010 scientists conducted three flights into the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash cloud to collect air samples. They made new discoveries. 'Each volcano has its own character', they concluded. 'We found that hydrocarbon concentrations were up to 70% lower inside the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud than outside.' They found that the ash plume contained not only the common volcanic gas sulfur dioxide, but also free chlorine radicals. Chlorine radicals are extremely reactive and even tiny amounts that can have a profound impact on local atmospheric chemistry. They are able to confirm that it was dangerous to attempt to fly through the cloud whereas at the time noone really knew for sure.

The media have referred foolishly to the forces of "mother nature" or being in "the lap of the gods" rather than acknowledge our helplessness, despite this knowledge, in response to divine providence. Those, such as ourselves, who found their travel plans affected by these work of providence should come to see our times are in his hands.

In the book of Job, Elihu asks, "Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds?" (Job 36:29). Elihu well knew something of their formation and composition. "He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them" (Job 26:8). Yet he acknowledged the real limits of his knowledge. He asks does anyone fully know the "balancings of the clouds" (Job 37:16), how millions of tons of water are suspended and sustained in the thinnest parts of the atmosphere even though water is heavier than air. Air currents may keep them aloft for a while, but who controls and directs the wind? There may be various theories based on ever closer analysis but if we are wise we must come to acknowledge and bow to the providence of God.

“Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. Dost thou know when God disposed them [i.e., the winds and clouds, the thunder and lightning, the frost and rain], and caused the light of His cloud to shine? Dost thou know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:14-16).

"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart" (Job 37:23-24). This is the lesson to be drawn from considering the mighty, wise and holy works of providence.

"Men should therefore stand in awe of him, and beware of quarrelling with his conduct, for he regards none who are wise in their own conceit, or who dare contend with their Maker, or presume to censure his proceedings." (John Brown of Haddington)

a prisoner of God's kind providence

The online publication of old copies of the Free Presbyterian Magazine (beginning 1906) is a great provision. The following comes from a letter written by a Colin Mackenzie 4 South Erradale, Gairloch, who died in 1905. It is said of him that "It was apparent to those who knew him intimately that his trouble proved a spiritual blessing to him. He once mentioned with much solemnity and pathos that he had often, day and night, suffered from such excruciating pains that he was afraid he would be deprived of his reason, yet that that was but a trifle compared to the smallest part of a grain of the wrath of God on the conscience for a single moment. His very countenance bespoke the reality of what he said".

Though I am a prisoner of God's kind providence, yet I praise His thrice holy name that my bitter cup is mixed with His loving kindness; and He not only bestows upon me of His liberal
bounty, but in a wonderful way permits me to enjoy a fair share of the good things of this life.
A few weeks ago I was very much depressed and low in spirit, but now my hope seems to have revived a bit, and my confidence in God renewed. Yet I must confess I make little, if any,
progress on the way to Zion. I find my old enemy - the carnal mind - is still alive, and at times makes me cry out in despair of ever reaching that city of refuge. Oh, that my Redeemer would suffer me to crawl at His feet, and eat of the crumbs that fall off His table; and as a poor worm would find refuge under a stone, so would my:soul find a place of refuge under His wings. Then I would have confidence that He would not crush me, because He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Pardon me for talking, in my own illiterate way, of things too wonderful for me, of which I know so little. It would become me best to repent not only of my old sins, but of every-day thought, word, and deed, and come again and again to be washed in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness.

Contemplation on Snow

The following Contemplation by Augustus Toplady is very appropriate at the moment and may help us learn from our providence in the UK at present. I cannot guarantee how metereologically accurate it is but it is spiritually helpful.

 

"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?" JOB 38:22.

 

THE whole world of nature, no less than those of grace and of glory, is under the absolute dominion and the never ceasing direction of God. Every wind that blows is of his breathing; and every drop, whether fluid or condensed, that falls from the sky, is of his sending. At this very time must the adoring nations confess that he giveth snow like wool; and he scattereth the hoar frost like ashes; he casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand against his cold? Psalm 147:16. "He saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength". Job 37:6.

 

Let the same question be put to my readers which speaking Omnipotence once put to Job "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Hast thou considered its nature, its proper ties, and its uses?

 

Dew, mist, rain, snow, hail, and clouds are no more than coalitions of watery vapours which have been partly forced towards the surface of our terraqueous globe by the latent fires with which its bowels are fraught; and partly drawn up from it by the insinuating, attractive agency of the sun. The humid particles thus exhaled naturally ascend ; as being in their uncombined state lighter than the surrounding air : and persist to soar, until they arrive at a region of the atmosphere where their flight is stopped by other preceding vapours already exhaled and condensed into clouds. Thus arrested and detained, they unite (like coalescing spherules of quicksilver, .or like the contacting globules of water in a containing vessel) into floating masses; and remain in a state of literal suspense and fluctuation until, by accumulated compression, and by their own collected weight, they become specifically heavier than the sustaining air, and fall in larger or smaller drops to the earth and ocean whence they sprung. Striking representation of man in his best estate of moral excellence! Are you rich, or exalted, or prosperous, or gay? remember, that you are under as absolute obligation to Providence for these glittering distinctions, as a rising vapour is indebted for its transitory elevation to the action of the solar beams. And, vapour-like, you too must fall, after having hovered your few destined moments: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. An inspired pen has both started and resolved the question: What is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (James 4:14). If so, "Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? What though we wade in wealth or soar in fame the Earth s highest glory ends in, Here he lies! And dust to dust, concludes her noblest son.

 

Be wise, therefore, to slip the cable of your affections from the world s evanid shore. Supplicate the Holy Spirit to make you rich towards God. And under the sweet breezes of his gracious influence, set sail in good earnest for the kingdom of heaven.

 

When the watery treasures of the sky descend to their native earth, more like respectful visitants than like rude invaders, i.e. in moderate quantities, and with not too impetuous force, we call them showers. When they greatly exceed in those two particulars we give them the hostile name of storms. Thus the human passions, if rectified and regulated by supernatural grace, are instruments of happiness, and productive of the most beneficial effects. But if unrestrained by Providence, and unrefined by the Holy Ghost, they operate like the deadly Egyptian tempest, which smote both man and beast, and destroyed every herb, and brake all the trees of the field. (Ex 9:25).

 

While the middle regions of the air are impregnated with frost, the falling drops catch cold (if the expression may be allowed), and are congealed in the course of their descent. Hail and snow are but other names for different modifications of frozen rain. Hail is rain consolidated into a hard and heavy mass. Snow is a multitude of small honked icicles which, interfering with each other in their fall, become mutually entangled and interlinked: and cohere indelicate, but irregular, flakes of very light, because of very expansive and superficial, texture. If snow is no more than particles of water, congealed in their passage to the earth, it affords but too just an emblem of our affections when, instead of aspiring to God in Christ, they subside and gravitate towards a perishable world. Under such spiritual declension, our comforts are chilled, and our graces benumbed: until a fresh rising of the sun of righteousness upon our souls dissolves the moral frost, and again warms us into the meltings of penitential love. His beams strike upon the rock, and then the waters flow.

The Shadowed Face

by Philip Bennett Power


"You must put on more shadows," said an artist to a young lady who was engaged on painting a female face. "You must put on more shadows—for she is not young."

There were many shadows on the artist's own face—those of advancing years, of thought, and labor, and the wear and tear of life; and she knew well that shadows were not merely required by the rules of the painter's art—but that they were true to life. But the thought was a sad one.

The world which we enter upon with such brightness—is soon seen to be full of shadows; and the longer we are in it, the farther we travel into them—the more deeply and thickly they gather upon us, until we go down to the grave; beyond which all shadows flee away in the land of light—OR deepen into darkness which may be felt.

It must not be supposed that because we introduce such a subject at the commencement of a year, that we are going to throw up a long shadow of gloom over its coming days. Far from it! God is a God of hope and joy; and with such a God we would have our readers enter on the coming year—but here in this world, here in our experiences, here on our very faces—there are many shadows—and we shall gain nothing by shutting our eyes, and saying there are no such things.

And it will help us at the outset to think more kindly of shadows—if we remember how heavily they lay on the face of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. "As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men" Isaiah 52:14. The Jews said to Him, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" He was indeed far from fifty—He was but a little above thirty—but shadows and lines were on His face; and His enemies thought more of fifty than of thirty, when they looked upon Him.

So let us not turn from shadows as a disagreeable subject, but draw from them the blessed teachings which they have for our own characters, and our own souls.

There are two kinds of shadows:

1. those which come upon us,

2. those which are made by us.

The first must come, the second need not come.

Yes! as we advance in life, we find so many things which we thought solid—to be hollow; so many things which we thought enduring—to be perishable; so many things which we thought would satisfy us—to leave us unfilled; that one disappointment after another throws its shadow, first on the heart and then on the face!

Take the fairest, youngest child—encompass him with wealth, give him health, give him all that this world can bestow; yet you cannot save him from the pencil charged with the shading color—the shadows will in due time be laid on. At first they will be mere greyish tints, they will seem perhaps to make but little change; but they will deepen, and that more and more as time goes on.

Sometimes they are laid on heavily all at once—and no matter how bright things may become in after life, there they remain; they never can be effaced.

But we must not accept this lot sulkily, and say, "If they must come, they must—but we would be glad if they never came."

Some little while ago, a woman who dealt in perfumes and powders of various kinds, advertised herself as able to make people beautiful forever; and it was no uncommon thing some time ago, for people to cover their face and necks with makeup, filling up the crevices which wrinkles had made, just as you put fresh plaster over an old wall to fill up the cracks—these people would have no wrinkles, no shadows.

Now, some of the most beautiful faces in the world are shadowed ones; and certainly some of the loveliest characters are the same. Therefore we are not so much to trouble ourselves about the shadows themselves—as about how they came, and what they mean.

Have they come in the course of God's providential dealings? Then they are from Him, and not from ourselves; and being from Him, they are able to do us good—they are meant to do so. They are able to do what all His dealings with His people can accomplish—that is fit us for Himself.

It was by the coming up of many shadows upon Him, that Jesus, thus tried in all points like ourselves, became an experienced High Priest. Feeling for our infirmities—His sorrows fitted Him to be a sympathetic friend to us in our sorrows.

And the sorrow and discipline which throw shadows are fitting us too. These are tokens of experience. They say, "A voice has spoken, telling me that this earth is not a place simply of enjoyment; that I must be preparing for an eternal world. The lightness, the garishness of our natures must be wrought upon by the great Master's hand."

So then the heavy shadows made by the furrows in the face may be looked upon with reverence, with affection, with awe—when they have been the handiwork of God.

Thus let us accept them. They are His softenings—His tonings down of the roughness and crudeness of our natures— His way of drawing character.

It is the shadows which give character to a face, and it is by shadow-casting dispensations, that God gives us character.

But let us take heed how WE ourselves make shadows for ourselves or for others. There are many such. They come up upon the faces of wives, and husbands and parents—and do not depart until the face becomes placid in death.

The unkind word—the cruel sleight—the sad short-coming, where 'love' had reason to expect so much; all these are powerful shadow-casters. They do their work in the mansion of the nobleman, and in the cottage of the poor man; for they are the same in themselves, and have to work on people who have the same affections. The shadows, which need not have come, are those which make the world as wretched and gloomy as it is!

What is patience in relation to providence?

Thomas Goodwin in his invaluable treatise on Patience and its Perfect Work says, 'if you now ask a description of patience, as it thus respects suffering the will of God, we must give it as it is in the word of God in the height, for that is the rule itself that directs to it, and not down it to what is found in our hearts. And yet that which afterwards follows, and will confirm every tittle of it, is drawn mostly from examples of the saints, either in the Old or New Testaments, which shew that it is attainable, though with allowance to defects, which accompany all graces in this life.

It is a constant, thankful, joyful enduring, with perseverance to the end of a man's life, all the trials that are grievous, how great, how long, how hopeless soever as to coming out of them; mortifying and compescing the inordinacy of opposite passions, as fear, grief, care, anxiety, which wifi arise upon such afflictions; with submitting to God's will, for God's glory, and his good pleasure's sake; still blessing and sanctifying God in all, waiting on God, and relieving one's self by faith in what is to be had in God, and from God, in communion with him, and from his love, in this life; in expectation also of that glory which is the reward after this life ended.

I might, in this place, confirm every word and tittle of this description, either out of examples of holy men or the rules which the word gives. But I omit the set collection of such proofs here, because that, scatteredly, up and down, in the particulars that follow, this will be found performed'.

The definition may seem easy to one who feels crushed and bruised by Providence and in great perplexity. In this relation there is a very helpful meditation that can be made use of in a book by the puritan Thomas White which is called A Method and Instructions for the Art of Divine Meditation:

O blessed God, if the way of thy Providence be such, that thou wilt not give so much Grace as to make me, through the abundance of it, almost whether I will or no, to serve thee, yet to whom thou dost give so much grace as to desire more grace, O let not this desire which is of thy own infusing; be in vain, if there be any thing in the whole world that I desire more than thy grace, then let me want grace to desire it any more; Lord, if the reason why thou deniest my prayer, be, because I do not desire as I ought, I humbly beseech thee to grant that I ask aright; alas my afflictions lie heavier on me then ever they did, and I am more wicked, or at least less holy then ever since my conversion I was; how little am I affected with any thing that belongs to thy service, nor yet doth it affect me that I am not affected: Lord, if there were any in heaven or in earth that could help me besides thee, then considering my Manifold Sins, I should; I but Lord, I would not, thy Mercies are so great, go to any other: Now Lord, now is the time to have Mercy upon me; I am like the Man that went from Jerusalem to Jericho, wounded, naked, and half dead, I cannot call for help, O let my wounds move thee to compassion; if I could bewail my sinful Misery with tears of Repentance, I know thou wouldest deliver me, but I cannot weep, nay, hardly mourn; Oh faint, faint is my grief, and cold is my love! What wilt thou do, Lord, with one that scarcely from his heart desires to serve thee: Alas, what canst thou do for me more or less, then to make me desire to serve thee! Accept I must, or for ever be lost: What a low degree of goodness am I come unto? a soul full of sadness, and empty of goodness; To morrow, Lord, I am to receive thee into my soul, thee my blessed Saviour: Lord, thou knowest I did not use to have a heart so empty of goodness, when I expected thee to come next day.