It
is exceedingly satisfying to love Christ and to be loved by Him.
Discovery of the excellency of Christ and His love is 'exceedingly
contenting and satisfying to the soul.' We seek those things which
are most excellent and most satisfying—and we find them in Christ.
'The carnal soul imagines that earthly things are excellent; one
thinks riches most excellent, another has the highest esteem if
honour, and another carnal pleasure appears the most excellent; but
the soul cannot find contentment in any of these things, because it
soon finds an end to their excellency. They sought happiness in
those things but did not find it.
But
Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when
you come to Christ you look no further for you have found what you
sought! There is a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in
Him. They had been pursuing shadows but now have found substance in
Christ. He has an infinite excellency more than capable of
fulfilling our deepest longings. And those who are most Christ-like
know this. The longing soul may be satisfied, and the hungry soul
may be filled with goodness. The delight and contentment that is to
be found in Christ passes understanding and is unspeakable and full
of glory. It is impossible for those who have tasted of this
fountain, and know the sweetness of it, ever to forsake it. The soul
has found the river of water of life, and it desires no other drink;
it has found the tree of life, and it desires no other fruit.
Christ's
love gives us abundant contentment. It is exceeding sweet and
satisfying because it is the love of a person of such dignity and
excellency. The sweetness of his love depends very much upon the
greatness of his excellency; so much the more lovely the person, so
much the more desirable is his love. How sweet must the love of that
person be, who is the eternal Son of God, who is of equal dignity
with the Father! How great a happiness must it be to be the object
of the love of him who is the Creator of the world, and by whom all
things consist, and who is exalted at God's right hand, . . . who is
King of kings and Lord of lords, and is the brightness of the
Father's glory! Surely to be beloved by him is enough to satisfy
your soul!
There
is quiet rest and sweet refreshment in Christ Jesus, for those that
are weary. He is 'as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'
Christ puts strength and a principle of new life into the weary soul
that comes to him. A little of true peace, a little of the joys of
the demonstrated love of Chirst, and a little of the true and holy
hope of eternal life, are enough to compensate for all that toil and
weariness, and to erase the remembrance of it from the mind. That
peace which results from true faith passes understanding, and that
joy is joy unspeakable and full of glory.There is something
peculiarly sweet and refreshing in this joy, that is not in other
joys; and what can more effectually support the mind, or give a more
rational ground of rejoicing, than a prospect of eternal glory in the
enjoyment of God from God's own promise in Christ? “I sat down
under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste.”
The
fainting, sinking spirits are now revived and this principle of
spiritual life is a continual spring of refreshment, like a well of
living water. 'but
whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be
thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14 Christ
gives his Spirit, that calms the mind, and is like a refreshing
breeze of wind. He gives tht strength whereby he lifts up the hands
that hang down, and strengthens the feeble knees.
Christ
is the joy of the soul, and if the soul be but rejoiced and filled
with divine light, such joy no man can take away; whatever outward
misery there be, the spirit will sustain it.
