Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

that he must enter into his glory through the sufferings of death. They, no doubt, expected that he would put forth his power, as he had often done before, to deliver himself triumphantly from the hands of his enemies. But when they saw that he was actually taken, and that he suffered himself to be led away to the cross, their hearts failed them for fear. That was the hour of his enemies, and of the power of darkness, and they made use of that opportunity to "sift them as wheat." Their faith was yet much mixed with chaff, and fierce winds of trial were needed to cleanse the precious seeds of faith. For a brief period, therefore, the storm was permitted to beat upon them, while Christ prayed that their faith fail not entirely. Cast down, but not destroyed. Bent down like a slender stem before the storm, they were bent only, but not broken. They regained their original position once more when the hurricane had passed over them. When Christ appeared to them again, after his resurrection, their faith rallied anew; even the slow and deliberate Thomas, when he laid his hand into the Saviour's side, was at length brought to exclaim, with the most child-like faith, "My Lord, and my God!"

How different from this, in quantity at least, was the faith of Mary Magdalene. Her faith was constant and steady like the bright blaze of a light-house, in the midst of black and howling storms. It was regular and ever-increasing from the beginning, as evinced by her constant ministerings to him. She had much forgiven, and therefore she believed much. Her faith was a deeper and more inward life than that of the fleeing disciples. Her faith was more like the quiet reliance of John, who was wont to lie upon the Saviour's bosom. Her faith was more like that of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who "kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Her faith had passed beyond reason and mere outward calculation. She hung to Christ by a deep, holy, spiritual instinct, like the infant hangs upon its mother's bosom, because her life was there. Her faith was almost entirely absorbed in her love-it was the life of a loving soul. This led her to the cross. This fixed her there, in full view of her suffering Saviour. She felt that though they crucified him they could not destroy the power of his life in her, nor sever the tie that bound her to him for life or for death. Job could say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him ;" but she could say, though they slay him, yet will I trust in him. When gazing upon the cross, and hearing the groans of the sufferer, her heart could exclaim in inward triumph, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ." Such was the faith of Mary Magdalene, as evinced at the cross of her Saviour.

of

SHE EVINCES THE PURITY OF HER LOVE AT THE CROSS. The relation between faith and love is so intimate that, in the life grace, the two cannot be separated. Love is but the continuation

VOL. VI.-2.

of faith. Love is the mode in which faith expresses itself. Hence it is said that "faith works by love"-i. e., it works out its own life in acts of love. By faith we are united to Christ; and by love we live and are active in him. The two are united like the body and its members-like cause and effect-like life and action-like the foundation and the building erected upon it-like a fountain, and the stream which flows from it.

Faith must evidence its own genuineness by bringing forth love, or in working by love. For if faith is alone it is dead-that is, it is not faith; for faith is a living principle. This also the apostle Paul declares in that strong passage in 1 Cor., 13: "Though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." That love rests upon faith, he declares when he tells us that, "love believeth all things."

We cannot have full confidence in any object without loving it; neither can we love it without full confidence in it. This we can see in the exhibitions of human love. Whenever suspicious fears enter the heart love dies out-the two cannot live together. So it is with love to Christ. No one ever loved him who had any suspicion that he was not all that he professed to be. Hence we find, in the case of all his followers, that the first thing they did was to believe on him; and then to love him followed as a necessary consequence. Hence also, the apostle says, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth, is not made perfect in love." When the last cloud of fear has passed away from before the heart, then the sun of holy love shines into it with all its light, its beauty, and its joy. Then faith has become perfect in love. This was the case with Mary Magdalene. She believed in him fully, and therefore she loved him perfectly.

"There she stood

With folded arms, and brow bent meekly down
Beside the cross; and when from time to time
She raised her dark wet eyes, oh! what a light
Of holy worship and adoring love

Lay deep within them."

But how particularly did she manifest her love to him by being at the cross? We answer, In the same way that love always manifests itself by her desire to be near him. She stood at the cross! -this is enough; it speaks its own language. Judas was not there -nor Peter-nor those disciples who fled because their faith failed. But John was there-and Mary, the mother of Jesus-and Mary Magdalene.

It is one of the plainest, simplest, and most striking characteristics of love that it cleaves closely to its object, and desires to be always near it. David loved Jonathan, and they always sought each other. Ruth loved her mother-in-law, Naomi, and therefore she did not consent to be separated from her: "Entreat me not to

leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thon goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: when thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."-Ruth 1: 16-17. John loved the Saviour, and therefore he lay on his bosom at supper, followed him into the judgment hall, sat by his side during the shameful trial, and then went with him to the cross. Mary, the mother of Jesus, loved him, and therefore we read: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother." So also Mary Magdalene, loved Jesus, and hence she stands with the beloved disciple and the mother of Jesus at the cross.

The strength and purity of her love to him is still more strikingly manifest when we consider that she did not shrink back from him when, in the eyes of the world, he was put to an open shame. Others loved him as long as his person was honored, when his cause prospered, and when miracles and triumphs attended his way; but Magdalene loved him when even his disciples had fled, when his person is insulted, when his cause is derided, and when, to all human appearance, his sun seemed going down in a hopeless night. Many cried "Hosanna," when that was the popular cry, but Mary honored him with her firm attachment when the popular cry was "Crucify him!"

That only can be called pure love which clings devotedly to its object for its own dear sake-which does not die, but gathers new strength in adversity-and which burns with the same steady light amid triumphs of glory, or amid dishonor and shame. Love in adversity-love that stands in pure self-sacrificing devotion by the side of its object after all others have fled-this is pure and holy. Such was the love of Mary Magdalene at the cross.

SHE EVINCES HER DEEP SYMPATHY WITH THE SAVIOUR.

Sympathy is that warm fellow-feeling which moves us to enter with deep interest into the feelings of those with whom we sympathise. Sympathy belongs to our emotional nature. It is a melting tenderness of heart towards them, either in their joys, or in their sorrows. It leads us to rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.

Our sympathy is always in proportion to the love we bear for those with whom we sympathise. If our interest in them is deep, our sympathy will be also deep and real. From the love of Magdalene towards the Saviour we may feel assured that her heart entered fully into his sorrows and sufferings. Every sign of agony in him affected her. Every groan sent its arrow through her heart. In her, as well as in the other Mary, the prophesy was fulfilled, "A sword shall pierce through thy own soul!"

11

Her sympathetic sorrow must have been vastly increased by the fact that she dare not now minister to him. Before, she could fly to his relief; but now swords, and staves, and stern faces are between her and her suffering friend. When he says, "I thirst, she cannot reach him with the refreshing cup; but has new anguish added to her grief by seeing that instead thereof he receives vinegar and hyssop! When he cries out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which is, being interpreted, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"-instead of a soothing word from her, he hears only the language of derision and mockery, "Behold, he calleth Elias. Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down!" She sees his wants, but dare not approach to relieve them. How this would deepen her sympathy, and open still deeper the wounds of her devoted heart! Oh, who can measure the deep waters that are gathering around her heart; who can count the heavy waves of anguish that roll in quick succession over her soul?

Yet in the spirit of undying love, she gazes still upon the scene that rends her heart-and would count it sin to avert from it for a moment her steady eye. She will not let the sufferer feel one

pang alone.

"She cannot save

But she will soothe, and solace, and sustain

With strength that never fails—the strength of Love."

How like balm to a wound, must have been this sympathy to him, in that hour of deep loneliness, and fearful agony !

When the scene of suffering ends-when he cried, bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, what then were the feelings of Magdalene? Now indeed is the earth dark, and drear, and lonely. Now she can roam the earth alone, and cry in vain into the ears of an unfeeling world, "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth!" But who can doubt that he who shared her affectionate sympathy while hanging on the cross, remembered her when he had entered into his glory, and fulfilled to her with special tenderness the promise, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you!"

HOME.

HOME! 'Tis a blessed name!. And they who rove,

Careless or scornful of its pleasant bonds,

Nor gather round them those linked soul to soul

By nature's fondest ties-whose priceless love

And holy truthfulness make up a "Home,

And make a heaven of home"-and more, far more!

Enfold the spirit in a sweet content,

And bid it hope a second home in Heaven

But dream they're happy.

THE FIRST MARRIAGE.

III.

BY THE EDITOR.

Ir will be noticed that there is a marked difference in the language which relates to the creation of the man and woman, and that which records the bringing forth of the other parts of the creation. The creation of man and woman was direct: "Let us make man"-the Lord God made woman; while the production of the other parts was secondary. "Let there be a firmament, lights, -let the waters bring forth, let the earth bring forth." The spirit of the Lord, which moved upon the face of the chaos, it seems, impregnated the yet unorganized mass with the seeds of organized life; and the bringing forth of vegetable and animal life was not a pure creation, but only a further evolution of what was at hand after the first direct creation of "the heaven and the earth," "in the beginning."

The vegetable and animal existences were products from the earth, developed under the influence of a general power; but man, though his body was also taken from the earth, was created, as to his best side, from heaven down, and by the direct hand of God. He was lord from heaven over the lower orders. He was not, like them, to fall again upon the earth, but to rise to heaven. He was to have his life from above, and his home there. His connection with the earth was to be one of superiority and dominion. He was to be the image of God in the earth; in which God, heaven, the infinite, were to be connected with man, earth, and the finite. "Man became a living soul"—a living spirit, like that spirit which moved upon the face of the chaos-a being in which spirit reigned over matter, causing it to culminate in its highest and most perfect form around itself.

The vegetable and animal creations were perpetuated and increased, not from one, by procession, but from many by separate productions from the earth and water. The waters brought forth, not one, but "abundantly the moving creature that hath life." God created not a whale, but "whales." This is no doubt the ground of species in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Creative power was in the way of extension, not concentration. This secondary creative power was more scattered, consequently less intense, and not of so high and perfect an order.

How different in the creation of man! Here there must be unity, inasmuch as God's image is to be represented. This will allow of no species. Here creation must find its centre, both from heaven down, and from the earth up. There must be a union in the divine exertion of creative power: "Let us make." The re

« ForrigeFortsæt »