Christ's Sympathy with Christian Perseverance
Back to The Sympathy of Christ
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? John 6:67
"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. John 6:67
Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, "Are you going to leave, too?" John 6:67
When one views the perilous journey which conducts the believer to heaven, it seems a miracle that any should ever arrive there at last! Remembering that each one carries within his bosom the elements of his own destruction- a moral gun-powder, a single spark lighting upon which, unextinguished instantaneously by the power of Christ, would annihilate every vestige of hope; when we remember, too, that the wilderness through which He passes is thronged with beasts of prey, headed by the prince of the power of the air, and how, at the very last gasp of life, he would, were it possible, pluck the trembling spirit from the hand of Jesus; when to this is added the allurements of the world, the snares of one's daily calling, the offence of the cross, the seduction of false doctrines, the disguises of error, it does indeed appear a miracle- an especial and continuous intervention of Divine power, contrary to the law of nature and of sin- that a sinner should ever find himself in glory.
It is an solemn thought that multitudes who appear to set out for heaven, moved by some powerful, undefinable impulse, eventually flag, halt, and finally turn back, and never touch the borders of the good land. They seem to make some spiritual progress, to bid fair to hold on their way to the end, but by and by, when the straitness, the difficulties, and the dangers of the way unfold themselves, they tire, and stumble, and gradually decline and walk no more professedly with Jesus.
It were well, my reader, if we lay these things close to heart- if they lead us to earnest self-examination as to our religion, our progress, our hope, lest at any time we should seem to come short. A solemn and striking instance of turning back from Christ is before us. Christ had been propounding truths unpalatable to some of his hearers- truths which uprooted their self-righteousness, laid their glory in the dust, removing the crown from the head of human merit and placing it upon the head of Divine grace. These doctrines gave offence; they were 'test truths'- truths which brought the principles, the grace, and the progression of these professing disciples to the proof, and when thus tested and proved they failed. His line of truth was this- "Even his disciples said, "This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?" Jesus knew within himself that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what will you think if you see me, the Son of Man, return to heaven again? (thus declaring His pre-existent Deity); It is the Spirit who gives eternal life. (thus teaching the doctrine of spiritual regeneration); Human effort accomplishes nothing. (thus upholding the doctrine of man's moral impotence);
And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (thus asserting the Divine inspiration of His truth); But some of you don't believe me." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who didn't believe, and he knew who would betray him.) Then he said, "That is what I meant when I said that people can't come to me unless the Father brings them to me." At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him." John 6:60-66. Thus early commenced the offence of gospel truth, the enmity and opposition of man's carnal mind to the doctrines and principles of grace. "From that time"- from the moment these Divine and distinctive doctrines were declared, which laid the axe at the root of human power, pride, and merit- "many went back, and walked no more with Him." It was at this trying and critical juncture that Christ manifested that touching sympathy with the Christian fidelity and perseverance of His true disciples, which prompted the affecting appeal, "Will you also go away?" What a solemn, heart-searching question! What an exhibition of our Lord's sympathy with the Christian constancy and perseverance of His people! Our spiritual progress, our growth in grace, our Christian consistency and perseverance, cannot be a matter of indifference to Christ.
That He should construct a beautiful vessel- recreating, remodelling, and re-embellishing it from the ruins of the fall, for the purpose of restoring to it the Divine image, and of filling it through eternity with the Divine glory- and should then feel and manifest no regard, sympathy, or care for its future safety and well-being, is a picture of Christ the Bible nowhere presents. Such a statement is belied by the words before us- "Will you also go away?" What an impressive and exquisitely affecting view of the Savior's holy, tender solicitude for His people's perseverance in grace! May its study quicken our sensibilities, stimulate our diligence, awaken our vigilance, and call forth the response, "Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life!" In considering this sympathy of Christ with the constancy of His disciples to His person and truth, and their perseverance in personal holiness and grace, it will be proper to place in the foreground the solemn fact, that there are professors of Christ who, assailed by certain hostile influences, go away and walk no more with Jesus. This will prepare us to consider true Christian perseverance, and Christ's tender, wakeful sympathy with it. "Will you also go away?"
The sin implied in this affecting appeal of Christ is that of backsliding and apostasy from Him and His cause. With an unregenerate man, the whole life is one act of going from Christ. Our nature has been wandering from God, from Christ, and from heaven more and more, farther and farther, from the moment that it first broke from its grand center- God. Supposing myself addressing personally such a one, in proof of this solemn statement as to your spiritual condition, let me remind you that you have never yet taken one actual step toward Christ; that you have never yielded to the attraction of His cross, have never felt the power of His love, have never tasted that the Lord is gracious. What is this but a turning the back upon the Savior? The final condemnation of such a rejection of Christ will admit of no palliation or excuse.
Your plea at Christ's bar will not even be that which we might suppose a heathen would present, whose shores the keel of the missionary ship never smote, whose valleys and whose rocks never echoed with the sounds of salvation- "I never heard of You, O Lord! The gospel of Your salvation never saluted my ears. I never knew that I was a sinner, and never heard that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, and that I might be saved." You possess the Bible, have some intellectual knowledge of the truth, have heard the solemn warnings and the thrilling invitations of the gospel, and yet your whole life is one continuous act of wilful going away from Jesus. You reject His person, neglect His salvation, spurn His grace, and trample upon His bleeding heart. Listen to the solemn word of God: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" "There remains no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Oh, ponder these declarations before you take another step with your back upon Christ!
But there are those who, by a most solemn profession, have given in their adherence to Christ- have walked with Him in the observance of religious duties and ordinances- have appeared to exhibit some marks of grace, some signs of conversion- the bud, the blossom, the foliage- but, alas! whose "goodness has been but as the morning cloud and the early dew, passing away." The bud was nipped, the blossom withered before the fruit was set; and so they went back and walked no more, even professedly, with Jesus. To what cause shall we trace the spiritual inconstancy, defections, and backslidings of many who walk no more with the Lord?
Some forsake the way of the Lord because of its growing straitness. The extreme narrowness of the way does not fully appear to the believer on his first setting out in the Divine life. The Lord wisely and graciously reserves this for the more advanced and matured stages of grace. As the believer grows in grace, He grows in the knowledge of the difficulties of salvation, of the increasing straitness of the path, and of the necessity of working out his own salvation with fear and trembling. He comes to learn more fully what at first sight have startled and discouraged him, that "the righteous scarcely are saved." This proves a test of real grace. True conversion will stand it. He that truly has Christ in his heart will never swerve from the Christian life because, as He advances, He finds the path become straiter, narrower, and more difficult.
His growing knowledge of Christ meets the new intricacies of his Christian course. Indeed, Christ is his way; and while He grows in a closer intimacy with the way, He also grows in a closer intimacy with all his supplies for the way. I have remarked that the growing narrowness of the Christian way is a test of religious profession. This supplies one reason why so many religious professors after a while prove inconstant, and backslide from the way. Wearied with the practice of self-denial- tired of bearing the cross after Jesus- restless beneath His yoke- impatient of His burden- they slacken in the race, halt in the journey, and eventually altogether relinquish their proffession. Such individuals never counted the cost of a Christian profession of Christ. They took not into consideration the self-denial demanded, the battle with sin involved, the crucifixion to the world required; and when these things came upon them, these half-hearted pilgrims swerved from their profession, and returned to the sins they professed to have renounced, and to the world they professed to have abandoned, and walked no more with Jesus.
The world is another fruitful cause of alienation from a religious profession. It is a deadly snare, a fatal rock to many a towering professor. Its seductions are so powerful, its disguise so successful, its pleas so plausible, its eddies so numerous, its vortex so powerful and absorbing, few who profess to have come out of and to have renounced it forever, escape from its entire enthralment, and hold on their Christian course of daily dying to its fascination and power. Oh, what a snare to the Christian profession is the
ungodly world! And is there not, at the present moment, cause for alarm at the growing encroachment of the world upon the professing Church of Christ? We verily think so. Are
not worldly amusements- dancing, card-playing, private theatricals, concerts- rife among many who have openly and solemnly professed His holy name before men, "who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver its from this present evil world?" What means this eager pursuit of wealth, this love of display, this extravagance of living, this conformity to the world in a hundred different ways, so conspicuous and so increasing among Christian professors?
Wherein, but in an outward profession, do these avowed disciples of the Crucified differ from the unregenerate, ungodly, non-professing world around them? If these are true disciples of Christ, where are we to look for the worldlings?- if these are worldlings, where are we to look for the true followers of Christ? The Church in its worldly conformity looks so like the world, and the world in its religious forms looks so like the Church, we are at times embarrassed where to look for the one or for the other. But this amalgamation must not be! The true Church of Christ is a separate body, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, the light and the salt of the world." And the precept that is to regulate its course as it regards this world is, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." "Do not be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." "Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
"If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection [mind] on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." "Wherefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." What can be more clear, more imperative, or more solemn than these injunctions to a nonconformity to the world? To their entire disregard must be traced the apostasy from their solemn vows of Christian discipleship of multitudes of professed disciples of Christ. "Demos has forsaken me, having loved this present world." "They went out from us, because they were not of us."
Offence because of the truth, is another popular cause of inconstancy of religious profession and of apostasy from the faith. As the gospel becomes more unfolded to their view, and those truths and doctrines are propounded which teach eternal election, Divine sovereignty, free grace, effectual calling, spiritual regeneration, preceptive holiness, final perseverance, and related doctrines of grace, by and by they become offended, go back, and walk no more with Jesus. These were the truths our Divine Prophet taught the people. On one occasion so powerfully did they stir up the opposition of the natural heart and the enmity of the carnal mind, that they bore Him to the brow of a hill, and would from thence have hurled Him headlong to destruction. And what prevented the accomplishment of this murderous purpose? The indwelling of His Godhead! "And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him into the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But He, passing through, the midst of them, went his way."
The awful consequences of having professed Christ only to renounce Him, of swerving from Christian doctrines and profession, must be left for the pen of inspiration to portray. They will be found delineated with terrific and startling power in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. That these solemn passages can be predicated of real Christians we do not aver, and have elsewhere taught. The apostle supposes the hypothetical case of one who had so far professed Christianity as to bear a strong resemblance to its genuine truths and practice, but who yet eventually fell away and renounced both the doctrines and the precepts of Christ. Applied, as they originally are, to this class of religionists, they present a picture of so appalling a character as should make every religious professor in Christendom turn pale and tremble!
But there are those who do not go away from the Savior. To those He touchingly appealed, "Will you also go away?" What was the feeling our adorable Lord here manifested?
It was a deep, intense, earnest sympathy with the Christian progress and perseverance of His true disciples. "Will you leave and forsake me? Will you sever from my faith, no more walk with me, and henceforth cease to be my disciples?" Oh, what must have been the touching tenderness of that look, the melting tones of that voice, the winning power of that appeal when these words were spoken! We marvel not that the earnest and instantaneous response of His true disciples was, " Lord, to whom shall we go? If we forsake You, where could we turn? Who could be to us such a Savior, such a Friend, such a Portion as You are, if, Lord, we turn from You?" Now, what is the subject thus so dear to the heart of Christ? With what is His sympathy so closely, so warmly entwined? It is the perseverance of His disciples in spiritual knowledge, grace, and steadfastness, resolving itself into a simple, single, and firm adherence to Himself. "Will you also go away?" The subject is important- Christian perseverance. Let us present it to the reader in two or three particulars.
And first, perseverance in the growth of spiritual knowledge must necessarily occupy a prominent place in religious progress. "Add to virtue knowledge." Real growth in experimental Christianity demands calm thought, mental abstraction, patient and prayerful study of Divine truth. Christian progression would be an anomaly not based upon, and accompanied by, Christian knowledge- an increasing knowledge of Christ, knowing more and more of the glory of His person, the excellency of His work, the sufficiency of His grace, and the depth of His love- knowing more and more of God in Christ as our Father, as God all-sufficient- knowing more and more of the fulness and preciousness of the Scriptures of truth- and knowing more and more of the depravity of our nature, and at the same time of the blood that cleanses from all sin- past, present, and to come. Religious progress, not guided and tempered by this, will be a progression in the wrong direction, in all probability landing the traveler upon the bleak and perilous shore of some essential error in doctrine, or wild extravagance in practice, which may prove fatal to his Christian profession, holiness, and hope! To our progress in Christian knowledge there is no limit in this life but life itself.
The subjects of spiritual research and study are so infinite in their nature, rich in their wealth, and boundless in their range, the believer may be ever learning; and yet, when He comes to relinquish the limited for the illimitable sphere of knowledge, He will feel that, like the great philosopher, He has been all his lifetime but gathering pebbles on the shore, while the vast ocean of truth lay at his feet unsmitten by his barque, unsounded by his line. And yet, fathomless as are the depths, and boundless as is the range of spiritual truth, we are not to be discouraged in seeking, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to know more of God's revealed Word.
The point from which we start, and the goal to which we aspire, are the same- a knowledge, spiritual and saving, of God and Christ. "This is life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." With this we commence our spiritual life, with this we close it on earth, and with this we prolong it through eternity, ever studying the glory, the character, the love, the government of God, and knowing more and more of the infinite Triune Jehovah. Lord, if this is to be Your disciple, a humble learner in Your school and at Your feet would I ever be.
The ways by which God thus increases our spiritual knowledge are various. The great Instructor is the Holy Spirit, and the great school is sanctified affliction, and the great instrument is the Word. No child of God is perfected in the evidences of his adoption, and no disciple of Christ has made any very high attainments in experimental truth, until He has passed through trial. His Christianity must be tried- his grace must be tried- his faith must be tried, before he has any deep experience in godliness. Oh, how much is known of God in one mysterious providence! How much is learned of Jesus in one painful affliction! How much is experienced of the Comforter in one deep sorrow! "Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord! and teach him out of Your law." Chastening and teaching are always linked, as cause and effect, in the corrective dealings of God with His saints. He corrects and rebukes but to promote our spiritual education; that knowing His truth more experimentally, and becoming better acquainted with Himself, we may enter into more perfect peace and snore real possession. "Acquaint now yourself with, Me, and be at peace, and so good shall come unto you."
A faithful, consistent attachment to Christ also includes a firm, unswerving adherence to His pure truth. To compromise the gospel is to compromise the Christ of the gospel. To give heed to the teaching that causes to err, to exchange truth for error, sound doctrine for false, to relinquish the evangelical system of truth, any part of it, for any one of the modern anti-evangelical systems or tenets, is to turn the back upon Christ. Adherence to truth and loyalty to Christ are inseparable. As error enters the mind, love to Christ leaves the heart. As anti-christian doctrine obtains the ascendancy in the intellect, Christ sinks in the affections. Christ only maintains His supremacy in the spiritual affections of the soul as His pure, simple gospel dwells in the heart an element of life and holiness. The gospel is the heart of Christ speaking. The truth as it is in Jesus is the glory of Christ revealed; and as the swerve from the gospel and sell the truth, our love to the Savior chills, our admiration for His person lessens, and our attachment to His cause and His disciples relapses into indifference, alienation,
and neglect. Study the moral history of all who have turned from the way of vital truth into the way of deadly error, and mark how gradually their spirituality has deteriorated, their heavenliness declined, and their prayerfulness, humility, and Christ-like simplicity has given place to a dogmatical, self-sufficient, worldly spirit and carriage. It was to check this evil in the early Church that Paul thus expressed himself toward the Corinthian saints, "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." My dear reader, before, then, you yield your ear to the ensnaring, seductive voice of error, listen to the gentle, persuasive voice of Jesus- "Will you also go away?" To go away from the truth is to go away from Him who is emphatically and essentially- "the Truth."
Adherence to Christ includes also adherence to the Church of Christ. Christ and His Church are one, as the Church is essentially one and indivisible. We cannot, therefore, in any way separate from the Church of Christ without compromising our union with Christ Himself. We do not say by this that the believer's union with Christ can ever be imperilled. This is impossible. Our union with the Head does not depend upon our union with the body, though it involves it; but our real and vital membership with the body, the Church, does depend upon our firm and vital union with Christ the Head. If we are truly united to Christ, that union involves another union with all the members of Christ- with the one and the whole Church of God.
We cannot deny the one without a virtual denial of the other. Nor does the true believer in Christ find this a hard saying or unwelcome truth. The sap ascends not from the root, through the trunk, to every branch, and twig, and fibre, and leaf of the whole tree more naturally and really than does the spiritual life that we derive from Jesus extend throughout the whole Church, permeating and vitalizing all the members of the entire body, uniting each to the other, and all to Christ. How careful, then, should the be of unduly fostering and magnifying those ecclesiastical, sectarian differences of form, those varieties of judgment and interpretation in religious things, not vital and essential, which already to too great an extent exist to the deformity of the body, to the detriment of real religion, to the grieving of the Holy Spirit of God, and the dishonor of Christ. Let us, then, manifest the reality of our union with, and the sincerity of our love for, Christ, by diligently cultivating brotherly love and Christian union with all who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity, even though they do not belong to our branch of Christ's Church.
We go away from Jesus when we go away from His saints. They are dear, very dear, precious, priceless to His heart. They are as tender to Him as the apple of His eye; are engraved upon the palm of His hand, and are borne upon the breastplate on His heart. God is equally their Father, Christ equally their Elder Brother; and as you are, so are they, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Oh, then, evince your love to Jesus by the manifestation of your love to His disciples. Let not your affection, your confidence, and your communion be cold, suspicious, forced; let it be as spontaneous and as warm as light streaming from the sun; as free and as refreshing as the rain distilling from the clouds, as the stream flowing from the mountain spring. "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God, for God is love."
Let us, then, exhort you ever listen to this appeal of Jesus. In all times of temptation, in all times of trial, in all times of error, in all times of adversity, in all times of creature, worldly, sinful allurement may the tender, touching, melting words of Jesus penetrate our inner most soul- "Will you also go away?" Oh, whatever transpires, forsake not Christ! Walk so near to Him that you may feel He is at your side in every path and circumstance of life; lean upon Him so confidently that you may find yourself, with the disciple whom Jesus loved, reclining upon the very bosom of your Lord.
Let your every-day life be a constant going to, rather than a going from, Jesus. Be humbled and mourn that you ever forsook, distrusted, wounded, and grieved Him. Times without number have we done this. Alas! our Christian profession of Christ has been chequered and uneven. Declension and revival, relapse and recovery, backsliding and restoring, have made up so much of our spiritual history; who would or could have borne with us as Jesus has? We have never forsaken Him and have returned, throwing ourselves at His feet deploring, confessing, bemoaning the sinfulness of our ingratitude, forsakings, distrustings; but He has graciously received us, gently raised us to His bosom, lovinly and freely forgiving all our sins.
"Wretch that I am to wander thus
In chase of false delight."
How touching, then, the sympathy of Christ with the difficulties, temptations, and progress of our Christian perseverance- "Will you also go away?" He could not endure the thought that, among the many who went away and walked not with Him, any of His own true disciples should prove cold, false, and recreant. "Will you also go away?" With what power and tenderness must this appeal to their attachment, fidelity, and love have pierced their hearts! He addresses it still to us! What multitudes in the present age of religious excitement and profession fall off and walk no more with Jesus!
Weary of the cross, discouraged by reason of the way, possessing neither real grace, nor true conversion, nor the indwelling of the Spirit, nor vital union with the Lord Jesus, they fall from the profession- not from the possession- of grace, and return to the beggarly elements they had so openly and solemnly renounced. Oh, it is an appalling thing- apostasy from the faith! it is a fearful step falling from a profession of Christ! Rather let us endure any self-denial, hardship, scorn, persecution or loss, yes, death itself, than deny the Lord Jesus, crucifying Him afresh, and putting Him to an open shame by turning from our solemn profession of faith and love. And yet, if ours be a profession of the Savior only, unaccompanied with true change of heart, with real regeneration by the Spirit, let us not be content to meet the Bridegroom with this empty lamp! The sooner a mere profession of Christ is relinquished for what is real, vital, saving; the better. Oh let us not go down to the grave with a spurious religion, a false hope, a lie in our right hand!
But, for the encouragement of the Lord's true people, let us remark that Christ has pledged the exercise of His power, the communication of His grace, the aid of His intercession on behalf of all His true disciples. Not one of these shall utterly backslide, not one shall finally fall, not one shall eternally be lost. His promise is, "they shall never perish!" Their vital union with Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the power of Jehovah, the intercession of the High Priest in heaven, all the promises of God prove their security, and are pledges of their perseverance from grace to glory. In His strength, then, and aided by His grace, let our response be, "Lord, to whom shall I, to whom would I go, if I go from You?
Who so lovely, who so attractive, who so worthy, who so precious as You? Who such a Friend, such a Brother, such a Redeemer, such a Portion? Heaven embraces, earth contains no being that can be what You are to my soul. To whom could I repair with my needs, upon whose arm could I suspend my burdens, upon whose breast could I breathe my sorrows, into whose ear could I pour my prayers, at whose feet could I confess my sins, and weep my love, but Yours, O Lamb of God? To go from You is death! Rather let me yield my heart's fondest treasure, costliest strongest attraction, life's sweetest charm, yes, life itself, than part, blessed Jesus, with You "You do not want to leave too, do you?" "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Saints of God- persevere! Every serious thought of time, every solemn view of eternity, bids you- persevere!
All the promises of God, all the assurances of Christ, all the revelations of the gospel bid you- persevere! Angels winging their way from heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect bending from their seats in glory, the great cloud of witnesses around your path, bid you- persevere! Christ from His throne holds out the jeweled diadem, the palm, the robe, and bids you- persevere! "Be you faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Blessed Lord, kept by Your power, upheld by Your grace, comforted by Your love, soothed by Your sympathy, I will never, no, never leave You!
"I'll not leave Jesus- never, never!
Ah, what can more precious be?
Rest, and joy, and light are ever
In His hand to give to me.
All things that can satisfy,
Having Jesus, those have I.
"Love has bound me fast unto Him,
I am His, and He is mine;
Daily I for pardon sue Him,
Answers He with peace divine.
On that Rock my trust is laid,
And I rest beneath its shade.
Without Jesus, earth would weary,
Seem almost like hell to be;
But if Jesus I see near me,
Earth is almost heaven.
Am I hungry? He does give
Bread on which my soul can live.
"Spent with Him, one little hour
Gives a year's worth of gain.
Grace and peace put forth their power,
Joy does wholly banish pain.
One faith-glance that findeth Him,
Maketh earthly crowns look dim.
"Oh, how light upon my shoulder
Lies my cross, now grown so small!
For the Lord is my upholder,
Fits it to me, softens all;
Neither shall it always stay,
Patience- it will pass away.
"Now He leads me wonderfully,
Right and left, through sun and rain,
Yet I know and trust Him truly,
It is always for my gain.
Yes, His wonder-road, indeed,
Always heavenward does lead.
"Those who faithfully go forward,
In His changeless care shall go;
Nothing's doubtful or untoward
To the flock who Jesus know.
Jesus always is the same;
True and faithful is His name.
"Blinded world! if you admire
Earthly trifles, you are free!
Out of Jesus my desire
Never shall contented be
I have sworn it in my heart,
I from Jesus will not part"
Back to The Sympathy of Christ