Communion with Jesus
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The subject which we must keep prominent before us is: Communion with Jesus. That there may exist a serious defect in the experience of many Christians touching this point, we solemnly believe. There is in the walk of many so wide a chasm between Jesus and their personal and confidential fellowship, as to leave upon the mind the conviction that they have no dealings with Jesus at all! Hence the distressing doubts, the timid fears, the obscure evidences, the beclouded hopes, that shade the luster, impair the vigor, and render dubious the religion of so many.
The secret is, they have so little to do with Jesus! And, as a natural result, Jesus, in the bestowment of His favors, in the manifestations of Himself, in the breathings of His love, has so little to do with them! Oh! How sad, that such distance and coldness should ever exist between Christ and a soul redeemed with His most precious blood! What an evidence of the fallen condition of our humanity, and of its but partial sanctification, even in its renewed state.
We propose, in the further unfolding of this interesting subject, to state the grounds upon which the believer is warranted to go and tell Jesus—the occasions on which he is privileged to go and tell Jesus—and the blessings that will flow from his going and telling Jesus.
The first springs from what Jesus is Himself. The very fact that He whom we approach—the Being, the Savior, the Friend with whom this close and constant communion is maintained—is JESUS, forms our highest encouragement, our divinest warrant. It is not every great person who is at all times accessible. The official barriers which surround, or the austere address which marks him, may interdict and discourage all free and confidential approach. It is not so with Jesus. Infinitely great though He is—for He is the Maker of all beings and worlds—there is not a being in the universe so accessible as Jesus.
We approach Him, and we find Him—sin only excepted—a being just like ourselves. His divine nature is clad with the human—His circumstances are human—His love is human—His sympathy is human—His compassion is human—His smile is human— His trials, temptations, sufferings, and sorrows, are human; all are so human that there is not a petition with which we approach, growing out of our suffering humanity, that challenges not a hearing, that awakens not a response. Let us add a few particulars. Do we go to Him burdened?—we are in the presence of Him who bore the mighty weight of sin.
Do we go to Him in sorrow?—we are in the presence of Him who was acquainted with grief. Do we go to Him in temptation?—we are in the presence of Him who was tempted in all points like as we are. Carry we to His feet our adversities, poverty, need?—we are holding audience with Him who, when He sojourned on earth, was poor, homeless, and unbefriended—who subsisted by charity, and had not where to lay His head. And, then, there is another encouragement to our approach growing out of His official relations—they are all in our favor. His prophetical office—His priesthood—His royal character, all have a relation to our varied need. Exalted as His position is, each separate office that He fills warrants and invites our approach.
And, as if to crown the encouragements accumulating around our access to Jesus, there are His own personal attractions—all-inviting and irresistible. Everything in the person of Jesus encourages our advance. Does glory charm us—does beauty attract us—does love win us—does gentleness subdue us—does sympathy soothe us—does faithfulness inspire confidence?—then, all this is in Jesus, and all invites us to draw near. He is the “altogether lovely,” and if our minds can appreciate the grand, and our hearts are sensible of the tender; if they feel the power of that which is superlatively great and exquisitely lovely, then we shall need no persuasion to arise, and go and tell Jesus every emotion of our souls, and every circumstance of our history.
Take all that is tender in love—all that is faithful in friendship—all that is wise in counsel—all that is longsuffering in patience, all that is balmy, soothing, and healing in the deepest sympathy—and its embodiment, its impersonation is—JESUS. Can we, then, be insensible to all this personal attraction, and hesitate repairing to His feet—telling Him all? In addition to what Jesus is in Himself, there is the encouragement to repair to Him growing out of the covenant relations He sustains to His people.
Apart from His ever-loving heart, kindly disposition, and sympathizing nature, Jesus is your Brother, your Friend, your redeemer. As a Brother, He knows the need of His brethren in adversity; as a Friend, He shows Himself friendly; and as next of redeemer, He has redeemed your soul, and bought back your lapsed inheritance. No, more, He is your Advocate in heaven, your Intercessor at the right hand of God, your Representative, having ascended up on high to take possession of heaven on your behalf, and to prepare a place for you. Upon His heart He wears your name—a precious pearl in the priestly breastplate.
And there is not a moment of time, nor an event of life, nor a circumstance of daily history, nor a mental or spiritual emotion, in which you are not borne upon the love, and remembered in the ceaseless intercession of Christ. Is not this enough? What more, to win you to His feet in all the endearing confidence of one who delights in everything, to go and tell Jesus? Is there another being in the universe you can approach with such perfect repose of mind, with such full assurance of heart, with an unveiling of every thought, emotion, and feeling, so full, unreserved, and confiding? No! Not one!
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