March 26 — Evening

If we have been partakers with Jesus in His shame, we shall be sharers with Him in the lustre which shall surround Him when He appears again in glory. Art you, beloved one, with Christ Jesus? Does a vital union knit you to Him? Then you art to-day with Him in His shame; you have taken up His cross, and gone with Him without the camp bearing His reproach; you shalt doubtless be with Him when the cross is exchanged for the crown. But judge thyself this evening; for if you art not with Him in the regeneration, neither shalt you be with Him when He shall come in His glory. If you start back from the black side of communion, you shalt not understand its bright, its happy period, when the King shall come, and all His holy angels with Him. What! are angels with Him? And yet He took not up angels-He took up the seed of Abraham. Are the holy angels with Him? Come, my soul, if you art indeed His own beloved, you can not be far from Him. If His friends and His neighbours are called together to see His glory, what thinkest you if you art married to Him? Shalt you be distant? Though it be a day of judgment, yet you can not be far from that heart which, having admitted angels into intimacy, has admitted you into union. Has He not said to you, O my soul, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in steadfast love"? Have not His own lips said it, "I am married to you, and My delight is in you"? If the angels, who are but friends and neighbours, shall be with Him, it is abundantly certain that His own beloved Hephzibah, in whom is all His delight, shall be near to Him, and sit at His right hand. Here is a morning star of hope for you, of such exceeding brilliance, that it may well light up the darkest and most desolate experience.