Prayers: Nothing But Jesus!
Nothing but Jesus!
O Thou that dwellest in the highest heavens, yet dost dwell in lowly hearts, make us lowly; set us free from all wrath, and pride, and foul desire, and grovelling worldliness. Make us conscious of sin; trembling at Thee but rejoicing in Thy mercy; hoping in Thy salvation; triumphing in Thy love. Even so, our hearts become a temple, and God, even God, that filleth all things, shall come and fill us also, with all the fullness of God. O God, we cannot live without Thee. Thou hast spoiled us for the world. We cannot now be content with it; and Thou hast spoiled us for all things short of Jesus. We believe in nothing else but in Jesus, and in all else that we do, we go back with intense delight to the preaching and the hearing of the Gospel. There is none like it.
We thank Thee, O Thou blessed Saviour, that Thou art such a wonderful lover of the sons of men; so willing to go out of Thy way after a poor sinner as to be under a compulsion to go the way through Samaria where a guilty one shall come and speak with Thee, and Thou shalt speak with her. We do admire Thy blessed condescension in making Thy first convert to be one who had so foully fallen and in winning that one heart, and thereby winning so many more. Far be it from us ever to come to Thee in the filthy rags of our own righteousness. They are worse than nothing. Oh that we might be willing to come to the Saviour as people that want saving, to come to His blood to be washed, to come weak and feeble, to find strength in Him, and nowhere else. Thou wilt not meet us on any other terms but these. The Pharisees Thou wouldst not meet. Thou didst go away from them when they had heard about Thee that Thou didst make and baptize disciples: then Thou didst avoid them, for Thou hadst not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
Oh it was a sweet day when Thou didst turn my way, my Lord, to meet me. Many of Thy dear ones here this morning, most blessed Lord Jesus, praise Thee for the singular adaptation of the Gospel to their own case. Nothing else could have helped them. They were under too deep a sense of sin to be relieved by the doctrine of mere reformation. They were too far gone to be healed by any flattering unction that could be laid to their soul as to what they could do. But they found all in Thee, as indeed we do this morning. Some of us have been acquainted with Thee these thirty years and more. A third of a century have some of us known Thee, and some for half a century have been living upon Thee in dependence upon Thy bounty. But we have never had a want that Thou could not supply. We never had a grief which Thou couldst not assuage, but we have not, even now, in prospect of death and the grave, any fear which Thou canst not allay.
It has pleased the Father that in Thee should all fullness dwell, and God forbid that we should ever think of adding to Thee, or going beyond Thee, for Thou art our All-in-All. O precious Christ, we take Thee over again to-day, and come with all our emptiness and sin, and folly and weakness, and spiritual death, just as we are, and cast ourselves on Thee, as man casts himself into the sea, not to up-bear himself, but to be upborne. So cast we ourselves into the sea of Thy fullness, to be upborne by Thee all the days we have to spend in this house of our banishment.
Blessed Lord Jesus, Thou wilt never cast away a soul that has cast away everything else for Thee. Thou art bound to those who trust Thee by the bands of Thy promises that never can be broken. And here we are, this morning, babes that hang upon Thy bosom—emptinesses that are being filled, and sometimes are filled, only they cannot hold all of Thee. The sea is in us, but we are in the sea. We are filled with the fullness of God, and into that fullness are we still sinking deeper and deeper. Lord Jesus, cure our sins, and among the rest, take away our fears. Give us to trust Thee with a simple childlike confidence. May we have no difficulties, because God is with us. May we have no disturbance, because the peace of God doth keep our heart and mind by Christ Jesus. Oh now to take Thee o'er again—our Life, our Health, our Righteousness, our All-in-All, from this time forth and even for evermore. Spirit of God—come upon us now, that this may be so with all Thy people.
Bless Thy dear saints—all of them. Comfort them in their afflictions, and bear them up in any trouble of mind. Be very gracious to Thy people here, binding us more and more firmly together in a holy, living unity; and stir us up more and more to seek the good of the sons of men, and more especially to seek the glory of our divine Lord and Master. Jesus, we are Thine and belong to nobody else. No cause engrosses our hearts but Thine. All our sympathies run one way—in the channel where flows the precious blood of our redeeming Lord. All for Christ and none besides, in our heart at this time. Oh keep it so; keep it so till we behold the Well-beloved in His glory, and are wrapped up in His splendour with Him.
Bless, at this time, those who are beginning to seek after better things. Though perhaps as yet they know not the Lord, if there is any stirring up of grace to seek somewhat better, Lord, lead them further than they mean to go. Bring them to Thyself, and let the stir that has been made here this week, end in conversions, else shall we care nothing about it whatever. If Jesus be not glorified, we shall loathe it rather than love it. O dear Saviour, bring men up from the very depths of transgression, from lust, and drunkenness, and wrath, and rioting, and evil speaking—bring them up, Eternal Spirit. How glad we are to get a word with them; how anxious that that word should, like the Master's, reveal them to themselves, and then reveal Him to them. Oh save, Lord,
"Salvation, let the echo fly The spacious earth around."
Let it be so. Let the dark parts of the wicked city see the flame-flash of Christ's eye. May it come to pass that there should be added to our church of such as shall be saved, who once were among the number who seemed right to be damned. Oh save Lord, save every unconverted one here this morning—the old, the young, and righteous in themselves, and the truly righteous.
Now look upon our country. God bless it. Oh, in infinite mercy end this horrible war. Our soul weeps, to think that this war should have been perpetrated by those whom we thought better of. O God Almighty, may it come to a speedy close, and may a permanent peace be established. Let the whole earth sit still and be at peace. Sword of the Lord, wilt Thou never rest? Wilt Thou never be quiet? We beseech Thee, O God of infinite mercy, turn men's minds from all the sins that breed the cruelties and wickednesses of war, and may there come next a peace of soul and heart with God, and then a peace with our fellow men. Oh for the Kingdom and the Coming! Oh that Christ Himself would soon appear! But if in mercy He tarrieth till men repent, then come, divine Spirit, and lead them to repentance, and let the elect of God be gathered together out from among the sons of men, and the divine purpose be accomplished, and let Jesus see of the travail of His soul. Our heart asks infinitely better than our lips can do. Oh hear us for Jesu's sake. Amen.
September 10, 1882.