Elijah the Tishbite. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. VMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Elijah the Tishbite. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. V
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
roll, with terrible vehemence, over the whole civilized world;--all
these things, and many more, were to come to pass, ere the fond
thought of poor Peter's heart could be realized on earth. The prophet
Elijah must visit the earth again "before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. iv. 5). "Elias must first come and
restore all things."
[22] It is not a little remarkable that we find these same disciples
asleep during the season of our Lord's agony in the garden. They slept
in the view of the glory, and also in the view of the cross. Nature
can as little enter into the one as the other. And yet the blessed
Master does not rebuke them in either case, save to say to the most
prominent and self-confident among them, "Couldst _thou_ not watch
with Me one hour?" He knew whom He had to do with; He knew that "the
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Gracious Master, Thou wast
ever ready to make allowance for Thy poor people, and didst say, "Ye
are they who have continued with Me in My temptation," to those who
had slept on the mount, slept in the garden, and who were about to
deny and desert Thee in the hour of Thy deepest need!
How long, O Lord? May this be the continual inquiry of our hearts as
we pass along to that rest and glory which lie before us. "Time is
short," and eternity, with all its divine and glorious realities, is
at hand. May we live in the light of it! May we ever be able, by the
eye of faith, to see the bright beams of the millennial morning--the
morning without clouds--irradiating the distant hills! Everything
points to this; every event that happens, every voice that reaches the
ear, tells of the speedy approach of the kingdom: the sea and the
waves may be heard roaring--nations are convulsed, thrones
overturned;--all these things have a voice for the circumcised ear,
and the voice is, "Look up!" Those who have received the Holy Ghost
have received the earnest of the future inheritance; and the earnest,
as we know, is part of the thing to be received. They have been on the
mount; and although the cloud may overshadow them too,--although they
too may have to come down from the mount to meet the trial and sorrow
below,--yet they have a foretaste of the joy and blessedness which
shall be theirs forever; and they can unfeignedly thank God, as they
journey on from day to day, that their hopes are not bounded by this
world's gloomy horizon, but that they have a home beyond it all.
"Oh wondrous grace, oh love divine,
To give us such a home!
Let us the present things resign,
And seek this rest to come.
And gazing on our Saviour's cross,
Esteem all else but dung and dross;
Press forward till the race be run,
Fight till the crown of life be won."
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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