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“The Apple of His Eye“, October 4
For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me
unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you
toucheth the apple of his eye.
Zechariah 2:8
.
The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as it may be, is the only
object on earth on which He bestows His supreme regard.... The Lord has
a people, a chosen people, His church, to be His own, His own fortress,
which He holds in a sin-stricken, revolted world.
The church is the property of God, and God constantly remembers her
as she stands in the world, subject to the temptations of Satan. Christ has
never forgotten the days of His humiliation. In passing from the scenes of
His humiliation, Jesus has lost none of His humanity. He has the same
tender, pitying love, and is ever touched with human woe. He ever bears in
mind that He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. He forgets
not His representative people who are striving to uphold His downtrodden
law. He knows that the world that hated Him, hates them. Although Jesus
Christ has passed into the heavens, there is still a living chain binding His
believing ones to His own heart of infinite love. The most lowly and weak
are bound by a chain of sympathy closely to His heart. He never forgets
that He is our representative, that He bears our nature.
Jesus sees His true church on the earth, whose greatest ambition is
to cooperate with Him in the grand work of saving souls. He hears their
prayers, presented in contrition and power, and Omnipotence cannot resist
their plea for the salvation of any tried, tempted member of Christ’s body....
Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. Through our Redeemer what
blessings may not the true believer receive? The church, soon to enter
upon her most severe conflict, will be the object most dear to God upon
earth.
The confederacy of evil will be stirred with power from beneath, and
Satan will cast all the reproach possible upon the chosen ones whom he
cannot deceive and delude with his satanic inventions and falsehoods. But
exalted “to be a Prince and a Saviour, ...” (
Acts 5:31
), will Christ, our
representative and head, close His heart, or withdraw His hand, or falsify
His promise? No; never, never.
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