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The Sanctified Life
rocks surrounding him, John was reminded of rocky Horeb, and how,
when God spoke His law to the people there, He said, “Remember the
sabbath day, to keep it holy” (
Exodus 20:8
).
The Son of God spoke to Moses from the mountain-top. God made
the rocks His sanctuary. His temple was the everlasting hills. The
Divine Legislator descended upon the rocky mountain to speak His
law in the hearing of all the people, that they might be impressed by
the grand and awful exhibition of His power and glory, and fear to
transgress His commandments. God spoke His law amid thunders
and lightnings and the thick cloud upon the top of the mountain, and
His voice was as the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud. The law
of Jehovah was unchangeable, and the tablets upon which He wrote
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that law were solid rock, signifying the immutability of His precepts.
Rocky Horeb became a sacred place to all who loved and revered the
law of God.
Shut in With God
While John was contemplating the scenes of Horeb, the Spirit of
Him who sanctified the seventh day came upon him. He contemplated
the sin of Adam in transgressing the divine law, and the fearful result
of that transgression. The infinite love of God, in giving His Son to
redeem a lost race, seemed too great for language to express. As he
presents it in his epistle he calls upon the church and the world to
behold it. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (
1 John 3:1
). It was a
mystery to John that God could give His Son to die for rebellious man.
And he was lost in amazement that the plan of salvation, devised at
such a cost to Heaven, should be refused by those for whom the infinite
sacrifice had been made.
John was shut in with God. As he learned more of the divine char-
acter through the works of creation, his reverence for God increased.
He often asked himself, Why do not men, who are wholly dependent
upon God, seek to be at peace with Him by willing obedience? He
is infinite in wisdom, and there is no limit to His power. He controls
the heavens with their numberless worlds. He preserves in perfect
harmony the grandeur and beauty of the things which He has created.
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