The One Great Reality by Louisa Clayton

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Why does He invite the weary ones to come to Him? because He felt in
Himself such joy in this close fellowship with God, He wanted every one to
have it too. He felt that His experience of what the Father was to Him was
so rich, He longed for them to come and share it, "I will give you rest."
It is as if He said, "I will give you the same rest I have when I am tired
and hungry and thirsty; the same comfort that I have when I am
misunderstood and reviled; the rest, the comfort, the peace I have in My
Father."

We have the same assurance when the Holy Ghost says in St. Paul's letter
to the Corinthians, "Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort."
[Footnote: 2 Cor. i, 2, 3.]

How can you and I know what the Lord Jesus found in His Father's love? He
has graciously made it known to us in the four Gospels. There the veil is
drawn aside and we see how all through His life He was in close fellowship
with the Father.

We can hear the very words which the Son spoke to His Father in the hour
of deep agony: "O My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from Me;
nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." [Footnote: St. Matt. xxvi.
39.] The last words on His lips when He was dying on the Cross were,
"Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." [Footnote: St. Luke xxiii.
46.] He said to His disciples the last night, "You will leave Me alone;
and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." All through His
life He spoke of His oneness with the Father and the joy of doing and
finishing the work which He gave Him to do.

We too can have the sense of God's Presence in our souls at all times. A
Christian woman who was suffering from neuralgia told me that one night
when she could not sleep, a voice seemed to whisper softly to her, "Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him,
for He knoweth our frame, He knows all about our poor bodies, for He made
them," [Footnote: Ps. ciii. 13, 14.] and with those words of comfort in
her mind she fell into a refreshing sleep.

If you will turn to the 6th chapter of St. Matthew again you will see in
the 8th verse that our Heavenly Father knows about something else. "He
knows what things we have need of before we ask Him."

The secret of what it is to have God as our Father, and the sweetness of
it, comes out in these three homely questions, What shall we eat, what
shall we drink, what shall we wear? And Christ says, [Footnote: St. Matt,
vi. 31, 32.] Take no thought, that means, do not be anxious about these
things, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these
things. Yes, if He knows, that is enough, and then we have only to trust
Him for all.

Do you find your faith failing sometimes? It is one thing to trust God
when the wages are coming in regularly, and quite another thing to trust
Him when times are bad. It is just _then_ we learn to look less at our
faith and more at God's Faithfulness.

A minister once gave a little bit of his experience about this. He said,
"It is only as we really take God's promises and plant our feet upon them
that we shall find faith abiding in times of testing. The last penny may
be gone but GOD is there. I know this to be true.

"I have often said when preaching, 'It takes real faith in God to be able
to put your head into an empty flour barrel and sing the doxology.' My
wife had heard me say this, and one morning she called me to come into the
kitchen. I said, 'What do you want me for?' She replied, 'I want you to
come out here and sing.' I thought this queer, so I went to see what it
all meant.

"In the middle of the kitchen was an empty flour barrel that she had just
dusted out. 'Now, my dear,' she said, 'I have often heard you say one
could put his head into an empty flour barrel and sing, "Praise God from
Whom all blessings flow," if he believed what God says. Now here is your
chance, practise what you preach.'

"There was the empty flour barrel staring at me with open mouth, and my
purse was empty too. I looked for my faith, but could not find it; I
looked for a way of escape, but could not find one, for my wife blocked
the doorway with the dust brush covered with flour.

"I said, 'I will put my head in and sing on one condition.'

"'What's that?' asked my wife.

"'On condition that you will put your head in and sing too. You know you
promised to share all my joys and sorrows.'

"She consented, so we put our heads in and sang the doxology, and we told
our heavenly Father 'all about our need.' Yes, we had a good time, and
when we got our heads out we were a good bit powdered up, which we took as
a token that there was more flour to follow!

"Sure enough, though no one knew of our need, the next day a barrel of
flour was sent. Where it came from or who sent it we never knew, but our
heavenly Father knew that we had 'need of these things.'"

Does not this simple testimony teach us all a lesson? I wonder how many of
us can say from our hearts--

Those who trust do not worry;
Those who worry do not trust.

Which are you doing, dear friends? Trusting or worrying? Count on God. He
never fails, and He knows just what to do. The moment a difficulty comes,
look up and say "Father," and at once the burden will roll off, He will
undertake all for you.

I had an illustration of this one day when I was going across the Common.
It was very windy, and two little girls lost their hats; they were quite
at their wits' end, till they caught sight of their father in the
distance, and at once they called to him, "Father, father." That was
enough, in a minute he ran to help them.

I have often found great help in looking up again and again during the day
and just saying "Father." Try it. You, fathers, often say to your
children, "If you want me just call me." That is what our heavenly Father
tells us to do.

To know God means not only to trust Him, but also to _treat_ Him as a
Father. If you will read the 6th chapter of St. Matthew carefully when you
are at home, you will see that it gives the experience of the child of God
with the Father for one whole day. It includes all that we need during the
day:--food, clothing, forgiveness, victory over temptation, grace to do
God's will, and grace in dealing with others.

This experience is so deep, so real, so entirely something between Father
and child, that in this chapter we find the words "_in secret_" no less
than six times. When the little child is looking up into a loving father's
face and talking to him, it never thinks of those around. "In secret"
means a sweet sense of His Presence in the soul and of close communion
with Him. "I write unto you, little children, because you have known the
Father." [Footnote: I St. John ii. 13.]

God is our Father, because He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: this
is one of the greatest treasures of Redeeming Grace. All the teaching
about God as Father comes from the lips of Jesus, and it is in this way He
reveals the Father to us; so if we would know Him, we must drink in His
teaching and watch His life of communion with God. By His life He reveals
to us the reality of the experience into which He calls us to enter. He
also shows us the way. He not only says "Come to Me," but also Come
through Me. "I am the Way: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me."
[Footnote: St. John xiv. 6.] It was by dying for us He opened the Way.
"God sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under the law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons." "And because ye are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying, Abba,
Father." [Footnote: Gal. iv. 6, 7] So we are not only received into God's
family, but we have also all the privileges of sonship. We are made "heirs
of God, joint heirs with Christ."

Perhaps you are thinking of your unworthiness; like the Prodigal Son you
are ready to say "Father, I have sinned again and again, I am not worthy
to be called Thy son." God knows just what you are and what you have been,
and He Himself has asked the question, "How shall I put you among the
children?" It is a question which none but the Lord would ever have
thought of, and it would never have been answered if He Himself had not
answered it. It is a wonderful answer: for He says, "Thou shalt call Me,
My Father." [Footnote: Jer. iii. 19.] God Himself puts us sinners among
His children, and no one else can do it, and He keeps us; for He says,
"Thou shalt not turn away from Me." How does He do it? By creating a new
life in us, we are "born again." The old nature is not improved, but a new
heart is given. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I
put within you." [Footnote: Ezek. xxxvi. 26.]

Can you say, "God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into my heart," and
now I can call Him my Father? Being made the children of God by adoption
and grace, let us enjoy the privileges which are secured to us; let us act
as loving children should do.

Does it all seem too good to be true? Trust His Word, "As many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His Name." [Footnote: St. John i. 12]

Some of you remember the joy which thrilled you when you first received
Him as your Saviour, but perhaps it was not until afterwards that you
realised the blessedness of your new position as sons of God.

The Holy Spirit leads us on step by step. First, He assures us that "there
is no condemnation," then He sets us free from the bondage of sin and
death. [Footnote: Rom. viii. i, 2.] All is changed now, we feel the
confidence of a child who has free access to his father at all times.
There are three things which mark the children of God, the spiritual mind,
the spiritual walk, and the spiritual talk. "The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." [Footnote: Rom.
viii. 16.] We then call out with the consciousness of sonship, "Father,
Father."

The witness of the Spirit was given to me soon after my conversion and
thrilled me with joyful assurance. It came to me when a Christian doctor
was telling his children about the way of salvation. He drew a line on the
carpet with a stick and said, "On one side there is DEATH, on the other,
LIFE," and I said to myself, "I know which side of the line I am on." So
it was by means of this simple remark that I found out that I was really a
child of God, and my heart began from that time to cling to God as my
Father. Every day since then I have experienced the blessedness of
trusting Him and knowing Him as my Father. Is this your happy portion? If
not, why not?

ADDRESS III

THE SON OF GOD

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE--St. John i. 1-18, 29-34.

"THIS IS THE SON OF GOD." These are the closing words of John the
Baptist's striking testimony, What a grand message! How it thrills us
through and through! On and on the glorious words ring out, "_The Son of
God is come_." Many years after, when the Apostle John was a very old man,
he wrote in one of his letters, "We know that the Son of God is come."
[Footnote: I John v. 20.]

Now look back to the first words of our chapter. "In the beginning was the
Word." Who is the Word? It is "the Son of God." When was the beginning?
Long, long ago in Eternity that is past "the Son of God was the brightness
of His Father's glory and the express image," [Footnote: Heb. i. 3.] or
exact representation, "of His Person." In His last prayer with His
disciples our Lord speaks of "the glory which He had with the Father
before the world was." [Footnote: St. John xvii. 5.]

The first verse of this Gospel takes us back long before this world was
created. Then we come to the creation in verse 3: "All things were made by
Him." This is exactly what is said in the first verse of the Bible of
another beginning, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." Long before this world was created we read of God's dear Son as
"the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature." All
things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, the
Eternal Son of God. [Footnote: Col. i. 15-17.]

He says, "I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, before ever
the earth was. When He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was
by Him as one brought up with Him; I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him: rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and My
delights were with the sons of men." [Footnote: Gen. i. 26.]

How wonderful it is to think that in the Eternity that is past, and long
before the world was made, God had two grand purposes. One was to create
man to be the head of the whole human race. So, when the moment came that
the earthly home was ready, then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image,
after Our likeness." [Footnote: Prov. viii. 23, 29, 30, 31.]

The other grand purpose in the Eternal counsel between the Father and His
Son was to redeem man after he had fallen through sin. The Redeemer is the
Son of God Himself, so He was foreordained to this work of redemption
before the Creation of the world--"The Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world." [Footnote: Rev. xiii. 8.] Hundreds of years rolled on, and
then the glorious message from heaven was sounded forth over the plains of
Bethlehem:--"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy ... for unto
you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." [Footnote: St.
Luke ii. 10, 11.]

THE SON OF GOD IS COME

_Where_ did He come from? _When_ did He come? _Why_ did He come? These are
some of the questions we must try to answer.

First, where did He come from? He came forth from God. He was in the bosom
of the Father from all Eternity. He said to the disciples, "I came forth
from the Father and am come into the world." [Footnote: St. John xvi. 28.]

We have read of two beginnings, now we will look at another beginning. In
the first chapter of St. Mark's Gospel, and the first verse, we read, "The
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Here we have the
beginning of all that grand and glorious work of Salvation which is still
being carried on by our Lord at the Father's right hand in heaven.

So we read of three beginnings, and these three are all of God. There is
one more which is also of God.

It is the beginning of the life of Christ in the soul. When we read about
"the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," we know it means the
beginning of His life on earth. Have you ever asked whether there has been
a beginning of His life _in your heart_? Is it only what you read about,
or is it a personal experience in your soul? Alas! many join in singing
the chorus, "What a wonderful Saviour," who cannot say, "He is my own dear
Saviour." They have never been able to say "My spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Saviour."

What is this personal experience of the life of Christ in the soul? It is
what the Apostle Paul describes when he says, "I have been crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ _liveth in me_."
[Footnote: Gal. ii. 20.]

"Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see:
But in God's Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me."

In writing to the Galatians he says, "My little children, you for whom I
am again undergoing, as it were, the pains of child-birth, until Christ is
fully formed within you" [Footnote: Gal. iv. 19.] (Weymouth's
translation).

THE SON OF GOD IS COME.

Secondly, When did He come? "It was when the fulness of the time was
come," [Footnote: Gal. iv. 4.] that is when the time was ripe for it.
God's clock is never too fast or too slow: so at the exact moment "when
the fulness of time was come God sent forth _His Son_." Still and always
His Son, but now "made of a woman," "God, manifest in the flesh"--the God-
man.

THE SON OF GOD IS COME.

What is His Name? God Himself gave the Name. "Thou shalt call His name
Jesus." [Footnote: St. Matt. i. 21.] No other name was to be given: it is
a command, "_thou shalt_ call His name Jesus, for He shall save": that is
why He is _come_. "He is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
"Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He Himself shall save His people from
their sins." He is presented to us as a living personal Saviour. The
promise is, "He, _Himself_ shall save." It means that He will abide in
each believing soul for ever. Yes, moment by moment and for ever. He
abides in us as the Deliverer from all sin. What a glorious promise! Are
you living in the reality of it?

"Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Human Name of God above."

It is the God-given Name. "The Name which is above every name." Is it
precious to you?

THE SON OF GOD IS COME.

Thirdly, Why did He come? The King sends ambassadors to represent him in
foreign countries, but God sent "His own dearly loved Son." "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." [Footnote: St. John
iii. 16.] The little word "_so_" means love in its unutterable fulness,
and God is the source of it. Have you ever thanked Him for the unspeakable
gift of His dear Son? Link the two words together, _God--the world_: it
means God and you: God and me. Then link together _loved_ and _gave_. It
will take Eternity to get to the bottom of those two words. Now add that
other precious text, "He loved me: He gave Himself for me," [Footnote:
Gal. ii. 20.] and you have "the grace of God bringing salvation."

Six times in the Epistles we find the words "He gave Himself," and in I
Peter ii. 24, it says, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on
the tree." This is why the Son of God is come, and it is this which makes
Him so personally real to us when earthly things are fading away.

I knew a working man who had a long, painful illness which lasted three
years. I rejoice to say that soon after it began he was converted. He was
so earnest that his one thought was to tell others what a dear Saviour he
had found, and many were led to Christ through his example and testimony.
His mother was converted through him and she is now carrying on the
Christian work which he began. What was it that changed this man? It was
the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to him as a living personal Saviour. The
day before he died he said to his sister, "I had such a lovely time with
the Master this morning in between the pain. Oh! it was like healing balm
to me and He gave me a little hymn--

"'Jesus loves me, He who died
Heaven's gate to open wide:
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.'"

How wonderful that a man nearly 40 years of age should find such comfort
in a simple little hymn. But it is thus the Lord reveals Himself.

Do you feel that you are like a lost sheep? "The Son of man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost." [Footnote: St. Luke xix. 10.]

THE SON OF GOD IS COME!

It is a fact, a certainty. A great reality. Nothing can take it from us.
It is a living experience in our inmost hearts. "And we know," says the
Apostle John, "that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal
life." [Footnote: I John v. 20.]

The Son of God is come and God presents Him to us as His Perfect Son and
our Perfect Saviour. Twice during His earthly ministry there was a voice
from heaven which said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased": "In whom I have perfect delight now and for ever." Can you
reply, "This is my Beloved Saviour and He is everything to me"? [Footnote:
St. Matt. iii. 17 and xvii. 5.] He is either everything or nothing.

Are you like the merchant in the parable, "seeking goodly pearls, who when
he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and
bought it"? Is your heart singing

"I've found the pearl of greatest price,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And sing I must for Christ is mine!
Christ shall my song employ!"

A Chinese convert told one of the missionaries that he happened to take up
a Testament which had been sold to the people of the house by a
colporteur, but they could not see the meaning of it, so they laid it on
one side. "But," he went on to say, "from the moment my eyes lighted upon
it, I was greatly attracted by it. So I read and kept on reading till the
meaning dawned upon me, and then," he added with a beaming face, "I found
the Pearl of Great Price."

This reminds me of that strange story of a very valuable pearl necklace
worth £117,000 which was lost about a year ago. It was sent by post from
Paris to London when it suddenly disappeared and no one knew what had
become of it. A very large reward was offered to any one who found it.

But now comes the wonderful part of the story. One morning, a man of the
name of Horne was on his way to the factory where he was employed when he
saw a large match-box lying in the gutter in St. Paul's Road, near London.
He picked it up and put it in his pocket. Presently he went into a public-
house to have a glass of beer and there he met two of his mates. He took
the match-box out of his pocket, pushed it open, and seeing it was filled
with what he thought were white beads or marbles, he said to them, "What
do you think of these, I've just picked them up?" "Oh! they're no good,"
replied one of the men, "throw them away." However, Horne decided to take
them to the Police Station. The officers looked at them and said they were
worth nothing, but gave him a receipt for them.

On their way to the factory they turned into another public-house for a
drink, and while there Horne found one of the marbles loose in his coat
pocket. "Oh!" he said, "I've got one of them left." Holding it up in his
fingers, he looked round and asked, "Will any one give me a penny for it?"
But no one would have it.

In another public-house where they stopped, he offered the pearl for a
glass of beer, but no one accepted the offer. The pearl which was worth
many hundreds of pounds was despised by one and all. Then Horne offered it
for a packet of cigarettes, but again it was handed back with the remark,
"That's no good to me." So one of his friends suggested that he should
crush it under the heel of his boot as it was no good.

Later on when some one asked him what he had done with it he said he had
thrown it away.

It is a wonderful story and quite true. "Oh!" you say, "what a thousand
pities, if that man Horne had only known its value, it would have made him
a rich man in one day."

Are you not surprised that none of these men ever thought of finding out
the real value of that pearl? But is it not stranger still that scarcely
any one ever stops to inquire who Jesus Christ really is, and the meaning
of His death on the Cross? You listened just now with astonishment to the
questions and answers about this valuable pearl, and yet the same
questions are being asked every day about another Pearl, God's Pearl of
great price, and people are treating it with the same indifference. How
the angels must look on and wonder!

There are two questions which you have to answer now. First, What think ye
of Christ, whose Son is He? Can you say, "He is the Son of God"? Think of
the Glory of His Person: it is "the glory of the only begotten of the
Father." Think of His Divine Mission: sent by God to be the Saviour now
and the Judge by and by. Think of Him as God's great Gift to a perishing
world. Have you received Him?

The other question which you have to answer is, "What shall I do with
Jesus?" Remember God hath given to us Eternal Life and this life is in His
Son. "He who has the Son has life, and he who has not the Son of God has
not life." [Footnote: I John v. 12.] Jesus is pleading with you, saying,
"Ye will not come," that means, you are unwilling to come to Me "that you
may have Life." [Footnote: St. John v. 40.] By and by you will have to
face another question, "What will He do with me?"

"The Son of God is come." It is God Himself who presents Him to us:
"Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." [Footnote:
St. John i. 29.] He is the One whom God Himself has provided and set
apart: and "now He has appeared once for all to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself." [Footnote: Heb. ix. 26.] There on Calvary's
Cross before the eyes of crowds of people "who came together to see that
sight," He is set forth as the spotless Son of God who was made an
offering for sin. He it is "whom God now sets forth to us as a
propitiation." [Footnote: Rom. iii. 25.] He it is, and no other, whom God
sets forth as a Mercy seat, the Blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat. God's eye
rests on Christ and His finished work, and because it is a full, perfect
and sufficient satisfaction for all our sins, "God sets Him forth in order
to demonstrate His righteousness that He may be shown to be righteous
Himself and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus." Oh,
what a comfort it is to me to know that He is always there standing before
God as the Righteous One, and therefore when God looks at me in all my
unworthiness He does not see me, He only sees His dear Son.

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