the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
HOST AND GUEST IN ONE
He brought me to the banqueting-house, and His banner over me was love. - Song of Solomon 2:4
The entrance of Jesus Christ into the opened heart is no mere metaphor, and it is not beweakened down to the presence in the spirit of the influence of His truth, or anything of that sort. There is a deep and substantial reality in the presence within a believing heart of Jesus Christ Himself. It is the central gift and promise of the Gospel, " that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." The old question that tortured men in early days, "Will God in very deed dwell with men upon the earth?" is answered now; and we have not only a Christ that was once incarnated in the son of a virgin to look back upon, but we have a Christ who dwells in our human spirits, if we open them by faith for His entrance. He Himself is the greatest of His gifts, and where He comes there spring, at the touch of His foot, all gracious, noble, and good things in the human heart. He never comes empty-handed, but when He enters in He endows the soul with untold riches.
We have also Christ’s presence as a Guest. How wonderful that is! "I will come in and sup with him." All sweet and familiar intercourse may be ours. It is even so that He, the glorious Lord, whose majesty, as revealed to John, prostrated even the disciple, who had leaned on His bosom at supper, as one dead, will bring all these splendours into this poor heart! He will come, and that as our Guest. What great and wonderful things are contained in that assurance! Can we present anything to Him that He can partake of? Yes! We may give Him our service, and He will take that; we may give Him our love, and He will regard it as an odour of a sweet smell, and as dainty and delightsome food.
Christ comes to us not only as a Guest, but also as Host: - " I will sup with him and he with Me. As when they asked Him to the rustic wedding at Cana of Galilee, He came as the Guest, but presently He turned the water of earthly felicity into the wine of heavenly gladness, and was Himself the Provider of the feast. As upon that night at Emmaus, when the two wearied men asked the wearied Companion of their journey to come in and stay with them at their humble meal, and He took His place at the table as an invited Guest, but in a moment assumed the role of the Master of the house, and broke the bread and blessed it, so making their gift to Him into His to them. So when He comes into your heart, and you offer Him your poor fare, your loyalty and your love and your faith and your service, He gives you the powers and the resources to love and serve Him; and still more, He gives you Himself, the Bread of God that came down from heaven, that your soul may feed upon that, and be satisfied and glad. As when some great prince offers to honour a poor subject with his presence, and let him provide some insignificant portion of the entertainment, whilst all the substantial and costly parts of it come in the retinue of the monarch, from the palace.
'Music For The Soul' daily readings for a year from the writings of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D., selected and arranged by the Rev. Geo. Coates, published by A.C. Armstrong and Son, 51 East Tenth Street, (1897). The original text is in the Public Domain and this electronic version is free for anyone without cost or obligation. This a year long daily devotional was written by the Rev. Alexander Maclaren over 100 years ago. This Scottish pastor had a heart to follow Jesus and a love for souls.
