Morning Star

THE JOY OF SEEING JESUS.

Names sound sweetly, or otherwise from association. The name "Jesus" is full of music.—The soul of the Christian leaps at its mention. It is the heavenly poet's song.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ears.

But not less sweetly would the name "Judas" have sounded, had it been called upon him who was born in Bethlehem to die on Calvary.—Then would that traitor name have swept the lyre of the Christian's heart, and the harp of the Angel's hand, harmonious to "the echoes of eternity."

Forms, too, are made pleasant to the eye by association. The people of Macedon, in their respect for Alexander, learned to delight in carrying the head on one side, from the wryness of Alexander's neck. And all men delight in the human form, because of the delight which the spirit that dwells in it is capable of affording. And so all Christians would delight to see Jesus' body, because of what they know of his soul. But it is not the name, but the thing, not the body but the spirit which is properly desired and loved.

Now if Jesus should descend from heaven, and dwell personally, a human form among human forms, he would be nevertheless invisible to the eye. There is no Jesus-Savior in outward body. Nor are we to suppose any loveliness of form to Jesus, which is not and shall not be possessed by all his saints. The GoD WITH Us lies in the spiritual to which the outward body is at best but an index. With Jesus in our midst, then the pious but uninstructed soul might long to see him. But the Christian would then see him as the eye of faith can see spirit, and bear happy witness to the presence of a spirit all Divine. And so every Christian may see Jesus now. He may see his spirit working in the bodies of the faithful ones, even as though it wrought in the body that wept at the grave of Lazarus, knelt in the garden, prayed on the cross, and was laid in Joseph's tomb. Most certainly there can be no view of Jesus so glorious to us as that presented in the workings of his spirit in renovating and rendering blessful the miserable and fallen. And this view may all have who will lift up their eyes over the face of this degraded world. It will be indeed pleasant to see Jesus coming in the clouds, and to sing his NAME in heaven. But all this, compared with seeing his spirit, is but form compared with power.—M. J. S.