AN UNCHANGING CHRIST

The late Lady Colquhoun was one who knew the preciousness and power of resting on Christ Jesus alone for peace, comfort, and salvation; and, from personal experience, she was “able to teachothers also.” Writing to a young friend, she gives this excellent counsel: “As well in our winters as our summers the foundation standeth sure, ‘Christ is all’; ‘with Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’. Precious truth! Let us rest upon it, and cease from the vain endeavour to find anything in us that can give the shadow of hope. Abiding hope must be fixed on the Object that changeth not. We change daily, hourly. He remains glorious in holiness eternally. And this perfect one is in the court of heaven our Representative. Can we want more? Shall we say, I will add a few of my virtues and graces to the amount? When we are guilty of this folly, we weary ourselves seeking for them, for they cannot be found, and our harp hangs on the willows. But we resume the songs of Zion when we look entirely from ourselves to ‘the Lord our Righteousness’. How is it with you, dear A—? Can you rejoice in the Lord always? If not, experience will teach you that living on frames and feelings will not do; tht comfort ebbs and flows with them; and that you equally delude yourself when you take comfort from the feeling of nearness to God, or when you lose it because you lack that joy in devotional exercises, which is, nevertheless, extremely desirable and much to be prized. This, however, is distinct from joy in Christ crucified, and in Christ our Righteousness; and it is very possible to feel little heart for prayer, and to mourn an absent God, and yet to stand firm on the sure foundation, rejoicing in Christ, and never doubting that we are complete in Him.”

The reason why many real Christians are harassed with doubts, fears, and darkness is, that they leave off leaning entirely upon their beloved Saviour, and rest part of the weight of their souls’ eternal well-being on their own experience. The fruits of righteousness, wrought in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, are precious as evidences, but they cannot be trusted as grounds of salvation, unless with much spiritual detriment to our souls. Legh Richmond, writing to his mother, says: “Your occasional doubts and fears arise from too much considering faith and repentance as the grounds, rather than the evidences of salvation. Our salvation is not because we do well, but because ‘He in whom we trust hath done all things well’. The believing sinner is never more happy and secure than when, at the same moment, he beholds and feels his own vileness, and also his Saviour’s excellence. You look at yourself too much, and at the infinite price paid for you too little. For conviction you must look at yourself, but for comfort, at your Saviour. Thus the wounded Israelites were to look only at the brazen serpent for recovery. The graces of the Spirit are good things for others to judge us by, but it is Christ received, believed in, and rested upon, loved and followed, that will speak peace to ourselves.”