May 21
23
The chief among ten thousand,
the altogether lovely One!
(by Octavius Winslow)
With what pen, dipped though it were in heaven’sThe Authority & Power of the Word upon the Heart
excerpt by J. C. Philpot
God is essentially invisible. “He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen, nor can see.” (1 Tim. 6:16.) When, therefore, he would make himself known to the sons of men, it must be by his works or by his words. The first way of making his power and glory known is beautifully unfolded in Psalm 19—”The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.” This is the testimony which God gave of himself to the Gentile world, but which, through the depravity of man’s heart, has been universally misunderstood, perverted and abused, as the Apostle speaks—”since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom. 1:19-21.)
The secret spring whence this flows, and the eternal foundation on which this rests, is the incarnation of God’s dear Son. He is “the Word”—the Word emphatically, originally, essentially; and so called not only because he is the express image of the Father, as the word is the image of the thought, but because he has declared or made him known, as our uttered word makes our thoughts known. John therefore bare witness of him—”No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Had there, then, been no incarnate Word, there would have been no revealed word; and had there been no revealed word, there would have been no written word; for all that was revealed was not necessarily written, as John was bidden to seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. (Rev. 10:4.) And as without the incarnate Word there would have been no revealed or written word—so the power of the written word is derived from the power of the incarnate Word.
brightest hues, can we portray the image of Jesus?
The perfection of our Lord was the perfection of
holiness. His Deity, essential holiness; His humanity
without sin, the impersonation of holiness. All that
He was, said, and did, was as flashes of holiness
emanating from the fountain of essential purity,
and kindling their dazzling and undying radiance
around each step He trod. How lowly, too, His
character! How holy the thoughts He breathed,
how pure the words He spoke, how humble the
spirit He exemplified, how tender and sympathizing
the outgoings of His compassion and love to man.
He is “the chief among ten thousand, the
altogether lovely one!”