Night Watches by John McNuff
The Glory of God Before the mountains were born, or you brought forth
the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you
are God. Psalm 90 verse 2 O my soul, seek to fill yourself
with thoughts of the Almighty, Lose yourself in the impenetrable
tracks of His glory. Can you by searching find out
God? Can the animalcule fathom the
ocean or the worm scale the skies? Can the finite grasp the infinite?
The mortal immortality? We can do no more than stand
on the brink of the shoreless sea and cry, O the depths! from
everlasting shrouded in the great and awful mystery of eternity. Before one star revolved in a
sphere, before one angel moved his wing, God was. His own infinite
presence filling all space. All time to him is but as a heaving
of a breath, the beat of a pulse, the twinkling of an eye. The eternity of bliss, which
is the noblest heritage of the creature, is in its nature progressive. It admits of advance in degrees
of happiness and glory. not so the eternity of the Great
Creator. He was as perfect before the
birth of time as He will be when time shall be no longer, as infinitely
glorious when He inhabited alone the solitudes of immensity, as
He is now with the songs of angel and archangel sounding in His
ear. But who can show forth all His praise? We can, at best,
but lisp the alphabet of His glory. Moses, who saw more of God than
most, makes it still his prayer, I beseech you, show me your glory. Paul, who knew more of God than
other men, prays still, that I may know him. Our safest eloquence,
says Hooker, concerning Him is our silence, when we confess
without confession that His glory is inexplicable. And is this
the being to whom I can look up with the sweetest confidence
and call my Father? Is it this infinite One, whom
the heaven of heavens cannot contain, I can call my God? Believer, contemplate the medium
through which it is you can see the glory of God and yet live. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He, who dwells
in light inaccessible, comes forth from the pavilion of His
glory in the person of Emmanuel, God with us. In Christ, the image of the invisible
God, the creature, yes, sinners, can gaze unconsumed on the lusters
of deity. Be it yours to glorify Him. Seek
thus to fulfill the great design of your being. Let all your words
and ways, your actions and purposes, Your crosses and losses redound
to his praise. The highest seraph can have no
higher or nobler end than this, the glory of the God before whom
he cast his crown. But he has a claim on you, which
he has not on the unredeemed angel. He gave Himself for you. This mightiest of all boons which
omnipotence could give is a guarantee for the bestowment of all lesser
necessary blessings and for the withholding of all unnecessary
trials. While you are called to behold
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
remember its characteristic. It is not a glory to appall you
by its splendors, but to win and captivate you by its beauties. It is full of grace and truth. He is your God and covenant.
Underneath are the everlasting arms. You may compose yourself
on your nightly pillow with the sweet pledge of security and
say, I will lie down and sleep in peace. For you alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4 verse 8.