The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

494 ftbe Tbolicst of ail
rejoices in the assurance not only of deliverance, but of the
heavenly blessing it brings.
For the present yet afterward. These two expressions
contain the great contrast between time and eternity, of the
visible and the invisible, of sorrow and of joy, of sense and of
faith, of backsliding and of progress to perfection. For the
present : to be guided by it,
and sacrifice all for its gratification,
is the sin and the folly and death in which we live by nature.
Yet afterward : to throw eternity into the balance, and judge
everything by that : this is what even the patriarchs did ;
this
is what Christ taught us, when, for the joy set before Him, He
endured the cross ;
this is what faith can teach us in every
trial. With that yet afterward of the peaceable fruit of
righteousness, the light of eternity and its reward shines on the
least as on the
greatest of our trials, and makes each one the
seed of an everlasting harvest, of which we pluck the fruits even
here. And so light arises upon the command, Count it all joy
when ye fall into manifold temptations. We read it in the
light of what Paul said of himself, As sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing. When the hurricane is
sweeping the ocean into
mountain-high waves, down in the deep waters all is serene and
quiet the disturbance is
only on the surface. And even so the
joy of eternity can keep a soul in perfect peace amid abounding
afflictions. For the present is swallowed up in the yet after
ward of a living faith.
Now there follows, on the strength of what has been said of
God s love and His blessing, the call to the Hebrews to rise up
out of their dejection and despair, and gird themselves for the
race in the way in which Jesus leads us to God. Wherefore
lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees ;
and
make straight paths for your feet. Take courage, he says, and