"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven." Luke 6: 22, 23.
It is an immense thing when you see and accept that suffering for Christ is the place of the highest distinction on earth. We may not suffer much; but the mere conviction that suffering is the highest place, and the only one of true progress, will ever be healthy discipline and encouragement. Whatever we need the Father has laid up for us in the Son. All fulness dwells in Him--all the treasures both of wisdom and knowledge; and not only is there every thing for us laid up in Him, but God also has made Him at the same time the storehouse of all that His heart needs. On earth God found His delight only in His beloved Son, now in heaven He has His people hidden in Christ. God's eyes and our eyes meet there; God's heart and our hearts find rest and satisfaction only in Christ. The Father thus brings us into companionship with Himself, into fellowship with His own joy. The spring and source of our joy must be the same as His own. Nothing less could satisfy His love for us. He will have us drink from the same fountain in which He has found His own eternal joy. It is humbling to think how little we have entered into that fellowship, but there must be a beginning. Have we begun to share His delight in His beloved Son? J. G. B.
