The name of Jesus

Chapter I. The Wonderful

"His name shall be called the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

fHE idea of a child king was not unfamiliar to the Old Testament. Little Samuel had been Israel's best prophet and judge; and young Josiah, wearing a crown at the tender age of five, was the best of Judah's kings after David.

In English history, the most honored name, perhaps, is Edward VI. , the youthful king of the sixteenth century.

All these were types of Jesus, God's holy and anointed King. With beautiful simplicity, even after His resurrection and ascension.

the apostles speak of Him in their prayers to the Father as ''thy Holy Child, Jesus." He Himself has told us that His best representative on earth is a little child : for, ''He that receiveth a little child in my name (that is, belonging to me), receiveth me." And even His Father in heaven is not ashamed to be represented by the same little child. "He that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me."

There is nothing more beautiful in an old and venerable man, than the simplicity of childhood which often characterizes the greatest minds. Perhaps when we meet with our God, we will be most touched of all by the simplicity of His presence. At least, it is very beautiful to know that the Christ who comes still to guide and govern us is a child Christ, gentle as the touch of an infant's hand, accessible as your own little ones, easy to approach, simple and loving as an innocent child; yet mighty as the Mighty God, and the Everlasting Father. It is very touching to notice in the last book of the

Bible (the Apocalypse), that Jesus is continually described by a diminutive term of peculiar endearment ; not the Lamb, as it is translated in our version, but, literally, ' ' the little Lamb, the dear Lamb of God."

Let us look, hov^ever, at the other side of the picture, and, as we do, let us carry with us the conception of the child. Four illustrious and glorious names are here given to Jesus.

1. '^He is the Wonderful Counselor." This name has reference to His prophetic work and office ; for He is our prophet as well as our king, the great teacher and guide to His people. The term '^counselor" has reference to His guidance rather than to His teaching. One may know much, and be able to say much, and yet not be a good counselor. Jesus is our wisdom, and leads His trusting children in the right paths, wherein they shall not stumble.

He is a Wonderful Counselor ; first. He often leads us contrary to the ideas, opinions, and judgments even of wise men, and His thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the heavens above the earth. If He is our guide He will often bid us do things which prudence regards as folly, possibly as fanaticism ; but God will vindicate His own wisdom in the end, and '^Wisdom shall be justified of her children. " It seemed a very foolish thing to the Canaanites for an army to march seven days around their city walls, and then simply blow their trumpets and shout ; but it was the wisest way to take Jericho. It seemed a very foohsh thing to ask a woman — a widow — to give away her last handful of meal to a stranger, when she and her boy were starving ; but it was the best way to save her and her boy from starvation, and to open the way for a continual supply for the coming months. It seemed an absurd thing for young David to face the giant Philistine with a simple sling and stones ; but it was the only way by which he could have obtained the victory. It seemed absurd to commit to twelve fishermen the task of evangelizing the world ; but it was God's

THE WONDERrUL. 13

Mdsdom, and it became God's mighty power. It may have appeared to Phillip very strange for the divine message to come to him to leave Samaria in the height of his great evangelistic work there, and go down into a lonely desert, where he could not expect to meet a soul ; but it was God's way to preach the gospel to the Prince of Ethiopia, and, through him to the whole of Northern Africa. He leadeth us by a way that we know not ; but it is ever the right way, and we shaU thank Him at last that He has proved our Wonderful Counselor.

Again, He is a Wonderful Counselor because the people He leads are such weak and foolish people. When we commit ourselves to the guidance of Christ we become weaker in ourselves, even than others, ceasing to look to our own wisdom. Without His guidance we should indeed be utterly helpless, but this is our very strength. The little child ^vho knows nothing of the way through the strange city is safer than the one who knows a little, because the latter is very apt to trust in its imperfect knowledge, and go astray ; whereas, the former, knowing nothing, simply holds its mother's hand, and is safely led by one who knows better. And so it is said of the heavenly pathway, ^'The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. " ^ ' I am not sufficient, " says Paul, "even to think anything as of myself; but my sufficiency is of God," and it is indeed wonderful how the most simple-hearted and uneducated minds are led by the Holy Spirit, not only into the full knowledge of God's Word, but kept from error and mistake, and guided safely through all the mazes of life's pathway !

Thirdly, This Counselor is wonderful in His patience and love. He is willing to take infinite trouble with us. Over and over again does He teach us the lessons we are so slow to learn. Over and over again does He repair our mistakes, and lift us up from our stumblings, and say to us, "How is it that ye do not understand ? " There is no difficulty too intricate for Him to unravel. There is no little detail of life too petty for Him to take an interest in. There is no toil too tedious for Him to go through with us. There is no tangle too involved for Him to unthread and loose. There is no complication of difficult circumstances too extreme for Him to be willing to take hold of and lead us gently out into the light ; and even our stupidity and rebellion have not always provoked Him to leave us ; but He waits and loves us, and leads us, until at last He brings us into His perfect will and our hearts are ready to say, "Wonderful Counselor, patient Teacher, gentle Christ — who teacheth like Him ?"

Fourthly, The best of all about this wonderful Counselor is that He does not merely tell us what to do, and give us a chart of the way, but He comes with us every step of the way and becomes our personal guide. Were you to go to Cairo and try to find from some Bedouin directions about the best way to cross the desert, or perhaps some map of the way or some itinerary of stations, he would laugh at you and say, ''Why you will never find your way in that manner. I cannot tell you the way, but I will go with you and show you the way. I will be your personal guide." This is exactly what Jesus does. He says, ^'I am the way, and the truth, and the hf e. " He says, when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and they know His voice, and a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. ''The Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, shall abide with you forever, and He shall guide you into all truth."

How may we have the guidance of this wonderful Counselor ?

First, it is always indispensable that we shall be wholly yielded to follow His guidance and have a single purpose to please Him only. Willfulness will ever miss the way, but "the meek shall He guide in judgment, and the meek (the yielded ones, the little and bending hearts) shall He teach His way."

Secondly, we must bring to Him every particular need and acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He shall direct our steps. It will not do to take it as a matter of course, and say it will be all right anyhow, for the very thing in which we ignore Him is most likely to go wrong just because we have trusted in general and not specifically recognized Him.

Again, let us not expect startling revelations to come, but go by the simple light of His Word and our sanctified judgment and the voice of the Spirit as He speaks to us through quiet convictions, intuitions, and impulses. There are voices and voices. There is light which will come to us all, but it is false light. It may often be known by its blaze and glare. Grod's light is the soft and simple hght which rests us, and brings the satisfying sense of His presence and peace.

Again, if we have His light, let us be willing to take it step by step. We shall not see all the way at once, but as we follow on we shall know the Lord in all His fullness, and all His purposes will ripen and unfold in all their fullness.

18 THE NAMES OF JESUS.

II. THE MIGHTY GOD.

He who is our Counselor is also abundantly able to carry out His plans, and He always follows up His directions with His strong and mighty hand. He never sends us on any path without standing by us and seeing us through. He who sends Israel around Jericho never fails to level the walls at the right moment. He who bids the people go forward into the sea, never fails to divide the floods. He who sends us through the waters and the fires, never fails to go before us and keep them from overflowing us. He who bids us march up against the gates of brass, never fails to precede us and break in pieces the brazen gates and make the crooked places straight. When the Holy Spirit is working in us, the mighty Providence of God is always working outside of us in perfect correspondence and ^preparation.

The Christ of the Gospels is the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the God who said to Jeremiah, Is there anything too hard for Him ? He is the God of creation and of providence — the God who said to Moses, ^'I hft up my hand and say, ^I Hve forever,' and who is there that can dehver out of my hand?" He is able to control all the forces and elements of nature, able to restrain all the influences and movements of society, and turn the hearts of men at His pleasure, and overthrow their counsels and their works. He is able to save the lost, to pardon the guiltiest soul, to cleanse the blackest heart, to renew the most wrecked and ruined life. He is able to fill the heart of sorrow with untroubled gladness. He is able to take away the strongest tendencies to sin, and give the degraded and selfish soul the power to do that which is right and holy. He is able to satisfy our inmost, utmost being. He is able to put His own heart and nature in the most corrupt and helpless soul. He is able to touch the springs of physical life, and fill them with His own strength and healing. He is able to meet the temptations that overcome us, and to make us more than conquerors in all things through His love. He is able to make even our little lives mighty forces for everlasting good, and so clothe us with His power that we shall be able to ''open the blind eyes, and turn men from darkness into light, and from the very power of Satan to God." He is still standing in our midst and saying : ' ' All power is given unto God in heaven and in earth, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He is greater than the greatest difficulty in your life, the greatest sin, the greatest sorrow, the greatest failure. Over against the things that are too strong for you, too hard for you, from this day place Him, your mighty God ; only touch the hand of that little Child, and lo, all the forces of Omnipotence, if need be, will be called forth to blast the very rocks of adamant, to roll back the tides of the ocean, to prepare the way for His ransomed.

" When He makes bare His arm, Who shall His power withstand ? When He His people's cause defends, Who, who shall stay His hand ? "

III. HE IS THE FATHER OF ETERNITY.

This is the true translation of this strange verse. It means that His being is unlimited; His years eternal ; His element is a boundless one, and all^His plans and thoughts are shaped and drawn on a gigantic, nay, an infinite scale. When we come into God, we come into the infinite. Eternity begins for us before time ends. The life we have now is eternal life. It takes hold upon illimitable things. There is about it a depth and a height, a length and a breadth that defy all calculations and computations, and the things that we take from God and do for God are eternal things. But a little we see now of what shall be revealed ; but when He shall appear we shall be like Him. But let us build to-day for eternity. Let all our thoughts and plans and hopes be in view of the gigantic future, the colossal scale which is to unfold when we pass through the narrow gates of the earthly life into the illimitable beyond. Let us ever see ourselves as we shall be then, and our work as it shall seem then. Let us be content with nothing that is not going to last. Let us, too, belong to the ages to come, like Him. Ours is not an ephemeral breath of life, like the fluttering moth or butterfly, like the flashing meteor of the sky. We shall live when the sun is burned to ashes, and the stars have faded away, or taken on their new and evei^lasting forms ; and could we see to-day, the scope of our future being, the height of our future glory, the grandeur of our future recompense, we would be afraid. We would be paralyzed with awe, and then with shame at the pettiness of our conceptions of God, and our expectations from Him ; let us give our future to Him who is the Father of Eternity; let us lay up our treasures in hands that will give them back there, with the compound interest of their glory. Let us take more of the vastness rise to more of the boundlessness of thought and purpose, of love and faith, of joy and service, which He expects of those who would be worthy of His great and infinite heart that throbs within our breasts.

IV. HE IS THE PRINCE OF PEACE.

There is an allusion here to the kingdom of Solomon, whose name was significant of peace, and whose reign was typical of the coming King, his greater Son. It is to Him that the seventy-second Psalm is dedicated, with its beautiful words, ^^The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth."

His first conquest is through the gospel of peace. Having made peace through the blood of the cross. He came to preach peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were nigh. His coming was heralded with the words, "Peace on earth: goodwill to men." His last bequest before He died was, "Peace 1 leave with you, my peace I give unto you. " His benediction as He arose and met them in the upper room was, ' ' Peace be unto you." Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. He brings to the guilty heart the sense of pardon, and eternal peace, and then He brings to the surrendered heart the deeper rest that comes from passion and sin subdued and perfect trust in Him as the sovereign and keeper of the soul. He brings peace by conquest, but His conquest is that of love, the soul subdued into harmony with Him with its own consent, and every part of our being in harmony with itself.

Nay, His glorious kingdom of peace extends further, for it brings us into perfect harmony with all the relations of life and circumstances that surround us, so that the soul in which this glorious Prince reigns easily adjusts itself to every situation, and it finds God adjusting everything in its life in glorious rest and fitness, so that it is true that when a man's ways please the Lord He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him ; and where things are at war with us we have a still higher victory, and can cry, with the apostle, ' ' We know that all things work together for good to them that fear God, to them that are the called of God according to

His purpose." ^'I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound ; everywhere, and in all things I am instructed to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me."

And so the government shall be upon His shoulder ; and when it is, it is true that '^ of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. " They that fully trust Him will find Him able to carry on His shoulder, not only the government of their own life, but of all the things that concern them ; and the more perfectly we submit everything to His control, the more sweetly shall we have cause to rest and sing,

" I leave His sovereign will

To choose and 'to command.

With wonder filled, I ever find How wise, how strong His hand ! "

Wonderful nam^s ! Wonderful Saviour, Counselor and Prince ! Let u^ give Him the increase of the government and enter into

His perfect peace, and in a little while we shall find ourselves in the glorious millennial kingdom of His everlasting peace, where the last enemy shall be destroyed, and universal nature shall at length be brought into perfect and everlasting accord with His love and will, where war shall cease, and strife shall disappear, and sin shall come no more, and sorrow shall have passed away, and Satan shall be cast out, and storm and tempest shall never darken its sunny skies; but universal peace, and everlasting love, like a golden chain, shall bind the heavens and the earth together in one long endless kingdom of felicity and i3eace.

CHAPTER 11.

THE ROCK OF ACES.

" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee Trust ye in the Lord forever ; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Isaiah xxvi : 3, 4.

^^HE literal translation of this beautiful f verse, as it will be found in the margin of our English Bible is, '' The Lord Jehovah is the Rock of Ages." This is the foundaation of that beautiful hymn which is one that nine-tenths of the English-speaking Christians in the world would be sure to select if asked for their six favorite hymns : a hymn without which any collection would be absolutely incomplete. The imagery is very familiar to every Bible reader. Rocks and mountains are associated with every important incident and epoch in the Bible. It was on Ararat that the new world began; on Moriah that the faith of Abraham was perfected; on Sinai that the law was given; on Horeb that the Tabernacle was designed; on Nebo that the Land of Promise was unveiled; on Zion that the capitol of Judah was fixed; on Moriah that the temple was reared; on Carmel that the nation of Israel was called to their covenant God; on Mount Hattin that Jesus preached His sermon; on Hermon that He was transfigured; on Calvary that He died, and from Oh vet that He ascended. It is not strange, therefore, that the mountain and the rock have become favorite expressions of sacred things, for which their natural defences, their immutable and changeless features, their colossal strength, their lofty eminence, their wide reaching prospects of vision, and their beauty so specially fit them.

Hundreds of times the metaphor is repeated over and over again. ^'The Lord is our rock." ^' The rock of our heart. '^ ^' The rock of our salvation." ^'The rock that is higher than we." ^'The shadow of a great rock in a weary land;" and here, sublimest of them allj "The Eock of Ages.'' This is the only passage in the Scriptures where this particular phrase, so full of deep meaning and majesty, is found.

Like some sublime mountain face; like yonder Profile mountain overhanging the Franconia valley, and looking hke a great colossal face on the earth below, alone in its grandeur; so this text is a mighty and isolated rock in which we can trace the face of Jesus, our Rock of Ages; and, as we git down under its mighty shadow, as we rest upon its velvet slopes, as we drink from the crystal fountains that flow from its side, we hear the sweet echo of our text : ' ^ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trust eth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for-ever: for the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of Ages."

I. THE ROCK.

Higher even than its fine natural suggestiveness is the perfect scriptural significance of this verse. It looks back to some of the most instructive and striking types of the Old Testament.

1. It recalls the rock in Horeb, and speaks of Christ as our Saviour. "I would not have you ignorant," says the apostle, addressing us New - Testament Christians, ^Hhat our fathers did eat the same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." Perishing with thirst, the Israelites were led by Moses to the face of the rock in Horeb. Then the law-giver lifted up his rod and smote the rock at God's command upon its naked face; and, lo! immediately it burst open, and from the cleft there poured a living stream, and through the camp it ran in rivulets and floods of living water, until the thirsty thousands drank and drank again, and gave their children and their cattle to drink until their thirst was fully satisfied; and they praised God for His great deliverance.

This incident has been applied with full scriptural authority to the crucifixion of the Saviour. He, for us, was smitten by the rod of the Law-giver and Judge as our sacrifice and substitute, and from His pierced side there fiows for us the water of life, where we can drink of His boundless mercies. His forgiving love, His renewing grace and thankfully sing.

Rock in Horeb, riven for me

By the law's avenging rod, Flowing from thy side I see

Streams of water and of blood. And I wash my crimson soul

Whiter than the wool and snow, While the cleansing waters roll.

And the living fountains flow.

2. The Kock of Ages reminds us of the rock in Kadesh: the type of Christ, a fuller and more perfect Saviour. Forty years after the rock of Horeb was smitten, the camp of Israel came to Kadesh. The old story was repeated again. Thirsty and hungry they murmured instead of praying, and once again their law-giver led them to the rock. This time the command was different. He was not to smite the rock as before; but simply to speak to it, and the promise was given that the water should immediately gush forth, In a moment of haste and disobedience he exceeded his orders, and smote the rock repeatedly with words of irritation, perhaps of unbelief. Grod honored His promise by sending the water abundantly again; but He was grieved with His servant for disobeying the explicit command; and for this offence Moses was excluded from the promised land. The waters, however, came forth, and the people drank abundantly, and the river continued to flow through the desert.

This is the type of the deeper fullness of Christ our Saviour, and of the infinite grace of the Holy Spirit, which is simply waiting the call of faith on the part of every believer. This is not the atonement which first opened the rock of salvation for us; but this is the deeper fullness of the Holy Ghost, sanctifying and satisfying the soul.

The word ^ ^ Kadesh ' ' means righteousness, or holiness, and so this is the type of Christ our Sanctifier and Satisfier. This does not teach us of the Holy Spirit procured and sent down from heaven through the finished work of Christ, but the Holy Spirit already given and simply waiting the call of faith to be received. We do not need now to smite the rock; to crucify Christ again, or to go through a desperate struggle and strain; but simply to look and live, to take and have, to speak the simple word of trust, '^Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove," and lo! He answers quickly to our cry, and our prayer is changed to the song of praise:

Rock of Kadesh, flowing still, From the Saviour glorified;

All my empty being fill With thy Pentecostal tide.

3. The Eock of Ages looks back to another beautiful picture: ^^They drank of the rock that followed them." What can this mean? *^ Following rock." Not that the rock moved through the desert, but the river that ran from the rock followed them through the desert. The rock followed them with its floods of life and cleansing. The

Psalmist tells us the water ran in the desert

like a river, and the historian tells us that

when once in the desert they were perishing

for want of water, they simply gathered in

a Httle circle upon the burning sands, and

with their staves dug a Httle well in the

sand, and lifted up their voices to God in

songs of praise; and lol immediately the

waters sprung up from the depths below,

and overflowed again, as at Horeb and Ka-

desh, from the subterranean springs. So the

Eock of Ages sends its hving fountains all

along our way, and although the desert may

be all around us and the wells may all seem

dry, yet faith has only to make room and

lift up the song of praise even in the hottest

desert, and lo! immediately the waters will

spring forth in abundance, and we shall sing

again:

Following rock, from day to day, .

Sending forth on every hand Rivers all along the way,

Underneath the desert sand.

Open deep the living well.

Where thy hidden fountains flow; Ever near thee let me dwell,

As I through the desert go.

4. But the Kock of Ages is also a sheltering rock. This is the rock of which the Psalmist cried, ^^Lead me to the rock that is higher than I." ^^He shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." A little rock only reflects upon us the more intensely the heat which it has absorbed; but the great rock drinks in the warm rays on one side, and on the other has a cooling shadow for the traveler who rests under its overshadowing cliffs. So, weak and selfish hearts only irritate us, and throw over us the reflection of their burdens; but Christ is the shadow of a great rock. Occupied every moment as He is with the cares of others, with the sorrows of a weeping world, with the myriad prayers that are every moment surging into His ears, with the dying cries and groans of sinking souls, with the despairing shrieks of the wretched ones that are every moment drifting into eternity. He is always at leisure for us. He is always at our call, and His whole heart is ever ready to comfort and rest us, as though there were no others in the wide universe but we requiring His sympathy and rest. Oh, the dehghtful peace; oh, the safe refuge; oh, the perfect security they enjoy who have found their home within the cleft of the Kock of Ages.

Shadowing rock in weary lands,

Let me rest beneath thy shade^, Traveling o'er the burning sands,

Shelter my defenceless head. Covert from the tempest rude.

Refuge from the raging tide. Fortress when by foes pursued.

Let me in thy bosom hide.

6. But the Eock of Ages is also a foundation rock. It is a place to build upon. It is the resting-place of faith and hope. There trust finds its full assurance, as it leans upon the promise, ^^ He that belie veth on the Son hath everlasting life." There the soul can struggle with self and sin as it reposes aU its weight upon the everlasting promise, ^^The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from aU sin." There hope anchors aU her cables, as she commits aU her destinies, her affections and her treasures to this imnaov-^ l^HE ROCK O'F AGES. SY