Ne'er shall he lift his crest again,

Nor coil within my breast,
When yonder paradise I gain,

In yonder mansions rest:
There no forbidden fruit allures;
The tree of life my soul secures.

FORTY-THIRD MEDITATION.

*

SERVANT.

MY SAVIOUR bears the name, and discharges the office, of a SERVANT. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold." It is, indeed, a spectacle for the universe to behold and admire; and what ought to be the limit of my interest and my admiration in beholding the Son of God "making himself of no reputation, and taking upon him the form of a servant,"† for my sake? He, who was, and is, and ever shall be, the Lord of all, on whose will ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels, through all their various ranks, wait in ready marshaled hosts, and, swifter than light, traverse creation to do his pleasure, — he condescended to the office of a servant, and even to the death of a slave, for the purpose of rescuing the vilest of slaves from the most cruel and degrading

slavery; that he might restore us to the free service of the best of masters; and that he might ultimately make them joint heirs with himself of the inheritance of God.

Jesus was the voluntary servant of the Father, in working out the plan of redemption. He did not fail in one "jot or tittle" of his appointed task, nor shrink back from any of its abasing hardships, until he could say, "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." * The Father, therefore, spake of him thus,-"My righteous servant," through the saving knowledge of whom, as their righteousness, many should be justified. In this subordinate capacity my Saviour was upheld by Omnipotence. Being God's servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to "restore the preserved of Israel; to be a light to the Gentiles, and his salvation unto the end of the earth, he was glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and his God was his strength."‡

And shall he not be glorious, supremely glorious, in mine eyes, seeing that he ministered on earth for me in his lowly "form of a servant"? Yes, he is to my astonished soul an

* John xvii. 4. t Isa. liii. 11.

Isa. xlix. 5, 6.

object of greater wonder, and surrounded with greater majesty, than would be the gathered grandeur and glory of all the great ones of the earth centred in a single monarch; both when I contemplate him girded with the towel, washing his disciples' feet, and at last nailed to the cross as the meanest and the guiltiest slave, giving his life a ransom for many. Let that mind be in me, which was also in Christ Jesus. Apostles gloried in calling themselves his servants; and in serving him, they willingly made themselves the servants of all. I lament to see so little of this spirit in myself and in my fellow-disciples. We all forget ourselves, and seek the master's authority rather than the servant's work. O that my temper and general deportment towards my brethren may say for me, what the Lord Jesus said of himself,“ I am among you as he that serveth ” ! *

It is only as I am invested with the “ obedience unto death” of that “ righteous servant” of God, and as I am clothed with the strength of his Spirit, enabling me to serve him, in my day and generation, that I can look forward — and, blessed be his name, I may, with exultation, look forward — to the day of my Lord's reckoning with

all his servants. My soul, which will then be the most overpowering emotion of thy nature, thy self-abasement or thy joy, when thou shalt hear those beatific words from his gracious lips, “ Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”? *

That joy — that joy, is it promised to me?
O, had I the wings of a dove, I would flee,
And ne'er would I slacken or fold my wing,
Till I reached that joy's everlasting spring.

Stay, foolish heart, thy impatience awhile ;
The work of faith with hope's visions beguile:
He who would enter the joy of his Lord,
First serves — then, through grace, expects the reward.

Saviour dear Saviour! the work is all thine ;
Nor less the praise, while the joy shall be mine ;
That word, “Good and faithful,” belongs but to thee,
Who, sinless to death, wrought obedience for me.