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XVI.

Beauty and Bands.

BEAUTY AND BANDS.

"SWEET to trace His toiling footsteps,
Here amidst the desert sands;
Bear in memory all His sorrow,
Thorn-clad head, and piercèd hand!
Learn His love beside the manger,

Learn it on the stormy wave,

By the well, and in the garden

Learn it by the cross and grave."-MRS. BEVAN.

Sixteenth Part.

“BEAUTY AND BANDS."

"And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock."-—ZECH. xi. 7.

H

ERE we are to see a touching consequence

of Christ's rejection; for the One who is personated is the true Shepherd. He would have comforted His flock, yea, adorned and strengthened them; for "Beauty" means loveliness, and "Bands" strength. Both these, if Israel had received Him, would have been theirs. He came with His heart set on searching out the poor of the flock, dividing the precious from the vile; but on His rejection "Beauty" was broken; for there could be no beauty without Him. It was on the total disruption of Israel that "Bands" also was broken. Said the prophet, "I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder." No more, therefore, now is He simply guiding, guarding, or protecting them, as He would have done. Like Joseph of old, He is now in His exaltation on high, of which they are

N

ignorant, separated from His brethren. Touching are His own last words of remonstrance unto them, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Hence His coveted mission of gathering them in to Himself, as Shepherd and Comforter, for the present is at an end; no longer would His rod and His staff comfort them. "Bands" also is broken; for they are not only deprived of their land, they have no king, no priest, no home, no temple, no ark, no pillar of cloud, and no shekinah of glory. What strength can they have? Scattered, removed to the ends of the earth, what bond is there to bind them as of old? They are a crownless nation without Him. Concisely does Paul the apostle speak of this, the sad circumstance in their history: "For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets . . . they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre. But God raised Him from the dead." (Acts xiii. 27-30.) He is now, as Joseph was after his humiliation, in profound rest; His whole joy is

heavenly; whilst here He received nothing as to

the kingdom.

"For Him the wilderness did not sing,

Nor the desolate place rejoice;
Nor, as the rose, did the desert bloom,
Nor the wastes lift up their voice.

"The glory of Lebanon was not there,
Nor the shittah, nor myrtle sweet;
Nor was the place of His sojourning fair,
Nor glorious the place of His feet.

"Through the great and terrible waste He trod,
Where water-springs were none;
In the weary desert alone with God,
And His heritage God alone.

"No way in the desert prepared for Him,

Nor the mountains and hills made low;

Nor the crooked straight, nor the rough ways plain,
Where His pilgrim feet must go."*

And now what of ourselves during this intermediate time between Christ's rejection and His coming again? We who believe, both Jew and Gentile, are as He is raised and seated "in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." And as Christ is in heaven crowned with glory and honour, we in spirit are with Him there. In perfect repose, with the joy still set before Him, He keeps all in His mind—Israel, the Church of God, and the glory of the kingdom which has yet to come. Thus in

* Mrs. BEVAN.

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