Nourishment for the Journey (Octavius Winslow)

1 Kings 19:7,8

“And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he rose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meaty forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God."

But the true believer in Jesus is a traveler. He is journeying to a city of habitation, to the mount of God- and, blessed be God, He will soon be there! The apostle Peter dedicates his pastoral letter to the 'strangers scattered' abroad- the people of God dispersed over the face of the earth. Such is the Church of Christ. It is sometimes incorrectly called " the visible Church." The idea is unscriptural. Visible churches there may be, but a visible Church there is none. The saints of God are 'strangers and pilgrims' scattered abroad. They have no permanent abode, no certain resting-place. The Church is in the wilderness, journeying through it. The present is called the " time of our sojourning." We are but wayfarers at an inn, abiding only for a night. "Here we have no continuing city;" strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were. But this, beloved, is the reconciling, animating thought- we are journeying to the mount of God. We are on our way to the good land, which the Lord our God has promised us; to the kingdom and the mansion which Jesus has gone to take possession of, and to prepare, for us. In a word- and this image is the climax of the blissful prospect- we are hastening to our 'Father's house,' the home of the whole family in heaven and in earth, the residence of Christ, the dwelling-place of God. To this each believer in Jesus is journeying.

The road is difficult, the desert is tedious- sometimes perilous from its smoothness, or painful from its roughness; its straitness now wearying, its intricacy now embarrassing. But who will complain of the path that conducts him to his home? Who would yield to the sensation of fatigue who is journeying to an eternal rest? Much of the disquietude and repining of spirit peculiar to the pilgrimage of the saints, arises from the faint conceptions which the mind forms of the coming glory. We think too faintly and too seldom of heaven. The eye is bent downwards, and seldom do we 'lift up our heads' in prospect of the 'redemption that draws near.' And yet how much there is in the thought of glory, in the anticipation of heaven- its nature and associations calculated to stimulate, to cheer, and to allure us onwards! It is the place where we shall be sinless; it is the residence where we shall see God; it is the mansion where we shall be housed with Christ; it is the home where we shall dwell with all the saints; it is the home at which are collecting all the holy of earth, some of whom have left our embrace for its holier and happier regions, and whom we shall meet again.

Why, then, should we be cast down because of the way, or for one moment lose sight of the glory that awaits us, or cease to strive for the fitness essential to its enjoyment? In a little while- oh, how short the journey!- and we shall be there! Then we shall realize, to their fullest extent, the beauty and the sweetness of the description so often read and pondered with tears of hope before- "You have come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel." O my soul! will you not stretch every nerve, endure every privation, and relinquish every weight, thus to reach this glorious mount of God?

But for all the exigencies of the Christian journey, God has amply provided. The Lord Jesus being the believer's 'way,' all nourishment for the pilgrimage of the saints is laid up in Him. All supply of wisdom for the perplexing way, of strength for the wearisome way, of grace for the perilous way, of sympathy for the trying way, is in Jesus. In Him has the Father laid up the provision for the wilderness journey. And what storehouses of nourishment- both testifying of Jesus- are the word of God, and the covenant of grace! How full, how rich and ample the supply! All the soul-establishing doctrines, all the sanctifying precepts, and all the precious, comforting promises, go to make up the nourishment for the wilderness journey.

Oh, it is sweet to be a dependent creature upon God- to hang upon a loving Father- to live as a poor, needy sinner day by day, moment by moment, upon Jesus- to trace God in ten thousand ways, to mark His wisdom here, His condescension there; now His love, and then His faithfulness, all combining and exerted for our good- truly it is the most holy and blessed life upon earth. Heaven itself has nothing to be compared with it.

"And then shall cease the life of sin, 
The conflict and the woe; 
And then have thrown the destined dart, 
My last, my conquered foe." 
"And then shall come the morning light, 
The golden noon of grace, 
The gates of pearl, the sea of glass, 
The Lamb's unveiled face." 
"And then shall come the days of strength, 
The awful form and wing; 
When as a crowned prince I sit 
With you, my Lord, my King." 
"And then shall come the time of joy, 
The golden harp and song; 
The heart with love that overflows 
Amid the ransomed throng." 
"Thus patient wait, my tranquil soul, 
And trust your Father's love 
Though earth may bring the cloud and storm, 
Bright sunshine reigns above."

Octavius Winslow, "Grace and Truth"

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