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Joseph Charles Philpot Bevindelijke geschriften & prediking
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O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:14

Many of the dear children of God are tossed up and down on a sea of great uncertainty, doubt and fear, because they have not had sensible manifestations of Christ to their soul. He has not come into them in the power of His love; still they often say, “When will You come unto me? O visit me with Your salvation; speak a word to my soul; it is Yourself, and Yourself alone, I want to hear, to see, and to know!”

Now these are drawings of the gracious Lord, the secret beginnings of His coming, the heralds of His approach, the dawning of the day before the morning star arises and the sun follows upon his track. But when the Lord does come in any sweet manifestation of His presence or of His power, then He will abide where He has come, for He never leaves or forsakes a soul which He has once visited. He may seem to do so; He may withdraw Himself; and then who can behold Him? But He never really leaves the temple which He has once adorned and sanctified with His presence. Christ is formed in the hearts of His people the hope of glory; their body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and Christ dwells in them by faith. Though we often mourn over His absence and do not feel His gracious presence as we would, still He is there, if He has once come.

To the reader…

Whoever has never known such a sensible manifestation of Christ to his soul as others testify of may be troubled about it; perhaps you are such a one. Are you tossed up and down between hope and fear because of it? And do you still cry, “When wilt Thou come unto me? Speak a word to my soul”? Then know that this very crying is already the drawing of the Lord, the dawning of the day before the morning star arises.

And if He has once come to you, but you no longer feel His presence as you would wish? He may withdraw Himself, but He never really leaves the soul He has once visited. He is there, even when you mourn over His absence. Pray, then, with the psalmist: “O satisfy us early with Thy mercy.” He Who gave the beginning will also give the fullness.

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl