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Read Ebook: The Mind of Jesus by Macduff John R John Ross
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PAGE The Mind of Jesus 3 Compassion 9 Resignation in Trial 13 Devotedness to God 17 Forgiveness of Injuries 21 Meekness 25 Thankfulness 29 Unselfishness 33 Submission to God's Word 37 Prayerfulness 41 Love to the Brethren 45 Sympathy 49 Fidelity in Rebuke 53 Gentleness in Rebuke 57 Endurance of Contradiction 61 Pleasing God 65 Grief at Sin 69 Humility 73 Patience 77 Subjection 81 Not Retaliating 85 Bearing the Cross 89 Holy Zeal 93 Benevolence 97 Firmness in Temptation 101 Receiving Sinners 105 Guilelessness 109 Activity in Duty 113 Committing our Way to God 117 Love of Unity 121 Not of the World 125 Calmness in Death 129
Let
THIS MIND
Be in you,
Which was also in
Christ Jesus.
First Day.
COMPASSION.
"I have compassion on the multitude."--Mark, viii. 2.
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Second Day.
RESIGNATION IN TRIAL.
"Not my will, but Thine be done!"--Luke, xxii. 42.
Where was there ever resignation like this! The life of Jesus was one long martyrdom. From Bethlehem's manger to Calvary's cross, there was scarce one break in the clouds; these gathered more darkly and ominously around Him till they burst over His devoted head as He uttered His expiring cry. Yet throughout this pilgrimage of sorrow no murmuring accent escaped His lips. The most suffering of all suffering lives was one of uncomplaining submission.
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Third Day.
DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD.
"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"-- Luke, ii. 49.
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Fourth Day.
FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.
"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."--Luke, xxiii. 34.
Many a death-struggle has been made to save a friend. A dying Saviour gathers up His expiring breath to plead for His foes! At the climax of His own woe, and of human ingratitude--man-forsaken, and God-deserted--His faltering voice mingles with the shout of His murderers,--"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" Had the faithless Peter been there, could he have wondered at the reply to a former question,--"Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him,--till seven times?" Jesus said unto him, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven."
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Fifth Day.
MEEKNESS.
"I am meek and lowly in heart."--Matt. xi. 29.
Reader! strive to obtain, like your adorable Lord, this "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price." Be "clothed" with gentleness and humility. Follow not the world's fleeting shadows that mock you as you grasp them. If always aspiring--ever soaring on the wing--you are likely to become discontented, proud, selfish, time-serving. In whatever position of life God has placed you, be satisfied. What! ambitious to be on a pinnacle of the temple--a higher place in the Church, or in the world?--Satan might hurl you down! "Be not high-minded, but fear." And with respect to others, honor their gifts, contemplate their excellences only to imitate them. Speak kindly, act gently, "condescend to men of low estate."
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Sixth Day.
THANKFULNESS.
"I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth."--Matt. xi. 25.
Ah, if He, the suffering "Man of sorrows," could, during a life of unparalleled woe, lift up His heart in grateful acknowledgment to His Father in heaven, how ought the lives of those to be one perpetual "hymn of thankfulness," who are from day to day and hour to hour pensioners on God's bounty and love!
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Seventh Day.
UNSELFISHNESS.
"For even Christ pleased not Himself."--Rom. xv. 8.
Too legibly are the characters written on the fallen heart and a fallen world--"All seek their own!" Selfishness is the great law of our degenerated nature. When the love of God was dethroned from the soul, self vaulted into the vacant seat, and there, in some one of its Proteus shapes, continues to reign.
Ah, how different is the spirit of the world! With how many is day after day only a new oblation to that idol which never darkened with its shadow His Holy heart; pampering their own wishes; "envying and grieving at the good of a neighbor;" unable to brook the praise of a rival; establishing their own reputation on the ruins of another; thus engendering jealousy, discontent, peevishness, and every kindred unholy passion.
Seek to live more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of the love of Jesus. Selfishness withers and dies beneath Calvary.
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Eighth Day.
SUBMISSION TO GOD'S WORD.
"Jesus said unto him, It is written."--Matt. iv. 7.
How momentous the instruction herein conveyed! The necessity of the absolute subjection of the mind to God's written Word--making churches, creeds, ministers, books, religious opinion, all subordinate and subservient to this--"How readest thou?" rebuking the philosophy, falsely so called, that would distort the plain statements of Revelation, and bring them to the bar of proud Reason.
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Ninth Day.
PRAYERFULNESS.
"He continued all night in prayer to God."--Luke, vi. 12.
We are rarely, indeed, admitted into the solemnities of His inner life. The veil of night is generally between us and the Great High Priest, when He entered "the holiest of all;" but we have enough to reveal the depth and fervor, the tenderness and confidingness of this blissful intercommunion with His heavenly Father. No morning dawns without His fetching fresh manna from the mercy-seat. "He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." . Beautiful description!--a praying Redeemer, wakening, as if at early dawn, the ear of His Father, to get fresh supplies for the duties and the trials of the day! All His public acts were consecrated by prayer,--His baptism, His transfiguration, His miracles, His agony, His death. He breathed away His spirit in prayer. "His last breath," says Philip Henry, "was praying breath."
Reader! do you complain of your languid spirit, your drooping faith, your fitful affections, your lukewarm love? May you not trace much of what you deplore to an unfrequented chamber? The treasures are locked up from you, because you have suffered the key to rust; the hands hang down because they have ceased to be uplifted in prayer. Without prayer!--It is the pilgrim without a staff--the seaman without a compass--the soldier going unarmed and unharnessed to battle.
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