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#9.
"Unspeakable joy."
pp. 221, 222
Zachariah was smitten with dumbness because of his unbelief. Christ was as a lamb
dumb before her shearers. Yet again, some are rendered dumb through very excess of
joy. The nearer any experience is to the heart of things the less inclined are we to discuss
it or to talk about it. There is a peace that passeth understanding, and there is a joy that is
unspeakable:--
"Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (I Pet. 1: 8).
There is a close connection between the invisible--"Ye see Him not"--and the
unspeakable in this verse. At times we are tempted to endorse the desire expressed in the
children's hymn where it says:--
"I wish that His hands had been placed on my head,
That His arms had been thrown around me;
And that I might have seen His kind look when He said,
`Let the little ones come unto Me'."
Yet the Saviour Himself pronounces a blessing upon those who believed although
they had not seen Him:--
"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed:
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20: 29).
And the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:--
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more" (II Cor. 5: 16).
One of the characteristics of faith is that it sees Him Who is invisible, and
consequently it endures (Heb. 11:). Both joy and peace arise out of believing
(Rom. 15: 13), and faith rises beyond the realm of time and sense and embraces all the
fullness of the risen and ascended Lord. The realization of all that He is to His people is
beyond all power of expression. In our degree we are, as it were, caught away, by faith,
to the third heaven, and there hear inexpressible words, and receive a joy that is
unspeakable.
There is a precious fellowship of grace, for blessings shared are blessings multiplied.
There is a sacred "having in common" among the saints. But every heart entertains some
memories that are not made common property, some sorrow or joy that belongs to the
inner recesses of the holiest of all:--