Self Will Have Vanished In The Better Country, And CHRIST Will Be ALL!

Fixing our eyes on JESUS!
(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)

"Fixing our eyes on JESUS, the author 
and perfecter of our faith!" Hebrews 12:2 

This is how I am justified and forgiven. 
Not by the hopeless endeavor to win 
and fight my way to the favor 
of GOD and the Celestial City--
but by looking to JESUS only, 
and by leaning on HIM absolutely.

"Nothing in my hands I bring,
 Simply to YOUR cross I cling!"

This is how I find assurance. 
I am tossed with tempest, overcast 
with doubt, haunted with fear--
while I scrutinize my own frames 
and feelings. But when I fix my gaze 
steadfastly on HIM, so all-sufficient, 
so perfect--the morning awakens and 
the shadows decay; behold, the winter 
is past, and the flowers appear! 

For my own comfort, I would see 
HIM as a glorious Sun filling my sky.

This is how I grow holy. 
While indeed I am bidden work 
out my own salvation with fear 
and trembling, it must not be as 
if everything depended on me. 

It must rather be by a perpetual faith 
in HIM, and a perpetual prayer to HIM, 
who works in me to will and to do 
according to HIS good purpose! 

The battle is not mine, but HIS. 
HE sows the seed, and HE ripens 
the harvest. HE lays the foundation, 
and HE puts the top-stone in its 
fitting place.

This is how I shall be glorified in 
the end. Self will have vanished 
in the better country, and 
CHRIST will be ALL! 

I shall follow the LAMB wherever HE goes. 
I shall find my safety, my peace, my victory--
in keeping very close to HIM. HE will be 
familiar, and yet HE will be new every 
morning. And I shall discover in HIM 
a subject of study, and wonder, 
and worship, and love--
which is illimitable and unfathomable!

"Fixing our eyes on JESUS, the author 
and perfecter of our faith!" Hebrews 12:2 

      ~  ~  ~  ~  ~