Lecture 8.
Luke 23:44 — 24:27.
My desire at this time, beloved friends, is to connect the wonderful scenes pictured for us in these chapters by the Holy Ghost; but before doing so I wish to direct your thoughts back for a few moments to what follows the subject upon which we were dwelling last week. There is one thing in particular that I am anxious we should linger over, and contemplate all the blessedness of to-night, because it so peculiarly characterizes the Gospel of Luke. I refer to the closing utterance of our Lord Jesus Christ: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." Chapter 23:46.
Now, as characteristic of this gospel, it was the crowning act of the manifested dependence of a life of perfect trust in God. All through the Gospel of Luke, as we have seen, Christ is presented to us as Man perfect in subjection and dependence in all the great events of His life: perfection of subjection and dependence characterized Him as a Man. He is ever found in the blessedness of these two characteristics throughout this precious narrative; and we should bear well in mind that they constitute part of His glory as Man. Need I say He ever was God over all, blessed for evermore? but He was pleased in His grace to take this place as Man before God, and therefore He finished His human life in all the perfection that marked the position He had taken. The word "Father," issuing from His lips at such a moment, carries with it unspeakable blessedness to the heart, which bows in adoration as permitted to listen to it. It is a wonderful word to dwell upon: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." Oh, the infinite character of all the blessedness that it here sets forth — Sonship in perfect communion, unabated confidence and trust in God His Father as Man in death!
You will not fail to observe how different this account is from all that is recorded in the other gospels. For instance, in Matthew the divine record in every detail very markedly sets Christ before us as the Victim undergoing the abandonment of God. It is, of course, the very same scene as that depicted here; there was only one scene, as there was only one Person; but the Spirit of God (may I say so, with holy reverence?) delights to set before us the many sides of the moral glory of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is, then, His complete abandonment that Matthew records, that wonderful judgment which the Blessed One underwent upon the cross, as the Lamb of God bearing the wrath that was due to sin. Therefore the utterance that characterizes the account given in Matthew's Gospel is, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Now, that is not noticed here; it is not what was required in Luke's presentation of the Lord. Of course, again I repeat, it was the same scene; but it is another side of it which is presented here, even the perfection of the confidence and trust that ever marked Him as a Man, and now in the presence of death. Death was but the occasion of the manifestation of such confidence in His Father and God; and thus it is He commends His spirit into His hands.
Another thing important to bear in mind, as we linger over this word, is the note of victory that is sounded forth. We are here permitted to listen to the Victor's voice, the Conqueror of death, through death! death submitted to in victory, and the foundation laid for that which will yet be as thus expressed: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:54.
I may at this point say that there is a scripture which is too often quoted in an incorrect connection. You remember it is recorded of Hezekiah, that when he had recovered from his sickness and the exercises of it in his soul, he said, "The living, the living, he shall praise Thee." Isa. 38:19. Now, it is well to remember that that is Jewish blessing. Christian blessing is of another order.
There is no subject more important to understand than the character of blessing set forth in Scripture. It is this which makes the scene in Isaiah 38 so peculiar. Hezekiah, no doubt, was a true servant of God; still, all his links were down here on this earth. Therefore, to him death was intolerable. It was the severance of every tie that bound him here. It was perfectly in keeping with his position and order of blessing to say, "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption"; again, "The Lord was ready to save me"; and again, "Death cannot celebrate Thee." vv. 17, 18, 20. It was the character of blessing suited to that time. But in what is now before us we have the winning and inauguration of another order of blessing entirely, the ground laid for heavenly blessing.
Here we gaze on Himself, the Lord of glory, victorious over death; not an Hezekiah snatched back from the gates of the grave, rescued from the very grip of the enemy, but Himself the Lord, who underwent death, and was victorious through it. "Father," then, expressed His perfect confidence in, and dependence on His Father in the presence of death; so that death became simply the opportunity to display that dependence which ever characterized Him as Man down here on this earth, in most perfect and blessed contrast to all that ever went before.
There is a remark in the Gospel of John to which I will refer; and I would invite you at your leisure to compare all the gospels. Do not seek to harmonize them. Verily they never disagreed! In their record and witness there never was any divergence. Nothing but perfect unity of account and revelation could mark them. You will miss the real mind of the Spirit of God, and the blessing and comfort of it for your souls, if you adopt that process. What is said in the Gospel of John is, "He dismissed His spirit." That is, as a divine Person, He separated His spirit from His body. He could do that, because He was God. In Luke, as Man, He commends His spirit in perfect confidence to His Father. In Matthew, as the Victim, He bows His blessed head, accepting the judgment, and completing all His atoning work by His death. It is peculiarly the divine side in John. He Himself is the One who in John's Gospel separates His spirit. Therefore the word employed there is, "He dismissed His spirit," after having fulfilled everything that was written of Him.
It is only thus, then, that you get the knowledge of the mind of God in Scripture; you get out of Scripture what God put into Scripture, and you get all the blessedness of Scripture. It is not putting into Scripture something out of our own minds. You will find as you look at the gospels in that way, and indeed all the records that God has been pleased to give, whether in the Old Testament or the New, every blessing God unfolds in them.
Not infrequently one little word is characteristic of the truth that is given. The word "Father" here is quite characteristic of Luke. It shows Christ's Sonship with the Father; dependence, confidence, trust, as Man with God. Oh, what an atmosphere it takes us into! May our souls love reverently to contemplate it, to dwell upon it, remembering the place the blessed Lord took. He who was God, was pleased to become Man; and He kept that position, maintained it all through His blessed life on earth.
The next thing we have in this twenty-third of Luke is the effect of the cross on conscience, and that in a twofold way. The Roman centurion stationed there to watch the crucifixion completed, is the great witness of the power of the cross on conscience. The effect and power of what his conscience took cognizance of in connection with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ forced the almost involuntary testimony from his lips as he gazed upon Him, "Certainly this was a righteous Man." v. 47. Oh, the power of the cross! both internally and also externally. I am bold to say there is no power on earth or in heaven equal to the power of the cross. The effect of it on conscience, heart, and affection is beyond man's power to describe. There is, in very truth, nothing like the cross, whether we look at it here in its effects on the conscience of the centurion, or upon the crowd; for there was this testimony as well: "And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned." v. 48. They were wholly unable to understand it, yet they were struck with the fact that something had taken place beyond the usual order of things. God was pleased thus to give proof of the power of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Further, at His burial, all the circumstances were providentially arranged and brought together in the most blessed way. First, a naturally timid man is at that moment emboldened to come and link himself with the Lord Jesus Christ in death. Joseph of Arimathea was apparently a timid man, and does not seem to have been before associated with the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But God in His wonderful grace was now pleased to give the man the courage suited for the occasion, and he comes boldly forward and begs the body of Jesus. Secondly, Pilate, who would have been only too glad if he could have kept his character in the world, and have released Christ, gives up the body, because there was no enmity in his heart.
Thus we have these three things beautifully put together by the Spirit of God: the affection of the women, the courage of Joseph, and the willingness of Pilate, the man in whose breast there was no enmity.
There is also another thing here; and that is, the honour of the grave. There is no such thing now as the honour of the grave. It was a Jewish thing entirely. Burial was very important with the Jews, because I have no doubt it was, in their earlier history, a testimony to the fact that they were to possess the land. They were charged not to leave Joseph's bones in Egypt. You remember how they brought his bones up, no doubt in testimony to the expectancy of resurrection in the land. But the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was to be the end of all that. An altogether new order of things was to come in now. That is what brings us to chapter 24.
I will now just call your attention to three other things in the verses we have read together to-night. The first is the occasion itself. What a day it was! In all the previous history of the world there had never been such a day as this first resurrection morn. It was the brightest day that ever dawned on this poor sinful earth. Think of it for a moment. These are the three great realities brought before us in the commencement of Luke 24: the risen Lord, the empty tomb, and the rolled-away stone. I am speaking of it now exactly as this chapter presents it to us. First we see the risen Lord, in His victory and triumph. He arises, as it were, with the fruits and spoils of His conquest. He had been through the night of judgment, entered the gates of death, passed through the confines of the tomb, finished everything He came to accomplish. You remember how the former creation was celebrated with the sabbath in its beginning; but now the grave of God's Son was at its close. We here come to a totally new thing. We behold a risen Man, yet who was, and is, God over all, blessed evermore. Rom. 9:5. If we contrast with this the record of the Old Testament Scriptures respecting the worthies of former times, whoever they may have been, what do we find? Why, just this, that with regard to every one of them, however long he lived, it is written, "And he died." Gen. 5. Even as to Methuselah, the longest-lived of all in the days when human life was prolonged far beyond the length of human life to-day, the statement is that "he died." That is the undeviating record.
Now, thank God, we come to what is altogether new, an entirely fresh and blessed reality: "He … is risen." v. 6. This is indeed the new beginning. As has been truly said, "This is the second volume of our history." God grant that every one of us may understand it! Christ's death closed the first volume of our history, all that we were. The second volume, which opened with His resurrection, is filled up with all that He is. Volume one is the record of all that we were as children of Adam: our sins and wretchedness, our guilt and vileness, fill, as it were, its pages, a sad and solemn record of man lost and guilty before God. It is the record as of a night of darkness without the relief of a solitary star. They are blotted pages from the commencement to the end. The second volume is filled with the glory of His own person — His finished work, and all that He is in the perfection of His victories. Oh! to be well versed in the magnificence of this wonderful record of His glories, Himself the second man and last Adam.
Another thing that marks this resurrection-day in contrast with all former periods, is the blessed way in which the triumphant One has everything in His own hands, so to speak. You cannot read the account of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ without being peculiarly struck with this. We see Him now lifting every load out of the way, a blessed proof that He held things in His own hands. He had left death and judgment eternally behind Him, and is now the risen One for evermore. "Death hath no more dominion over Him." Rom. 6:9. He is the Conqueror of death and the grave, and in this sense it was emphatically "His hour." Contrast that for a moment, beloved friends, with what went before. You remember how He said to them: "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Luke 22:53. That was man's hour, and, oh, how he used it! how he wrought in it! Man then showed his littleness and powerlessness to the full; displayed himself in all the smallness and vileness of what the creature is and can do. "This is your hour." And man went on, until God took the whole proceeding into His own hand, until those three hours, when Christ met God about sin, and God dealt with Christ about sin. God and Christ were alone during those three hours. As we draw near to gaze by faith on "that sight" we seem to hear the solemn words, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy." What a moment that was, when God as God forsook Christ as Man! That is what marked those memorable hours. And note how God put His own seal on the perfection of that work which was there wrought out. God expressed in a very remarkable way His perfect satisfaction with all that His blessed Son had consummated. Do you know what that was? We were dwelling on the subject a little last week. He rent the veil of the temple. That was God's striking answer to the cry of the suffering Saviour. How blessed in adoring love to dwell on the complacency of His own heart in what Christ had done on the cross!
God was pleased to express His satisfaction in a twofold way. No one can say there was an interval between Christ's precious death and that significant rending of the veil. He dies; the veil is rent. The two facts synchronize; they take place at one and the same time. Now, observe it well, whilst this was the end of the Jewish system as such, it constitutes also a clear and full witness to the falseness of popery and ritualism. The veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. Christendom desires to put it up again. Thank God, they cannot accomplish this end. "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." Eccles. 3:14. As I have already said, this was God's blessed testimony to the value, as He measured it, of the work of His own Son, whilst it was the death-knell of all that connects itself with human, earthly religion. I am bound in faithfulness to bear my witness — though I do it without the smallest desire to wound the feelings of any — that the practice of a large part of professed Christianity at this moment is but a virtual re-erecting of the veil. How solemn to return to that which was done away in the death of Jesus! Mark it well: God rent the veil. He did not remove it, nor withdraw it, nor roll it up from the bottom, nor lower it down from the top: it was rent in twain. The Blessed One died, and the veil of the temple was rent; and in connection with it is disclosed that of which previously there could not have been, and had not been, any type. Until the veil was rent, there could not be a type illustrative of the way into the holiest having been opened by His death. This is blessedly set forth in the rending of that veil, an action which, like the wonderful work it bore witness to, is never to be repeated.
Let me here direct your thoughts to what may be called a very distinct public testimony to the fact that redemption was accomplished; namely, Christ's glorious resurrection from among the dead. "The Lord is risen indeed" announced this great event amongst His own on that blessed morning. That this might be said, had been the fear of His enemies: "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead." Matt. 27:63-64. "But God raised Him from the dead." Acts 13:30. How simple that is. This, then, was God's great public manifestation of His absolute satisfaction with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it is so truly and blessedly said, that the resurrection is the fundamental truth of the gospel. It is the great public demonstration of the completeness and efficacy of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that His own remember their Lord in His death, but in fact the risen Lord is the glorified One. He who was on the cross and in the grave is now in glory. A crucifix, then, is the denial of the truth of the gospel: it is an attempt to fix the eye on a visible and superstitious representation of Christ in death, and that as well the death of shame awarded Him by man. There is at this moment, thank God, a living and glorified Christ. He is alive out of death, and seated upon the Father's throne, at the right hand of the Majesty on high; above all, "Head over all." The Lord in His grace give us to see the immense importance of this truth. May He keep our souls from slipping away from it. There is in us a tendency to return to earth and earthly things; and there is always opportunity in that direction.
Thus, then, the Lord is here seen in His perfect triumph and victory as the risen One; but there is something which is in saddest contrast with that which I have said was the brightest day that ever dawned on this earth, and which was beyond all appreciation in its blessedness. Look at the twenty-fourth verse: the hearts of His disciples, His followers, are broken, afflicted, despondent; nothing but gloom seemingly settling down upon them. Think of this, too: the apostles, the chosen and sent ones of Christ, not being in the very least degree in unison with the occasion! They are really in perfect contrast with that glorious day. They are all in the darkness of uncertainty; the gloom of death and the grave enshrouded their spirits, even though resurrection was come, and Jesus was alive again for evermore. They could not sing —
"Jesus lives! no longer now
Can thy terrors, death, appal us;
Jesus lives! by this we know
Thou, O grave, canst not enthral us.
"Jesus lives! henceforth is death
But the gate of life immortal;
This shall calm our trembling breath
When we pass its gloomy portal."
There was a combination of circumstances that operated to bring about their discordant state of soul. First of all, it is most solemn to think that the words of the Lord Jesus had been forgotten by them. The apostles' state seems to have been, as to this, the darkest of all. The perplexity of unbelief covered their hearts and minds. The tidings of the women, as they returned from the sepulchre, had no place with them; all seemed as "idle tales." Those shining ones that met these women at the grave said, "Remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words." vv. 6-8. They had certainly forgotten them.
Oh, what a voice all this has for us; for how often do we forget His words and sayings! Is there one here to-night who has forgotten His words? That is why you are sad — full of gloom and despondency. You have forgotten the Saviour's words; they have ebbed away out of your hearts. Is it, then, strange that you should be in wretchedness of heart and perplexity of soul?
"And they remembered His words"; and thus it was all was changed for them: they can now put on the garments of praise. It is very blessed to see how they left the sepulchre at once when they remembered His words.
"We cannot linger o'er the tomb:
The resurrection-day
To faith shines bright beyond its gloom,
Christ's glory to display."
They "returned from the sepulchre." v. 9. That is one great change now effected. How it shows us the power of the words of Jesus! Now we have them written, praise the Lord! We have them in what is called the "Word of God." We have the very words of Jesus.
It is truly saddening to dwell upon the state of the apostles here, and I only return to it because of the importance of the lesson it teaches us. It is instructive to see the plight into which servants of Christ may get. Alas! what poor things we are. What is possible for us either on the side of blessedness or failure is indeed wonderful. In this scene the servants appear in greater darkness and distance than all the rest. It seems as if there had been greater difficulties in the way of connecting them again with Christ than all others. The one chief in this seems to have been Peter, who, coming and looking down into the tomb, simply wonders and departs. Do you remember his confession? Taught from heaven, too; divinely illuminated by the Father, Peter, in answer to the Lord's question, "Whom say ye that I am?" replies, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matt. 16:15-16.
Well may we say, "Ah! Peter, you have forgotten your confession, you have forgotten the revelation from heaven of the Father's mind that reached you." How can He be still in the grave, if He were the Son of the living God? That word, "The Son of the living God," implies resurrection; and yet here is poor Peter all in the dark as to it. Ah! beloved friends, this is what we all are. Even the apostle, blessed man as he was, is amazed to see that the Lord Jesus was not there. He "departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass." v. 12.
Another circumstance contributed largely to bring about this state of soul, and the consequent darkness that rested upon their hearts; that is, they were really looking for something down here in this world. Beloved friends, nothing will more certainly, more surely produce a state of wretchedness in your hearts than looking for something on earth. Nothing else will so effectually keep the soul out of its true blessing, and for the simplest of all reasons: our blessings are all in another place.
"There above's our life and glory,
There will shine an endless day."
Let us now turn our thoughts for a moment to a brighter side of this subject; namely, how the Lord meets the low condition of His chosen ones. It is wonderful and blessed to dwell upon His matchless grace and goodness, and to see how He deals with the folly and blindness of His poor people. What a comfort it is to be enabled to say to one another to-night, "He never will give us up." For ever blessed be His name! Alas! how quickly we can give one another up. But He never does so.
Now, observe, they were going away from Jerusalem. They were leaving the then centre of God's interests upon the earth, the place of His name and grace; they were going away from it, and He follows them, saying, as it were, by this very act, "I will never give you up." May God by His Spirit enable us to appreciate such blessed grace as this. Forgetful, unbelieving, unintelligent as they were, yet He never will abandon them. Oh, beloved friends, that is the blessed grace that here shone forth! The very opposite to this only too often marks ourselves: we are selfish and self-seeking, even in God's things.
Further observe the skilfulness of the love of Christ. There is nothing so skilful as love. It is to our shame we have so little divine love in our intercourse one with another. The reason of our clumsiness in dealing with each other is because we have so little love. "Love is of God"; and again, "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:7, 16. Love is the power that moves the heart and guides the hand: it is this that wings the words from the lips of one into the soul of another. A remark of the late Dr. Guthrie will illustrate this point. "A man," said he, "may point like a lifeless finger-board along a road which he neither leads nor follows; but it is what comes from the heart of the speaker that reaches the heart of the hearer; like a ball red hot from the cannon's mouth, he must himself burn that would set others on fire." Some amongst us, alas! seem to glory in putting the waning spark out; the destructive principle appears to rule their ways.
Oh, the skill of the Lord's hand! How He draws them out in all His tenderness, in all the grace and compassion of His love, and leads them step by step along the way. Well indeed may we sing:
"His is an unchanging love,
Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath,
Free and faithful, strong as death."
Think for a moment, too, of the way in which He ministers to them, after He Himself has kindled those desires in their hearts. He does not let them go alone. He comes near to them, but their eyes are holden that they should not know Him. He draws out their hearts, deals with their affections, brings them on step by step. He lets them tell their own tale. Listen to it: "Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And He said unto them, What things? And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done." vv. 18-21.
Having allowed them thus to tell out their thoughts, He then in His grace begins to deal with them. Mark His first words, and their solemnity: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." v. 25. What a voice is in these words! He further says, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?" v. 26.
You will not, I trust, fail to mark how the Blessed One in these words combines His sufferings and His glory: in these words a rejected and heavenly Christ is set before us, and all that Moses and the prophets had spoken are connected with Himself. It has been well said, that this should bind round our hearts every jot and syllable of God's Word. How blessed to have pressed on us the mind of God in Scripture relative to Christ. No doubt there was to be redemption by power; but redemption by blood comes first. Even as to the blessed Christ Himself, death must come in, if God were to be vindicated, and man fully blessed. And there is not only redemption by power, but a new and heavenly life, of which they had no thought. What filled their minds was the redemption of Israel by power: they were looking for a kingdom on earth. They were influenced by selfish consideration for themselves alone, and by the essentially earthly character of Judaism. But the Lord connects the Scriptures with all that happened to Himself: "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." v. 27. It has been blessedly said that "He awakens that ardent attention which the heart feels whenever it is touched." Think of that Blessed One thus conducting these poor hearts through "all the Scriptures." We may well say of this:
"It were a well-spent journey,
Though seven deaths rolled between."
The theme here is "Himself," and verily His name runs like a golden thread through every part of God's Word. Oh! beloved friends, have your hearts found that out? Christ is the centre of Scripture; He is the centre of all the thoughts and purposes and counsels of God. If you have not Christ simply before your soul you can never understand the Scriptures. I find Him everywhere set forth in type, and sounded from the harp of prophecy, through the roll and sweep of centuries. The heart that knows Him, and loves Him, delights thus to find Him. As He is the centre of all Scripture, so He is of such a heart. It is challenged as to Him: "What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?" and without delay it is replied, "My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. … His mouth is most sweet: yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend." Cant. 5:9-10, 16.
Now, I observe and mourn over a growing tendency in an opposite direction to that set forth in these words so important for us, "All the Scriptures." This is baneful in a double way; first as to Christ, for all the Scriptures testify of Him; next as to our knowledge of and interest in Scripture. Our being partial in knowledge creates the tendency to exaggerate on one side or the other. You may rest assured of this, that all exaggeration (if I may so say) of truth, springs from a partial knowledge of the Word. That which alone can preserve us from this is, giving all the truth its due place. That which hinders us giving all the truth its place is, the not having all the truth ourselves. When I say "not having," I mean not consciously through the ministry of the Holy Ghost. If you have only a part, the mind is biassed, and its tendency is to exaggerate that part to the exclusion of much else. We should seek, beloved friends, by God's grace, to be kept from this. The limitation of partial knowledge assuredly hinders our seeing all Christ's glory, and deprives our own souls of precious blessing.
Bear with me in pressing on you this danger of exaggerating any part of truth from simply having only a part; and do let that little word, beloved friends, sink into your souls, "All the Scriptures:" "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." How foolish are we to desire or accept less than "all the Scriptures," when God has given us all! Be assured of it, when you have Christ before your soul as the centre of the Scriptures, the centre of the counsels and purposes and mind of God, it is indeed well. All the Scriptures testify of Christ, and point to Him; all the counsels of God revolve around Him; and it makes a wonderful difference if, instead of looking at the Scriptures in reference to yourself, you look at them in relation to Him. I remember so well how that very thing delivered me from a false notion. It is now some years ago. I remember seeing how Christ was the centre of the thoughts and purposes and counsels of God, the centre of all Scripture. I remember how it set me free from the thought that the elect were the centre of the mind, purposes, and counsels of God. No; it is not so. It is in this our souls get balance. If you have Christ before you, you have God's balance. This is what we need; and it is truly blessed to have the truth communicated by the ministry of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven, and to see Christ everywhere, in "all the Scriptures."
The Lord in His grace affect our souls with the record He has been pleased to give to us of this precious and wonderful scene of resurrection glory. May He fasten it on our hearts more really than ever, according to the skill of His hand and the grace of His heart; and thus bless us just as He did the feeble souls in those days.