e's
meaning, be translated 'well-pleasing,' and the aim is this, not
merely that we may be accepted, but that we may bring a smile into
His face, and some joy and complacent delight in us into His heart,
when He looks upon our doings. That pleasure of Jesus Christ in them
that 'fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy' and do His will
is a present emotion that fills His heart in looking upon His
followers, and it will be especially declared in the solemn, final
judgment. We must keep in view both of these periods, if we would
rightly understand the sweep of the aim which ought to be uppermost
in all Christian people. Here and now in our present acts, we should
so live as to occasion a present sentiment of complacent delight in
us, in the heart of the Christ who sees us here and now and always.
We should so live as that at that far-off future day when we shall
'all be manifested before the Judgment-seat of Christ,' the Judge may
bend from His tribunal, and welcome us into His presence with a word
of congratulation and an outstretched hand of loving reception. Set
that two-fold aim before you, Christian men and women, else you will
fail to experience the full stimulus of this thought.

Now such an aim as this implies a very wonderful conception of Jesus
Christ's present relations to us. It is a truth that we may minister
to His joy. It is a truth that just as really as you mothers are glad
when you hear from a far-off land that your boy is doing well, and
getting on, so Jesus Christ's heart fills with gladness when He sees
you and me walking in the paths in which He would have us go. We
often think about our dear dead that they cannot know of us and
our doings here, because the sorrow that would sometimes come from
the contemplation of our evil, or of our misfortunes, would trouble
them in their serene rest. We know not how that may be, but this at
least we do know, that the Man Jesus Christ, who, like those dear
ones, 'was dead, and is alive for evermore,' in His human nature has
knowledge of all His children's failures, as well as successes, and
is affected with some shadow of regret, or with some reality of
delight, according as they follow or stray from the paths in which He
would have them walk. If it be so with Him it may be so with them;
and though it be not so with them it must be so with Him. So this
strange, sweet, tender, and powerful thought is a piece of plain
prose, that Christ is glad when you and I ar