The Cherubim of Glory — Edgar F. Parkyns

Joy to be with you all. Those of you who know a little bit about West Africa will know that all up and down the West Coast there are religious societies. They are the results of one or two revivals which went wrong.

The Africans were stirred by the Holy Ghost. There was a great turning away from idols and a reaching out to the living God. And there were no missionaries who would give themselves entirely to the African people.

They all came as representatives of denominations and they wanted to turn them all into various kinds of European denominations with all the European mannerisms. And so out of the stirrings among the eager hearts of our dear West African folk grew group after group of people who were halfway into truth.

And one of those groups is known as the Cherubim and Seraphim Society. And they're numbered in hundreds of thousands if not millions. Their priests dress in scarlet, their people dress in white. You may see them holding large processions all the way from, I'm trying to think, Sierra Leone right down to Cameroon if not further.

And you will find similar groups on the East Coast of Africa. People who were hungry for God but had no one to lead them straight into New Testament truth. And so you have them by the thousand. The Cherubim and Seraphim Society started by a woman who believed herself to be a prophetess.

And she had heard the hymn in the Anglican Church, Cherubim and Seraphim, falling down before him. Is that right? Before these. Yes. And she had a glimpse of a great company of people all dressed in white, worshipping the Lord.

And so she started her society. I have ministered among them on one occasion and I found that the common people were hungry for Jesus. But the priesthood were very cheery and I never got invited back again.

What a tragedy that once again a whole harvest was being lost. And I rejoice that now God is moving again the third time through West Africa. And this time the Lord is sending out brethren and sisters, some of them known to you, who are sharing and reaping the harvest, not anxious to build a European denomination, but just to share the Lord Jesus with these hungry and eager people.

Hallelujah. Isn't it good? We're living in a tremendous age. I'm thrilled to have a little part in all that. Just stirs my heart with joy. Because I want to talk about the Cherubim. Maybe I should say Cherubim.

And every now and again I'll get mixed up between the two, but please just overlook that, because I'm liable to such confusions. And we'll start with Hebrews chapter 9. This wonderful, inspired writer, a man of great faith, has been showing us step by step the great truths underlying the new covenant.

The Tabernacle and the New Covenant

And he's sweeping on into that truth in chapter 9. And as he develops his theme, he draws time and again on the mighty Old Testament pictures of God's New Testament truth. And here he refers us to the tabernacle.

And in chapter 9, verse 1, he says,. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly or an earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made, the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.

And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant.

And over it the Cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then pleasant, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed upon them until the time of reformation.

But Christ being come, and high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

And maybe we should refer in a few moments to Exodus 25, where the original instructions concerning the cherubim of glory were laid down. Cherubim, an old Hebrew word meaning living one. I think the first reference to those mighty living ones is in Genesis chapter 3, where after sin came in and death by sin, Adam and his descendants were not only driven out, but kept out of the garden that Adam had first known, kept out by a flaming sword which turned every way, lest Adam in his sinful rebellion should find access to the tree of life and become himself a devil.

God in mercy kept him out of favor that we might find favor through redemption. And at the same time at the east end of the garden were placed cherubim, living ones. We are not all certain what their function was.

Did they, together with the sword, guard the entrance to the tree of life? We do not know. Were they representatives conveying with their living presence there in the otherwise deserted garden the hope of a future restoration to divine favor?

We do not know. The Bible does not tell us. But there is the first reference to the living ones. You will find them again in Ezekiel's vision, where he has a glimpse of the throne of God in heaven. And as it were, supporting the throne are the four living creatures, the four cherubim.

And as they move, they move in complete harmony with the will of him who occupies the throne. And beneath them the wheels of the chariot of divine purposes move also in perfect union and instant response to God's will.

Ezekiel, looking out of the darkness and confusion of the era of captivity, saw that nevertheless God had his throne eternal in the heavens, and there are living ones supporting the throne and moving in perfect response to the divine will of God.

And the wheels of this mighty system are actually at times touching the earth. Hallelujah. And I believe they still touch the earth in this hour of day. And we feel the impact of the divine government touching the lives of men.

The Living Creatures in Revelation and Isaiah

And then you see them again in Revelation, Revelation chapter 4, as John, too, looks into heaven, and he sees those living ones, and this time he gives us a further little link. When John sees into heaven, he writes down in his record words which are always giving us links with other parts of the scripture that are never, I think, quite the same.

He always gives it an additional touch. And when he shows us the living ones in chapter 4, he hears them, the four living creatures, they're just like the ones that Ezekiel saw, he sees them having six wings about him, full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come.

And in the little touch that John has given us, he has directed us into a different avenue, back this time not to Ezekiel, but to Isaiah, where Isaiah sees the seraphim, the burning ones, living ones, burning ones.

And John says, it indicates that they are two aspects of the same glorious beings. In the one, they are called living because they are represented by an inanimate object, and they need the title, living ones.

In the other, they are called seraphim, burning ones, because they are already living and moving and worshipping, and we need to know their quality of holy fire. In the tabernacle, there was a direct representation of them, Exodus 25.

Let's listen to these fascinating instructions God gave to Moses concerning the details of a part of the tabernacle, the most intimate, the most secret, hidden part, the holy of holies. Verse 10, or let's see verse 9, according to all that I show thee, Exodus 25, after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

And they shall make an ark of shithim wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, a cubit and a half the height thereof. Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without, shalt thou overlay it, and shall make upon it a crown of gold round about, and cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof, and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it, and thou shalt make staves of shithim wood, and overlay them with gold, and thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.

The staves shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee, that is the tables of stone. And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold of beaten work, shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof.

And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another, toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.".

The Tabernacle as a Pattern of Spiritual Truth

I think all folk who study their Bible and try and teach it to other people recognize that the tabernacle is a great object lesson of divine and spiritual truths in which we have a personal and a completed interest as individuals and as people to whom as a company we should be interested in those secrets which were tucked away in the tabernacle.

The book of Hebrews and other parts of the New Testament give to us certain keys and those of us who love to teach from type like to look into the tabernacle and see something of the hidden meanings. But you will find that we don't all agree in all that we say, and you will also find that the tabernacle has varying teaching aspects.

For instance, one man might say that the tabernacle represents in its outer core the body, in its holy place the soul, and in its holiest place the spirit. And I think we could develop some very helpful thoughts in that area.

Others say the tabernacle represents the three heavens, the heaven in which the wind blows which we feel upon our faces, the winds of heaven, that is, the air around us, the first heaven. The heaven in which we see the stars and the moon at night time.

The starry heavens, the second heaven, the third heaven, the fourth heaven, and ultimately the third heaven where God dwells. Paul, you remember, was caught up to the third heaven and beheld things and heard things unspeakable.

And I guess we could get a few other meanings from the general structure of the tabernacle and find it profitable to look at each of them. When it comes to a cherubim, well, even the writers of Hebrews say that we can't speak particularly of all these things.

Obviously, he was full of matter about them. He would have loved to have gone on chapter after chapter. But the Holy Spirit said, now steady, you'll get all these people mixed up. You just keep to the new covenant and get them firmly founded there and we'll leave the rest for other occasions.

And what a piece of cheek it is for me to even presume to step in where the writers of Hebrews did not tread. Here I should sit down covered with confusion. But I have a sort of interest in these things and I'd love to at least guess what he might have seen in the cherubim of glory.

And while I may not have all the answers, at least I can suggest some to you. Some think that they signify the host of angelic beings who worship God in perfection. And there's a little hint in 1 Peter chapter 1 where he talks about the mystery and wonder of our redemption and he says, which things the angels desire to look into.

And as you see these two cherubim worshipping in symbol above the mercy seat, we might see in them a picture of the angelic creation, looking in wonder and amazement and adoration of God's glory. Almost speechless in worship as they listen to our redeemed hearts uttering in pure praise and worship our thanksgiving and joy in the presence of him who has redeemed us.

And some think, of course, and probably rightly, that they represent something high and real in the eternal governments of God. Ezekiel's vision showing the link between the throne of God in heaven and God's business on earth, conveyed by these mighty, wonderful, living ones, burning ones, moving in instant obedience to the Almighty's will.

The Cherubim as a Redeemed and Witnessing People

But just as in other parts of the tabernacle we may see over and over again varying meanings, I'm going to have another look at the cherubim and suggest a third symbolism which may interest you and me.

Let me take you on a little journey into the tabernacle. It's set up in the wilderness, probably, certainly in the center of the camp, and probably as it was placed there at the beginning of the camp, it would be on the highest elevation in that part of the desert.

Because the curtain around the tabernacle was just too high to let ordinary people look in out of curiosity from outside. If you wanted to do business with God, you had to come to the gate of the tabernacle where there was a break in the curtain and there was a doorway hung up on, what was it, four posts, that's right, four posts.

A doorway which may well represent Christ, the only way to God, held up for our gaze with Matthew and Mark and Luke and John to display him before us. And yet, even as he is displayed, we find a way through as we seek God.

And no man comes to the Father but by him. There is a symbolism in the Old Testament worship. But we have come through that curtained gate and find ourselves in the courtyard. It's not very big. It's, what, 50 cubits long?

What's that? 30 yards long? Half the width? Not very big. And in the, at one end of it is the tabernacle proper, that tent in which God deigned to dwell. A picture of him who tabernacled among us. Jesus said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, a body hast thou prepared me.

And there was an earth, Jesus' body was a tabernacle, wasn't it? He was made flesh and tabernacled among us. And as we draw near to that sacred tent where only priests may enter, it's not a meeting place for the congregation.

It's only a meeting place between God and those who represent the people. As we draw near we find in front of it the great brazen altar, a wonderful altar, its major construction being of wood. It is covered with bronze and no doubt filled with earth when it's functioning.

For there the sacrifices are offered morning and evening, blood sacrifices, essential to retaining that fellowship between God and man. There may the offerings brought by the guilty Israelite be offered and slain and by the priest presented before God.

Then beyond the great altar is the laver where the priests wash, a great basin set up there where they wash themselves for service and other vessels of the temple are cleansed. And beyond the laver again the door of the tabernacle, once again a beautiful curtain of fine linen and purple and scarlet and gold hung there on its five pillars.

Some see in the five pillars, and I don't know if this is right, I think it is, the five ministries, the fivefold ministries of the church. You know, Jesus is proclaimed by, especially through the great ministries that God has given to the church.

Some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. Thank God Jesus isn't only portrayed in the word or through the gospels, he also ordains that he may be made known through the ministries of the church of God.

And beyond there the cleansed priest may go further into the service of God. Let us imagine that we go in with him. We find ourselves in a small oblong tent. It was very plain, badger skins without, very beautiful within.

The boards of the sides are overlaid with gold. On the one side is the seven-branched candlestick. On the other side the table of showbread. Each speaking of Christ, our light, and of Christ the bread.

Everything about the tabernacle speaks of Christ. In front of us, by the dim light of the seven-branched candlestick, we can see a further veil with cherubim worked upon it, once again in blue and scarlet and gold and fine twine and linen.

And beyond that the ordinary priest dare not go. In front of it, and closely associated with it, is a smaller altar, the altar of incense. There the priest offers incense of prayer and worship and swings his incense before the veil, indicating, as he represents his people, the prayer of Israel going up to God.

But beyond the veil, in the holiest place of all, were we permitted to go, but only the high priest could normally go, were we permitted to go, we would find in that inmost, smaller tent, the sanctuary, one outstanding object, the altar of prayer the Ark of the Covenant.

A box, a little bigger than that table, overlaid with gold, and it has a mercy seat on it. I wonder if I can move this out a little bit. And the lid of the box is called the mercy seat or the propitiatory.

And there, once a year, the blood of the atonement, the blood of the atoning goat, is sprinkled on behalf of the people. It is essential to them, and on that day of atonement they mourn and fast and seek God, while the high priest himself goes into the inmost sanctuary and sprinkles the mercy seat with that atoning blood, making intercession on behalf of those failing people.

Christ as the Mercy Seat and Propitiation

And we know, and we know, happily for us, the meaning of the mercy seat. For John tells us, my little children, these things write I unto you, this is in his first epistle in chapter 2, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

And then he ends a little rider, and he says, but if any man sin, and he doesn't regard it as normal at all, he says, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the mercy seat.

The propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So we know, that the mercy seat represents, in purest and deepest symbolism, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was slain for us, and who rose again, and who ever lives to make intercession for us.

That is absolutely plain and clear. Here we can stand in our understanding, and the reference is in first epistle of John, chapter 2, and verse 2, if you really want to fix it. First epistle of John, chapter 2, and verse 2.

He is the mercy seat for our sins. The mercy seat was made in a different way from the other furniture of the tabernacle. The other furniture was made of chitin wood, and was overlaid with gold. But the mercy seat was pure gold through and through.

Speaking of Christ in the perfections of his deity, pure gold through and through. He always was perfect from the very beginning. Not merely a partaker of divine nature, he was truly God. The word was with God, and the word was God.

And even though men could touch him and handle him, and others could spit upon him, still he is truly God. Pure gold. Alleluia. Every part of him. Praise God. But it wasn't just as gold that the type was presented.

It had to be beaten into shape by those cunning workmen, Holyab and Bezalel, who were the two leaders, skilled men. And they had to take that lump of gold, and with fire and with hammers, beat it and beat it and beat it until at last the pure gold was forged into a propitiatory, a mercy seat to deal with the sin question.

Glory to God. None less than Jesus in the fullness of his deity is able to deal with the awful curse of sin. Not only ours, but the sins of the whole wide world. And that's why it is written in Hebrews chapter 2, that it pleased him, in chapter verse 10, it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.

He was always perfect in his deity. Always perfect in the purity of his nature. But in order to be a mercy seat for us, he had to be shaped. And shaped in suffering. From his childhood right the way through that sojourn on this unhappy earth.

He was being shaped to become a mercy seat. And he learned obedience through the things which he suffered. The perfect one became so tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin, that he learned step by step from childhood upwards and all the way to the cross, he learned obedience through the things that he suffered.

And with every suffering blow, he was being shaped, shaped, shaped until the day came when he would be the mercy seat for the sins of the whole world and mine. Alleluia. He was made perfect. He who was perfect was made perfect.

He who was perfect in his essence was made perfect in his divine purpose. He who was one with God from the beginning became one with man as a mercy seat through his sufferings. There should be his lovely name.

The Suffering Love of Christ

Alleluia. I was turning to the hymn book just now and I was looking at an old, old hymn by Samuel Crossman and I want to read you a few stanzas of it. And it goes like this. My song is love unknown. My Saviour's love to me, love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be.

O who am I that for my sake my Lord should take frail flesh and die? He came from his blessed throne salvation to bestow, but men made strange and none the longed for Christ would know. But O my friend, my friend indeed who at my need his life did spend.

Sometimes they strew his way and his sweet praises sing resounding all the day. Hosannas to her king, then crucifies all their breath and for his death they thirst and cry. Why, what hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite? He made the lame to run, he gave the blind their sight. Sweet injuries, yet they at these themselves displease and against him rise. They rise and needs will have my dear Lord made away.

A murderer they save, the prince of life they slay. Yet cheerful he to suffering goes that he his foes from thence might free. In life no house, no home my Lord on earth might have. In death no friendly tomb, but what a stranger gave.

What may I say? Heaven was his home, but mine the tomb wherein he lay. Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine. Never was love dear king, never was grief like thine. This is my friend in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.

Made perfect through sufferings blessed Jesus that there might be provided a mercy seat, a place of atonement for the sins of all mankind and John is careful to include in his lovely holy epistle a clause for anyone who may have failed in this gathering.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, wonderful Jesus. He is the mercy seat for our sins and our shortcomings and there are some sins of which we are scarce aware and which the angels look down on in horror. Jesus, blessed be his name.

The holy earth and these are real. Swinging their hammers on that mass of gold, shaping it, shaping it into a mercy seat. Wonderful Jesus, son of God, made perfect through sufferings. But a holy man, you've left a lump of gold at one end and be severe you've left a lump of gold at the end there.

Have you forgotten? No. For these are to be part and one of the same with the mercy seat. And when they have finished their skilled work until the mercy seat so fits in place that it covers the tables of the law that they could not keep, then the same skilled workmanship goes into the formation of the cherubim.

I believe that there was a company formed out of the sufferings of Christ which were prefigured in the cherubim of glory. A people who are made partakers of divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust.

And how are they made partakers of divine nature? Peter says, by the knowledge of him who have called us to glory and virtue, who has given us exceeding great and precious promises. That's how. And if you have laid hold of those exceeding great and precious new covenant promises of a new heart and a new nature, hallelujah, and you have come to know him who is the mediator of the new covenant, then you are already made a partaker of divine nature.

And already the mighty operations have taken place which separate you from the corruptions which are in the world through lust. Hallelujah. It's not merely cleansing. It is new creation. It is a new creation.

The Church as a Witnessing Company

Which is in our gospel. These two, they were a witnessing company. Number two, that means witness doesn't it? In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. These are formed to bear witness to the divine transactions upon the mercy seat.

There is their witness and there is their worship in symbolic form. And blow by blow, they too are beaten out with intricate cunning from the very substance of the mercy seat until they are one with the mercy seat.

And as the blessed operations continue, so their forms are perfected until they extend their wings covering the mercy seat. They are there representatives of a perfected company of a redeemed people. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. So nigh, so very nigh to God, nearer I cannot be. I've forgotten how those lines go on. Hallelujah. Thank you. Brought nigh by the blood of Jesus, not just to the outer court, not just to the holy place where we witness the lampstand and the showbread, but through the veil.

Doesn't Hebrews tell us that? We have boldness to enter through the veil, through the blood of Jesus, through His flesh by a new and living way which God has prepared for us. God brings us nigh by the blood of Jesus to a degree that the Old Testament saints did not know.

Something which was only entered into by the high priest once a year, that with fear and trembling, often wondering whether he would ever withdraw from the divine presence alive, or whether some uncleanness would have caused his destruction.

There was awe and fear concerning the ark of the covenant. But we have been made nigh by that precious blood. Let me read a little bit from Exodus again. Verse 18. Thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them.

Sharing in Christ's Sufferings

Maybe we thought when we first came to Christ that everything would be happy and all our troubles would be over. Maybe some of the choruses we used to learn sort of suggested that kind of thing. And perhaps you have been surprised and disappointed because the promises that your eager evangelist made to you in those early days to persuade you haven't quite worked out in life.

And you have had not only the rebuffs of this world, but you also felt the swinging blows of the divine designer. Of beaten work shalt thou make them. We are partakers of Christ's sufferings in more than one way.

We are partakers vicariously. He suffered in our stead. Thank God. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was made a curse for us. We suffered vicariously. He was in our place. His the curse, mine the blessing.

Mine the sin, his the death. It was vicarious. Thank God. But there is something more than that. There is a suffering in which we enter into his sufferings. And in our daily living we feel not only the rebuffs of the world, but the constraining of the Holy Ghost to be one with Christ until we know the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

You have been made a partaker of divine nature. Now the Holy Spirit is at work and circumstances are at work to make you conformable to his death. And the very worst things that seem to happen to you in this life are still, if only you will understand, under the control of the great designer.

And every hammer blow is designed to make you more and more shaped to God's divine perfections. Hallelujah. Glory to God. It's hard to learn sometimes, especially when sufferings come upon us through our own mistake.

We recognize it. We see our folly. We grieve over our mistakes. And we forget that there is a great designer who is able to use the worst things that have gone wrong to shape us into his perfections. If only we would understand and yield to his control.

Hallelujah. God is at work. There's the gold and there's the glory, but there are also the hammer blows. And we welcome. Glory to God. We welcome each true blow which makes you and me what God intended us to be.

Praise the Lord. God is in it. The worst things have happened to you. God is there behind the scenes, shaping. Hallelujah. Oh, we should learn to even, says James, count it all joy when we fall into divest temptations.

Now that's quite a long way along, isn't it? We get, as Peter says, in heaviness from manifold temptations. But there is a place where we can count it joy. Praise the Lord. We can know that God is working toward his tremendous perfections.

Unity in Christ Through the Mercy Seat

Of course, none of these things happen unless you are a partaker of divine nature. And then, witnessing company, these two have a fellowship. They are one, but not directly one. Man and wife are directly one.

But these two are not. Their union is, you can understand this perfectly well, is in the mercy seat. One on this side, one on that side. And they are each part of the mercy seat, and so their oneness is here.

And you and I are made one in Christ Jesus. We have all sorts of different temperaments, different backgrounds, and all that sort of thing. In the natural, many of us wouldn't be one at all. We'd go the other side of the street.

But we are made one in Christ Jesus. And it's because I am in him, and you are in him, that we have fellowship one with another, and our fellowship is in him. Barbarian, Scythian, bond-free, Jew, Gentile, male, female, all one in Christ Jesus.

That's why I'm a little bit scared about over-emphasis upon what they call horizontal relationships. They're good in a way. But our real relationship is in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. And when you try and shortcut that, bypass it, you can run into all kinds of trouble and confusion that will not bring glory to God.

But all when you know that it's because he loves you and you love him, that is Christ loves you and you love him, and I love him and he loves me, that we are one in our Redeemer, then there is a tie that cannot be broken.

It's pure gold. Hallelujah. And that is the kind of fellowship that God planned from the beginning for his church. One, not in some sort of social institution, but one in the beloved one in whom we are accepting.

Hallelujah. Later on I'm going to show you another point at which they make contact, but we'll leave that a bit later. And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat, and their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

Focusing on Christ and the Mercy Seat

They have a focused gaze, wrapped it into one-track mind. Mercy seat warrants. Toward the mercy seat shall their faces be. Praise the Lord. Is that where you're looking? Is that where your focus is? Are you taken out with Jesus, the one who made peace between you and God, where the atoning blood was shed?

Is that your object of attention? Or are you looking everywhere in this wide world for things to satisfy your heart? My friends, if God has apprehended you, nothing will satisfy you except Jesus. Hallelujah.

You'd better get along with it and let your gaze be mercy seat warrants, not just this morning, but get into the habit, the blessed eternal habit, of being taken up with him. Oh, I still find myself wandering off onto secondary things.

What a joy it is, whether you are gardening or whatever you're doing, to be aware all the time of your fellowship with Jesus. Praise the Lord. Some have learned this holy secret which makes all life holy, because the faces of the cherubim, to put it in a symbolic language, are mercy seat wards, looking towards the mercy seat.