"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost?" Luke 14:28
Ponder, my soul, over this very striking image of your Lord's, concerning the divine life.
The picture of a builder is most aptly chosen; for the Christian
builder is building for eternity. And the figure of a warrior, which our
Lord also joins to it, is no less so, for the battle is for life, and
that life is eternal. Have you counted the cost? Have you entered upon
the work? Is the foundation-stone, which God hath laid in Zion, the rock
on which you are building?
Pause and examine. Be the cost what it may; the loss of
earthly friends; the parting with every worldly pursuit; the scorn,
contempt, and derision of all mankind; indeed, the loss of life itself:
if these come in the way of competition, are you ready to give them all
up?-When you have answered these inquiries, go on, and see that your
foundation be really fixed on Christ.
If so, it must have been previously sought for, by digging deep into the natural state in which you were born.
Jesus must have been first determined to be most essentially necessary,
and most essentially precious, before the spiritual building of the
soul was made to rest upon him. And, when found, unless the whole of the
building rest entirely upon him, it will, as a column out of its
center, still totter. Oh! it is blessed to make Christ the all in all of
the spiritual temple; blessed to make him the first in point of order;
blessed to make him the first in point of strength, to support and bear
the weight of the whole building; blessed to make him the grand cement,
to unite and keep together, in one harmonious proportion and regularity,
every part of the building; and blessed to bring forth the top-stone of
the building, by his strength and glory, crying, "Grace, grace unto
it."
Precious Jesus! May it be found that I have so sat down, counted
the cost, and formed my whole plan, in your strength, and to your
praise; that whatever oppositions, like the Tobiahs and Sanballats
of old, I may meet with in the work, I may feel the sweetness and
encouragement of that blessed Scripture, and exult with the prophet:
"Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a
plain!" Zechariah 4:7
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