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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy right hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in Thy glory.’
Mar_10:37
I. In your inner life.—Christ is really your only ground of confidence, and you sincerely desire to please Him, and to be like Him, and to dwell with Him for ever. Yet there is a walk so close with God that, Enoch-like, it seems only to want one more step to be translation. There is a heavenly-mindedness which is a very well-spring of purity and peace. And there is an expectation and longing for the Second Advent which knows neither death nor parting—a ripeness always ready for the gathering.
II. Take a higher estimate of the work which you have to do for God in this world. Remember, you were created and recreated for work. What have you done? If you have done something, and feel it to be nothing, as you will, then to you I say this, Raise it, raise it! put more of Christ into it, have more faith in your work, do it more lovingly.
III. Do not be afraid to pray, to hope, to strive, for a high place in heaven.—Do we not know, has not Christ told us, that there are degrees in that world of order, and ranges of angels, and archangels, and saints, ever ascending up to the very throne of God? And why has He told us this, if it be not that we are to try for the best? Away with that false humility which says, ‘Only let me be anywhere in heaven!’ Go in boldly for the ‘right hand’ and the ‘left.’
Illustration
‘Is ambition wrong? What is ambition? Ambition is an instinct of nature, a desire to rise; and, like all other instincts, capable of good and evil. Satan took hold of it, and said, “Ye shall be as gods.” Jesus enshrined it, “Ye shall sit on thrones.” “Be ye perfect, even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.” When a man wishes to go out of his own line into another, to which evidently God has not called him, his ambition is wrong. When a man tries to get to the very top of his own line, his ambition is right. When a man seeks great things for himself, only for himself, it is a worldly ambition. When a man pursues great things for usefulness, for the Church, for Christ, it is the same principle, but it is consecrated, pious, and good.’