Joel 2:28,29

YOUTHFUL SEERS

‘Your young men shall see visions.’

Joel 2:28

I long and pray for the young men who see visions. Never were they more needed than just now.

I. There is the vision for the personal life.—It is the dream of a character in which manliness and brotherliness and godliness join hands.

II. There is the vision for the Church life.—It is the vision of a Church absolutely surrendered in love and devotion to her Lord. Let me pray, and pray, that soon the children of God may be roused from their dullness and lethargy, to grapple with great problems, to achieve great deeds.

III. There is the vision for the national life.—It is Savonarola’s vision for Florence, Oliver Cromwell’s for England, Andrew Melville’s for Scotland, William Bradford’s and William Brewster’s for America. If I cherish it, it will mean that I am fighting against all that is vicious in our modern civilisation. God gird me for the battle!

IV. There is the vision for the world-wide life.—It is the vision of a world every part of which has heard the Gospel of God’s grace. I cannot harbour the glorious dream without myself being the missionary of Jesus either at home or abroad.

Only let the Spirit be poured out, and to-day as of old our young men shall see visions.

Illustration

‘The Mystics said that there were three stages on the road to sainthood—Purification, Illumination, Union. Up to each of these stages it is the task and the joy of the Holy Ghost to conduct me.

He purifies. He disciplines me, He ennobles me, until I am changed into the image and the stainlessness of my Lord.

And He illumines. Especially does He make the Bible shine as with the light of a transfiguration. He who was the Book’s Author is its Expositor.

And He unites. It is the crowning mystery and the consummate gladness. He infuses into me a life which is nothing lower and nothing less than the life of Jesus Christ. I think my Master’s thoughts. I throb with my Master’s purposes. I bring my Master back in miniature to the world.’