As if no solitary earthly type were enough to image forth the love of Jesus, He assembles into one verse a group of the tenderest earthly relationships. Human affection has to focus its loveliest hues, but all is too little to afford an exponent of the depth and intensity of _His_. "As one whom his _mother_ comforteth;" "my _sister_, my _spouse_." He is "_Son_," "_Brother_" "_Friend_"--all in one; "cleaving closer than any brother."
And can we wonder at such language? Is it merely figurative, expressive of more than the reality?--He gave _Himself_ for us; after that pledge of His affection we must cease to marvel at any expression of the interest He feels in us. Anything He can _say_ or _do_ is infinitely less than what He _has done_.
Believer! art thou solitary and desolate? Has bereavement severed earthly ties? Has the grave made forced estrangements,--sundered the closest links of earthly affection? In Jesus thou hast filial and fraternal love combined; He is the Friend of friends, whose presence and fellowship compensates for all losses, and supplies all blanks; "He setteth the solitary in families." If thou art orphaned, friendless, comfortless here, remember there is in the Elder Brother on the Throne a love deep as the unfathomed ocean, boundless as Eternity?
And who are those who can claim the blessedness spoken of under this wondrous imagery? On whom does He lavish this unutterable affection? No outward profession will purchase it. No church, no priest, no ordinances, no denominational distinctions. It is on those who are possessed of _holy characters_. "He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven!" He who reflects the mind of Jesus; imbibes His Spirit; takes His Word as the regulator of his daily walk, and makes His glory the great end of his being; he who lives _to_ God and _with_ God, and _for_ God; the humble, lowly, Christ-like, Heaven-seeking Christian;--he it is who can claim as his own this wondrous heritage of love! If it be a worthy object of ambition to be loved by the good and the great on earth, what must it be to have an eye of love ever beaming upon us from the Throne, in comparison of which the attachment here of brother, sister, kinsman, friend--all combined--pales like the stars before the rising sun! Though we are often ashamed to call Him "Brother," "He is not ashamed to call us _brethren_." He looks down on poor worms, and says, "_The same_ is my mother, and sister, and brother!" "I will write upon them," He says in another place, "my new name." Just as we write our name on a book to tell that it belongs to us; so Jesus would write His own name on _us_, the wondrous volumes of His grace, that they may be read and pondered by principalities and powers.