The Desire of Ages

"The Desire of Ages"

“Held Up On National TV by Paul Harvey.” 

He recommended it for every home and  would buy them for Christmas presents for loved ones.  

In the Library of Congress, in Washingon D.C., it’s the number 1 book checked  out or asked for out of  all the 10,000 books they have on the life of Christ.

 

• Compiled writings on the Life of Christ taken from  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Preface 

 In the hearts of all mankind, of whatever race or station in life, there are inexpresssible longings for something they do not now possess.  This longing is implanted in the very constitution of man by a merciful God, that man may not be satisfied with his present conditions or attainments, whether bad, or good, or better.  God desires that the human shall seek the best, and find it to the eternal blessing of his soul.

Satan, By wily scheme and craft, has perverted these longings of the human heart.  He makes men believe that this desire may be satisfied by pleasure, by wealth, by ease, by fame, by power; but those who have been thus deceived by him number myriads) find all these things pall upon the sense, leaving the soul as barren and unsatisfied as before.  It is God’s design that this longing  of the human heart should lead to the one who alone is able to satisfy it.   The desire of Him that it may lead to Him, the fullness  and fulfillment of that desire.  That fullness is found in Jesus the Christ, the son of the eternal God.  “For it was the good pleasure of the father that in Him should all the fullness dwell;” for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”  And it is also true that “In Him are ye made full”  with respect to every desire divinely implanted and normally followed.   It is the purpose to set forth Jesus Christ as the one in whom every longing may be statisfied.  There is many a “Life of Christ” written, excellent books, large fund of information, elaborate essays on chronology and contemporaneous history, customs, and events, with much of the teaching and many glimpses of the many sided life of Jesus of Nazareth.  Yet it may be truly said, “The half has never been told.”…. The purpose is to present the love of God as reveled in His son, the divine beauty of the life of Christ of which all may partake, and not to satisfy the desires of the merely curious nor the questiongs of critics, …..but to help the reader to come to Him face to face, heart to heart, and find in Him, even as did the disciples of old, Jesus the mighty one, who saves “to the uttermost,” and transforms to His own divine image all those who come unto God by Him. 

God with Us.  p.  5     Heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to us light from the courts above;  by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowhip with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know.

 p. 7    Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves,  He was condemened for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share.  He suffered the death that was ours, that we might receive the life which was His,  “With His stripes we are healed.”  

Because of the imputed righteousness of Christ they are accounted precious.  He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner.  He recognizes in them the likeness of His son, in whom they believe. p. 116 

(Large Hard Back) p. 317 – The Centurion

When Satan tells you that you are a sinner, and cannot hope to receive blessing from God, tell him that Christ came into the world to save sinners.  We have nothing to commend us to God; but the plea  that we may urge now and ever is our utterly helpless condition that makes His redeeming power a necessity.

P. 120   The Lord is dissappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves.  He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has place upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent is Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them…  They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.” …. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.  

Gethesemane – Calvary 

p. 124 Everything was at stake with Jesus, …If Christ could be overcome, the earth would become Satan’s kingdom, and the human race would be forever in his power.   With the issues of the conflict before Him, Christ’s soul was filled with dread of separation from God.  

p. 125 - Again the Son of God was seized with superhuman agony, and fainting and exhausted, He staggered back to the place of His former struggle.  His suffering was even greater than before.  As the agony of soul came upon Him, “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  

p. 129 - Christ sufferend keenly under abuse and insult.  At the hands of the beings whom He had created, and for whom He was making an infinite sacrifice, He received every indignity. 

 D.A. p. 154 The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.    
     Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus.  Yet His presence was not revealed. Had His glory flashed forth from the cloud, every human beholder would have been destroyed. And in that dreadful hour Christ was not to be comforted with the Father’s presence. He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him.    
     In the thick darkness, God veiled the last human agony of His Son. All who had seen Christ in His suffering had been convicted of His divinity. That face, once beheld by humanity, was never forgotten. 

p. 164    ”But it was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus.   That cry, uttered with a loud voice, at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from his side, declared that He died of a broken heart.  His heart was broken by mental anguish.  He was slain by the sin of the world.” 

Why Weepest Thou?      p 170  Jesus lives, and because He lives, we shall live also.  From grateful hearts, ….let the glad song ring out, Christ is risen!   He lives to make intercession for us, Grasp this hope, and it will hold the soul like a sure, tried anchor.  Believe, and thou shall see the glory of God. 

p. 180  How many today are like Peter!  They are interested in the affairs of others…while they are in danger of neglecting their own.  It is our work to look to Christ and follow Him.  We shall see mistakes in the lives of others…. but in Christ  we shall find perfection.   Beholding Him, we shall become transformed.  

p. 188 - Let Christians put away their dissensions, and give themselves to God for the saving of the lost.  Let them in faith ask for the blessing, and it will come. …. All who consecrate soul, body, and spirit to God, will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical and mental power.  The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. 

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