LIFE FROM ABOVE

Robert Murray M’Cheyne:

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6 ESV)

The divine life is all from above. They [human beings] have no life till they come to Christ. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” Now this life is maintained by union to Christ, and by getting fresh supplies every moment out of His fullness. “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in Him.” In some believers this life is maintained by a constant inflowing of the Holy Spirit — “I will water it every moment” — like the constant supply which the branch receives from the vine. These are the happiest and most even Christians. Others have flood-tides of the Spirit carrying them higher and higher. Sometimes they get more in a day than for months before. In the one of these, grace is like a river; in the other, it is like a shower coming down in its season. Still, in both there is need of revival. The natural heart is all prone to wither. Like a garden in summer, it dries up unless watered. The soul grows faint and weary in well-doing. Grace is not natural to the heart. The old heart is always for drying and fading. So the child of God needs to be continually looking out, like Elijah’s servant, for the little cloud over the sea. You need to be constantly pressing near the Fountain of living waters; yea, lying down at the well-head of salvation, and drinking the living water. “Wilt thou not revive us again?” (“The Cry for Revival”)