The prophet Isaiah, speaking of graceless men as disliking, not desiring, not loving Jesus; brings them in as saying, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him!" (Isaiah 53:2)
What! No loveliness in Him who is "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person!" Yes, there is, but they had no eyes to see it! It is as if a blind man would say that the sun is dark, because he has no eyes to behold its light. How could they look upon Him with an eye of love; when they did not discern Him with an eye of faith?
But a holy soul, whose eyes are divinely opened, so sees the superlative goodness, beauty, and excellence in Jesus that all other things, which are good with an inferior goodness, seem to him as dross and rubbish! "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Jesus. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things! I consider them rubbish," things cast to dogs, or dog's food, "that I may gain Christ!" (Philippians 3:7-8) The holy man, whose mind is savingly enlightened, can say: I see that goodness in the Savior, which far surpasses all the goodness of the creature!
Though the stars can be seen in the night; yet when the sun arises, they all disappear. Just so, in my night of ignorance, when my mind was blind, my heart hard, and my affections frozen; I was bewitched with the glare of riches, of honors, and of worldly pleasures. But then the Sun of righteousness with His radiant rays shined into my soul, and with His warming influences thawed my benumbed and frozen heart. And then the glory of all those earthly vanities which once dazzled my eyes, vanished and withered away! When I once got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness; then in comparison to Him, I saw an emptiness and vanity, in all the creature's fullness; shame, in all the world's nobility; dishonor, in all the world's glory; poverty, in all the world's richest; darkness, in the world's most resplendent luster; folly, in the world's highest wisdom; deformity, in the world's loveliest beauty!
Yes, the soul whose love is fixed upon Jesus, adores His superlative goodness, beauty, and excellence!
[Thomas Doolittle]
Song of Soloman 5:16 ... His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
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